Hello lovelies! This is a friendly reminder that I do not give advice on writing better fantasy "dwarves" (that of Germanic and Norse folklore and Tolkien fame)! I will only help with fantasy characters that have actual dwarfism! (Achondroplasia, Primordial, etc.)
This includes helping with characters that hold the same roles as fantasy "dwarves" (blacksmiths, axe-wielders, mountain dwellers, etc.) but are written in with real dwarfism. That is not radical!
Please know that any questions on how to write "dwarves" will be ignored! Thank you kindly, Elliot (they/them)
fantasy dwarves: Genderless beards! Covers mouth and nose to filter out dust and toxins in the air underground, very practical, very carefully tended to
fantasy wizards: Genderless beards! Store memories in the hairs to save on the cost of paper and stroke beards to remember things. Doesn't work if hair brushing isn't a regular thing and fingers get snagged in thought tangles instead
fantasy unicorns: Genderless beards! they're all secretly Goats
My chronic pain is paining too much for me to draw this to illustrate (one day I promise) so lemme share the small vision I have for one of the narnian dwarf kinds:
I want the “red” dwarves (the kind trumpkin is) to be like forest dwarves and instead of blacksmiths they’re wood workers.
And they have like an origin story that one of the first dwarves from Narnians creation fell in love with a redwood tree dryad (tree type subject to change) and so all forest/red dwarves have at least a little bit of dryads blood in them. They aren’t lumberjacks btw, the trees offer their wood freely like a trade agreement because of the history or something.
I REALLY want to draw a sweet lil illustration of this hypothetical dwarf with their tree nymph goddess wife I think it’d be cute.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Citizens of the Future number 5: Kuiper B-0085.
When it became obvious Earth's resources were dwindling, humanity sent spaceships to start slowly dwindling space's resources.
These brave human miners were short (to fit better on ships) and pumped full of testosterone (to be tougher, early days of body modification). The isolated societies of squat, tough, hairy and masculine miners started calling themselves "Dwarves", inspired by the fantasy species.
Kuiper B-0085 is a colony on the Kuiper belt shared by different "dwarven" cooperatives, or clans, as a port for their spaceship cities.
This dwarven miner follows the trend of customizing his work spacesuits with fantasy helmets and armour. Who says you can't explore the oxygenless asteroids with style?
Aside from miners, dwarves are also considered great, though not particularly responsible, mechanics. Using the minerals they mine to build and repair the tools used to mine even more minerals.
These mates from different clans are partaking in the holy ritual of "having a cold one with the boys" to celebrate the ginger fella having given birth to his hairy baby, and therefore, being able to finally have a cold one with the boys again.
With no sane people around to stop them, the baby's name is Direwolf Steepcliffson of Clan Copperbeard (co-op).
I caved (pun intended), I put fantasy dwarves in my SF universe... I just love them so much...
I will use these LARPing morons to show the things I like about masculinity, but also criticize the many, many negative aspects.
A couple of videos on dwarves in fantasy, with different views and intentions. The first is from a person with dwarfism who has several videos on his channel regarding the representation of dwarfism in media. The second is from someone exploring the etymology and mythical origins of the fantasy people commonly referred to as "dwarves" and the etymology here may provide new inspiration for alternate names if you are writing your own version.
