Dwarf Philosophy

## History of Philosophy

Dwarves may perhaps not have direct saintly revelation, and have heard preciously little of the Truths that Abraham knew, but they do have a keen mind, a sense of logic and a natural inclination to understand. Hence, through logic and speculation, they formed a story of the world by themselves.

All that is made must have a creator, the greater the thing, logically, the greater the creator. Hence follows that the greatest creator of all must be He who made everything. The dwarves call this abstract philosophical concept ‘the Maker’ , who functions more like a (platonic) Demiurge in their philosophy than an active religious entity.

All that was at the dawn of time must have been created by this Maker. From that point on, however, the lesser things, those that were created themselves also started creating things, as it is the greatest ability a sentient being may possess : to create things.

This means that those greatest things created by the Maker were makers themselves. These ancient super-beings are called Titans by the dwarves. ( -> the dragons)

Like the Maker made the Titan, the Titan made the dwarf. Where the Maker was wise and perfect, the Titans, however, already being second order, were not.

The Titans were wicked and strong, they dominated the mountains and the lowlands and their craft was second to none. From the bowels of the Earth they forged their greatest artifice : the dwarf, bound to serve them forever more.

The dwarf, small in all things, was but an insect compared to the ever-living Titans. They had, however, one thing, one small thing, born out of humility that the Titans did not.THrough their mortality (dwarves die, as the mortal things they are) they could not rely on their eternal skills but instead had to learn ever craft, every artifice from childhood to masterhood. Every generation of dwarf attempted to learn whatever they could from their elders and -by the time they became elders themselves- add a little bit of their own to the dwarven patrimonium, and pass this on to their descendents in turn.

Slowly, ever so slowly the dwarves became more knowledgeable and more skilled throughout the centuries and, equally slowly, started to contemplate their own position in the great Order of Things. Then -through the philosophy of the Maker- they logically concluded that the Titans were not primordial, as they must have a creator of their own (who, by logic cannot have a creator himself, but must be the perfect starting point of reality). This means Titans too are imperfect and as such, perhaps even conquerable…

Real dwarven society only truly emerged at the time of the Treaty, as the Titans fell from power and descended into the bowels of the Earth, in deep slumber. Now the remaining dwarves had to learn to rule themselves and vowed not to squander this opportunity.

They forged great bars and doors to ascertain the slumber of their creator-tyrants and continued their own process of slight improvement by every generation.

Only the elders of the dwarven societies, at this point in history, know the real truth of the Titans. Most dwarves are no longer concerned with them, focussing on regular dwarf life themselves, considering remaining ‘Titan’ stories mere legends of yore.

## Dwarves & religion

Dwarves are not religious in any recognisable way by the sons of Adam. They have no angelic revelations, no religious rites or ritual and no angelic invocation. They do give purpose to life, however, and have their own strict form of social rituals. They treat the creations of their ancestors with nearly religious reverence (as they are evidence of the dwarf’s greatest mission in life : to create superior things, and inspire hope that dwarves may grow wiser still). Taking one’s craft seriously is another nearly-religious duty dwarves tend to follow. One does not fool around with artifice and professionalism, one does not skip steps, one does not produce inferior items. Doing so is blasphemy against the efforts of the ancestors, and risks devolving a Craft, the greatest sin.

The dwarf is the ultimate ‘homo faber’ , he gives purpose to life by creating things. These things express who he is, they prove his worth (or lack thereof), and a dwarf who cannot create things is seen as one squandering life and being socially damaging.

A Dwarf does not pray. Why would he? The Maker would care not about his words. If the Maker is looking on at all, it will be at the dwarves' creations, not their idle banter. If anything, the sounds of his crafting tools are a Dwarf’s prayers.

## On humans

Others are not in the great cycle of creation and must follow different paths. Consequently, dwarves very much expect regular ‘humans’ to obey their Angelic guides. Regular humans who run rampant are destructive, incoherent and randomly aggressive. The angels, apparently, keep them in check. Hence all human residents of dwarven zones (rare as they may be) are obligated by law to practice an angelic religion. The dwarves of Helveitz have officially endorsed the Roman Catholic style of Angelism, and tend to be quite insistent that the humans support the boss-priest in Rome, and send him money etc, to strengthen his ‘vatican’ fortress. (although it is not completely clear why the elder dwarves care so much about keeping this ‘vatican’ strong, it has been decided long ago. They even sustain an elite order of top-level equipped ‘guards’ , straight from Helveitz, to support and protect his boss-priest, when needed).

Jacobites receive no separate attention by dwarf thought, they simply consider them to be somewhat smaller humans and expect them to behave in the same way as taller humans.

## On the sons of the TItans

Or as humans call them : Dragon-nobles. Whereas in human society the noble is classified as 'human', for Dwarves this is different. They view them as a separate 'race'. Dwarves have a difficult relation toward these creatures. In a way, they share the dwarf’s fate : they too were created by the Titans.  Being wrought of flesh and blood, however, instead of the more reliable stones of the Earth, they are to be considered much less reliable and often erratic. There is another obvious problem though. In the long long ago, these dragonsons sided with their progenitors and, unlike the dwarves, were favored children, instead of created slaves. As such, the Dragonborn are never to be involved in the current fate of the Titans, as they might well take the wrong side in this.

Most nobles however have preciously little say (or even knowledge) on the ‘fate of the titans’ and have more worldly concerns. Dwarves have had to engage with them for centuries, as they tend to dominate European politics. As such, they do not consider nobles as automatically inimical, but rather as potentially dangerous and volatile, a bit like overpowered ‘handicapped’ people. The noble, unlike the dwarf, is laden with ‘bad blood’. They tend to be ‘malfunctioning machines’ with too much power for their damaged psyches. Consequently, the dwarf will always have this perspective in the back of his mind. Some might approach the noble with some form of ‘pity’ , others with fear and apprehension, reactions vary.  Seeing this ‘curse’ is not the individual noble’s fault at birth, however, for most dwarves it will depend on how the noble behaves, and this will weigh heavily on the dwarves' opinion. Dwarves tend to respect nobles who manage to resist their spontaneous bloodline inclinations, rather than lose themselves in them. (eg. Fafnirs who show financial restraint , contemplative and patient Leviathans, Behemoths who do not immediately open with violence, Typhons who do not throw emotional tantrums etc etc)

## On those of the Wyld

Of the Wyld, being pure life instead of material creation, the Dwarf understands even less. It is all irrational to him, with one exception : the gnome. Of all creatures of the Wyld, dwarves consider gnomes the only reliable ones. This is because the Gnomes, for reasons of their own, happen to share certain characteristics with the dwarf : they tend to be persistent and not change their opinions on the fly, but above all : there isn’t a single Gnome that isn’t qualified in at least one craft. Be it woodworking, cooking, tailoring, shoemaking etc, gnomes are the craftsmen of the order of the Wyld and this cannot help but demand dwarven respect. There are clear differences though : dwarves can be workaholics and dedicate everything they have to a single craft ; while gnomes see craftsmanship as just a part of ‘the balanced life’ , considering a workaholic approach unwise and unbalanced. For a gnome, it is more reputable to be highly skilled in different crafts, for dwarves this is rather rare, as they consider this a distraction from their main art. Nevertheless, if dwarves for whatever reason have to negotiate with the Wyld, they will seek out the gnomes, or even wait and postpone negotiations until gnomes are available, as they simply do not understand the rest of them.

## Dwarven practical philosophy : the good life

Though only a few dwarves spend time contemplating abstract philosophy, the nature of reality and the Maker, all dwarves have to function in society, have values and give meaning to their lives. There are a few recurring concepts that are highly valued :

* Respect for old things : the devices of the elders that still work are to be revered for two reasons : a) they are concrete testimony to the eternal ‘growth’ of dwarves and b ) they are a testament to the skill of the old master. The creations of the living dwarves have yet to stand the test of time, these old creations have already passed it. One can only hope to follow in their footsteps. (A side effect of this is that dwarf interior decorating tends to be very cluttered. They have great difficulty throwing things away, you see)

* Earnest creation : dwarves do not want to make bad things. Not even as a joke, because they don’t consider it to be funny. Garbage is garbage and it reflects poorly on its creator. (Dwarves would rather have too few possessions than a large bag of crappy things. Being in the presence of poorly made objects (which happens a lot when traveling human lands) can visibly annoy them.)

* The slow road : Dwarves look poorly on things that are being rushed. You cannot skip steps, in anything. It shows poor character to do so. The same applies to life and this is one of the reasons dwarf apprenticehood is such a slow and rigorous process. The master who rushes the training of his student is a bad master who hurts his apprentice and the tradition of the Trade itself, a great sin. (Something that a lot of upstart human merchants who try to deal with the dwarves forget is that ‘cutting red tape’ and making the process more casual and easy-going may well be appealing to their human commercial partners, but is likely to upset the dwarf, who might even feel disrespected by this so-called ‘VIP’ treatment.)

* The path of the Maker : the purpose in life is to contribute to that eternal journey, back toward the Maker’s perfection. A dwarf who has not, if only in the smallest ways, contributed to this collective journey, has failed in life. He will get no remarkable grave, and his family hopes he is soon forgotten. This can place a high psychological burden on the individual dwarf, but there you have it.

Though the leading members of dwarven society tend to be Runsmiths/Artificers/Craftsmen, there are of course other professions as well. A similar mindset tends to be taken into them. For example , a dwarven warrior is expected to treat martial arts as the craftsman would treat his craft. And while many dwarven warriors will also create weaponry, the ‘creation’ of new martial artist apprentices is also seen as highly respectable, as it also contributes to the great dwarven journey.