Eric Rowe about the Mositali (the -Clay- Mostali, remember?)
> Actually, Mostali greatly enjoy reproduction, almost to an unhealthy
> degree. Unfortunately, there is a dire shortage of Clay Vessels. The
> foremen of each unit is therefore instructed to teach that
> reproduction is a painful and horrible process, so that anarchy will
> not erupt over the use of Clay Vessels. When a lucky Mostali is
> assigned fertiliaztion duty, he discovers its tremendous pleasure, but
> is informed that if he mentions this to other, lower ranked Mostali,
> he will never be allowed access to the Clay Vessels again. Then again,
> maybe they hate reproduction.
I like that take on it, probably because it ties into my own view of
Dwarves (the Clay Mostali) as imperfect True Mostali, trying to
perfect themselves. That is the goals of all non-apostate dwarves
except the Octamonists:
Achieve perfection and repairing the World Machine (which is done by the
dwarven version of HeroQuesting, and needs dwarves as close to real
Mostali as possible - look at the Diamonddwarves, more machinelike
than their lessers).
The Induvidualists differ in that
they think the first goal must be reached before any real repairs
could be done (until we have enough Diamonddwarves, the only thing we
can do is stopping further breakdown), while the Octamonists say the
first goal is rubbish: we can never be as good as the Mostali since
we are made of clay (ie organic, a product of Growth), and the
Diamonddwarves are a bad copy of the original.
So Dwarves have a sex drive and other unmachinistic feelings
(although to a much greater degree and humans) and they are doing
their best getting rid of them. Come to think of it, IMO they are
doing the opposite of Dragonnewts according to Sandy's rules for
Dragonmagic (Codex no?): they are getting rid of their personality
traits, primarily those that hinders them in their special mission
(Iron Dwarves kill, Gold Dwarves teach, most other Dwarves create
various things).