Exodites

The **Exodites** are a diaspora of dwarven expatriates and exiles from the Eastern Bagharn that migrated to Lower Cremalian human countries during the height of the High Road.

## History

The increase in cultural diffusion from Lower Cremalia (such as the spread of Stephedism) thanks to the commercial success of the High Road put the traditionalist bagharn on the defensive, imposing sanctions on imports and contact with human nations, hoping to limit the amount of influence on dwarven culture as possible. The increase in wealth also allowed for the bardomma of the bagharn to better fund the Signa to promote their protectionist policies.

This only helped to aggravate the dwarves of the bagharn, encouraging the steady tide of emigration to rigid halls. The oppressive dogma of the Canon and the Bagh's shackled economy was the strong motivator for merchants and tradesmen to leave.

### Exodus

Many dwarven clans left the bagharn, either forcefully by exile or voluntarily, hoping to fill niches in the human-dominant countries of Lower Cremalia and seek religious freedom.

Dwarves were popularly received as architects, stonemasons, blacksmiths, engineers, artisans, jewelers, merchants, laborers, warders, and administrators, as a result of cultural stereotypes.

The Exodites were responsible for designing and constructing some of Cremalia’s most famous landmarks and public works projects, including the [Great Vistern] in Burstadt.

The “Mad” Emperor Heilan commissioned several Exodite artisan guilds to refurbish many parks and public centers with rock gardens to remove any trace of arboreal culture as a decorative norm in *Constantinople*, to further distance humanity from the elves across the Asaphe.

As a result, the bagharn lost much of its educated elite, suffering a brain drain.

## Settlements

Exodites coalesced in racially-segregated enclaves in urban areas, preferring the company and protection of other dwarves. Discrimination against Exodites included many forms of vandalism, assaults, and even murders, and so these burrows (a play on the word borough, alluding to the dwarves’ “carving out” their place in the world) often had a private security force to patrol the streets and protect any dwarves from nativist aggression.

## Discrimination

The influx of dwarven labor doubly angered human nativists who resented the dwarves’ offering of high-quality trade services for cheap. Many anti-exodites would strike in protest and petitioned their leaders to stem the growing presence of the dwarven immigrants.

### Beard tax

A popular (and not altogether unfounded) superstition alleged that dwarves would smuggle contraband or stolen items in their beards, which was used as a straw man reasoning for the antagonistic beard tax.

Dwarven Exodites were both highly resented and highly prized in Cremalia, and in Modeon and Lavmoor, the kings created beard taxes to persecute the immigrants, to effectively humiliate them, as well hopefully encourage them to leave. Many dwarves took to shaving their beards to evade the tax—a great embarrassment—while many others grudgingly, yet proudly, paid the tax. The alternative was prison.

The fact that the tax was drafted for all citizens was oft overlooked, as many human citizens kept their beards without being taxed for it (until times of war when it came in handy).