Re: What does a BROKEN Dwarf Day consist of?

From: Peter Metcalfe <metcalph_at_yDUlihRSWaGc5H_jUpKFYNuHYBxfgy3jpthNvQXsL_4ShRWI2EuItw_tVwdVptYemcG>
Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:05:36 +1200

On 6/1/2011 1:31 AM, Richard Hayes wrote:
> * Did the terms "Copper Dwarf", "Lead Dwarf", "Gold Dwarf", etc. originally denote "races" or "species" of Dwarf specifically evolved for their caste duties (like the various colours of Vadeli?). If so, how would they differ in game mechanics terms from the kind of 'workaday' Mostali that we know about in RQ
You are referring to the True Mostali. There's no real game mechanics for them as they are on the equivalent of hero-level characters. Isidilian is a Quicksilver Mostali while Flintnail was a Rock Mostali. There's only a handful of other mostali who are known to be True Mostali and are alive today.

> * I recall a posting from ages ago in which someone, possibly Greg himself, said that over time dwarves become more like the element of their caste, with the result that any dwarf that becomes a Diamond Dwarf literally become crystalline and multi-faceted. Is this true, and is there an intermediate stage where they take on the properties of their element before they begin to take on the crystalline aspect?
There's no official status as such but that doesn't stop mostali from bolting their chosen element onto their bodies in an effort to become Diamondwarfs quicker.

> * Were "Clay Dwarves" then an inferior mass-produced dwarf, designed to provide labour and numbers for these other species
Clay Mostali are not inferior. They are produced without the benefit of Quality Control.

> * As a result of this have the element-based terms come, nowadays, to describe the castes to which Clay Dwarves belong? e.g. now 'true' Quicksilver Dwarves are as rare as male dryads in Dagori Inkarth, are clay dwarves in the Quicksilver caste called "Quicksilver Dwarves" rather than "Clay Quicksilver Dwarves"
Correct.
> * Is it possible for a clay dwarf that is very good at their caste duties to develop into something like the original form of their caste and look like/take on the properties of a pre-clay "octamony" dwarf, so that e.g. a master plumber of Heroic ability ceases to look like/be a Clay Dwarf in the Lead Dwarf caste, and becomes indistinguishable from a Lead Dwarf from pre-Clay Dwarf antiquity?
I don't think they can be indistinguishable.

> * Is it possible in game mechanics terms, to say at what kind of age/skill levels these transformations begin to take place?

It takes roughly seven centuries to become a Diamondwarf assuming that you are orthodox and all.

> Broken dwarves, obviously, cannot progress. How quickly do they age?
Over a century.

> Also there is an old source (one of the fanzines about Pavis) which said that the Flintnail dwarves of Pavis were not proper Mostali?
It said they were theists but I'm dubious.

--Peter Metcalfe