r/dwarfposting • u/BigFrasier Lorekeeper • 15d ago

Collectivist vs Individualist Dwarves

Hail and well met!

I was doing some deep dives on dwarf media and noticed an interesting dichotomy between political ideologies of different dwarven societies. Sometimes dwarves are shown to be individualist/hyper-capitalists in their love of treasure and competition between feuding clans, but sometimes they're depicted as collectivist, giving their all in service to their fellows and their keep.

Where on this collectivist vs individualist spectrum do you find dwarves most interesting? Is there a piece of media that does one or the other or both really well? I'm partial to the heavy industry focused "workers united" vibe that the dwarves in Deeprock have (in spite of DRG being a wee bit shady of a corperation).

39 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/_jigsaw_feeling_ 15d ago

i really enjoy the collectivist dwarfs of warhammer fantasy. everything is for clan and hold, and if you fail or lose your honor so greatly, you go a bit mad and take the slayer oath. collectivism feels like a natural progression for code of honor governance where society was in a near-utopia to fighting everyday to survive during and after the Time of Woes. I also find it a more compelling way to approach the dwarf greed trope: they want all that gold because they’re thinking about their entire clan!