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[joss]

To some this might be like a red cloth to a bull, but the city of Tronjheim in "Eragon" reminded me of DF. The idea of a gigantic city or castle sitting inside a huge volcanic crater is just plain awesome in my opinion.

[Armok]

To some this might be like a red cloth to a bull, but the city of Tronjheim in "Eragon" reminded me of DF. The idea of a gigantic city or castle sitting inside a huge volcanic crater is just plain awesome in my opinion.

Me to!

[Zironic]

To some this might be like a red cloth to a bull, but the city of Tronjheim in "Eragon" reminded me of DF. The idea of a gigantic city or castle sitting inside a huge volcanic crater is just plain awesome in my opinion.

I sort of liked the first book but then the Character development in the 2nd and 3rd book really upset me. It's all star wars in middle earth though. Now that I think of it, the dwarves are insanely dwarfish.

[Demonic Spoon]

They carve out petrified trees, awesome, also giant perfect gem fey mood.

[Vattic]

Funnily enough I had heard of DF quite a long while before I actually played it with any real effort, the first time I played it I gave up after not long. I played it for the second time after reading the mines of moria sections of LotR and the concept of a dwarven city in the mountains seemed so epic, it reminded me of DF and so I gave it another go wanting to make my fortress truly epic.

[Specialist290]

So does that make DF more like the Edda or more like Tolkien? Our dwarves are pretty grimy and their rulers are pretty petty/evil, then again: megaprojects!
(and the inevitable downfall)

Tolkien's dwarves were pretty bastardly at times, too.  In the early myths (The Silmarillion), one group slaughters a ton of elves to recover an artifact necklace, which is probably the most DF-like thing you'll find anywhere in his books (aside from Moria).

[Lord Dakoth]

Tolkien's dwarves were pretty bastardly at times, too.  In the early myths (The Silmarillion), one group slaughters a ton of elves to recover an artifact necklace, which is probably the most DF-like thing you'll find anywhere in his books (aside from Moria).

What about in The Hobbit when thirteen dwarves (migrants) show up on Bilbo Baggins' doorstep, uninvited, and eat all his food and drink all his ale?

[Shima]

The Complete Soapmaker.  If you've ever had a migrant wave, you certainly know why.

[ousire]

--Bilbo killing giant spiders by throwing rocks at them

the very best part about that section was that during the thing, bilbo was singing. even though he was in the middle of a strange place on a quest he really didnt know much about, saving a dozen dwarfs he didnt even know. he was in mortal danger, and he sang through the thing. i wish he had gone on to have many children, so that some of them could inheret his massive balls of steel.

[Devast]

I think its time for me to re-read The hobbit

[TheDJ17]

I while ago I was reading a book about a kid who discovered a lost city underneth London (who hasn't?) by tunnelling to to the elevator that lead down to it. The words Limestone and Rough Hewn were used, at least befor the part when I stopped reading as the book was crap.

[Spiral42]

My lecturer for "Islam and the West" showed us some stories from The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin, complied by Idres Shah. These stories are similar to parables or Zen koans. The first one he read, however, struck me as entirely different when read in a Dwarfen mindset, and consequently gave me the giggles for some time after:

Mulla Nasrudin gave his wife some meat to cook for guests. When the meal arrived, there was no meat. She had eaten it.
"The cat ate it, all three pounds of it," she said.
Nasrudin put the cat on the scales. It weighed three pounds.
"If this is the cat," said Nasrudin, "where is the meat? If, on the other hand, this is the meat - where is the cat?"

To a Dwarf, does this distinction really matter?

[eviscerator]

Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy, specifically the section describing the sieging troll king.

[phappyman]

I came to the forum and searched for "Heitz" to see if anyone else noticed the similarities. Awesome, and thus far I agree, it's been a fun book to read.

Markus Heitz's Dwarves book.Love it! just finished reading it.

Hatred of elves,masive tunnels,and fey moods.


READ IT

Check out this familiar-sounding passage from page 211 from my edition of the book:

"Don't you have a portal like the fifthlings' Stone Gateway?"
"No, our forefathers cut a trench in the path, forty paces long and a hundred paces deep. On our side of the trench they built a rampart with a mechanical bridge. The engineers worked on the design for almost as long as it took for the masons to hew the trench." Boëndal paused, recalling the genius of the engineering. "They made a collapsible walkway from thin slabs of stone. It's incredibly light but can bear any load. At full extension, it rests on columns that rise up at the pull of a lever from the base of the trench, but the bridge can be retracted instantly by means of chains, cogs and ropes."
"Tungdil was lost for words. "That's...I've never heard anything like it! But what happens when orcs or ogres force their way onto the bridge?"
"We send them crashing into the trench. Tion's creatures are forever littering the fosse with their bones. " He laughed softly. "One lot were so determined that they catapulted each other to the opposite side. Most died on impact; the others felt the fury of our axes."

[phappyman]

Since I'm here, I'd recommend any of the following:

* Hobbit/Lord of the Rings (has been mentioned already) - a lot of dwarfish character shows through in both the hobbit and the rest of the books. Mostly the hobbit of course.

* Cleric's Quintet by RA Salvatore, for the dwarf brothers. Oo-oi! They're tough as nails.

* other series by RA Salvatore in which they travel to the Underdark--I'd love to see an open and scary underworld in DF, in which you're afraid to scout ahead, and afraid to leave any caverns open and unguarded. In which there is a variety of plants, mushrooms, fungi and forests made up of all these. In which there are a variety of predators. In which there are entire civilizations of scary creatures.

* Six-part War of the Spider Queen, set in the Forgotten Realms Underdark also...for a fun representation of the duergar.

* Dragon Age books by EE Knight - I've read the first two and this is one of the few settings where the author does not try to impose morality upon the story. Only a few books I've read manage to pull off this attitude--this series and (much older) Richard Knaak's dragonrealms series. Where you happen to be rooting for the protagonist, but not because they're necessarily...better. Dwarf Fortress seems to be set in a similar a-moral setting. In DF, the dragons aren't evil and the dwarves aren't good, and the elves CERTAINLY aren't good...they just are. The same holds true with the Dragon Age books (in which the dragons CERTAINLY aren't good), and for the dragonrealms series, in which the protagonists attempt to keep their civilization at the pinnacle, and must fight dragons and Quels(?) and other races who are trying to dominate. I'm not expressing myself particularly well, but the point is, the setting is amoral, and this is unique among fantasy settings.

* The Parched Sea (also Forgotten Realms), wherein lizardmen crawl out of the well and ambush the protagonists. Just this one scene stood out.

* The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen - this is apparently a fantasy classic, classic in the sense that it was written a long time ago--notably, it isn't as set into the loosely-shared orcs/elves mythology everyone else seems to write about nowadays. Refreshingly unique, contains an underworld populated with creatures of all kinds, and of course, dwarves.

Though I've read quite a few (non-Forgotten Realms, believe it or not) fantasy novels, I don't recall much time given to a deep dwarven perspective with the exception of the "Dwarves" book and those mentioned above. Hmm.

edit: oo-oi!