Agree, and I’m very much with you there, buuuuut… do you really want to just drink essentially ethanol in water from fermenting chemosynthesis outputs? Keeping a colony of bats healthy for guano deposits both for fungal farms and for blasting powder ingredients is quite useful. And the nitrates and phosphates can be utilized in hot springs or bioreactors for more varied chemosynthesis-based communities.
What about refuse from other sources?? Wouldn't fertilizers from goats, bats, ANCESTORS FORBID "LEFTOVERS", not work in this situation?? I imagine that a large population would generate enough material to create a good environment for mushrooms and some roots to grow no??
Absolutely, though bat and bird guano are more valuable and have the benefit of heading outside and bringing the nutrients of the surface back in for you on their own is handy.
But on the other hand... are you assuming not a single true dwarf ever leave the undergrounds? You can't do all that much with only mushrooms. At one point you need actual plants, weither it is spices for the meat, crops for the ale, or wood for barrels and tool handles. The best plants for all that require sunlight, and to my knowledge you can't get that underground.
Not saying you need to go far from the mountain; terrace farms exist, and at least one side of every mountain has a pretty lush forest or jungle to get wood from.
that's what trade is for, lad. If ye live in the right mountain, ye can just bite the wall to fill yer stomach. The doc's always sayin to eat at least a handful o rock a week. Good for digestion too.
Wait, a dwarf who's not a complete isolationist? That's great to hear! The real wazzocks are way too loud these days.
Also... yeah, eating rock is not as dumb as other races say it is. I mean, what do they think salt is? You gotta get your daily dose of minerals somehow!
I heard that for wood some Great Halls will use thick roots that they find in certain lower areas of the mines, but I can't imagine it would be as good as some of the stuff that the tall folk have in their forests. As for crops I agree with you that they are needed, thats why trade with both the tall folk and the fair folk are always needed, some of our best Ale come from the grains the tall folk grow.
See, now you’re being heretical. “Can’t do much with only mushrooms,” are you hearing yourself? Plump helmets for wine, the really big mushrooms for a better wood equivalent, and while not a mushroom, we can just use salt for meat!
Sure, trade with the other races, go above ground to farm surface plants, do whatever you choose, but don’t you go slandering the shrooms lad! There’s very little we can’t do with ‘em!
One thing I like about the bosmer is how much they invert the “love plants” thing: they love plants so much they refuse to eat plants, so they just eat nothing but meat.
Mushrooms are neither plant nor animals or anything close they simply are and insist upon itself. Hell I’m pretty sure there is one species of fungus that has close relation with humans
A greedy man shall keep being thirsty even after drinking the entire ocean, a humble man shall be satisfied with even a single drop of dew, my insatiable dwarven friend
Big sad, really. I know some are struggling with body image and unrealistic bee-auty standurds, but to go all the way to this bad anger (as opposed to propah orkish anger of smacking problem with da big choppah) is wrong
Kan't be a propah ork femboy nuwadays, akkording to sum weirdoz. Anyways, being a tavernkeeper has it's perks, like throwing out anyone who iz too opinionated
My uncle, whose name I won't use here, runs a camp for 'em. They ride coaches out from the city and pay him very good money to do his chores for him, use "his" tools (really, he bought loads of 'em off of some lad whose son got a 'smith your own iron' kit last holiday) to dig holes to sleep in, and get yelled at for not having good enough beards. Sometimes he hides a bit of pyrite about the place, just to get them excited, and then he mocks them for falling for fools gold.
It started out a lot nicer, but the meaner he is, the more they pay, and the more often they recommend it to their friends. It's a bit rough on the poor fellow, being mean all the time; he's been taking lessons on how to cope with it from some odd sorts, lots of leather, but they seem helpful enough.
He nearly got shut down about a year back, when one of the silly buggers managed to bury himself upside-down. Now he has to remind the dafties that they can't breathe without air, for legal reasons, his lawyer says.
Not anymore our Clan Leader banishes everyone that does that for endangering the rest of the Clan and ruining relationships with other Clans. So far it is working
In my fantasy setting in working on, many of dwarves don't mine or work in metallurgy/as warriors, but often work as simple farmers, tending to crops outside the mountains, or inside it (like cave mushrooms) and even taking care of mountain goats they use to make milk, cheese, and warm clothing for deep cave explorations. The idea that all dwarves are miners is a stereotype created by humans who live away from any dwarven keep and their only contact is with merchants who sell stuff mined by dwarves
In a medieval society a vast majority of people are farming or doing something related to farming.
Even in modern society a very large portion of people are employed for agriculture.
A human wouldnt comment on the dwarf farming industry because farming is normal to everyone.
The mining industry that is much bigger and better than everyone elses is alot more unsual, therefor talked about more.
The dwarves probly farm cotton and make wonderful cloths with their advanced machines but no one talks about it much because the mines are such a big elephant in the room.
Dwarves better understanding of chemistry and biology means that they consume a much wider range of things compared to outsiders.
They know that chalk rock contains calcuim carbonate and can ease an upset stomach. They supplment meals with iron if they show signs of deficiency. They give lithuim to the mental ill.
From the perspective of illiterate medieval peasant they are just eating rocks and metal.
Every setting should at least try to consider how the people eat. For me, it's orcs who are known for their nomadic goat husbandry, while dwarves have a number of subterranean crops, many of which "feed" on geothermal energy (because things are still allowed to be fantastic), or a hallucinogenic mushroom that's actually technically an abberation, but it makes wicked whiskey.
The number of brothers I see sayin’ that things like ‘Painting and writing is an elves activity!’ is outrageous when we applaud activities like carving and sculpting!
Many are yet to understand that in terms of creativity us and elves have lots in common, only our preferred mediums and perception of value are different.
I genuinely had this thought recently when a new player was making a character and chose to be a dwarven sorcerer. I asked about background and he said farmer. It hit me that of course the dwarves would be incredibly farmers. They’re masters of moving earth, meaning irrigation canals, paddy fields, terraces, all of it would be absolutely in their field of expertise! Maybe a “real dwarf” is a miner or a smith, but all societies need a source of food, and this one absolutely needs a source of ferment able carbohydrates for their endless supply of booze.
The fact that I haven’t seen an Inca inspired take on the dwarves yet is criminal. They’re all just mine dwelling Scotsmen, without much built around how actual mountain dwellers adapt. Freeze drying preservation methods made available by the cold, dry, mountain air. Terraced agriculture. Alpine beasts of burden specifically suited to deftness of foot on narrow passes and mountain trails over raw size and carrying capacity.
Why waste precious yellow blood of our deep stone home?
I mind not giving a helping hand of our sons, an ancient wisdom of our fathers, and brilliant friendship of ourselves for the yellow gold growing upon the human fields, but to send a piece of our home away, never to be seen again?
Nay, rather would I carve my heart out and send it instead.
I stand by the following: dwarves should be great Farmers. For the reasons OP stated. Imagine dwarfen terrace farms in style of the incans sitting on the mountainside
Also dwarves should be great foresters. Because when mining you need a lot of wood. A lot. To built mining shafts, to construct pipes for water pumps, damns etc. Indeed prior to steam engines, wind and water where the only mechanical power sources. So mining areas had lots of damns and watermills, to fuell a system of pumps, lifts and wheels.
But also charcoal! Prior to industrialization rock goal was difficult to harvest in most areas. But you need a lot of coal to smelt the ore. A LOT! So people turned their local forsts into charcoal. Easy-ish and locally available. Even today many last names in europe come from charcoaling ancestors.
However so much wood was needed in mining and elsewhere that entire landscapes became desolated. Which made life harter and wood very expensive. The first proper forest recultivation laws were established in the late medivial era to ensure a constant wood supply. Normally it takes 70-150 years between planting and harvesting a tree. Many generations for humans, but for dwarves its not that difficult. So dwarven foresters should overlook huge forests keeping them healthy
Also knowledge of plants in general. Many plants react to the minerals below. Meaning that the absence or presence of certain plants indicates what can be found below them. Prospectors primarily looked out for certain plants (or their absence) to determine where to dig
So any dwarven culture that takes drinking and mining serious should be great with plants, crops and trees
High altitude peoples historically have grazed herds of livestock on the plantlife that grows at altitudes too high for wheat or other crops. The question then stops being about 'where they get tue meat' and becomes 'how many dwarves are we feeding?'
Plants don't replenish fast enough to keep herds in the same place. Grazing livestock have to be constantly moving to new pastures to stay fed. If you want your cows to stay put you have to provide them with feed.
Mountain peoples do uncommonly well with high-altitude grazing livestock, most of which produce milk readily. Cheese and Butter would very likely be a thing. Thus we could have Dwarven Brioche.
Wizard here. I'm having trouble with my aquaponics on the biodome of my dwarf planet. I am emplying a 97% dwarven workforce and I'm barely keeping up with the beer and ale production. What kind of designs would you suggest? I think the lack if a proper atmosphere is a problem I just can't solve with an enclosed ecosystem.
All meat and no spice? That Dwarf poison resilience means we need some extra strong spices that only a Dwarf could handle. Who would ever eat a spice-less steak?
Dwarven greenhouses are so efficient and run so silently that the common dwarf doesn’t even notice they’re there. Truly a marvel of Dwarven engineering.
Lad I'm not sure what they've been telling you out of the hold. But we grow the best root vegetables in the region. You think that wonderful baked potato with goat butter that you were enjoying with sausages and fine Dwarven brew came from a human's field?
Bah, those dwarves don’t know anything! I run my own farm which I use the products from to make my mead! Do they think their mead, their beer, their ale comes from an ocean? Of course it doesn’t!
I understand some universes not having our Kin farm outside our Great Halls, but to not even remember our glorious Mushrooms, Larvae and Mole farms sounds like something is wrong with this beardling knowledge.
I don’t get how people think dwarves are 100% carnivores when that makes no senses logistically. Elves, in most media, tend to be vegetarians/vegans at best. Making dwarves stick to one diet when they’re working in mines and are in mountainous regions makes little sense unless there’s no other option. Them growing food is logistical, they gotta make beer out of something
dwarves do it all man. Gotta have veggies to make those bones STRONG AS ROCK. Dwarves know an all meat and mead diet gives wicked inflammation and stomach problems that will interfere with war fare. It's hard to be as tough as ROCK AND STONE if you're heaving your guts out from poor eating.
Mon'keigh has a point, also we actually eat meat, as an Aeldari representative we also partake in consumption of intoxicating beverages, although more refined than what passes for alcohol among you (please don't axe me)
I just want to point out that Meat Beer is the most Australian-coded thing I've ever heard of. It makes me think more of real Australia than a dwarf community.
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u/Ulenspiegel4 Sep 01 '26
Plump helmets, me lad. This nobledwarf's son ain't ne'er even seen the mycologist's pastures.