Man this current series of videos relating to lore is so good! Mearls' knowledge is amazingly complex and feels so real it draws you into the World of D&D really well. Cheers D&D beyond for all the great content, keep it up!
I've never paid any attention to the duergar.... UNTIL NOW. The clash between the dwarves and the duergar and the reasons behind it on both sides are really compelling! I wanna play a dwarf now!
you are correct but one feeds from the other! To create something {as mortals} they need something to create from [minerals] so due to there pride and needing to be as good creater`s as their gods they thirst to create so that drives their greed for minerals and riches
Actually may include a bit of pride, but by reason it would seem more-so of VANITY (being vane wants things, hence greedy) ... they are both dangerous aspect to the Spiritual path of growth reflection in the D&D realms. Just my pov.
Such a fantastic series. In my campaign world Dwarves are a badass race that people are terrified to mess with because they've killed so many Greater Balors and Ancient Dragons in revenge. Nobody holds a grudge like they do.
Mike's insights into the Duergar have completely shifted my view of them. I always thought they were pretty boring, the Dwarves' equivalent to the Drow. But this.. this might lead to me completely rewriting my next campaign. Thank you so much!
Duer'zar - A duergar version of the azer, using the flames and coloring from Hades in Disney's Hercules. Duergar at home mining shadesteel on the shadow plane/fell.
Dwarves are freakin' awesome ! My favorite character of all time was a dwarf. I thoroughly enjoyed the insight that Mike has given in this vid about DWARVES!!!!!!!
I would love to play a Dwarven Earth Genasi, kind of like the Earthen or crystallised Magni Bronzebeard from Warcraft. How would you make this work? I was thinking of using the main Dwarven traits with the Earth Genasi as it's sub type instead of Hill/Mountain.
Duergar don't seem inherently evil to me. Just bitter and misunderstood. Though I'm the one who never makes goblins, ogres, trolls, etc. evil in my games, because imho savage doesn't equal evil.
The way I’ve always thought of it, there is no such thing as evil mortals, evil spirits sure that’s how ya get fiends or undead, but mortals no, anyone of them has the potential for good, there are evil and corrupt societies but an entire species ? An entire race ? Impossible, bad writing. I also like to think of mortals with three tiers of intelligence, animal, Pokemon and human. That may seem a little out of left field but a Pokemon you wouldn’t say is as intelligent as a human but it isn’t as base as say an animal. Pokemon would be stuff like ogres or giants mortals that are close enough to intelligence that they can craft tools and base culture without being too intelligent are are driven still by base desires, with that it’s easier to rationalise those monsters as creatures who wouldn’t be part of our societies
I'm about to attempt to roleplay a dwarven Foehammer in Pathfinder. I'm very new to the whole roleplaying games like DnD, but I'll do my best. What movie Dwarf do you think I should seek most inspiration from? Mostly regarding speech and manner.
Wait this mention of Duergar working on improving their Psionics- can we expect to see the Mystic released with Mordekainen's Tome of Foes? It makes a lot of sense.
There's been no mention of new class options in the promotional releases. I'm anxious for the official class too, but I think the changes they're making to Mystic are going to come back for another round of UA before putting it in an official release.
Perhaps if the duegar similar to how the drow have a figure like Eilistraee to lure them away from their destructive culture, then more (maybe not in droves) would turn away from and find peace more easily than they do now.
The Duergar are a bit of a sleeping giant. Imagine if they began a full scale campaign on the upper underground, or even against the other under-dark races, forcing weird alliances between like the Drow and the Dwarves and stuff.
I once read an article that introduced the idea of non-human angels, and pointed out how each race doesn't feel all that different because their moral values are too similar. It introduced the Elven Angel of Pride and the Dwarven Angel of Greed and talked about using these ideals to make non-human races feel more non-human. I like this concept enough that my dwarves see greed and gain as virtues (usually in the context of communal greed, which seems similar to the human idea of tribal support) and see charity as a sin. It definitely makes them feel non-human, and I like that feeling a lot.
Duergar goods are actually of superior quality and are sought after by the drow. They are not beautiful or ornate, but they are highly practical, perhaps the most practical among dwarvish craftsmanship. While a skilled dwarf smith will take a sword design and make it a marvel to look at, a weapon to suit the gods themselves, duergar weapons will be black and plain, but will cut through steel like butter. Duergar enslave themselves in their work, while other dwarves revel in it
Ya call it greed but it was already pointed out that family and clan come first. Even a dwarf who digs for wealth out of greed, that wealth is for family and clan according to this. Sounds like they have more racial and clan pride than personal.
I wonder if this also applies to other races. Ex: take a really young hobgoblin, and an Orc, and raised them in a peaceful culture. The question is, are they still evil? Do they still try to kill each other?
I'd say no... its not so much as morality as it is nature. Compare it to having a pet Dog as opposed to a pet Raccoon, it can be raised as a baby and be a good pet but will always have an unpredictable and possibly dangerous wild side
It depends on the setting. In Greyhawk, no, hobgoblins are evil by nature, same with orcs. In FRs, yes, because only select few humanoids are evil by nature, like gnolls.
Even stuff like stat modifiers (at least in the Realms) exist because of their upbringing, and their supernatural nature. PC Dwarves wouldn't have a con modifier bonus if they hadn't grown up training and maintaining their constitution. Keep in mind that the stuff the players are allowed to play as are only the individuals of the sort who would show up in a game about magical adventure and action. There's like 12+ types of gnome in the realms and only 3 subraces of PC gnomes, because those gnomes ain't nearly as likely to go adventuring.
Thanks for that video. Somehow I never had a chance to play DnD (I know it's weird, but everyone around me played other RPGs) and now I'm catching up with lore.
So many questions. Are dwarves and elves sort of equal but opposite parallels? They represent the lesser-acknowledged Chinese elements of metal and wood. If all dwarves have beards then they represent the epitome of masculine and feminine appearance. There's the concept of both being tied to their chief deity in a particular manner. There's the fact that they are short of height and long-lived.
In Germanic mythology, a dwarf is a human-shaped entity that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is variously associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. Dwarfs are sometimes described as short and ugly, although some scholars have questioned whether this is a later development stemming from comical portrayals of the beings. D&D didn't invent dwarves, nor the lore that surrounds them.
I've been looking for videos that explained me how to roleplay a duergar, while others were somewhat helpful this is the deepest one by a long shot. The distaste for master craftmanship was the missing piece of the puzzle to fully understand the myth. There is no racial hate without it. But it begs the question: if they're all so "greed and cuts" why are they still lawful?
In my games, dwarves braid their beards to signal to others 3 things. Gender, because I loved that in tolkein dwarves all appeared traditionally masculine enough that people didn't know where dwarves came from, and sage latorra tweeted about this and solidified it for me. Clan, as family ties last for hundreds of years, and everyone mostly does their own thing and supports eachother via the clan. Being able to recognize a clan-dwarf despite never meeting them is socially and personally important! And Social class, because dwarves in wartime all wear similarly well crafted armor, so being able to know a noble from a conscript is not only important, but a matter of clan pride for some nobles!
"Dwarves are often a fundamental and crucial part in many fantasy settings" Oh like the blacksmith NPC. They've been second-race-citizens in far too many games >:/ from Warcraft 3 to Spellforce 3 to Kingdom of Fire online to Black Desert. Big trend in gaming is races gotta be sexy or edgy and dwarfs aint those things.
Love Mike, love these vids, but man, when slave owners are cast as beings without joy or happiness, they cartoonify the actual history of slave ownership. As brutal as slavery was, it was primarily for economic gain, not because slave owners were mustache twirling villans or joyless grey folk who never laughed.
But that's what the duergar are: they aren't taking slaves because it is fun but because it is economically viable. It increases their production and saves them from having to do work they don't want do.
Wotc are the bad dwarves of the publishing world"take something like a (statue) not of their own making and claim that they made it, shortcut and looked down upon"(statue)= LOTR and back story 😂😂😂😂😂😂
So in other words, the dwarves fundamentally *are* their 8 decade stereotype, and even after all these years, you still can't offer an alternative to drunken smiths and stonecutters who slur in a thick Scottish accent and have a hammer/axe fetish? How uninspired. Every dwarf is Gimli. Every dwarf is Bruenor Battlehammer. Every dwarf is Pwent. Every dwarf is the Dwemer. How. Boring.
Mostly because, in describing Dwarves, he only touched on the universal stereotypes. As someone designing an iteration of the game where Dwarves are prominent, it'd be nice to hear about some Dwarves that aren't just rip-offs of earlier works. But none to be found here. :(
.....Make up your own. It's also extremely silly to hate on tropes, they exist for a reason. You might aswell complain that real life Humans in history are mostly religious people who war with each other a lot......it's in the race/species' nature. They are Dwarves BECAUSE of those tropes.
Freaking Mike Mearls always starts talking about monsters and races in D&D like a professor explaining particle physics...lol
Man this current series of videos relating to lore is so good!
Mearls' knowledge is amazingly complex and feels so real it draws you into the World of D&D really well.
Cheers D&D beyond for all the great content, keep it up!
He is such a dope dude, he'd be cool to meet
I've never paid any attention to the duergar.... UNTIL NOW. The clash between the dwarves and the duergar and the reasons behind it on both sides are really compelling! I wanna play a dwarf now!
Seems the flaw of Dwarves is not Greed, but Pride.
you are correct but one feeds from the other! To create something {as mortals} they need something to create from [minerals] so due to there pride and needing to be as good creater`s as their gods they thirst to create so that drives their greed for minerals and riches
i would say particularly the duragar suffer from self pride they kinda just cant admit they messed up lol!
@@roberonin7400 duergar*
Actually may include a bit of pride, but by reason it would seem more-so of VANITY (being vane wants things, hence greedy) ... they are both dangerous aspect to the Spiritual path of growth reflection in the D&D realms. Just my pov.
Dwarves are one of my favorite races in any fantasy setting! I love these new insights!
This is probably my favorite so far, the insight and lore of the Dwarves just make them even more carved in stone as my fav fantasy race
Love these videos!!!
I never knew the lore of the Duergar and that they were linked to the Mind Flayers! Great video!
I need more lore videos!! I resently started my d&d journey and i love that it has a much deepero lore that i initially thougth
This video was more interesting then expected. I look forward to the one on Elves.
Loving DnDBeyond and the videos are awesome!
This was the best explanation of Dwarves and Duergar that I have seen. Thank you!
Make a video about the Dragonborns!
I agree
I agree...
Such a fantastic series. In my campaign world Dwarves are a badass race that people are terrified to mess with because they've killed so many Greater Balors and Ancient Dragons in revenge. Nobody holds a grudge like they do.
gith and duergar and all the psionic talk. wonder when that mystic is coming out 👀
Whenever they fix the ridiculous OP mess that it is in its current play test format
Mike's insights into the Duergar have completely shifted my view of them. I always thought they were pretty boring, the Dwarves' equivalent to the Drow. But this.. this might lead to me completely rewriting my next campaign. Thank you so much!
Dwarves are definately one of my favorite races to play, probably tied with minotaurs.
Duer'zar - A duergar version of the azer, using the flames and coloring from Hades in Disney's Hercules. Duergar at home mining shadesteel on the shadow plane/fell.
your new haircut and beard trim look awesome on you man!
I loved the background on the Duergar. They should be a playable race.
The Duergar are playable, they are in the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide page 104!
🤔🤔🤔 Sword coast Adventures?
What is the noise of a dwarf god falling down the stairs?
Clangeddin, Clangeddin, Clangeddin!
Great video
He knows his stuff
Dwarves are freakin' awesome ! My favorite character of all time was a dwarf. I thoroughly enjoyed the insight that Mike has given in this vid about DWARVES!!!!!!!
I would love to play a Dwarven Earth Genasi, kind of like the Earthen or crystallised Magni Bronzebeard from Warcraft. How would you make this work?
I was thinking of using the main Dwarven traits with the Earth Genasi as it's sub type instead of Hill/Mountain.
been readin Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and developed a new love for the dwarves and their creations. can’t wait for the book to come out
I always make dwarves into villains, mostly cause I've never delved into their mythos like this. Thanks mike
These videos Mike Mearls makes explain everything.
Can we talk about lizardfolk?
Dwarves and those who play them are always great to have at the table! ⛏🍺
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi RPs a dwarf? This makes sense.
Aw darn, ended before getting to the Urdunnir and the Derro.
Welp, I know what I'm doing with dwarves in my campaign
Duergar don't seem inherently evil to me. Just bitter and misunderstood. Though I'm the one who never makes goblins, ogres, trolls, etc. evil in my games, because imho savage doesn't equal evil.
Yep. Legitimate cultural conflicts are a million percent more interesting than just good versus evil.
My group all dwarves are evil or at least xenophobic, a gnome would rather ask a kobold for help then a dwarf.
The way I’ve always thought of it, there is no such thing as evil mortals, evil spirits sure that’s how ya get fiends or undead, but mortals no, anyone of them has the potential for good, there are evil and corrupt societies but an entire species ? An entire race ? Impossible, bad writing.
I also like to think of mortals with three tiers of intelligence, animal, Pokemon and human. That may seem a little out of left field but a Pokemon you wouldn’t say is as intelligent as a human but it isn’t as base as say an animal. Pokemon would be stuff like ogres or giants mortals that are close enough to intelligence that they can craft tools and base culture without being too intelligent are are driven still by base desires, with that it’s easier to rationalise those monsters as creatures who wouldn’t be part of our societies
Duergar
I'm about to attempt to roleplay a dwarven Foehammer in Pathfinder. I'm very new to the whole roleplaying games like DnD, but I'll do my best. What movie Dwarf do you think I should seek most inspiration from? Mostly regarding speech and manner.
How'd it go? Did you have fun? That's the most important thing.
Wait this mention of Duergar working on improving their Psionics- can we expect to see the Mystic released with Mordekainen's Tome of Foes? It makes a lot of sense.
There's been no mention of new class options in the promotional releases. I'm anxious for the official class too, but I think the changes they're making to Mystic are going to come back for another round of UA before putting it in an official release.
Perhaps if the duegar similar to how the drow have a figure like Eilistraee to lure them away from their destructive culture, then more (maybe not in droves) would turn away from and find peace more easily than they do now.
When are we going to get a psionic handbook.
I like the videos that you make . do you think that they would make a book with playable with characthers ?
mike is such a great and genuine guy
Hooray Mearls!
So it's a sort of challenge between mass production and artigianal quality crafting? Is one of the main Philosophical difference between the two races
The Duergar are a bit of a sleeping giant. Imagine if they began a full scale campaign on the upper underground, or even against the other under-dark races, forcing weird alliances between like the Drow and the Dwarves and stuff.
Will there be a video about Gnomes?
I once read an article that introduced the idea of non-human angels, and pointed out how each race doesn't feel all that different because their moral values are too similar. It introduced the Elven Angel of Pride and the Dwarven Angel of Greed and talked about using these ideals to make non-human races feel more non-human.
I like this concept enough that my dwarves see greed and gain as virtues (usually in the context of communal greed, which seems similar to the human idea of tribal support) and see charity as a sin. It definitely makes them feel non-human, and I like that feeling a lot.
I love that, my dwarves are basically communists so i love seeing others make real changes like that.
Duergar goods are actually of superior quality and are sought after by the drow. They are not beautiful or ornate, but they are highly practical, perhaps the most practical among dwarvish craftsmanship. While a skilled dwarf smith will take a sword design and make it a marvel to look at, a weapon to suit the gods themselves, duergar weapons will be black and plain, but will cut through steel like butter. Duergar enslave themselves in their work, while other dwarves revel in it
Talking about flow, Mike, your inner programmer is showing.
I like to imagine dwarven culture has no legal drinking age.
Dwarves are totally the best !!
Ya call it greed but it was already pointed out that family and clan come first. Even a dwarf who digs for wealth out of greed, that wealth is for family and clan according to this. Sounds like they have more racial and clan pride than personal.
Gimli from LOTR-
I wonder if this also applies to other races. Ex: take a really young hobgoblin, and an Orc, and raised them in a peaceful culture. The question is, are they still evil? Do they still try to kill each other?
I'd say no... its not so much as morality as it is nature. Compare it to having a pet Dog as opposed to a pet Raccoon, it can be raised as a baby and be a good pet but will always have an unpredictable and possibly dangerous wild side
Not based on what Eberron has shown me
It depends on the setting. In Greyhawk, no, hobgoblins are evil by nature, same with orcs. In FRs, yes, because only select few humanoids are evil by nature, like gnolls.
Even stuff like stat modifiers (at least in the Realms) exist because of their upbringing, and their supernatural nature.
PC Dwarves wouldn't have a con modifier bonus if they hadn't grown up training and maintaining their constitution.
Keep in mind that the stuff the players are allowed to play as are only the individuals of the sort who would show up in a game about magical adventure and action. There's like 12+ types of gnome in the realms and only 3 subraces of PC gnomes, because those gnomes ain't nearly as likely to go adventuring.
Why the hell are there dislikes?
Thanks for that video. Somehow I never had a chance to play DnD (I know it's weird, but everyone around me played other RPGs) and now I'm catching up with lore.
Is deuragar a playable race ?
Mike Mearls is a duergar.
So many questions.
Are dwarves and elves sort of equal but opposite parallels? They represent the lesser-acknowledged Chinese elements of metal and wood. If all dwarves have beards then they represent the epitome of masculine and feminine appearance. There's the concept of both being tied to their chief deity in a particular manner. There's the fact that they are short of height and long-lived.
MEARRRRLLLSS!!!!
Thats a tragedy ;-;
I do love these videos.... But again, Dragonborn please... Do a video on dragonborn...
crucified hairline
The ffaaaaaaaarrrrrr superior race.
Why is there no video on gnomes );
In Germanic mythology, a dwarf is a human-shaped entity that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is variously associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. Dwarfs are sometimes described as short and ugly, although some scholars have questioned whether this is a later development stemming from comical portrayals of the beings.
D&D didn't invent dwarves, nor the lore that surrounds them.
D W A R V E S!!!!!!!!!
So why can't I choose any tool proficiency as a dwarf -.-?
I've been looking for videos that explained me how to roleplay a duergar, while others were somewhat helpful this is the deepest one by a long shot.
The distaste for master craftmanship was the missing piece of the puzzle to fully understand the myth. There is no racial hate without it. But it begs the question: if they're all so "greed and cuts" why are they still lawful?
Weird, im working on an article on dwarf beards and what they mean culturally and this pops up
Well in Warhammer its a sign of prestige, I don't know about D&D
Dragonborn please... Do a video on dragonborn...
In my games, dwarves braid their beards to signal to others 3 things.
Gender, because I loved that in tolkein dwarves all appeared traditionally masculine enough that people didn't know where dwarves came from, and sage latorra tweeted about this and solidified it for me.
Clan, as family ties last for hundreds of years, and everyone mostly does their own thing and supports eachother via the clan. Being able to recognize a clan-dwarf despite never meeting them is socially and personally important!
And Social class, because dwarves in wartime all wear similarly well crafted armor, so being able to know a noble from a conscript is not only important, but a matter of clan pride for some nobles!
Why does everyone always say "duhregar" when they should be "dwergar"?
Dwarves' place is underground.
Done
"Dwarves are often a fundamental and crucial part in many fantasy settings" Oh like the blacksmith NPC. They've been second-race-citizens in far too many games >:/ from Warcraft 3 to Spellforce 3 to Kingdom of Fire online to Black Desert. Big trend in gaming is races gotta be sexy or edgy and dwarfs aint those things.
It's not their fault your DMs aren't making Dwarves more important.
Sounds like you haven't played D&D son. Video games are at best a lowest common denominator of fantasy.
If you want to see dwarves at the front and centre of a story, you should read The Dwarves and play the game by the same name.
Dwarfurious wat u mean dwarfs aren't sexy
but they have that sexy voice
Is it just me, or do Dwarves just seem underwhelming in 5e?
glad to see D&D moving away from some of the phrenologest things a lot of fantasy has
Love Mike, love these vids, but man, when slave owners are cast as beings without joy or happiness, they cartoonify the actual history of slave ownership. As brutal as slavery was, it was primarily for economic gain, not because slave owners were mustache twirling villans or joyless grey folk who never laughed.
But that's what the duergar are: they aren't taking slaves because it is fun but because it is economically viable. It increases their production and saves them from having to do work they don't want do.
Wotc are the bad dwarves of the publishing world"take something like a (statue) not of their own making and claim that they made it, shortcut and looked down upon"(statue)= LOTR and back story 😂😂😂😂😂😂
So in other words, the dwarves fundamentally *are* their 8 decade stereotype, and even after all these years, you still can't offer an alternative to drunken smiths and stonecutters who slur in a thick Scottish accent and have a hammer/axe fetish?
How uninspired.
Every dwarf is Gimli. Every dwarf is Bruenor Battlehammer. Every dwarf is Pwent. Every dwarf is the Dwemer.
How. Boring.
Not sure how you got all that from this video, but either way. Who cares?
Mostly because, in describing Dwarves, he only touched on the universal stereotypes.
As someone designing an iteration of the game where Dwarves are prominent, it'd be nice to hear about some Dwarves that aren't just rip-offs of earlier works.
But none to be found here. :(
There's the derro, they're plenty "different", plus the game's about 46 years old, of course there's gonna be standard dwarves in it.
.....Make up your own.
It's also extremely silly to hate on tropes, they exist for a reason. You might aswell complain that real life Humans in history are mostly religious people who war with each other a lot......it's in the race/species' nature.
They are Dwarves BECAUSE of those tropes.
Sean Hurley and how do u fit Pikel Bouldershoulder in....
I like to imagine dwarven culture has no legal drinking age.
Dragonborn please... Do a video on dragonborn...
Dragonborn please... Do a video on dragonborn...