> Furthermore, I reckon very few dwarves lie (i.e. tell lies), since I
> can't see why they should be programmed to do something so
> counter-productive to their function. It is possible that they lie to
> non-dwarves as a sort of security feature - but I reckon you could
> probably break this.
A, This has really nothing to do with your question/statement, but I
refuse to believe Mostali programming ('priming') is perfect. If so
where the case, why are there dysfunctions? And why would the Gold's
be labeled 'teachers' (read 'indoctrinators'), and dwarves need to
learn their work skills? My suggestion (see older posts about the
manufacturing of dwarves) is that priming can, in the best of
circumstances, make a dwarf of one of the castes.
B, More relevant to the dicussion, I think that many dwarves are unfamiliar with the concept of deception, yes. They lack the imagination to lie, and for similar reasons dwarves can be fairly gullible.
> The only dwarves which I reckon lie are gold ones specialising in
> non-dwarven communications (and I imagine lying is simply seen as part
> of the communication process).
Yes, discommunication is definitely part of the Gold curriculum,
though I reckon they lie to other dwarves as well, when the ancient
dwarven tradition of withholding any information the informee lacks
clearance for isn't enough ('Why do you want to know that? It has
nothing to do with creating size 4A cogwheels! Report to the Tin
Adjustors immediatelly!') . And here's a thought: It is the Golds who
are responsible for the handling of information in general among the
Mostali. That includes history.
> So ... if you were able to get yourself a rock dwarf,
Rock dwarves know stuff about rocks, masonry, and so forth. All other
things are completely uninteresting to them, and they won't remember
it. No use getting a coherent history out of that.
> or a gold one who
> wasn't wised up to telling fibs,
I.e. a very bad Gold...
> who was sufficiently capable,
which doesn't rhyme very well with this.
Besides, Golds specialize as well. _If_ he didn't lie, and _if_ he
was capable, you'd get in-depth information that was vaguely relevant
to the repair of the World Machine about a very limited period of
world history.
> and you
> dressed up as a dwarf (or whatever you have to do to get past any
> security feature),
Infiltrating dwarven strongholds is nigh impossible. Impersonating a
dwarf while doing the same is probably necessary, and one reason it
is nigh impossible.
>and you asked him to tell you everything about the
> Spike (say), you would find out pretty much everything there is to know
> about it with as much true historical accuracy as it is possible to get.
Yes, which still would be very little. The dwarves have lost stuff as
well, you see. They were decimated in the wars of Darkness as much or
more as everybody else. The biggest group of survivors where Iron
Dwarves, who view everything from a military perspective and doesn't
give a fig about anything else. Anything they would remember would be
similar to, say, computer-generated tables of the success rate of the
bombing during Desert Storm. Other Irons with sufficiently similar
purposes would probably find it extremely interesting, and would
spend decades of coffee breaks listening to it and analyse it, but
good luck getting any detailed and useful historical data.
And besides, the chances are any information deemed dangerous to the Reconstruction Schedule would be changed, wiped out or blocked.
> Are the workings of the world machine all underground? Why don't we see
> them wandering about above ground with their slide-rules, tape measures,
> clip-boards, etc?
Because everything aboveground is a warzone to them, in an
environment completely unfamiliar to them.
The dwarves who venture above-ground are in a similar position to,
say, submarine operators in the middle of a large-scale naval battle.
> Elder Secrets says that a diamond X dwarf has 9 skills at 2000% !!!
> Seems a bit excessive to me - are such skill levels always possible?
No. And there aren't many Diamonds around, are there?
> A
> diamond iron dwarf could murder everything in Dorastor, couldn't it?
Probably. If not some of the monsters in Dorastor which also had
2000% in their skills murder him first.
Note that 2000% is the skill level at which every roll is a critical
success. That's probably why the number was chosen. It represents, in
non-gaming terms, utter perfection.
"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_at_bhs.utb.hb.se
Bodagatan 39, 2 tr
50742 Bor=E5s
Sweden
033/141731
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