I was spending some time reading some Rune Quest, Changeling, and Castle Falkenstein material and remembered why I hated most of the Trolls found in the majority of “Psuedo Medival, Eurpoeanesk Fantasies”.  So once again, I charged up my rant muscles and….

A new Take on Dwarves should hit the following key points Short (After all Dwarf means a short person), Underground (traditional living arrangements), Artificers (Maker of things, use of forge), and Good Combatant.  They don’t have to be short vikings.

When looking for an Orc substitute in a campaign, one should think about just a violent ethnic group of people. Huns, Goths, Visigoths, Franks, and Mongols, have all the same campaign effect of Orcs and other “monster races” that fight in large groups/ hordes. And it has the added bonus of people not being able take the moral high ground when they kill an intelligent being… because it is a people… not just a worthless Orc.

These people could exist on a world with mythical elves, as they are not another race… they are humans.  They are an ethnic group that is far removed from “normal” human stock. They have many traits (physical and cultural) that make them very different.  Given Lyran culture and ways, if the Lyrans “went away”, a few hundred years later people would think of Lyrans the same way as we think of Elves…  some strange mythical peoples.