Ka’tek: Making My Own Fantasy Dwarves (Pt. 1)
For our fifth season of Out of Depth Plays, Sapphire Doom, I’m working on lore for the fantasy setting we’ll be playing in. The big concept for the season is that the players will be playing a species akin to what we know as Dwarves.
When it comes to races or species or whatever word you want to use, I really want to emphasize what makes each one different from being human. I hate that so much of fantasy races like Dragonborn are basically “Human but with scales.” I want each species to feel alien to each other, which means it has to go deeper than just aesthetics.
For this game I decided to take on that challenge, and see how I could make my “dwarves” not only different from human beings, but different from the classical concept of fantasy Dwarves. This means making big decisions on their physiology and their culture.
This setting is one that I’d like to explore further in personal games, and I’d like to build up slowly. I felt like it was important to set our game at a time period when these dwarves only know the caves they live in. There’s no knowledge of anything outside of the rock that surrounds them and their cities. This way I can build their culture, isolated form the influence of other intelligent species. It also means that I leave myself room to potentially role play with my players the day other species make first contact with one another.
So with all that in mind, this will be the first in a series of posts exploring what my fantasy dwarves will be. I hope you enjoy.
Where do we start?
Oh I know.
LET’S CHANGE THE NAME
This one is easy. If I’m going to be making something new or different I might as well call it something else. My Dwarves aren’t just Dwarves. They’re Ka’tek.
Why Ka’tek?
I dunno. It just sounds right to me. Sometimes you just go by feel. It has sharp edges.
It may be completely superfluous, because it’ll be easier to onboard players by saying “Ka’Tek are like Dwarves but….” However, I think by calling them something new, I can start divorcing them from certain conventions and expectations.
But the name is the least interesting part, but if I’m going to change it, I should do it now so we can get used to it. Now let’s get to the nitty gritty stuff.
HOW DO KA’TEK MAKE BABIES
This is the first question I have any time I learn about a species. How does it do sex stuff
Maybe that’s just me.
So how do Ka’tek make new Ka’tek?
Ka’tek believe the first of their kind were forged by the gods in the Deep Melt. They were molded from earth and ore.
The Ka’tek were blessed with a method of procreation, but it’s a very difficult undertaking.
Every Ka’tek has a unique mineral essence inside of them called their Mineralis. A portion of this Mineralis must be extracted through surgical procedure. It is then bound with another Ka’tek’s Mineralis, and the two essences are fused together in a smelting process. This requires an incredible amount of heat and energy, generally found in large pools of magma.
Once fused, the Mineralis forms a baby Ka’tek.
In other words, to create a new life, you must literally give up a piece of yourself. This new life carries with them pieces of Mineralis from their entire lineage.
A couple of important details about this process:
There is an individual called The Reckoner.
Their job is to appraise the two individuals wanting to make a baby, and determine if their combined Mineralis would yield a strong and healthy Ka’tek. The Reckoner also determines what other materials will be needed to help bind the child, because one cannot be built with Mineralis alone. So having a Reckoner that understands these life giving recipes is important. In this way the future of a community can be shaped by the quality of its Reckoner.
Reckoners are like a matchmaker, midwife and alchemical shaman rolled into one.
Finding a suitable place to smelt the two Mineralis into a baby Ka’tek can sometimes be difficult. Not every community has an area hot enough to do this. Most locations that meet the requirements are also notably volatile and dangerous, so Ka’tek don’t like to live close to them.
If two clans look to unite through the act of procreation, it’s common that a support party is sent with the couple to protect them on their journey.
Can you smelt THREE MINERALIS to make a baby? WHAT ABOUT FOUR?
What are you crazy? That’s obviously too much.
But don’t worry, someone tried to do this. They were never seen again. Some say the resulting offspring is still out there, probably filled with enough angst and confusion that it can barely function.
BUT BRO WHAT ABOUT GENDER?
No Gender.
So no “males” and no “females”. Instead we can relate to them through “Temperament”. I’m going to use temperament a lot when talking about Ka’Tek.
Wait, have you taken any gender studies classes, or spent a lot of your teenage years on Tumblr?
No.
Do you have an opinion on Gender?
There’s no tiiiiiiiime.
(For this next part I was inspired by this blog post at Goblin Punch. Check it out, there’s great stuff.)
Temperament is like a personality spectrum. On one side are “Miners”, that’s people who go out and get shit. So Hunter/Gatherer types. On the other end of the spectrum are “Smiths”, the folks who stay in and make cool stuff from the shit collected by the Miners.
Think of it like:
Miners - soldiers, hunters, and literal miners.
Smiths – artists, engineers, Reckoners, and literal smiths.
On a very basic level, Ka’tek see their society through this construct, which is mostly based on one’s job or tasks that they enjoy doing.
Some societies are more rigid about this than others. They look at it as a binary, because it simplifies duties. You either get good at Smithing or you get good at Mining, we’ve got no time for people who are mediocre at both. Some societies see it as a spectrum even though most folks generally lean one way more than the other.
Regardless it’s not that big of a deal, because as long as you’re doing your fucking job no one cares. Both sides are needed for this shit to work.
But Smiths do be shopping tho.
I know, but don’t tell them I said that. I mean you said it. Not me.
KA’TEK BIOLOGY AND TIME
As I mentioned at the top, the Ka’tek live completely underground. There is no knowledge of what we’d call “above ground”. This means they don’t know the sun. And they don’t know the moon. So how do days work? How do they deal with the passage of time?
Biologically Ka’tek are very hot because their heart is like a little furnace. Over the course of the day this internal fire cools, and Ka’tek become tired. Through sleep this fire is rekindled.
A community's calendar day is generally determined by a chieftains biological clock. When they’re up it’s marked as a new “day”. A community will often record their history in eras based around the life span of their leaders.
Here are three terms Ka’tek will use to help us relate to how they think about a day.
Burn – The time of a day when a Ka’tek is awake and working.
Wane – The time of a day when a Ka’tek is slowing down, relaxing and preparing for sleep.
Tind – The time of a day when a Ka’tek goes to sleep to rekindle their heart.
There’s not really a need for years or months. Ka’tek are much more focused on what one does with the Burn in front of them, because there’s no guarantee that there will be a Burn tomorrow. How many Burns one lives is irrelevant, only what they did with the Burns they had.
NEXT TIME
Okay, that’s a bit to take in for today.
In Part two we’ll talk about METALS. As I mentioned in the section about gender, Ka’tek are really into “Temperament” and that goes beyond Miner/Smith. Think of it like astrology.
So next time we look at Seven Metals, and how Ka’tek relate them to their temperament.
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