Duergar, devoted defenders

 

Duergar, the devoted.

Traditions: Martial, Occult

“Every man has his place.  Ours is to hold the line.  We hold the line when the Bane or their minions attack. The Tyrants lead, the Warriors fight, the Merchants produce and trade. The lesser castes serve their betters.  It is the Law and the Way of Order. We bring order to the darkness.

The Rubble fled.  Flawed, and crumbled when tested, like a poorly made blade that shatters when quenched, they were cast aside.  The tell themselves that we, the Duergar, are traitors.  We know the truth.  We, the Duergar, are Defenders.” – Sokar, Warrior caste.

When the Dwarves called the first blights to bring down the empire of Joturc, they had no idea what they had released.  The blights grew in power, adapted, and once they had brought down the enemies of the dwarves, turned on their creators. 

Caught unaware, the initial losses of the deep people were tremendous.  The council decided to retreat, to flee, was the only option. Borlin Duergar, head of his house, disagreed. 

House Duergar, along with others who rallied to his banner retreated to their iron cities to prepare.  When the blights sent their corrupted creatures after the fleeing dwarves, the followers of Duergar struck their flank, tearing into the leadership and splitting them from their minions.  The costs were horrible, over a fifth of Duergar’s followers perished.  But the blights were forced to retreat, the dwarven people were saved.

Both the duergar and the blights retreated to lick their wounds.  Borlin could not send any support for their retreating brethren, nor did he want to.  He told his followers they could have destroyed the monsters created by their priests, if only they’d had the reinforcements of the other houses.  He named them rubble, for the destruction of their way of life.  The remaining dwarves took their name from their leader.  Dwarves no more, they were all of duergar.

Borlin led the people in harsh reforms.  Always a practitioner of psychic talents, he adopted others with similar talents into his family. Whether by the strength of his charisma or his talents, he re-ordered the caste system, casting the priesthood down.  They became a cautionary tale, reminding the duergar that their strength of arms and prowess carried the day, not the followers of the gods who brought them the blights in the first place. He tightened the caste system and forbid testing into higher castes.  Marriage and adoption were still possible, to help keep Duergar of exceptional psychic talent in the tyrant caste.  The society turned to one goal, subjugation of the Deeps to stop the blights from threatening the duergar people ever again.

Duergar today.

The Duergar have calcified their caste system in the hundreds of years since the great siege.  They rule their underground domains with an inflexible fist.  The law is the only thing that holds back the chaos and the blights.  Dissent is not allowed, and weakness is crushed.  While this has stifled innovation, the duergar know that they are the force that keeps their greatest mistake at bay.

The most powerful caste is the Tyrant caste, that claims descent from Borlin Duergar’s family itself.  Those Duergar of the strongest psychic talents in other castes are often adopted into the Tyrant Caste. They are the undisputed rulers of the duergar and coordinate the defense of the empire. 

The warriors are held in regard second only to the Tyrants.  The warrior caste maintains the law, fights the threats of the deeps, and leads the battles when houses go to battle with each other. Martial, psychic, arcane, the duergar take any method of war as part of their caste. What few trained divine casters the duergar still use are part of this caste.  These casters get their powers from ancestors and

Next are the scholar caste.  Generally barred from learning any of the battle arts, the scholars are the researchers.  There are a few still that possess formidable psychic or martial talents, but they are restricted from legally developing them.

Below the scholars are the merchant castes, both craftsmen and traders fall into this category.  The lowest of the merchant caste are the duergar that deal with the non-duergar races, the inadam.

Below the merchants are the laborers.  Builders, miners, porters, laborers, the unskilled fall in this group.  The largest group is the weakest but are still taught they are important and have a role in society.

The lowest caste is not considered a case.  The slag, the untouchables, the rubble.  By default any non-duegar dwarves fall in this caste.  They have no rights, no recourse.  They exist to serve their betters, but are little more than property, and not considered true duergar.

While officially non-existent, the followers of the dwarven gods do exist in secret. Hunted and persecuted, they are normally found only among the rubble

Relations with other races:

Duergar are insular and xenophobic at the best of times.  Interaction with other races is limited to designated trade cities and strongly monitored. That dwarves and duergar both are immune to the corruption of the blight increases their insular nature. While in their trade cities the duergar treat non-duergar with what respect that the inadam earns by his own power and wealth, non-duegar are considered untouchables if found anywhere else, to be captured, made slaves, or killed.  Of course even in the safety of the trade towns they are watched and punished for breaking laws, even if they don’t know the laws.  Ignorance is no defense.