Originally I created Myrkheim for Clash of Steel, but I’ve transplanted it into Shadowdark for an upcoming “mostly humans” campaign using some version of my ancestry classes instead of the usual Ancestry rules.

This write-up works for any world where Dwarfs exist but are rare in most human lands. In my settings the Dwarfs have significant influence over the lands between Myrkheim and major trade routes. In one they effectively control the feckless human government; in another they have a “seventh city-state” of mixed humans and Dwarfs along the river that connects Myrkheim to the nearest seaport. In the Shadowdark setting they rely on their own fortified settlements along their land trade route and the relative peace brought by the Empire.

Also in my worlds Dwarfs cannot use magic, at least not the quick spells of Clash of Steel sorcery and Shadowdark wizards and priests. Theirs is a slow magic, infused into their work to produce low-level magic items or conjured in subtle rituals to shift the myriad probabilities of this chaotic universe in their favor. (Conversely, Dwarfs have a resistance to “fast magic” but not slow, ritual magic.) Your worlds may differ.

Myrkheim, Land of the Dwarfs

A large majority of Dwarfs live on, or more accurately under, the Myrkheim Mountains. They dwell in a series of tunnels and chambers, some natural, some meticulously shaped. Even Dwarfs born in the surface world, or who spend most of their time there, seem to take a bit of Myrkheim with them. It’s important, therefore, to understand the social structure of the Dwarf Kingdoms of Myrkheim.

Government

Each King presides over a city-state, a huge complex of tunnels, caverns, mines, and excavated spaces. Tunnels connect each city-state, and long-standing treaties determine the boundaries between one city-state and the next.

Each King has a Court. One or more High Court Judges, chosen from the most learned khulduksim, advises the King on laws and tries cases involving government officials. Numerous High Reeves handle paperwork and day-to-day administration of the King’s Court.

Each city-state consists of several townships, and a Jarl to preside over it. The Jarl chooses numerous Thanes to defend the township from internal and external threats. Reeves handle administration, record-keeping, taxation, and other non-violent tasks. Each township also has a magistrate court to try offenses by citizens of that township; Judges come, once again, from the upper echelons of the khulduksim.

Dwarfs choose their leaders. The Guilds choose their Jarls, who usually serve for life unless convicted of official misconduct. Likewise when a King dies, retires, or is considered unfit for office, the Jarls gather to choose a new King.

Clans

Dwarfs used to organize their society around clans and extended families. A Dwarf’s clan remains important, but as all clans effectively functioned as family businesses, the old clan structure rolled into the the new guild framework. Every guild is also dominated by a clan, and every clan finds its niche within one or another guild.

Modern Dwarfs maintain family ties, but identify more strongly with their city-state, their township, and their guild.

Guilds

The Dwarfs have guilds for every trade, and each city-state has a chapter of every guild. The Dwarf guild system also includes a Merchants’ Guild, a Warriors’ Guild, a Scholars’ Guild, a Khulduksim Guild, a Prospectors’ Guild …. Just about any activity that could conceivably earn money or contribute to the common welfare has a Guild, or at least an associate guild.

Some guilds have surprising secondary functions. The Merchants’ Guild, for example, used to hold onto a client’s gold and silver (no bronze please) until the client needed it again. (Eventually this arrangement spawned the Myrkheim Bank. Likewise the Warrior’s Guild not only trains guards and soldiers but provides mercenaries, Thane candidates, and armed escorts. The Scholars’ Guild maintains libraries. The Prospectors’ Guild teaches mineralogy and mine safety.

The only activities not covered by a Guild, strangely enough, is unskilled labor: digging, hauling, trash-picking, and so forth. Ordinary guard duty is also considered “unskilled”: if someone can hold a spear and wear a helmet, they can be hired as a guard. Warriors’ Guild members need not apply.

Guild Ranks

Dwarf guilds define five ranks. Every member starts as an Apprentice to a specific Master, usually in their teens or twenties, until they fully learn the basics of their trade. A Journeyman learns from other Masters, perhaps in different city-states, until he completes his “masterwork”, however the Guild defines it. Once he becomes a Master, a Guild member can take on work freely, and teach others their trade.

Some Masters become Wardens, officials of the Guild who check on other Masters to verify they’re maintaining Guild standards and not exploiting their Apprentices too badly. A Grand Master runs each Guild chapter.

The higher a Guild member’s rank, and the better their reputation, the more work they receive. The most talented and hardworking Dwarfs ascend the ranks quickly; the worst wash out and become day laborers or city guards.

Khulduk

Khulduk encompasses all the principles and practices Dwarfs ideally live by, from grand notions of honor and fair dealing to minor details of dress and speech. Khulduk forbids unprovoked violence but endorses returning blow for blow. Believers in Khulduk have an almost mystical notion that failure to follow its laws harms not merely the relationships between Dwarfs but the stability of the cosmos itself.

A khuldukes¹ studies and internalizes all the lore of Khulduk. He often acts as “hall monitor”, observing breaches of Khulduk and admonishing the perpetrators privately. Masters in the Khulduksim’s Guild often serve as judges, not only of criminal offenses but of antisocial or disruptive behavior. (Khulduk distinguishes degrees of breach of conduct, but its followers contend small offenses lead to large offenses.)

Some of Dwarfs’ discomfort with outsiders stems from their unknowing breaches of Khulduk. Wearing certain colors at certain times, using the wrong phrasing, or touching a Dwarf’s possessions without permission can really grate on a Dwarf’s nerves, and sometimes spark a seemingly disproportionate response. On the other hand, Dwarfs who spend a lot of time among humans ignore and even embrace their “chaotic” behavior.

The Myrkheim Bank

All Myrkheim city-states and many larger Dwarf settlements have a branch of the Myrkheim Bank. Like the moneylenders of human temples, it provides the following services:

• Accounts for members. Members must present a token and one other form of identification, e.g. signature (if literate) or thumbprint (if not). Many Dwarfs have seals that substitute for their signature, that they always keep on their person or a safe place. (Or so they think.) Members can deposit money (gold, electrum, or silver only) and withdraw up to their credit limit without triggering a delay to sync up records.

• Checking accounts. An account holder can simply write a bank draft for a debtor, and the debtor can withdraw the money directly or credit it to their own account.

• Bank “notes”. Dwarfs mint these not as paper but as small metal plaques. Paper is relatively new, and not very durable. Each token has the denomination in Dwarf (positional) numerals on one side and in common (Roman-style) numerals on the other. They also have notches and different weights so Dwarfs can tell them apart by feel.

• Deposit boxes at select locations. Members can store any valuables in a deposit box they wish, as long as it’s not volatile or cursed. (Dwarfs hate dealing with magic.)

• Withdrawals in gold Guilders. Guilders use engraving techniques and minting technology well in advance of the human world’s. Guilders are virtually unforgeable, assuming all the authenticity marks are intact. A guilder is therefore far more reliable than the gold coins minted by other kingdoms, and is a far more solid investment.

• Loans at reasonable rates. Instead of charging interest, the bank will buy an asset then sell it to the customer at a markup, payable in smaller installments. If a customer misses payments, the bank has legal title to the asset and need merely recover it.

• Investments in Dwarfish businesses, mostly mining and manufacturing. The bank prefers established companies to new startups or entrepreneurs with less than stellar track records.

Communication with branches moves along the Dwarfish trade routes, so it’s uncommonly fast at locations which border the mountains and uncommonly slow or nonexistent when moving through Dwarf-unfriendly territory.

Dwarf Inventions

While Dwarfs cannot use magic, many of their inventions and devices might as well be magic to the rest of the Known World. A representative sample:

• Banking
• Black-Powder Weapons
• Clocks
• Masterwork arms and armor
• Paper
• a Postal system
• Telescopes
• Weapons and armor made of exotic materials like:
  • Adamantine
  • Mythral
  • Orichalcum

Their technology generally corresponds to the Early Modern era of Earth. Since the Known World has not reached this level yet, most Dwarf technology will break the world. They reserve it for emergencies only.

In front of humans, Dwarfs use spears, shortswords, shields, and crossbows. Axes require scarce elbow room to swing; hammers are useful in a forge but have the same problem.

A Gazetteer of Myrkheim

Myrkheim consists of six mostly cooperating city-states under the mountains. While a High King nominally rules all six, each city-state sets its own policy based on its unique conditions.

After the first early centuries of rapid growth, the six city-states have grown more cautious and defensive. Dwarfs like gold, but they prefer safety and long-term profits over short-term gains. They are loath to open up new mines as long as the old ones still produce enough of what they need. They also reason that money does one no good if one is dead from a gas explosion.

Agazgundag

(a.k.a. Myrkport)

Enlarged from a natural cave, Agazgundag was the first Dwarfish city-state established. Because of this, it’s the first, and usually only, city-state outsiders see.

The current King, Thoraz Kragbreaker, tends to leave day-to-day decisions to his Jarls and only intervenes when a Jarl requests his help or his informants alert him to a problem.

The townships of Agazgundag are the following:

• Myrkheim Gate
• Kingshome, which includes the residence of King Thoraz
• The Mines
• Stone Way, mostly old quarries
• Deep Lake
• Sulfur Pits
• Iron Heights
• Upper Caves

Tunnels lead to Khulzalak and Barakguzar.

Myrkheim Gate

The only township significantly open to the outside world, Myrkheim Gate provides “guests” – the official term – a glimpse into the life of Dwarfs while soft-pedaling the cramped, claustrophobic aspects. From the eponymous gate, carved to look like a stone archway, a brief customs area opens onto an unusually wide way with shops on either side and along the cross street. After some experimentation, the Dwarfs put in traffic markers and guide rails since humans did not observe Dwarfish “common sense” about how to walk around a tunnel.

Jarl Alurgan Leadjaw seems to be doing a fine job as Jarl of the most multicultural and chaotic township in Myrkheim, but sources say he desperately needs a break …

Upper Caves

The Upper Caves provide a series of tunnels to the upper parts of the mountain, including exits to the Bruni side.

Barakguzar

Barakguzar is the most underdeveloped of the city-states, little more than a series of mines radiating from the city center.

Tunnels lead to Agazgundag, Khulzalak, and Undurzad.

Inigul

Inigul is the newest and smallest city-state, with only one township managed by its King.

The only tunnel leads back to Khulzalak.

Khulzalak

The most prosperous of the six city-states, nearly all wealth flows through Khulzalak either on its way out Agazgundag or from the outer world into the rest of the city-states. The kings of Khulzalak have been voted High King for the last four kingships, and King Zargrik Grimforge is no exception.

Townships include:

• The Great Cavern, divided into five townships:
  • Northtown
  • Easttown
  • Southtown
  • Suntown
  • Town Center
• Golden Halls, where the king and rich merchants live
• Minetown
• Outer Halls

Great Cavern

Khulzalak’s most striking feature is the Great Cavern, a massive natural underground cavern with its own weather pattern. The Great Cavern resembles a city built underground. Both as a matter of administration and of size, the Great Cavern comprises five of Khulzalak’s eight townships.

Outer Halls

The Outer Halls give a panoramic view of the Great Cavern, and lead to the upper slopes of the mountain, in Bruni territory.

Morgul

Morgul is the second deepest of the city-states. Historically it has been the most dangerous, with several mining and construction accidents on record.

The only tunnel leads back to Khulzalak.

Undurzad

Undurzad is the deepest of the six city-states. Its most notable feature is the mass transit elevators that take passengers from the “entrance” to the city-state to the depths where the population lives. Several geothermal engines provide ventilation from the surface to the depths of Undurzad.

Tunnels lead back to Khulzalak and Barakguzar.

Settlements Near Myrkheim

The Bruni Dwarfs manage all settlements on and around the Myrkheim Mountains. Bruni lack Myrkheim’s guilds. Rather, each settlement elects its own headman, who serves the Bruni King as a Jarl in times of war. Settlements also have a panel of Elders, often former headmen or other honored members of the community, who acts as judges and lawgivers.

A Bruni may join the citizens of a Myrkheim city state, or vice versa, if sponsored by a family, clan leader, or guild master. In practice, few ever switch lives.

Azaghal

Also known as “Dwarftown”, Azaghal lies in the foothills of the Myrkheim mountains, on the path to Myrkheim Gate. The population of Dwarfs is comparatively low, generally a few thousand at any one time. Food comes from the industries and stores of the other Bruni tribes.

Farm Town

Farmtown sits in the valley between Ironsberg and Blacksburg, sprawled along the slopes. It’s irrigated by the melting snows from the peaks, channeled into neat irrigation sluices. Amidst the sloping and terraced farms squat stone storehouses of great antiquity.

A large, low stone structure with sloping roofs stands in the center of the valley. This is the house of the Bruni King, his primary thanes, and potentially everyone in the village in case of an emergency.

Farmtown provides most but by no means all of the vegetable matter Myrkheim eats. The rest comes from trade with Dwarf outposts and human kingdoms.

Galleries

The “galleries” are a series of natural looking caves that provide an entrance to Khulzalak’s Outer Halls and Agazgundag’s Upper Caves. They are all well-guarded by Bruni on the outside and Myrkheimers on the inside.

Goatstown

Goatstown appears like any other mountain village, but up close it’s anything but. Beyond the neatly built stone wall, the thatched huts, lower than most huts, connect to each other through thatched passages. A thane of the Bruni dwells in the one stone structure, which is big enough to hold all villagers should a storm pass through.

In Goatstown, Dwarfs raise goats. One often sees Dwarfish goatherds bounding up the rocks after their charges.

Sudden Drop

“Sudden Drop” consist of several large holes drilled a very long time ago. They provides very precipitous, usually fatal entrances to Khulzalak.

Most of the air and reflected light of Khulzalak comes from Sudden Drop

Woodlands

The scattered wooden huts in the forests along the Myrkheim Mountains’ lower slopes provide wood to Myrkheim and lands beyond. Dwarfs have taken to woodworking and lumberjacking just as readily as they did stonework and mining all those centuries ago.

Dwarfs Outside Myrkheim

Dwarftowns

Dwarfs can live anywhere humans live, and that includes their towns and cities. They prefer to cluster in neighborhoods of Dwarfs. Each neighborhood typically has:

• A mayor or jarl to lead the community.
• Some sort of council of senior Dwarfs, depending on community size and composition:
  • The heads of trade Guilds, if the number and professions of Dwarfs warrants full guilds.
  • Clan heads, if full clans exist.
  • A council of Elders, the most important Dwarfs in the community if no true Guilds or clans exist.
• One or more dormitories for working-class Dwarfs, apprentices, and visiting journeymen.
• Separate townhouses for important clans, rich Guild masters, and the leaders of the community.
• Storefronts, often on the ground floor of the dormitories or clan homes, for businesses that cater to Dwarfs and humans.
• A Trading Post, if the Dwarfish population will support it.

Dwarfs prefer to build in stone, not wood, but they will use whatever they can find. Dwarfs tend to be frugal with space and materials, simply out of habit, so Dwarftown may bear a greater resemblance to a warehouse district or a block of public housing than the home of the town’s wealthiest members. This may be deliberate.

Trading Posts

Trading posts are small, usually walled communities near but not inside a human population center. They do a brisk business in Dwarf-made goods.

Each Trading Post has the following:

• A Reeve, Thane, or even Jarl in charge, depending on the size of the Dwarf community.
• A branch of the Myrkheim Bank.
• A branch of the Post Office, for letters to and from other Trading Posts or Dwarf Kingdoms.
• A Merchants’ Guild, run by a “president” instead of a Guild Master. At tiny outposts, the president may also be the sole merchant.
• A “General Store” and, if business warrants it, other shops.
• One or more guards to safeguards the assets of the Bank, the Guild, and the post in general.
• A caravansary for incoming and outgoing merchants.

Merchants move to and fro along the “Iron Road”, as some have called the Dwarfs’ trading network. When possible they travel under the mountains in spaces they control, but of necessity they travel the open road like other merchants … albeit even more heavily armed.