From: Erik Sieurin (BV9521@bhs.utb.hb.se)
Date: Tue 09 Jun 1998 - 23:08:26 EEST
The human view on dwarves is full of misconceptions. One of them
regards the dwarven psyche. What makes dwarves tick(1)?
To a human, their lives seem meaningless. To a dwarf, that's just the
point.
PURPOSE AND LIFE
A dwarf doesn't need his life to have meaning. He needs it to have a
Purpose, and all dwarves have a Purpose. All dwarves are made because
they are needed for something(2). The dwarves creating them have
something in mind that they need to be done, and the dwarf is the
tool - the very expensive, delicate and valuable tool, it should be
noted - they carefully make to perform that task.
As long as a dwarf fullfills his Purpose, he stays alive - truly
alive, according to dwarven standards. This also means he experiences
something so similar to the human concept of 'joy' that we might as
well call it that. Humans think that dwarves fear breaking the
dwarven customs, their 'priming', because if they do that they'll
die, but that's wrong. Dwarves fear breaking the Rules because doing
so means, or at least it might mean, not fulfilling their Purpose.
That they would break down and die if they did is merely a
side-effect. Existence without Purpose is meaningless to a dwarf.
A dwarf which finally fulfills his ultimate Purpose dies as well,
theoretically, but that has yet to happen.
The issue gets complex because a dwarf has several layers of Purpose.
For instance, the overall ultimate Purpose of all dwarves is to
repair the World Machine. The closest-to-reality Purpose for a dwarf
is fulfilling his specific function, for which he is educated and
trained, in the work unit he belongs to, whatever that is, with as
great a level of perfection as is possible. In between these Purposes
is the Purpose primed into him when grown: Gold Dwarves wishes to
preserve and manage Information, Iron Dwarves wish to engage in
constructive destruction, Tin Dwarves want to control and perfect
other (more or less) sentient beings.
Sometimes these Purposes conflict. For instance, at one point a group
of Iron Dwarves might end up in a situation where they have to
(according to Orders) run away. The Foremen might have decided this
to be better for the Schedule; the fighting unit might be too
valuable to lose and the odds bad. Or a Tin Dwarf might be told to
destroy a troublesome machina, whose programming isn't perfect.
However, the general Iron priming stresses that Irons don't flee.
Thus the Irons might resent fleeing. The general priming of all
dwarves is preservative; all dwarves want to avoid waste, to repair
that which can be repaired instead of breaking it. Thus the Tin Dwarf
might resent destroying the Jolanti.
A dwarf in such a situation have a bit of a conundrum: whatever it
does, it will conflict with its Purpose. This generates what humans
would describe as unhappiness, uneasiness or angst, depending on the
level of the conundrum. Often, dwarves will in either enter a
Reiteration Loop or throw an Enthropic Tantrum because of such a
conundrum.
A dwarf stuck in a Reiteration Loop will activate the
mathematical/logical parts of his brain, and concentrate all his
resources to them, trying to calculate which acts actually conflicts
most with his overall Purpose. Often, such a calculation is not
possible, always reaching the conclusion: 'Insufficient data', which
starts the process all over again. While doing this, the dwarf
freezes. Usually, his pulse slows, his breathing almost stops, and he
either ceases all bodily or magical actions, or (if he is skilled
enough), continues with any repetitive action he was performing when
the conundrum presented itself(3). Only the most extreme, upsetting
actions will cause him to slip out of this loop.
A dwarf who throws an Enthropy Tantrum will realise that all
reasonable actions are out of the question, so it might as well do
something unreasonable - like start to perform any
current irrelevant caste function, start to perform its hobby,
run in circles screaming, form a queue, or break for coffee. After
the Tantrum ends, the dwarf (if still functional) returns to normal.
A dwarf in the presence of a Foreman or similar authority when
presented with a problem of this kind will in most cases ask him what
to do - unless the Foreman created the problem (like, throwing an
Enthropy Tantrum himself for some reason and giving weird orders).
=A8
PURPOSE AND HOBBY
If presented with a problem of this kind regularily, a dwarf will
finally find a way around it, if by no other means then by reporting
for recycling. Although this quite often means making a decision by
itself, this is not normally seen as dysfunction or breakdown. It is
what gives dwarves what they have instead of a personality, but that
is a moot point to dwarves; what's important to them it is that it
enables them to perform their Purpose.
Anything which does not hinder a dwarf's Purpose, nor helps it, is
unimportant to a dwarf. He'll ignore it. This means that dwarves care
nothing for other dwarves or their work as long as it doesn't
touch their own work in some way, and they realise it does. What a
dwarf does in his spare time, for instance, it usually of no interest
to his Foremen or fellow unit workers. This is the origin of the
strange concept of the Dwarven Hobby.
All dwarves have a hobby. The hobby is something which relates at
least to their Caste Purpose and preferrably to their Specific,
Personal Purpose. All dwarves will sometimes find that they have
nothing to do, just as they sometimes find that they have to work for
very long times without rest or respite. It all depends on the
Schedule. However, dwarves have an urge to make things, to do stuff,
to give shape and purpose to the raw matter of the world. They also
have an urge to perfect whatever their specialty is so that they will
perform their Purpose better. Their work tasks seldom suffice, since
dwaves promote in exactly the opposite way from humans. Anyone is
usually given a position below his capability, so that it will be
unlikely that he will fail.
So the dwarves fill their spare time with work which has no purpose
except to make something and/or to perfect their crafts. That's why,
for instance, all dwarven produce is covered by barocque decorations,
carvings and runes. The walls have leering faces, the feet of a
table toes, the tools are filled with strange geometric patterns.
Sometimes these things hinders the purpose of the item, because the
dwarf who created it was slightly dysfunctional.
That is also why the dwarves produces many outlandish and completely
useless little widgets and thingamajigs and thingummies. It is to
test whether they can do it; make an arrow which is completely
un-aerodynamical, a perfect pyramid which levitates in the presence
of ketchup, an egg made of stone which will hatch and produce a
copper chick if you crack it...
Quicksilvers perform alchemical experiments. Silvers weaves weird
enchantments or personal signs which accompany their magicks, known
as their Signatures. Golds write detailed descriptions of things
everyone knows, or outlandish lies to train their deception
capabilities(4). Brass dwarves create stuff like iron which rusts in
minutes or gold which dissolves in water. Tins create small
constructs which quickly dissolve, or train Jolanti to do stupid
Jolanti tricks. Iron dwarves have invented the wargame to
practice tactics they will never use(5), and build guns to large to
lift and swords made of rubber.
All these actions of course demand space, time and materials, and as
soon as the amount of space, time and/or materials becomes to small
to allow for the hobbies to be practiced, most dwarves cease
practicing them until it becomes possible. Materials for hobbies are
simply taken from stores unless the manager protests or recycled from
previous projects. Space is usually the dwarfs small private cell, or
his normal working area. In Openhandist enclaves, where the purpose
of 'trade' has wormed itself inside the dwarven mind, there is a
whole 'aboveground' economy, parallell to the normal dwarven economy
but not in conflict with it, in which dwarves work beyond their
quotas to produce products and services which they can trade to other
dwarves for stuff these dwarves have made which is usable in their
hobby. This drastically cuts them time it is possible to practice
your hobby, but increase the amount of materials. Also, it leads to
the production of extra, useful resources which can be expropriated
by the community when need arises.
PURPOSE AND ENEMIES
Anything which have no purpose at all, like most living beings, are
horrible to dwarves, like run-amok machines on a rampage. This
include humans. The purpose of non-dwarven life seems to be to exist,
to die and to procreate. To exist without purpose, be fated to die
and to fill that empty purposelessness with creating more horrible
purposeless copies of one self, that is our 'life' to the dwarves.
These purposeless units of unlife exist because Nature,
the Machine, is broken and thus produces these abominations. That
means that every discerning dwarf which sees a living being sees
proof that the Task is not yet complete, and feels distress.
Plants are the most horrible, for they seem to have least purpose of
all. Plants are unimaginably scary to many dwarves, and the fear of
civilians will generally cause Iron dwarves to destroy all plantlife
within sight of any surface workplace. Irons themselves dislike
plants but do fear them, unless they are controlled by elves or their
allies.
And Chaos is even more horrible, though many dwarves cannot tell the
difference. It actually has a Purpose, but a purposeless Purpose: To
destroy the Machine utterly, so that it can never be repaired(6).
1, And what makes them tock?
Tick-tock.
2, Well, sometimes they are made because some joking Quicksilver
added an extra nought to the requisition document, making 20 200, but
without such mistakes, there wouldn't be any saxophones or any
bowling, and then the Schedule would be even more screwed up.
3, This was the cause of the infamous Fortysixth Level Lecture, which
took 67 human years. A Gold, Grip Numbermonger, was lecturing 110
dwarves-in-training when he got stuck in a Reiteration Loop. He just
continued to hold the same lecture he had held for 149 yearly batches
of dwarves until it was over, then started again. And again. And
again.
As their general Priming told the audience that they must stay
Numbermonger finished his lecture, _but_ that they also must be in
time for work, other study, etc, most of them _also_ got stuck in a
Reiteration Loop, and duly took the same notes again, and again, and
again.
The Loop seemed to be contagious; dwarves sent to end it was stuck as
well, between the objectives of having to end the lecture and
allowing it to continue until finished. The Golden Foremen finally
decided to wall off the lecture area; an appearantly individualist
Quicksilver who was responsible for the feeding of these
dwarves sent in nilmergs to re-stock their wrap-covered rolls,
choclate bars and synthetic coffee, and as a result they survived.
The lecture finally ended when one Silver student threw an Enthropis
Tantrum instead, stood up in his chair and screamed 'UP YOUR M*RTAR,
MOTHERGR*WING PIECE OF M*AT!!' to the lecturer, giving him the finger
at the same time. The all-important function of preserving dignity
took over, and Numbermonger threw out the student, concluded the
lecture one final time, and went off to report the student as faulty.
He was sent to reconditioning the next day.
4) The dwarven talent for deception is severely hindered by their
lack of imagination and greatly helped by their general lack of
facial and vocal expression. A dwarf says things like 'We're
doomed' 'That was the self-destruct button' or 'You saved my life'
without any greater facial movements and in the same monotone as
ever. The only thing which tells you if a dwarf is lying or not is
the likelyhood of whether what he says is true or not. Tip: 'We mean
you no harm' is usually a lie when dwarves are concerned.
5, Wargames are part of Iron training, simulating past battles until
the prescribed tactics becomes instinctive to them. Since Irons are
often held to be generally responsible for contacts with other
beings, and thus have to perform some social interaction with them,
among Openhandists there was for a period of time something best
described as a role-playing game. The project was abandoned as the
minds of the involved dwarves where affected. They started to have
strange, irrational emotions like 'affection', 'faith' and
'inspiration'.
6) The small dysfunction known as the Nihilists actually thinks this
is a good thing. They dislike the whole idea of repairing the
Machine. Instead it should be recycled, reduced to the basic
featureless chaos slime it came from, and then it's self-repair
functions would reconstruct it in its true glory, and restore it to
its original magnificent Purpose. Most Nihilists simply commit
suicide while trying to destroy as much of dwarfdom as possible, but
some have seceded and allied with chaos creatures, most often
krashtkids, although they certainly aren't worshipping Chaos Gods.
"The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea, in a beautiful pea-green boat..."
>From "The Owl and the Pussycat" by Edward Lear
Erik Sieurin
bv9521@bhs.utb.hb.se
Bodagatan 39, 2 tr
50742 Bor=E5s
Sweden
033/141731
------------------------------
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