Author Topic: Barovian Dwarves  (Read 4244 times)

Pagliacci

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Barovian Dwarves
« on: December 19, 2015, 12:00:54 PM »
I've run into a Gnome Barovian NPC, and at least one halfling Barovian PC, but I was wondering if there were any such thing as culturally Barovian Dwarves? I understand they'd still be considered 'second class' citizens, but I'm just curious if any Dwarves have settled in Barovia and taken Barovian customs, or if adopted Dwarves might end up taking to the culture?

HellsPanda

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2015, 12:07:26 PM »
The dwarves who settle in Barovia, settle with the communities like Dvergheim.  And often take upon that form of cculture

Pagliacci

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2015, 12:25:16 PM »
So there's no Barovian Dwarven ethnic ghettos?

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2015, 12:26:42 PM »

Pagliacci

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2015, 12:29:38 PM »
So the answer is "if you're a local dwarf your  Dvergeheim culturally". That's fine.

I only asked because I wanted to make a local but not necessarily a human, as I find having two humans to be kind of bleh. Plus dwarves are awesome.

The impossibility of this paradox as stated in the Lore is reasonable though, so I'll just come up with some other idea.

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2015, 12:32:18 PM »
Yeah, if you're from Barovia. It's the only real dwarven place there.

Barovia is 98% Human, 1% Half-Vistani, 1% Other (total population of 27 700).

There's also a dwarven community in Darkon but aside from that there aren't really many dwarven communities in Ravenloft.

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2015, 12:35:38 PM »
From Domains of Dread (AD&D):

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Dwarves
The race of dwarves is perhaps the rarest of all the demihuman kin in Ravenloft. One of the major concentrations of dwarves known to exist on the Demiplane of Dread is the city of Tempe Falls in Necropolis. Other isolated dwarven communities might exist, especially in the mountainous regions of the Core, but none of these has over one hundred members.

And from the 3rd edition campaign setting:

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Homelands: The center of dwarven culture is the town of Tempe Falls in Darkon, though nearby Corvia also hosts a sizeable dwarven population. Smaller dwarven communities have also spread south along the Balinoks and to other mountainous regions, such as the Sleeping Beast of Lamordia. In recent years, dwarven explorers have also been making inroads into the forsaken region of the Mountains of Misery once known as Arak. There they have been laboring to reopen the abandoned mines and a long-neglected trade route that once connected Tempe Falls to Liara in Nova Vaasa.

Pagliacci

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #7 on: December 19, 2015, 12:36:03 PM »
Are any of the other races, excepting elves and half-orcs, ethnically Barovian?

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2015, 12:39:26 PM »
Not really; Barovian, as I posted, is essentially a human place. There are tiny non-human communities (the elves of Dengamwy and in some other forests, the dwarves of Dvegheneim) but other than that, not much.

Halflings can hail from about anywhere in the Core so you could have a halfling family in Vallaki or elsewhere. They are generally more tolerated than other races.

Ravenloft in general is also very human-centric; Darkon is the domain with the widest variety of races, but other than that most domains tend to be made of 98%+ humans, except Sithicus which is pretty much all elves.

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2015, 12:40:52 PM »
Here's what the Ravenloft Gazetteer has to say:

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Races: Humans are Barovia's dominant race, though half-Vistani run a distant second. Other races are extremely rare, but not unheard of. Calibans occur with disturbing regularity in Barovia, though their births are just as often blamed on the influence of vampires, demons, or wizards as hags. Halflings are found exclusively in the large villages of western Barovia, where they live in tiny ghettos. Dwarves are thought to dwell deep in the Balinoks, and wild elves purportedly stalk the Tepurich Forest. Rural Barovians who encounter such nonhumans are likely to consider them monstrous freaks or malicious fey.

Pagliacci

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #10 on: December 19, 2015, 12:48:15 PM »
Hrm, possibly I should have made my first character a non-human out lander so I could make a human local then.

I'll have to consider this then.

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #11 on: December 19, 2015, 12:49:29 PM »
I usually suggest to people less familiar with the setting to start with an outlander; that way you get to learn things as your character learns them, which is a fun enriching experience. Then when you're more comfortable with it, you roll a native (can be Barovian but can be from anywhere else in the Core too). Many domains are represented in-game though Barovia is the starting point.

Pagliacci

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #12 on: December 19, 2015, 12:56:12 PM »
It's reasonable, and my first character is a non-native, just a human. That's rather the problem of the matter; I try not to have more then one of any given race, especially humans since they're so OP as far as mechanics go and tend to be overplayed for a variety of reasons on most servers. I can't really think of a server where "human" is the minority, though it fits the lore obviously.

Also variety is the spice of life and all that.

Pagliacci

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #13 on: December 19, 2015, 04:22:32 PM »
Upon further reflection, what about non-Barovian mist-snatched dwarves? Specifically I'm wondering about a Dwarf that perhaps had a parent snatched and dumped into one of the Non-Barovian realms, or is the server-canon that all mist-dwellers are dropped in barovia so that parent dwarf would have been dropped in Barovia first?

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Re: Barovian Dwarves
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2015, 07:42:29 PM »
It's a pretty common background that outlanders can wind up in Darkon, live their lives there, forgetting their past lives before arriving in Darkon, and then remembering everything once they leave.