Stone Halls of the Dwarves

Stone Halls of the Dwarves is a book written by the Chantry scholar Brother Genitivi.

Stone Halls of the Dwarves
Some years ago, at a time when Orzammar was uncharacteristically open to visitors from the surface, I traveled to the ancient thaig deep beneath the Frostback Mountains to learn more about the dwarven way of life. Like many people of the surface I had met surface dwarves before, but had no idea how truly different they lived from their cousins in the "homeland". Surface dwarves are considered outcasts from Orzammar despite their necessity to farming and trade, and by and large they have eschewed the culture, the politics, the honor, and the brutality of the world they left behind.

Hidden from the sight of the Maker, the "dwarva" (as the dwarves refer to themselves, our own word no doubt deriving from theirs) revere the Stone – the very substance that gives them shelter and inspires their creativity and strength. When a dwarf dies an honorable death, he is said to have "gone to the Stone." They do not worship it as a god, however, as I quickly found out upon asking. With stares of incredulity they mocked such notions. The fact that they came from the Stone and thus return to it is, as they see it, a matter of practicality.

Most people on the surface think of dwarves and imagine greedy merchants or dour craftsmen, and certainly those are the faces most often seen by those of us who live under the Maker's eye. But a journey to the thaig reveals a culture of nobility and of poverty, of proud warriors and of necessary brutality. Much as the heat of the forge strengthens the blade, the dwarves have been hardened by the constant threat of the darkspawn onslaught, forcing their warriors to excel or die, their craftsmen to create masterpieces of durability and style, and their nobles to engage in a deadly political game of intrigue that shames the goings on in the simpler courts of Ferelden. Everything done in Orzammar is done to fortify the remaining domains of the kingdom (of which there are, regrettably, few) against the relentless onslaught of the darkspawn.

A more fascinating culture I have never visited, and my time there was bittersweet. For while I was blessed to be among a people so dedicated and stout-hearted, I could not shake the feeling that I was witnessing the last days of a proud people that, despite their best efforts, were destined to be overrun by evil.

--An excerpt from "Stone Halls of the Dwarves" by Brother Genitivi, Chantry Scholar"