Worldbuilding Dwarves or How Mountain societies live and thrive 

Should Dwarves not exist? A real dwarf responds!

The second this man sat down I knew immediately that I should listen to whatever he says about dwarves

One idea that's been rattling around my head: Appalachian Dwarves. Dwarves whose culture is based on the rural folk of Appalachia, in particular, the coal fields and lumber-towns up here.

Feels like I sat down with a Caucasian Dwarf around a campfire and I asked him exactly one question and now he's going on a half hour rant. Love it.

Holding microphone with the dagger is legendary! I can surely say that he knows what he is talking about.🗡️

"Of course I'm biased, but I'm biased for a reason." Very cool, very based.

Using the "from the mountains of the Caucuses" clip is A+

Someone said dwarves shouldn't exist? That's going in the book.

RU-vid algorithm randomly recommending me the best worldbuilding video ever made

"Relate to" indeed . You bloody well *are* a dwarf, near enough. From the Gray Mountains, by your accent. :D And yes, I'm glad someone is standing up for dwarfkind in the face of haters. Barûk khazad! ⛏🍻

While trying to convince me dwarves are logical fantasy folk, he also completely sold me on the idea of moving to the Caucus mountains.

This man has not only taken the Dwarf Pill but manufactures them as well.

This man is so amazing. He transcended the very concept of cosplay. He is not pretending to be a dwarf, instead, he is a man who looks exactly like the standard fantasy dwarf, talks like a fantasy dwarf, has mannerisms befit of a fantasy dwarf, and most importantly - comes from a culture that is the closest to fantasy dwarven cultures. Seeing this man is what finally convinced me that dwarves in fantasy settings should take cultural inspirations from the rich and overlooked cultures of the Caucasus rather than the overused Nordic cultures.

An interesting detail is that in Warhammer Fantasy, the Dwarfen heartland and Karaz-a-Karak in particular is situated in the area that corresponds to real world Caucasus (directly east of Black Water, a very obvious Black Sea stand-in, on the border between Empire/Southern Realms (Europe), Badlands (Levant) and Dark Lands (Central Asia). I'm pretty sure it's no accident, because original GW people were pretty well versed in history.

Hey Bordo, great topic. I actually used you as a dwarven armorer and npc companion. He was a really cool charicter, fought with a triple barrelled shotgun and a khajali. I kinda felt bad you immediately were a dwarf. Cheers for that inspiration and keep up the great work

When I think of Dwarfs I think of the Georgians of the Middle Ages and in later periods. Especially during the Crimean Wars. A bunch of riveted mail shirt wearing, musket wielding swashbucklers with thick long beards just comes into mind.

As a danish person adficted to local folklore, i tend to frame Dwarfs and Elves as entities / spirits rather than living beings. We have alot of Dwarf lore ind Vendsyssel, but no mountains - so dwarfs tend to reside in Bronzeage gravemounds. But in a traditional fantasy setting i have always thought of Dwarfs as cultures heavily dependant on mountain Shepherding food systems

Step aside Gattsu, there's is a new Georgian RU-vidr in town!

As a fellow (north) caucasian who loves the idea of dwarves, I think I've just struck gold with your channel!

The first twenty minutes of this thirty minute video is this guy talking about his mountain home. I loved every second on it, instant subscribe.

How could dwarves don't make sense? There is one right here on this video proving it real

I think many people see the fantasy races as isolationist and independent societies. That’s why dwarves “make no sense” as you can’t grow anything in the mountain tunnels they’re said to dwell in. It does, indeed, not make sense that dwarves could live that type of life without trade, and they certainly couldn’t have started out by living inside the mountain, because they’d have only mushrooms to eat at best. It makes a lot more sense if dwarves are a part of a greater world, one in which their skills provide things they can trade for things they don’t have. Protecting societies that live below the mountain, mining and crafting, and selling that craftsmanship makes it actually plausible. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and the question of “dwarven ale” has been bothering me. Dwarves couldn’t possibly make ale, if they don’t farm the land and make it themselves, but now I realise, yes they can, if they trade for the ingredients and then brew it!

>8-20,000 years ago is more recent than Conan's Hyborian Age He was so real for this

Love the rambles! The distinction of hill and mountain peoples was particularly fascinating.

4:36 one thing I liked about the Hobbit movies is that some of the dwarves have northern English accents which could be seen as a nod to how a lot of northerners worked as miners for many years until Thatcher shut most of them down

All these little Conan and other fantasy references inserted funnily really show how deep your appreciation for fantasy goes 😂

I just watched a video where a dwarf explains why his mountain has the most dwarvish dwarfs. He makes a good case considering he's a dwarf.

Mate, this is amazing. Thanks so much for reaching out and including me at the opening of your video. I had no idea you would have posted it this quickly, when it's so well-edited, shot, and everything else! I'm blown away. Truly amazing content, and it's always a plus to learn from someone with the experience to back up their words. Thanks Bordo! All success is well deserved. Huge congratulations on your brilliant video, and here's to more people learning about the Caucasian peoples! -Tom

I trust anything this man has to say about Dwarves implicitly.

As a huge Tolkien nerd, "we shall put it in the Book of Grudges!" may be the most Dwarven phrase I've ever heard. 😂

I love your voice, you sound like that one youtuber who makes giant elastic band powered automated crossbow and offers to "show me it's features."

I aspire to such a level of glorious beardlyness. Also "forge priest" is just incredibly badass.

Me: * writing extensive lore about the history biology and culture of dwarves in my fantasy setting * This video: Me: * adds a duduk *

Found this video to get a better grasp on how to make my dwarves unique. No prior knowledge of your history and the rich culture it has, but somehow made a near exact mirror. I am both even more inspired and yet perplexed. 😂 Thank you for your work.

A place that has something similar to what you were talking about with mountain people alongside hill people, oddly enough is Hawai'I, because traditionally you have lots of fishing and trading in coastal villages, but as you go more inland from the shores, you start getting into people that did a more lumber cutting and hunting style living (or farming on the bigger islands) complete with their own form of gnomes, with the taller peaks being homes to various gods of their pantheon.

Im glad someone else sees their immediate surroundings in the same fantastical terms that I do. I live in the US state of Georgia btw. We have mountains too. I always used to imagine dwarves living in them.

it took me 30 seconds to realize that was a blade. I thought he had a really rad smoking pipe. that's it, this man is going to be the stereotype for dwarves in my games from now on. i love it not going to lie I'm learning a lot and am loving it. I could listen to this sort of thing forever and not get bored

this randomly showed up in my recommendeds and i love it! the enthusiasm in your voice makes it really fun to just listen to you ramble on about the caucuses!

great video Borbo, i enjoyed it very much. I'm in the middle of writing a post-apocalypse story where technology and society has regressed to medieval standards, your tales of Alhassan forge priests have inspired me to make gunsmiths hiding in the mountains of my ruined world.

Very informative, and I very much appreciate the topic of mountain dwelling cultures being from the Rockies in the US, and currently living in Japan which is a very rugged country. Also, as someone who translates very very old Japanese tales and puts them on here myself, I absolutely love hearing about traditional stories from around the world. We are a storytelling species, and it is to our benefit to pass down these stories and the ideas they contain, both through the original stories, and the adaptation of the ideas into new works of fantasy and world building. Thank you very much my friend.

Oh I have shared this to as many places as I could. You are incredible!

As a writer who has been struggling with making multiple mountainous cultures that are both unique in their own right, and also different from the ubiquitous tropes established by Tolkien, the ideas explored here were extremely helpful. You sir, have created one more student of Caucasian history. I look forward to researching this further and I thank you for your passion in bringing your fascinating culture to an otherwise ignorant audience. o7

When making up a world (just recreationally for myself) I had my dwarves being inspired by the swiss. Fierce defenders of their lands, known for their mountain culture and wealth. That being said, Mycenians with their military and mercantile centers in the heavily fortified mycenean palaces and known for their craftsmanship at the the time are also a great inspirataion.

I used the Caucasus region and the cultures within as a base for worldbuilding not long ago. I must say that I learned more from you than all the research that I have done before. Thank you.

I live in the mountains of south spain, and its very cool how the arabs made us be a society more agrarian, due to the developement of irrigation and water keeping, mainly in coparation to the people of the norther mountaisn of spain, that are more miners societies, but also fishing societies

Got this video recomended to me semi-randomly, but watching this tall pure-blooded dwarf talking about his native environment with such joy is very entertaining :)

I based the dwarves in my setting on ancient Canaanites and Israelites: matriarchal pastoralist nomads or semi-nomads, shepherds and highlanders with a charioteer culture, who have mountain-holds, fortified townships and communities for artisanal works, iron-smithing and bronze-forging, trade and some field cultivation in order to make bread, beer and linen.

Excellent video! The way you talk about many different topics feel really cohesive and fluid, and has the vibes of sitting down with a friend and hearing them talk about the most interesting stuff you've ever heard. Anyways, I would like to add some points about the interaction between mountain societies and lowland ones from what I know of them in my corner of the world (Southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia), which might also be present to some extent in the Caucasus and other upland regions of the world. The perception folks I know have of mountain societies is that they're indigenous in a way that make "Them" separate from "Us". That people there in the highlands are a different sort of people, without such markers of Us-ness as sedentary rice farming and large population centers, and when They are the same thing as Us, they're "living ancestors," how we were in the past as opposed to how people are in the present. The truth is the mountains and the lowlands are in constant dialogue with each other, are of the same continuous group of people who interact and influence each other. One of the most common interactions happen when lowlanders and people in the foothills are faced with unacceptable taxation, conscription, or some form of oppression. They flee to the highlands where they're out of the state's reach. They abandon rice fields and cattle herds in favor of root crops and slash-and-burn agriculture (unlikely to produce much economic value to the state, and more difficult to be seized or destroyed). They live in less permanent settlements, making it even harder to be controlled by lowland states. (Tangentially related, but Hmong people often trace the etymology of the word "Hmong" to the one that means "free"). And highlanders weren't confined to a single language or culture, as a vast majority would be to some degree multilingual and dwelling on and around constantly shifting political and ethnic boundaries. In the ancient Chinese and Vietnamese classifications of peoples, a person's ethnicity depended less on how they lived (even less on what they looked like), and more on whether that person paid their taxes or not. "Raw" barbarians are those who lived outside state control (lowland history claim these as tribute-paying autonomous vassals, but they were more like trading partners), and "cooked" ones were direct subjects, but still barbarians who are on the first step of the linear path to civilization. On the other hand, lowlanders who "slipped" back into being highlanders are evil and devious people (in Chinese, 奸 jian) who betrayed their own kin and became one with the barbarians. Another important interaction happens when the highlands is of immense economic value to lowland states. Both of them can get by fine without the other, but they both prosper with trade. Aromatic wood, bezoar stones, tung oil, sap-based latexes, feathers, birds' nests, honey, beeswax, tea, tobacco, opium, and pepper for the lowland luxury market and its international trade routes; salt, seafood, ironware (okay this is the most uncharacteristic point for a dwarven culture), ceramics, pottery, fabric, needles, wires, matches, and kerosene for the highlands. Furthermore, the highlands themselves can offer as you said in the video, valuable and useful minerals (and aside from that, tourism and manpower). All you need is a labor force to extract it! Complete control is the ultimate goal, but without the distance-demolishing technology of paved roads, a lowland ruler is gonna have to settle for persuasion. The main thing they can offer to highlanders is a military alliance, a mutual partnership between equals. But the reality of political posturing turn a lowlander merchant-diplomat to a governor extracting tribute from an appointed "chieftain" (in reality, a particularly ambitious headman of a handful of villages eager for clout and valuable lowland products), while the lowlanders (from the highlander perspective) are naïve outsiders too preoccupied with putting themselves at the center of the universe to acknowledge the situation. Still a win-win for both, just one with political nuance that bolsters the position of both parties. Applying this to a fantasy setting is a bit fraught, since lowlanders and highlanders being at least the same species would conflict with the taxonomy of dwarves being distinct from humans. For this I propose something similar to the relationship H. sapiens (probably) had with H. neanderthalensis, where there would still be minor physiological differences, but cultural perception would be the main factor that's differentiating them. And… you know, so on. I ran out of juice writing this.

Man i am ready to donate some founds so that you can build your dwarf mountain kingdom in the mountain somewhere near Tbilisi, like lonely mountain place with gigantic halls

You are the most apt to talk about true Dwarfness! You are an honest to god dwarf, a man after my own heart. ROCK AND STONE!

An idea that I loved as soon as I heard about it was basing dwarves culture on Ancient Near Eastern culture, city states and proto-kingdoms like Babylon and Ur. Builders of an inscrutable scale, worshipers of a strange fire religion, and known traders. When those ancient city states started building walls, wars basically came to a stop, because nobody had invented siege engines capable of taking them down yet, and I think dwarven defensive engineering would be on a similar level.

I once found a copy of Ossetian version of Nart Sagas in my high school library. I was extremely impressed and still are. It was like reading a work of Tolkien but it hit much harder since it was an ancient text. So much wit, so much creativity, so much lessons, so much more. Kurdalægon smiles on to you, gamarcoba from your south-western neighbour my brother in wolf 🐺

I absolutely love the historical input you put in this video. All of these points are just amazing. Rock and Stone, fellow dawi! =D

My ancestors fled to Ecuador from Spain during the inquisition so I've been fortunate enough to visit my extended family in Quito before. The mountain climate is absolutely wonderful once you adjust to how thin the air is. Even in the dead of winter it never dropped below 60°F. Almost all year long the mangoes are in season.

As a historian I can say that this is amazing

Witching this video made me so happy and it makes me want to continue my world building i paused for a long time

*Bless the dwarnks.* Those who are borne of the stone will stand in the depths forever!

I’ve been working with a friend who is making a fantasy D&D type game with some worldbuilding for a specific race- The Galanshr (Giants| lit. Stone men) Instead of dwarves in the mountains, I took the creative liberty to do Giants. And I have been creating a conlang for the giants.

Used to read Vazha-Pshavela a lot when I was in highschool and the rich history and culture of Georgia always blew me away. Such an endless source for world building inspiration too. Would love to see more of those rumblings :D

Finding your channel was like stumbling upon a great and valuable treasure. Thank you.

I am amazed as i recently started a fantasy worldbuilding project with dwarves in mind, and had the exact same thought process of including elements of caucasian, tibetan and inca culture to make a more grounded version of this "moutain-dwelling" race we all know and love! It was an absolute delight to stumble on this video, and will happily explore more of your content as this video was as much informative as it was a pleasure to watch. It is an instant like and subscribe on my part!

I was not bored. I was amused by the fast forward segments. I found the relations between low lands and high lands to be fascinating and gave me some considerations. However while that sounds all good and well, I can't help but to feel it'll inevitably lead to a case of the upper class stomping on the lower class " _We fight and protect you, you should be glad and just shut up otherwise you'd be dead!_ " which is a sad re-occuring thing of humanity. I'll definetly check out a few others of your videos that I spotted over the days.

Ser, I have travelled many leagues and been visited by many beings in this miasmic space we call the internet. Thou, gentle blacksmith, are by far one of the humblest, kindhearted, and peaceful souls to be found here. Many pitfalls and snares are on the road, and twice as many that wish me harm, but thou art most richly adorned than all the vain creatures that stalk the threads of the net. May He who dwells in thee prosper thee, and may thy craft glorify He who crafted the universe.

This is a FANTASTIC resource, for both worldbuilding, and learning about a culture I didn't even know existed until now. Great stuff.

You made my day, friend! I thank the gods of youtube who brought me here. Best wishes and regards from your Circassian neighbor from other side of the mountains. You've just got a new (and very happy) subscriber

I'm really glad I got this video in my feed. In the project I'm working on the dwarves take heavy inspiration form slavic and eastern european cultures. So what you discussed here makes very much sense to me. Thank you for opening the door to old Georgian history. It's also interesting how some things remind me of old nordic mythology.

Considering humans have lived in mountains and caves throughout our history, it isn't unreasonable to assume Dwarves would happily live under a mountain.

Lovely ramble, keep it up and take care!

Liked the vid Bordo! Much better take on how dwarven cultures could operate!

ohh, to stumble upon your video was a blessing, your channel is a treasure for a (north) caucasian fantasy lover like me from your appearance i guess that you're georgian, so gamarjoba, brother, and thank you for your content greetings from the mountains of chechnya! :)

what a great video! It's abundantly clear that you are passionate about your people and their history and it's positively infectious. Not only did you provide us a history and geography lesson, you gave us a wealth of information to speculate and imagine with for any wordbuilding projects. cheers!

Interesting video, personally, I find your digressions and your cultural perspectives very intriguing. You've even influenced and inspired me to let my own fantasy play and invent my own background story for dwarves.

Another great video! I enjoyed listening to it while making maps for my own DnD setting.

It’s really neat how a lot of the old stories about dwarves, faeries, elves, etc are told all around the world. I’m an Irish ancestry guy born in the US and my ancestor’s traditions are actually very similar to my wife’s Filipino ancestors traditions. It’s fascinating. She describes dwarves as little people, with beards, that live under the roots of trees and protect nature. When you walk near a tree you’re supposed to announce yourself and tell them that you can’t see them. That’s so you don’t step on one and make them angry. If you make them angry, they’ll mess with you.

Awesome video Bordo! Love it!

I loved this video, thank you for making it!

I knew most of these informations already, thanks to my interest in history and Caucassian region previously, but you, sir you put is so nicely in one neat presentation, very pleasantly explained. Thank you, great work.

In the middle of planning a new campaign and this video is quite the blessing. Loved your history of the caucuses, very interesting stuff!

I was not bored at all! Really enjoyed the video and watched it whole, really good content!!!!

Fantastic video! Thanks for sharing your culture and insight!

This was incredibly informative and helpful -- thank you so much for your perspective, and sharing such rich insight into your home culture!

Your accent is wonderful to listen to, your premise is immediately engaging, and your examples are a delight to listen to and learn from. Thanks for your contributions, I hope to see more from you on whatever topic you are inclined to share about going forward!

I really liked your video. I loved how much you clearly love history. You gave me some new ideas to draw up on. Thanks!

Awesome insight into the history and culture of the Caucasus! Thank you!

Man seeing your earlier video about where your channel should head, it makes me very happy and glad that you got this little blow up. Take advantage of it and do your best, amazing editing in this video.

I LOVE THIS CONTENT was not expecting this when i clicked on this video but KEEP AT IT !! planning to watch more of your stuff 😁

Thank you for this wonderful video. I've liked and subscribed. I'll check out the rest of your work. So many fun ideas are bubbling up. Thank you.

Awesome content. Didn't expect an awesome real history lesson. Subscribed. Love the dagger microphone

The Dwarves of my Pathfinder setting that I'm working on come from a mountain society heavily influenced by Welsh culture (The Dwarvish name for the Kingdom is Teyrnas Carregaen, for example), but I might belt some influence from the Caucasus Mountains now!

Greatest tourist attraction haha. I actually got my username from dwarves. Tolkien's dwarves are pretty much just slightly taller and angrier gnomes. Anyway, greetings from Finland, this was very refreshing!

Really fascinating and helpful info! This channel really deserves more attention!

What a wonderful video! Not to mention, a very interesting and grounded take on Dwarfs! Loved the history ramblings as well! Hope to see more of your content pop up in my feed in the future!

So i just found your channel. And I rather enjoyed your ramblings on myth, history, and culture. I too am a big fan of dwarves, I tend to generally associate them with the alpine region for a real world expy, though I also like having other creatures having cultures of their own. Humans shouldn't be the only one with different cultures. So learning more about the Caucasian folklore, myths and culture is cool. :) When you mentioned hearding that reminded me of one of the things I rather enjoy associating with dwarves and that is Goats, and to a lesser degree Sheep. I like to imagine that in a lot of dwarven societies there is a special bond with goats. Goats provide milk and from milk comes cheese, their hair can be turned into fibers and thus into wool. and they can eat them. Plus like dwarves they are stubborn mountain dwellers.

I would love to watch a series of more of your wonderful ramblings about history and fantasy!

This video is one of the best random recommendations RU-vid has made to me in a long time. Excelent storytelling and research! Liked and subscribed

You blowing up on Twitter my G

majestic beard

Google has dropped me on to your channel through the great algorithm. What a fantastic find! Bordo, thank you for bringing a passion ans love of sharing on a topic that maybe unheard of to many outside of one's home. I will do my best to share your video on this with friends who also enjoy fantasy world building for our D&D games for inspiration.

Great ramble, very inspiring, thanks!

greatest thing a meme page could show me heres a sub dwarf man