Dwarf Goatherding
My personal take on dwarves isn’t all that big of a departure from the classic traditional dwarf, but there’s some notable re-prioritization within their bailiwick, inspired heavily by Raymond Feist’s Midkemia books.
So, yes. Dwarves are on the short side (compared to humans), stocky, physically strong and tough. They live in mountains, where they have mines and process the mines’ output into tools, weapons, armor, and other goods for use or for sale to outsiders. But…the mines and forges are only part of what they do, and not even the most important part. Sure, they’re very good at it, but you can’t eat steel. If push comes to shove, you can sell the forges’ output and use the profit to buy food, but it’s much better to have your own food sources.
So they herd goats. Those big, shaggy, ornery, independent mountain goats that can climb a sheer cliff if given half a reason. The most respected career in dwarf culture isn’t smith, or warrior, or brewer—it’s goatherd. The goatherds keep the lodge supplied with meat and leather for the winter, and chasing after those goats in the high pastures all summer ain’t no job for some wimp. Goatherds are the first line of defense—anyone approaching a dwarven clan’s range in summer will run into a herd of goats long before they find any of the hidden mountain valleys where the dwarves actually build their homes. They also have a few farms in those valleys that they get as much hardy grains and vegetables out of during the summer as they can, but goats are the big thing.
In terms of weapons, Dwarves don’t use hammers and axes because they’re such superior weapons; they use them because every dwarf weapon is a tool first, and a weapon second. They’re just so well made that they work extremely well as weapons anyway. Swords have no place in dwarf society because you can’t use a sword for anything except fighting. Among the herders, the most common weapon is the crossbow—good for bringing down predators, scaring off bandits, or hunting wild game if the chance arises. The most experienced carry big steel-limbed arbalests with mechanical loading systems that only a dwarf properly trained in their operation can load or fire. Let the elves have their longbows—a dwarven arbalest doesn’t care about little things like armor. There are multiple tales of particularly ambitious raiders trying to attack a dwarven village behind cover of a shield wall, only to have the dwarven firing line punch their volley straight through the shields with enough force to kill the men holding them.
In the summer, every dwarf is busy; farming, minding the herds, hunting, trading with nearby human (or elven) settlements…but once the seasons turn and the snow starts to close the mountain passes, they retreat into their secluded villages in the sheltered high valleys; their farm fields become winter pasture for the goats, and most of the clan wiles away the winter in drink and song, waiting for the passes to open again. The winter is also when most of the mining and forging gets done, but even that only accounts for less than half the clan at any given time; there’s just not enough demand for new tools, and they can only stockpile so much at a time.
Most of the dwarves’ reputation comes from a human merchant who was making a late-season visit to a dwarven clanhold to purchase a load of tools, and got snowed in. The dwarves were happy to put him up for the winter, but he had little interest in venturing out to the farms or pastures, so he spent all winter drinking and telling tales and watching the miners and smiths do their work, and then in the spring he loaded up his purchased wares and went on his way before any of the goats got moved down to the lower pastures. So what did he see? Lots of drinking, lots of mining and smithing, lots of axes and hammers, but no goats or farms. And yet, his account is the one that so many humans judge dwarven culture by….
Author’s emphases.
