[Sorloc]

I've done a bit of thinking on Dwarves and Dwarven culture... and Elves too.

And the thing is, that I can't think of any good reason why all members of a given species would all have the same culture everywhere in the world.

In my game, I have a particular continent with 3 different Dwarven societies, 5 different elven societies, 8 different human societies, 1 halfling, 1 centaur, and 1 idiyva (feline) society.

The Dwarven societies are totally hostile to each other due to religious differences. They are separated by human lands, and occasionally clash with them as they travel to annihilate each other. To outward appearance, the cultures are the same, the languages are slightly different, and the religion seems the same. They differ on particular points of dogma, much like Catholics and Protestants, which is nearly incomprehensible to those not well-versed in the culture.

They are not based upon Viking culture; they do live underground, so do not use axes (what do you chop underground, anyway?), they use hammers and picks. Farmers are the most respected members of their community, for they would quickly die out if the farmers of the high surface did not supply them with needed food. Clothing is difficult to manufacture using underground resources, so one of the cultures eschews it completely. One of the other cultures believes clothing is required by holy writ, and the third uses it on occasion.

The elves are separated into four nations.
One, extremely hostile to humans due to the human tendency to rape the land for resources, builds stone cities in their forest, 'stealing' that forest from the more primitive elves living there. They herd these elves into controlled areas that are safe for them, so they can retain their culture and lifestyle while allowing this elven nation access to all the resources of the forest. (somewhat like 19th century USA)

Another, of lordly appearance, build the classic natural cities in the heights of the trees. More accurately, they force their slaves to construct them. The more primitive elven race here is used as a labor force to allow the elven nation to focus on arts and trade and magical pursuits, but the society has instead sunk into decadence, and is on the decline. (like the late Roman Empire)

A third is comprised of dark-skinned elves in and under a huge mountain range. Their god is money and power, and they are extremely industrious. They trade with the dwarves in their mountains, and are allied with them against invasion, but do not support their assaults. They have enslaved orcs and humans and some other races in the area, using them as miners and serf farmers in the high reaches. They pursue magical and scientific study, they have bred a new race ideally suited for mining operations, they are consummate merchants - everything is for sale in their society, for the right price, everything is legal, if you have the right permits and licenses.

There is a nation of centaurs and halflings who coexist in a hilly region, defending their territory competently using halfling missile troops mounted on centaur cavalry.


I always felt that it was important that nonhumans were treated with the same amount of thought as humans; their societies should not be simplistic, cookie-cutter things, copied from Tolkien or not. Our historical cultures always followed linguistic and religious lines before racial ones (sometimes 'race' is determined by language rather than ancestry - see Europe for examples of this).