Posted by JRDaVoice52As in the Dwarves series by Markus Heitz, most dwarves are scared or troubled by magic. Most tend to shy away from any contact or association with magic or magical beings. However, some do use it, but the hard-headed-ness of dwarves make it more difficult for them to learn. It takes a lot of reading and not a lot of doing.

just about the start reading that, any good?

Welcome, Gimli, the great dwarf!

I love the series. It is originally in german and the english translation is a little rough in places. I just about done with the second book and cant put it down.

Posted by JRDaVoice52I love the series. It is originally in german and the english translation is a little rough in places. I just about done with the second book and cant put it down.

well in that case i shall start it as soon as a get the chance, thank you

If you can read Czech, there's a great book called Křivé Ostří (Curved Blade) by M. D. Antonin. I haven't read it yet as it is sold out in my city but I talked with autor about it and it is really funny and describes dwarves in a really interesting manner.

You will have to let me know about it once you read it. Is it/will it be in an english translation ever?

I will, there is no translation now. The Czech autors wrote many great books, but not much of them were translated, but the book is really, really popular, so it might be. The dwarves in the book are the beings of Order, and they value honor, their ancestors and beer above all. They gain honor mostly by fighting, and when they fight each other, face to face, when they resort to trickery, they tell it the other side before they start fighting. One of their most important professions are dentists, who mostly replace their clients teeth they lost in fight. They want others to know they lost many teeth, you know, when someone lost thirty teeth in a battle, he had to fight really bravely!

That sounds like my kind of book! I wish I could read Czech. Maybe I will have to learn just so I can read it.

Posted by Kulmek Hammer-SongThat sounds like my kind of book! I wish I could read Czech. Maybe I will have to learn just so I can read it.

I agree, if I felt a little more desperate, I would actually read the book in czech, or using google translator.

Maybe we could expect more spoilers from Jumaj - I really love to learn things about dwarves!

I LOVE talking about dwarves. It is really cool to learn of all the different takes on dwarves by different cultures and different authors.

I'm creating my own world, where dwarves took control of Earth, throwing humans out of the planet (on Mars) and enslaving elves. They are conservative, but they managed to win with humans because of Ether - magic substance that lets them stop their progress at golden age. They impersonate everything we love about Steampunk: propriety, simple technologies, widely educated people instead of narrow specialists etc. and yet I try to keep their natural, earthy attitude.

Cool Etherlord!

Interesting, I'd like to know more about it, I love Steampunk, and Aether as a substance but the thing I like most about Steampunk is the adventure of exploring new lands by new means of transport and learning new interesting things, and I think that the dwarves are too orderly, and a little bit xenophobical in most cases for the rapid change and progress of this genre, and all the new, new things that came to the world in the Age of Steam, and I also think Steampunk is too about complex things, not simple machines.

I must be too new to this world. What is Steampunk?

It is fantasy genre placed in the Victorian age that is, really more advanced like it was.

If you love mechanics and fantasy, dream of living a life of a 19 century gentleman, love J.Verne's books or want to be an airship pirate, Steampunk is for you.

http://www.thesteampunkempire.com/

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/

I can hit 2 birds with one stone

Posted by Kulmek Hammer-SongI must be too new to this world. What is Steampunk?

Posted by jumajdwarves are too orderly, and a little bit xenophobical in most cases for the rapid change and progress of this genre, and all the new, new things that came to the world in the Age of Steam

Play Arcanum!

There will be exploration. The thing is, it's not really steampunk, it's steampunk with a twist, I call the world Etherpunk.

Let's begin with why Steampunk is about simple things. In Steampunk world there are no computers, no engineering calculations for many factors like pressure, durability etc. Of course there are designs, but a lot is deducted by tries, like in age of steam. That's the beauty of steampunk, every reader/player can become a scientist in this world. There are also many awesome machines that wouldn't be considered affordable in our times - like gyrobus, or even space rockets (OK, rockets came later, but first nazi designs of rockets probably had no electronics or not much and were quite steampunky). Conservative dwarves would never be able to construct a rocket, they would deal with many problems like getting the rocket to orbit or keeping it airtight... But they have Ether. What Ether does? In simple words, it does for dwarves what scientists done for us in past century (and a half) - it is a thinking substance, and it helps avoid critical disasters in a microscopic environment: keeping things hermetical, strengthening weakest parts of constructions or dwarf bodies etc. Because of the last, first rockets came to orbit shot by a huge cannon (with dwarves on board). But don't worry, dwarves have also something for humans: steam-rockets, working just like our rockets, but they use water for propulsion, that is heated by light focused by huge lenses, or a free transportation using a lavagate (lava is released in a narrow tunnel with a disk, it rises, rising the disk, outside of the tunnel's walls electromagnets on two sides are pulled by the disc magnets inside. The electromagnets are holding two shelves, with starships on them). On more static celestial bodies dwarves drill a tunnel through whole planet/moon, and use the time the rocket spends in gravitational tunnel to increase it's speed without losing the energy to counter gravity.

img833.imageshack.us/img833/7485/img00415201207260121.jpg

The lavagate. Just made it, it's not a finished concept art, no valve, no lava release, but it may give you the idea The tunnel is basically two pylons connected with two narrow walls to make the distance between magnets the smallest possible.

Updated 26 July 2012 (01:40)

Arcanum is -- for me -- the peak of the Steampunk genre. I know there's probably some great Steampunk books, but I just have found that world doesn't translate as well in writing. I think it's a very visual world, something that's really got to be *seen*. And I think Arcanum shows it off beautifully without the constraints you run into in television or web series. That could all just be me though. And I'm not gonna claim I've read tons of Steampunk literature either, so this is probably a skewed perspective.

This sounds so cool, but way too hard for me to comprehend. I just like my dwarves to have axes, hammers, shields, and beer. I don't need my dwarves building rockets, just fortifications and mines. That is a really interesting concept, Steampunk. When did it first come around and why?

Posted by Kulmek Hammer-SongThat is a really interesting concept, Steampunk. When did it first come around and why?

It's probably easy to trace where the name was written for first time, but as for idea, it's quite old, older then the age of steam perhaps .

The more I read about dwarves, the more I want to be one. Is that weird?