Dawuardin Confederation

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig*

*In our mine the whole day through,*

*To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig,*

*Is what we like to do."*

- *"Hi-Ho"* from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney first movie (that is now sung by the Dawuardin miners)
The Dawuardin Confederation is a Pandemonium faction created by (unknown) and expanded by Ssbob90 (lover of Dwarves) based off the Dwarves in fantasy. Once the worker caste of the Alaeva, who lived near the Ligurian coasts but left to live in the Alps and around and beneath the countries near to mine the riches within the hollow earth. The Confederation consists of seven clans, Nix, Nirud, Nadom-Zahk, Norog, Nkarak-Zaraka, Nidarom, and Natov, all of whom were descendants of workers, miners, artisans, blacksmith, and farmers. Who dug deep into the mountains to mine the riches within the hollow earth, eventually digging too deep and going to war against the Kumun and Anoxic, where their mining force evolved into a militia supported by a significantly smaller dedicated military. Only to return to the surface years later, their mind and body evolved in their lifetime under the mountains, to escape the new calamity beneath the Earth's surface, and to fight against the invading Kumun.

## Background

### Raise Your Pick And Raise Your Voice!

Like the Mu and Orenbega. The Dawuardins were once part of the larger “High Alaeva”, or simply Atlanteans, who began to diverge as the empire expanded.

The Dawuardins, whose cities were closer to the Ligurian Sea, were the workers and artisans of the Alaeva due to their location granting them better access to material which they use to craft countless jewelry and tools which they trade in exchange for other luxuries like wine and sea silk. But what truly cause the Dawuardins to diverge was the day their scouts on the surface came upon a cave that led to a “second earth” filled with jewels, gold, and strange but precious minerals.

Seeing the riches within this “hollow earth” awaiting to be mined the king of the Dawuardin, Roman Nix, made the controversial declaration that he and his people will leave their enviro-dome to mine the riches of the earth below. The proposal had caused a strong reaction within the high Alaeva, who considered them mad to brave the poisoned atmosphere, with only twelve other cities, all of which happens to be neighbours of Nix, willing to join his journey, though the Alaeva as a whole refused to support his endeavor and practically exiled him, causing a rift of resentment between the modern Dawuardin and the whole of Alaeva.

With the proposal “approved”, but unsupported, the seven cities would spend all of their riches in preparation for their mission. And on the day the enviro-domes sank beneath the ocean thirteen stayed afloat, consisting of seven "worker" cities and six "warrior" cities, and moved toward the shores of modern northern Italy, tragically a great and unseen storm would sink six of their cities, all of whom were the military castes (though in reality they survived and eventually crashed into south America and inhabit the Andes mountains, but were harden into the cruel Zharrkan Dominate). And to make sure their journey would succeed and to finalize their exile Roman ordered all of their enviro-domes to be broken down and turned into vehicles and tools, ensuring that his people succeed or die. And though the seven-month journey had taken its toll the seven cities, now bonded together as clans, had reached the mountains and began digging.

### Heigh Ho!

As the Dawuardins began creating their new home they began to radically diverge from their sea-borne kin.

Due to living entirely underground the Dawuardin's skin is more paler than the Atlanteans, bordering on albino, their hair began to become thicker and grew faster thanks to the leftover modification brought about by the great Oracle Device (leading to rather luxurious hair, and giant beards in the case of the men), and their bodies became shorter, stockier, and more muscular, as their new livelihood require greater strength and endurance, making them a sharp contrast to their slender kindreds.

And as they mined deeper, the Dawuardins would come across the Hollow Earth and the various pockets of toxic gas. Given this harsh climate and the necessities to dig for resources and living space, they would often wear excessively bulky armoured suits and gas masks by most surface dweller standards.

Eventually the Dawuardins would begin to periodically send out scouting parties to see the outside world, eventually reestablishing connection with Atlantis, and making notes on how the humans have evolved over the years, with human societies who briefly saw them, and lived, began telling stories that would become the mythology of the Dwarves, with a British WW1 soldier, John Tolkien, using these stories as the template to what is now a popular fantasy book series, The Seven Ring Rulers.

## Gameplay

### Build Mechanic

All Dawuardin structures are produced from their Underground Fortress, which sends out underground teams to the designated build site to create the structure and link it to the tunnel network. All Dawuardin structures can function as entrances into these tunnels, and construction on a site does not begin until the team; marked by a looney toons style line of raised ground moving towards the site, reaches it. The farther from the main structure the site is, the longer it takes for construction to start, and once construction starts they're vulnerable to getting shot at, though their building's innately high armour negates it somewhat. And due to being manned by craftsmen all of their structure slowly self-repairs when not under attack. In the event a Dawuardin structure is destroyed it will, thanks to its hardy engineering, temporarily remain on the battlefield as a wreckage, but will eventually collapse which can be hastened by attacking, that can be repaired by an engineer, and capture if said engineer is the enemy, or an Aesculapius Recovery Walker.

### Construct Additional Forge

Due to the high quality of their equipment, and the Dawuardin military being essentially a volunteer militia, the Dawuardin requires dedicated forges to provide their equipment and the means to maintain them. In game terms this means that the Dawuardins have a population "soft cap", a population cap similar to other RTS that limits the amount of units they can field but can be expanded by building Rune Forges. The unit population amount depending on tier (for example, a Tier I unit will take up one population while a Tier IV takes up four population), though Anoxite Slays double their tier number (so a tier I slayer count as two, tier II count as four, etc). Each Underground Fortress has a population cap of 40 units, and every Rune Forges increases the cap by 20. Theoratically the Dawuardin can make an unlimited amount of units with enough Fortresses/Forge but their slow construction and high price makes increasing their population cap slow.

### Tunnel Assault

Essential for the Dawuardin to close in on their enemies. The tunnel network allows the Dawuardin to rapidly move between areas, allowing them to set up unexpected ambushes or quickly reinforce any defense, and while inside they are also healed. Some of their structures, vehicles, and infantry can also create temporary tunnels. Compared to their conventional tunnels these are instantly built but it has a maximum unit exit/enter cap, once this cap is reached the tunnel will collapse.

## Brothers Of The Mine

### Aircraft

Due to the nature of where they live the Dawuardin airforce tends to be more of a support force of gyrocopters and logistical airships meant to navigate the Hollow Earth, with a few rarer gyrocopters used to scout above the underground, retrofitted for war. And are rather serviceable in combat, just don't expect them to win in a one-on-one with the Soviet airforce, and stand absolutely no chance fighting the likes of the Allies and Contingent without support.

### Navy

Similar to the Kumun. The Dawuardins navy is rather weak, slow, and predictable since all of their vessels are submarines, especially for its price, but it can still easily sink vessels once in range, and inherits the Dawuardins ridiculously heavy armour.

### Anoxic Slayers

The proper army of the Dawuardins, rather than a militia wielding repurposed mining equipment, made for the sole reason to fight the larger Anoxics. The Slayers are an elite corp who can break through the defences that their kin struggles with.

## Behind the Scenes

* Some of the chief influences on the aesthetics of Dawuardin include the Dwarves in fantasy (in comparison to the other Alaeva "Elves"), the Vaulters in Endless Legends, The Goron in Legend Of Zelda, the Dwarfs in Warhammer Fantasy, the Dvar in Age of Wonders Planetfall, the Warhammer 40k Leagues Of Votann, and other Roman influenced futurisms. This is in contrast to Atlantis' more Greek, and high Elven, themes, Mu's edgelord Dark Elven aesthetic, Oranbega's wood Elven gaeanist meets Aztec look, Lemurian Ergatocracy Mesopotamia, or Thule's Northern Native America-Finnish stylisations.