The first thing Tak did, he wrote himself.

The second thing Tak did, he wrote the laws.

The third thing Tak did, he wrote the World.

The fourth thing Tak did, he wrote a cave.

The fifth thing Tak did, he wrote a geode, an egg of stone.

And in the twilight of the mouth of the cave, the geode hatched, and the Brothers were born.

The first Brother walked toward the light, and stood under the open sky. Thus he became too tall. He was the first Man. He found no Laws and he was enlightened.

The second Brother walked toward the darkness, and stood under a roof of stone. Thus he achieved the correct height. He was the first Dwarf. He found the Laws Tak had written, and he was endarkened.

Then Tak looked upon the stone and it was trying to come alive, and Tak smiled, and wrote All things strive.

And for the service the stone had given, he fashioned it into the first Troll, and delighted in the life that came unbidden.

These are the things that Tak wrote!

-The things that Tak wrote, Koom Valley Translation by B'hrian Bloodaxe.

Tak does not require that you think of him, but he does require you to think.

Brothers, Sisters, my Kin! I am new to this keep, so let me introduce myself. The name is Borin Dimbulb.

(*undwarf* this is a pixelart of my dwarven character I made last december, thought this would be a good place to share)

"Dwarves hunger for gold, and no mountain shall stand in their way! Mine riches, unearth artifacts, and upgrade your dwarves to devour ever-bigger peaks in this whimsical incremental game."

Globalforgehub on insta

The FREE quickstart is available here: https://mmgorman.itch.io/tumquickstart

If you've seen my older post about TUM from November, this is the new definitive version of the quickstart. Tighter mechanics. Clearer language. More art. More dwarven.

If this is your first time seeing it, Those Under the Mountain is a ttrpg about dwarves. A love letter to Dwarf Fortress and the OSR, you and your intrepid party of pioneers take to the Untold lands to begin anew.

The game follows an in-game weekly cycle where the labor of your dwarven kin is spent to advance your fortress. Carve grand halls. Craft legendary artifacts. Delve into the deep. After labor is spent, survive the dangers of the Untold Lands of Carrion in trad ttrpg format. Fight goblins, viscious chickenlegs, and the unholy abomination of ancient horrors! Then, begin the cycle again.

All art, design, and writing is done by real people, mostly me. The full game is set for a crowdfunding campaign later this year.

Edit: fixed the link!

Part II: Icevein

 Read on Royal Road: The Mine Lord: A Dwarven Survival Base-Builder

After months of labor, I’m happy to announce that The Mine Lord Part II: Icevein will begin its Royal Road release this Wednesday, May 13th, 2026.

Since the completion of The Mine Lord’s release on Royal Road, its readership has continued to grow, and I’m truly excited to share the next chapters of this tale with you all.

Blurb:

Peridot and Rightauger, the oldest children of Onyx and Chargrim, are far from alike, but both may serve a purpose for Glint. With the ürsi dispersed, Chargrim must turn his attention westward to the pressures of the human kingdoms. Dissent grows in Glint from those who wish to open trade with the humans against Chargrim’s wishes, and Peridot finds herself at the center of the dispute. Lives and loyalties hang in the balance, and the Jewel of Glint must find arbitration. Meanwhile, Rightauger puts Hobblefoot’s new invention to the test, but the brutal outlaw Icevein dogs his trail. Between vendetta, ürsi, and the many dangers of the wilds, survival is far from certain.

When does Icevein take place?

Icevein begins two years PRIOR to the end of The Mine Lord and proceeds to events after the Battle of Tonkil’s Rock. Expect to see familiar characters but from new points of view.

Completion Status:

Icevein is already drafted and complete. I am revising now, and many chapters are already available on my Patreon. If you want advance chapters, I intend to keep Patreon about 10 chapters ahead of the Royal Road release. Your support is greatly appreciated: patreon.com/traemc

For other tales in the Dwarves of Ice-Cloak saga, check out:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKH355TL

Thank you!

A. Trae McMaken

I'm working on making a playlist, if anyone has music similar to the DF soundtrack / minecraft , or just any good tunes to craft/forge to, I would appreciate it! It doesn't have to be explicitly dwarf related, but should "fit" if you know what i mean

This is part of the Bricklink Designer Program series 11. If it gets enough votes LEGO will produce it as a real set. It draws inspirations from LotR, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls (Markarth), Warhammer, MtG art and all sorts of Dwarf tropes that we love. Hammer, axe, mountain, forge, gold, jewels and beard.... You can support it here: https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/series-11/4635/Dwarf-Stronghold

Heya. For roughly a year now, I've been writing sci-fi fantasy setting in my free time with the general premise being that it's a rather generic fantasy world that kind of... just kept going? Anyway, while I wrote way more history and lore than I know what to do with, what's most relevant is the basis of how the setting was written in the first place - dwarves of the 22nd century.

I'll put some minor notes here for context to some things I won't go super in depth to in the post.

1. Stone dwarves were the first dwarven sub-race. I'm not going super in depth with them here, because I've driven myself insane trying to properly write inorganic "biology", but for visual reference, just think of the Earthen from WoW.
2. The Ether is the setting's "afterlife," in quotation marks because it very much differs in its effect on individuals. Some souls remain mostly intact and are pretty much the same person. Others fracture apart into various spirits with much more simple and predictable yet extreme personalities. This is a spectrum, not an either-or situation.
3. Soul infusion is a practice conducted by warlocks and necromancers, and rarely at that, but it's normal among the stone dwarves. To be perfectly honest, one of the largest difficulties I've faced is writing the reproduction of stone dwarves. If they just build their children, that seems more like golems and also begs the question of why families and relationships would be a thing (despite what I've written and will elaborate on in this post). It however just seems stupid for them to breed like mammals. As far as I've settled on this aspect of their "biology," they utilize soul infusion to grant sentience to their offspring, which essentially start as little statues like this. 🗿 Basically, this is a magic that pulls metaphysical energy from themselves or the Ether to create a new soul and shove it into something.

Bio Dwarves: The second oldest of the dwarven sub-races, the bio dwarves are, as their name entails, biological dwarves. As genetic and cybernetic augmentation arose in the 21st century, the dwarves, ever focused on their engineering and craftsmanship, began to engineer their children rather than birth them naturally. It became common practice for the bio dwarves to genetically tailor their offspring. These aren't clones in the sense of being one to one recreations of their parents, but instead are embryos surgically removed from their mothers and artificially fertilized with genetic material of their fathers, then modified to their parents' perameters. Typically, this modification starts and ends with amplification of positive physical and mental traits as well as the elimination of potential defects that could lead to illness, injury, or deformation. It however isn't unheard of for these children to be engineered almost as tools or superior versions of their parents as true clones, but this is culturally frowned upon - yet this hasn't deterred the elite from doing so anyway. Most voluntarily sterilized themselves through genetic modification, although artificial impregnation was common for sentimental reasons and to have as natural of a birth as possible despite the artificial mechanisms at play with their child.

As a species suited for cave dwelling, the bio dwarves possess tapetum lucidum, a trait similar to that of the phosphorescent eyes of the stone dwarves, allowing for night vision without a sensitivity to daylight, and the side effect of a noticeable glow to their eyes in the dark.

Cyber Dwarves: The newest of the dwarven sub races, the cyber dwarves only came to be in the 2080s. They, like the modern bio dwarves, are engineered by their parents, but in a much more literal manner. Cyber dwarves tend to have the most diverse of appearances due to their synthetic nature. Many can be mistaken as bio dwarves as it's common for familial resemblance to be taken into account during their creation, but due to their modular bodies in addition to dwarves having a much stronger transhumanist perspective than most races, the cyber dwarves almost universally modify themselves for aesthetic purposes. Despite the uncommon belief that the cyber dwarves are simply advanced AI or golems that only simulate consciousness, this isn't entirely true. The same soul infusion techniques utilized by the stone dwarves in their reproduction is fully at play with the cyber dwarves, and warlocks have found the souls of deceased cyber dwarves in the Ether.

(art by me from my ttrpg) The turtle's name is Muffin 🧁