I just encountered a sworddwarf in the human town of Gorgeponder. A sworddwarf that belongs to an elven civilization, and is carrying a wooden sword.
My legendary human adventurer has been increasingly horrified at the extent to which a local elven civilization has conquered the surrounding region. He's found a large number of hamlets and dark pits abandoned or occupied by bandits, and more half-abandoned hamlets populated by elven puppet governments, but the scene he found at Gorgeponder was the thing that may finally make him abandon his wandering storyteller gig and get involved in politics. In Gorgeponder, when he stopped to visit the local ruler, he found an elven administrator, and an army of literally hundreds of elves occupying the city. None of the taverns in this once great city have any booze whatsoever, which was bad enough by itself. When he saw that poor sworddwarf in the tavern, though, listlessly staring at his wooden sword with dead eyes, standing ready to defend with his life the tree dwellers that had twisted him into something so pathetic...it was then that Gustem Coastalstances knew that had to get involved, somehow, and that his body count was about to rise considerably.
In other news, despite having played adventure mode on and off for five years, this character is the first one who gave in and became a vampire. It's pretty great. So far he's been able to adhere to his moral code and not feed on any sentients, but I'm assuming that he'll cave eventually. The centuries are long, and temptation gets you in the end. For now, though, he's actually been living more in harmony with nature than he ever did when he had to eat food. Now, he'll usually go out in the wilds where no-one can see him, and chase down a large animal like a camel or elephant. As a legendary striker who had superhuman strength before he underwent the change, he's able to knock out a large animal with a couple blows to the head without any other damage. Once it's unconscious, he'll feed and slink off into the night, leaving the critter a little dizzy and with a splitting headache, but otherwise none the worse for wear.