Dorchauaine (Clan)

The **Dorchauaine** (IPA: /ˈt̪ɔɾɔxəˌuəɲə/) is a clan of mountain dwarfs that originated in the region of the Earthspur Mountains.

## Clan Symbols

The Dorchauaine colors are a mix of dark green and garnet, its flag showing the two colors blending into a middle field of "garn," a mixed shade that is only fully perceivable by dwarf eyes.

## History

### Origin

The Dorchauaine clan resulted from civil dysfunction between two earlier legendary dwarf clans, the Dorcha (meaning "dark") and the Uaine (meaning "green" or "natural"). The resulting faction emerged with an adept political ethos but also a vested interest in more esoteric, organic concerns.

### Expansion

The clan came to dominate other local clans, dominating and absorbing (for instance) the Daoinegòrach clan entirely in just 20 years. Yet the clan's dominance was almost entirely peaceful; their primary weapons were cultural: better methods of agriculture, greater respect for the arts, and a syncretic appreciation of competing religions.

## Government

For several centuries, the Dorchauaine have been led by the Robsharna, a powerful conservative family with mercantile interests. The disproportionate influence of the Robsharna has been attributed to the family's pragmatic leadership; their governance has been stable, if intolerant and severe. Dissenters have been known to become nomadic in order to escape persecution.

## Economy

Dorchauaine's chief exports are its art, especially woodworking and poetry, and its trademark beer Dapabok.

## Culture

Under the chiefdom of Robsharna, Dorchauaine has seen a marked decline in its creative culture, although various subgroups continue to practice the clan's traditional arts such as painting, woodworking, balladry, and poetry.

### Painting

Dorchauaine painting is characterized by a stylized, sometimes idealized focus on nature. Frequently executed with unprocessed materials, paintings focus on trees, rock formations, skies, flora, and fauna. Representative art of dwarves is traditionally rare, although representations of gods, particularly Moradin, have become increasingly common during the conservative religious dominion of the Robsharna.

### Woodworking

So pragmatic a people as the Dorchauaine might be expected to produce a stripped-down, minimalist variety of craft. To be sure, many of the clan's more practical implements--furniture, utensils, weaponry--are of the sparest. Yet Dorchauaine wooden ornamentation is noted for its exquisite detail and painstaking attention to natural depiction.

### Balladry

Dorchauaine balladry is dominated by the practices of a single, semi-legendary bardess: Boba Tomasin, who lived circa DR 800. While some works attributed to Boba seem to imitate ancient Dorchan epic, her most characteristic and authentic works are marked by epigrammatic brevity and seemingly other-worldly ideas and diction. A popular folk idea is that Boba had magical access to the song traditions of other worlds, even of other galaxies. Consequently, she seemed able to pick her ballads "from the ether."

### Poetry

The poetry of the Dorchauaine regions is of two broad kinds: the epic and the lyric; the former is mostly of Dorchan origin, while the latter, far more popular and influential variety draws from the fear-glas or nature-worshipping ethos of the Uaines.

## Notable Members

* Amienda ap Bostadh
* Maxim ap Crawley-Robsharna
* Waylon ap Bostadh