Sunday, October 09, 2005

Tower Critique: Dark Dwarves and Slavery

10/09/2005

I notice that the original “Dark Dwarves” writeup has been dramatically changed - specifically, the portions I poked the most fun at.

Always glad to help improve your culture notes, Tower! You’re welcome!

So, there are only a few current problems I have with the info from here:

The Dhe’nar followed their initial tentative slave acquisition with another extensive campaign of slave raids and kidnappings. In the five centuries after the Great Fire, the elves took nearly ten thousand slaves of various races. They bred these slaves aggressively for the most desired traits. After a thousand years, the Dhe’nar had an impressive pool of slaves, numbering nearly twenty-five thousand.

Okay… If the work force was in the 20,000s, then the total number of slaves must have been at least twice that. For a culture with such a population shortage, they must have been insane to do such a thing. A population of slaves that high, most of which are performing serious manual labor, would require a LOT of food. They’d need to farm at least twice as much food just to feed their slaves… which would require more slaves to farm… which would require more food… There’s no way the Dhe’nar could support such a massive slave workforce, in addition to the other slaves they required.

Mass slavery is tenable in human societies...barely...but only because slaves and freemen in the real world are of the same race. Elves do not make good slaveowners of non-elves, because long-lived slow-breeding elves would soon be vastly outbred and outnumbered by their non-elven slaves, and the slaves themselves would be the primary consumers of the resources the slaves themselves were forced to harvest or construct (ores, food, textiles, housing, etc.)

If you want Dhe’nar to be slaveholders, that’s fine. But you have to put some thought into it… You can’t just say “The Spartans had slaves and were mean to them!” (as I’ve heard more than once), and then use that to justify Dhe’nar slavery practices. Apples and oranges.

During one such scouting mission, a scout party discovered one of the Great Mountain’s most valuable natural resources; several immense veins of rolaren, a light, but incredibly durable metal.

Uh, except for this little fact:

Rolaren is an extremely durable and strong alloy, its forging a skillful blending of mithril with a combination of trace metals that increase its strength and ability to attack and protect. The resulting mixture usually results in weapons or armor of a deep blue-grey to black color, which can hold a dye with some difficulty. Its enchantment is normally equivalent to that of vultite.

The technique is little-known outside the forges where rolaren is made, and very difficult to master. Legends of both the Dwarven and Giantman cultures say that the first rolaren was forged as a joint effort between the greatest smiths of both their races in ancient times.

Rolaren isn’t a naturally occurring substance, so already this tale contradicts GemStone canon.

As time passed the dwarves, exposed to the raw magic of the Dhe’nar magi and priests began to change.

So Dhe’nar magi and priests emit mutating magical rays, huh? That’s news to me… Why doesn’t my character do that?

Can my radioactive Dhe’nar characters bite people and turn them into superheroes?

And seeing as Dhe’nar wizards, priests, sorcerers, etc. in the game use the same spells everyone else does… Why don’t any other races’ spellcasters have spoooooky mutating powers?

Their skin became darker, until after several thousand years it reached its current shade of ebony. The hair and beards of the dwarves grew paler, although a few dark dwarves still show recessive genes and have brown, red, and even black hair. However, the majority of dark dwarves have white or silver hair. In many ways they grew to resemble their Dhe’nar masters and there is some speculation that crossbreeding may have some influence on this.

Umm… Despite the fact that only Humans and Elves (and apparently Krolvin, too, kinda) can interbreed, according to the races available in the game…

The Dhe’nar deny this strongly…

Wouldn’t YOU? I’d probably be a little offended by accusations of engaging in hot Dwarf on Elf action.

however, the resemblance can be almost startling.

Can be almost startling…

So, maybe, on a rare occasion, it might get close to surprising someone.

The dark dwarves’ eyes were already sensitive to low light and they also developed an acute sense of infravison. A dark dwarf can see in the dark far better than in the light and most are forced to wear hoods or heavy cloaks when exposed to sunlight. The greatest weakness of a dark dwarf is to catch them when they first come into sunlight.

Who runs around catching dark dwarves? KHANSHA-MON! Gotta catch ‘em all!

Also, “to catch them” is not a weakness. It’s not even English grammar. I imagine you probably meant “Dark dwarves are weakest and easiest to catch when they first come into sunlight.” But regardless, you’d think that the dark dwarves would have picked up on the groups of slavers sitting outside their homes waiting to pounce on them by now. But then, if they’re already slaves, who’s trying to catch them?

Once their eyes have adjusted they become almost invincible.

Yeah, that makes sense. Eyes adjusted to sunlight makes anyone invincible, after all.

The dark dwarves served the Dhe’nar as slaves for approximately 15,000 years. At some point the line between slave and master grew blurry as the Dhe’nar found themselves dependent on the dark dwarves for their armor and weapons.

Probably having something to do with the dwarves doing all their mining and making all their armor and weapons. I doubt that fact suddenly “snuck up” on them, unless the Khanshael had been doing it secretly all that time.

Khanshael - Ninja Blacksmiths!

As such the dark dwarves became less an enslaved race and more a sub-culture of Dhe’nar society.

I imagine that the Khanshael were all manumitted based on their contribution to Dhe’nar society, rather than just gradually “not being slaves” over time.

Currently, dark dwarven artisans and weapon-smiths hold high status in the Dhe’nar. A dark dwarf must still hold to Dhe’nar traditions, including Temple approval of their choice of mate and permission before any children are conceived. However, as opposed to other enslaved races…

They aren’t enslaved anymore… so that’s pretty opposed

...the dark dwarves have homes of their own and are allowed to intermingle almost freely with the Dhe’nar workforce. Dark dwarves are now paid for their work and the highest skilled dark dwarven smith can quickly grow rich producing weapons for the Dhe’nar warrior caste.

Go figure… Incentive = good work. At least even the OT Dhe’nar are aware of the virtues of the free market.

It is hardly surprising, in light of the radical changes to not only the appearance of the dark dwarves, but also in their social standing, that few if any now try to escape. During the early years of dark dwarven slavery, the fatality rate because of escape attempts was almost staggering.

Did they keep falling off the mountain? I imagine the Dhe’nar didn’t just kill everyone who tried to escape… After all, they were supposed to NEED these slaves, and it’s not like there’s an endless fountain of dwarves next door...although, that’s a pretty funny image.

Dark dwarves still live in the undercaverns of Sharath. Although a good deal of the undercaverns is left unexplored and have been declared off limits.

Why? What possible good could that do? They couldn’t be hiding anything, since it’s unexplored… they wouldn’t even know if there’s anything worth hiding. So what’s the deal? Is this a grammar problem or a logic problem?

...the remainder of the caverns is pretty much the sole domain of the dark dwarves. Perhaps this was a wise move on the part of the Dhe’nar. They took an enslaved race and created a group of hard-working, strong, industrious workers that will fight to the death to protect what is theirs.

No… Dwarves were a “group of hard-working, strong, industrious workers that will fight to the death to protect what is theirs” before the Dhe’nar took them. They just adopted them into their society. First as slave laborers, then as freed peoples.

In times of war, dark dwarves have been seen fighting along side the Dhe’nar.

Against who? There isn’t a single Dhe’nar war in the official timeline.

In Dhe’nar society, to harm a dark dwarven artisan is an offense punishable by death.

What’s the punishment for harming a Dhe’nar? It better be equal or greater in severity, or this makes no sense at all. But then, based on Starsnuffer’s own history (you’ll have to search for this one yourself, folks), the life of one Khanshael is worth more than the lives of an entire village of Dhe’nar.

Maybe the Tower version of Dhe’nar have invented Hate-Crime legislation!

Hoo boy! Sense is being made all over.

To the Dhe’nar, these are a protected people who serve them. In return for that service the Dhe’nar protect and shelter them.

More than they protect and shelter themselves, even!