Duardin
A Fyreslayer of the Greyfyrd Lodge | |
Grand alliance | Order Chaos |
Associated factions | Cities of Sigmar Dispossessed Fyreslayers Kharadron Overlords Ironweld Arsenal Legion of Azgorh Slaves to Darkness |
Origins | World-That-Was |
Languages | Khazalid Old Khazalid Kharadron Barterspeak |
Environments | Mountains, Volcanoes, Skies, Cities |
Type | Mortal |
Distinctive trait | Too Stubborn to die[5a] |
Average height | 4 ft 8 ins (142cm)[5a] |
Average lifespan | 200 years[5a] |
Common eye colours | Molten gold[5a], rich green[5a], pale blue[5a], dark brown[5a], bright orange[5a], flame red[5a], coal black[5a] |
Common hair colours | White[5a], grey[5a], golden[5a], copper[5a], bronze[5a], dark brown[5a], black[5a] |
The Duardin are a race that inhabit the Mortal Realms.
Contents
Characteristics
Most duardin are famed for their stubbornness, deference to age, taking umbrage at the least offence and believing that oaths and honour are very important.[4a]
The Duardin of old were excellent craftsmen, dedicating their lives to carving homes, excavating mines for precious metal and becoming better at metallurgy and forging. Should they need to do so, they would easily put aside their lives to fight off those who attacked them and then would later return to their vocations. The Fyreslayers are the notable exception with all their vocations and professions being dedicated towards war, as well as having a preference for living in volcanoes.[4a]
Biology
Although they age more slowly than humans, Duardin do normally grow old and die after a couple of centuries, usually living upwards to a 200 years. [5a]
They are invariably physical powerful with an average height of about 4'8". [5a]
Fear
Despite their apparent courage in all things, Duardin secretly dread becoming irrelevant or being rendered unable to affect the world around them. They also fear that if they fail to pass their wisdom to the next generation, their race will be cursed to repeat the same mistakes until it vanishes entirely into obscurity.[9]
Name
Duardin surnames are a representative of their reverence for their history and ancestral bonds. To the lost Duardin nations and the Ironweld Arsenal that escaped to Azyr, these surnames are the only remaining fragments of long-forgotten homelands.[5a]
Kharadron surnames are usually formed from combining the name of a proud ancestor with a honourific like "-sson" or "dotr".[5a]
Fyreslayers identity is tied to their lodge and the same applies to their surname, which is their lodge name.[5a]
Some common names for Duardin are:
- Forenames: Borden, Bragga, Dhurak, Dhurgan, Durek, Durnir, Fjul, Forgun, Fyrgrim, Grund, Grymm, Jorik, Khrag, Khurngrim, Lhux, Lugash, Maegrim, Malgra, Njord, Rumnar, Rygorn, Teegan, Terk, Ulgathern, Vargi, Vol.[5a]
- Surnames: Anvileim, Ardrungan, Bryntok, Flamerune, Forkbeard, Gromheld, Gurnisson, Grim Grunndrak, Hammerlung, Ironbrand, Krakall, Margrun, Redhammer, Stonbrak.[5a]
- Kharadron Surnames: Aetherdotr, Brondotr, Coghammer, Dainsson, Grundstock, Grungsson, Junesson, Khurgisson, Menzidotr, Norgrimsson, Runesson, Sternbok, Tahilro, Varrdotr, Zadotr.[5a]
- Lodge Names: Baeldrag, Baeryd, Blackfyrd, Caengan, Drong, Gelvagd, Greyfyrd, Hermdar, Lofnir, Sigyorn, Tangrim, Thungur, Ulrung, Volturung, Vostarg.[5a]
History
The Duardin built grand empires across the Mortal Realms in the Age of Myth, the most well-known being the Khazalid Empire and the First-Forged, but these, and many others, fell during the Age of Chaos. During this time many surviving cultures of Duardin, often led by Warden Kings, fled to the Realm of Azyr becoming the Dispossessed, it is said that their god Grungni wept tears to see how few remained. The Fyreslayers remained in the lower realms even after the Gates of Azyr were slammed shut, locking themselves in their holds. Others chose to escape the destruction of the Khazalid Empire by retreating to airborne outposts and mining platforms to form what would become the Kharadron Overlords, their lives now guided by the Kharadron Code.[1][2][4b][7b]
In the Age of Sigmar these disparate cultures each seek to rebuild in their own way.[1][2][4a][4b][7b]
Major Cultures
The following factions have Duardin members:
- Dispossessed: The descendants of the fallen Khazalid Empire who fled to the Realm of Azy and built a new life for themselves there in the Age of Chaos. With the coming of the Age of Sigmar they set out with other Free Peoples to forge new cities in the Mortal Realms.[1]
- Fyreslayers: The Duardin descendants of the warrior god Grimnir. These berzerkers seek the ur-gold, a substance that contains the essence of their shattered god, and use it to hammer runes into their flesh.[1][4a]
- Kharadron Overlords: The ancestors of these Duardin abandoned the Ancestor-Gods and trappings of monarchy, feeling that both had failed them. They took to the skies to form their own airborne empire.[7b][8a].From their sky-ports sky-ports they have thrived, constructing powerful weapons and mighty skyvessels powered by Aether-gold.[2]
Other Cultures
- First-Forged: The first of the Fyreslayer lodges, who settled in Salamander's Spine, from whom all others descend.[4b]
- Khazalid Empire: The mighty pan-realm empire from whose people both the Kharadron and Dispossessed descend.[2]
- Root-Kings: A shy and reclusive folk that inhabit the Realm of Ghyran.[3a]
- Shadow Duardin: A strain of Duardin native to the Realm of Ulgu. They were forced to flee to the Realm of Azyr, like many other Duardin cultures, in the Age of Chaos.[10]
- Steamhead Pioneers: These Duardin of the Spiral Crux were Masters of Aethermatic Extraction and Cogwork Locomotion during the Age of Myth. They are the ancestors and precursors of the Kharadron Overlords.[7a]
Associated Organizations
- Ironweld Arsenal: The Ironweld Arsenal is a collection of engineering guilds whose human and Dispossessed duardin members create marvellous war machines and ingenious clockwork devices for the Free Cities.[1]
Quotes
What little he’d heard made the Kharadrons out to be as different from the Dispossessed as the Fyreslayers were. All three shared a common ancestor in the Khazalid empires, which spread across the mortal realms during the Age of Myth. But all three had diverged greatly from the course set by their ancestors.
The Dispossessed venerated tradition above all else. They clung tightly to half-remembered rituals and centuried grudges, as if they could hold onto the last glimmerings of their former greatness through sheer will. The lodges of the fyreslayers, on the other hand, had developed their own rituals and a greatness all their own in their isolation. And the Kharadron, from what little he knew of them, seemed to have shed the oldest Khazalid traditions in favour of survival. They had abandoned all that made duardin duardin, and become something other, yet familiar. A strange folk, with strange ways. ~Owain Volker's thoughts regarding the duardin.[3a] |
Gallery
A Fyreslayer.
A Kharadron.
A Daemonsmith.
A female fyreslayer.
See also
- List of Duardin: A list of every Duardin character in the Mortal Realms.
- Dwarf: The previous iteration of this race in the World-That-Was.
Notes
- The Dwarfs compendium lists all of its models as Duardin.
Sources
- 1: Grand Alliance: Order
- 2: Battletome: Kharadron Overlords (2017) - The Code, pg. 10-11
- 3: Spear of Shadows (novel)
- 3a: Chapter 6: Tool of the Maker
- 4: Battletome: Fyreslayers (2019)
- 5: Soulbound Core Rulebook
- 5a: 5) Adding Detail, pg. 28-33
- 6: Soulbound: Brewing Trouble, pg. 18-20
- 7: Battletome: Kharadron Overlords (2020)
- 8: Age of Sigmar: Core Book (2nd Edition)
- 8a: Kharadron Overlords, pg. 130-131
- 9: Battletome: Nighthaunt (2022) - Of Fear and Weakness, pg. 10-11
- 10: Prince Maesa (Novel)