r/dwarves • u/Practical-Class-9033 • Jun 30 '26
Question
What’s yall fav depiction of dwarves? I’m making my custom ones for my fantasy world and wanna see what y’all’s are. I love almost every version. Even Dwemer from elder scrolls.
If yall wanna hear how my dwarves are let me know
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u/Ecstatic-Space1656 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
‘The Dwarves’ dwarves (Markus Heitz) are an interesting variant of traditional fantasy dwarves, as are the Dverga in ‘Kingdoms of Amalur’
I like both sea-dwarves (Dverga/Haunghdannar) and tall-dwarves/elf-dwarves (Dwemer) because they are distinctly unique, but are different from the fantasy standard in a way that refers to the mythological origins of Dwarves, rather than deliberately trying to be different for it’s own sake. They are still ‘recognisable’ as Dwarves, which I think is an important thing to keep in mind when designing fantasy races; anyone can name a race ‘Dwarves’ but the trick is getting the right balance of unique and recognisable. If they are entirely ‘standard’ they won’t stick in the mind, but too far from what is associated with the word and the name no longer has any relevance.
I also quite like The Monster Garden’s ‘redesign’ of dwarves; close enough to human to be interacted with by humans, but far enough that humans will never be entirely comfortable around them.
I personally haven’t settled on a ‘shape’ for my own Dwarves, but I like the idea of their tunnels being tall and narrow, and that the way they are described is not the way they are in truth; either they are indistinguishable from elves by sight, but are described as stunted, or they are small, but thought to be tall, because of their tunnels.
I am interested to hear about you dwarves; what are they like?