Eimrar

Eimrar is a Plutocratic Oligarchy. Its government is a plutocratic form of oligarchy, ruled by a wealthy and influential elite. This elite consists of the highest members of the Unknown clans. It is spiritualist in its practices, xenophilic and pacifist. Its clans rule with a strict hand, but the free market dynamics are encouraged, making it neither authoritarian nor egalitarian.

Dwarven politics is complicated, with 2 main factions with each subfactions vying for influence and control. To make matters worse, faction membership crosses clan lines, making unified voting blocks extremely rare. Furthermore, properly substantiated debate can take years (see: Law).

The following factions are present in Eimrar:

• Expansionists. Dwarven future lays above ground, and the time is right to extend the Dwarven reach just as the Elves once did.
  • Imperialists. Dwarven reach should be extended with a focus on Dwarves; through might and domination.
  • Culturalists. Dwarven reach should be expanded through a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and goods.
• Isolationists. Dwarven future lays underground, in the halls our ancestors built.
  
  • Traditionalists. The focus should lay in securing our existing halls and reclaiming the ones lost to time, with the sweat of our brows and pick and axes in hand. Enemies such as the Drow should be crushed.
  • Reformists. The entire Underdark could be our domain if only we'd embrace new technology and magics, and send out daring expeditions and dare to innovate. People such as the Drow can be reasoned and negotiated with.

The Expansionists and Isolationists are often at odds with each other. Outside boons brought to Eimrar by the Expansionists are paraded around as proof of the value of embracing the outside world; any conflict that Expansionists get into is used by Isolationists to argue for the recall of such dangerous expeditions. They are, however, dependent on each other: The Isolationists rule the mines that gave Eimrar wealth and prosperity to begin with, giving the Expansionists valuable commodities to trade. The Expansionists, meanwhile, import countless goods that would otherwise not be available in cold and barren Eimrar; goods that make life in the mines a lot more bearable.

Within the Expansionists, the Imperialists believe in hard power, desiring fortifications and colonies in the world above. They wish to see Dwarven steel used against any who stand in the way of the potential of Eimrar, to claim resources by force. The Culturalists follow a conviction of soft power, believing that strong diplomatic- and trade connections are far more beneficial for Eimrar in the long run. By exporting Dwarven goods and culture, this might also act as a line of defense; other nations are unlikely to strike against a powerful trading partner.

Isolationists are split along a similar divide, except subterranean: Traditionalists wish to have the Dwarves just mind Dwarven business underground, and to give no quarter to any fellow Underdark races and people. The Reformists are more moderate in their beliefs, believing that the 'soft power' argued for by the Culturalists could also be applied underground (while still not believing in a Dwarven future above ground).

In practice, all of this means that in some issues, Traditionalists and Imperialists agree on the use of hard power (while still disagreeing where the dwarven future lays), while Culturalists and Reformists agree on using soft power, magic or diplomacy (while having the same divide as Traditionalists and Imperialists).

While their political ideals might change the weight that some values get, in general, Eimrarian Dwarves value the following:

• Honesty and truthfulness in speech
• Discipline and obedience to the law
• Prosperity and accruing material wealth
• Industry and the ability to work tirelessly

Important documents such as law books and historic reports are chiseled into stone slabs. This has made Eimrarian law by far the most complex in Iralas, due to the perfect preservation of every edict, amendment, and ruling. A proper ruling, therefore, involves invoking sometimes up to multiple millennia (and thousands of kilos) of documents.

Legal debate can take months, and there are said to be few Dwarves as physically strong as court clerks.

Sentences are usually served in the form of forced labor deep inside Eimrarian tunnels.

• Open Carry of Weaponry: Accepted
• Gambling: Accepted
• Heresy: Frowned Upon
• Disorderly Conduct: Accepted
• Public Indecency: Accepted
• Drug Use: Accepted
• Vandalism: 2 years
• Assault: 1 year
• Fencing: 5 years
• Unlawful Dueling: Frowned Upon
• Bribery: Frowned Upon
• Fraud: 5 years
• Tomb-Robbing: Death
• Magical Assault: 5 years
• Child Labor: 5 years
• Thievery: 1 year
• Violating Bodily Autonomy through Magic: 5 years
• Forgery: 10 years
• Arson: 2 years
• Extortion: 3 years
• Violating Mental Autonomy through Magic: 10 years
• Slavery: 10 years
• Desertion: 10 years
• Manslaughter: 4 years
• Violating Death through Magic: Death
• Espionage: Death
• Murder: 20 years
• Treason: Death

Dwarven culture is structured around vaults - communal underground societies. Impregnable as a fortress, enduring as a mountain, dwarven vaults combine the role of citadel and city to form the centerpiece of dwarven life. From the vault, the dwarf lord rules his domain, marshals his armies, and governs his people.

Each vault is ruled by a hereditary lord or lady who traces their ancestry to the vault’s founder. In cases where the founding line is extinguished and a new ruler takes over, the new ruler will be retroactively acclaimed as a reincarnation of some ancient lord of the appropriate bloodline. As always, it is difficult to tell if the dwarves sincerely believe this or if it is merely a pragmatic means of maintaining appearances. Probably the answer is both.

The vault lord has the power to administer justice, issue edicts, and levy taxes, and the responsibility of maintaining peace and order, funding the traditional liturgies, and performing various rituals and rites. His most important right and duty, however, is making war. 

Castes

Each household belongs to a hereditary caste. Most marriages are intra-caste, but inter-caste marriage is merely unusual, not unlawful. Upon marriage, the younger spouse takes the caste of the older spouse, and all children inherit the elder parent’s caste.

There are four castes. The first three castes make up what we could call the high, middle, and lower classes of society.

The Highborn caste includes only those dwarves who can trace their ancestry directly to the founder of a dwarven vault, making up about 5% of the population. Highborn are typically wealthy aristocrats akin to our patricians.

The Craftborn caste encompasses those dwarves who perform skilled labor in the arts and crafts, such as armorers, jewelers, and stonemasons. Approximately 25% of dwarves are Craftborn.

The Workborn caste, which is the largest caste (50% of the population) is made up of those dwarves who manually labor in the vault’s mountain farms, mushroom fields, and mining shafts.

Because dwarves revere craftsmanship and respect hard work, the Craftborn and Workborn hold much higher status among dwarves than they do in other societies; indeed, a grandmaster of a craft may well enjoy more respect in his vault than its ostensible ruler.

The fourth caste, the Oathsworn, sits somewhat outside this social hierarchy. From its ranks are drawn the craftpriests, who preserve the ancient religious traditions; the vaultguards, who defend the dwarven people; the machinists, who advance the mechanical sciences; the earthforgers, who study the secret gnosis; the furnacewives, who call on fire to protect the innocent; and the furies, who bring war to the race’s enemies. Approximately 20% of dwarves belong to the Oathsworn caste.

Unlike the other castes, membership in the Oathsworn caste is not hereditary and households are not necessarily made up of married couples and relatives. Any dwarf of any caste can join the Oathsworn by swearing the appropriate oaths before a caste member, whose household the new Oathsworn then joins.

Oathsworn households often consist of a large number of unmarried dwarves living in communal brotherhood and/or sisterhood. The eldest member of such a household is considered to be “wed to their oath” and serves as the head of the household. 

While traditional marriage is permitted, it is less common among this caste, partly because they die young before they are old enough and prosperous enough to establish a family. If an Oathsworn does marry, it is usually to another Oathsworn. If an Oathsworn for some reason marries an older spouse of another caste, that dwarf must leave the Oathsworn to join his or her spouse’s caste. Unless the spouse is Highborn, this is considered quite shameful. Conversely, if a dwarf of another caste marries an Oathsworn of greater age, that dwarf joins the Oathsworn by virtue of the marital vow. However, the spouse is not generally expected to undertake the duties or risks of a true sworn member. Instead, they devote themselves to childrearing and family matters.

The children of the Oathsworn are considered to be Oathsworn by birth until they reach the age of maturity (at 25). At that point the dwarf must either remain in their parent’s household and caste; join another Oathsworn household; marry an older dwarf to join their spouse’s caste; or become a houseless member of the Workborn. The latter decision is considered shameful to both the recalcitrant youth and his or her parents.

Because the duties of the Oathsworn often expose them to great risk, Oathsworn dwarves die young and often. The Oathsworn do not have enough children to make up these losses, so few dwarves who wish to join the caste are turned away. The Oathsworn caste thus serves as an outlet for the ambition and aggression of young dwarves who otherwise would feel trapped in their parent’s caste.

Guilds

Members of the Oathsworn, Craftborn, and Workborn castes are divided into many guilds, through which occupational customs, methods, and traditions are transmitted from generation to generation. By caste:

• The Oathsworn guilds are the various military, mechanical, and mystical orders of the vaults. These include the craftpriests, earthforgers, furies, furnacewives, machinists, and vaultguards.
• The Craftborn have guilds for apothecaries, archivists, architects, armorers, blacksmiths, brewers, carpenters, excavators, goldsmiths, jewelers, smelters, silversmiths, stonemasons, weaponsmiths, and more.
• The Workborn guilds include the drovers, who herd livestock up and down the mountain-slopes; the miners who toil in the tunnels and shafts in pursuit of metal and gems; the mushroom farmers who work the great fungus fields inside the vaults; and the terrace farmers who reap and sow crops in the great stepped fields the dwarves hide atop the mountains.