In my first encounters with Conquest, the Spires of Eä were presented to me as elves by another name, which would be considered mis-selling by any regulator. Elves are gracious and fight with bows, while the Spires are disgusting and fight with obnoxiousness. I was therefore a bit smarter when I heard that the Dweghom of Eä are basically dwarves. They like geometric shapes and that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
Do you appreciate a faction characterised by resilience, pride and internal conflict? Do you want a back story featuring a literal battle against one of the four horsemen? Does it do your head in that dwarves in so much of fantasy simultaneously seem to have the characteristics of a tank and yet look like pudgy children with beards? Maybe the Dweg are for you.
Created as Servants
The Dweghom story begins in prehistoric times with the Dragons. The Dweg were basically intended to be biological robots: hard-working, loyal, with an eye for perfection in craftsmanship. Their lives made longer by design to reduce the risk of knowledge being lost from one generation to the next. But they were destined to not remain in that role forever, even as small rebellions were quickly quashed.
Their work deep underground led to them unearthing War, one of the primordial forces behind Eä, which catalysed a change. Their encounter changed them physiologically and psychologically, leading to a grand uprising that ultimately won them freedom from the Dragons and an embracing of destructive power as a tool for liberation.
The Rise of the Mnemancers
The Dweghom’s defeat of the Dragons unearthed the ethical dilemma of gaining freedom. Separation from the simplicity of obedience, especially in alliance with War, does not provide a strong foundation for an enduring society. The High King quickly abandoned his people, and individuals castes and clans looked to Mnnemancers to constantly remind them of their civilisation.
For the Dweghom, memory is not just history but also a cultural and moral compass. Individual and collective identity is defined through memory, codified in the Aghm system, which quantifies one’s worth through deeds and reinforces the concept of a meritocracy shaped more by memory than anything else.
But the Mnemancers do not bring unity, and War remains in their psyche as both salvation and curse. The Dweghom resilience and manipulation of creation is thanks to their connection to War, but they are also a fractured people who are perpetually driven by and into conflict.
The Risk of the Elements
The Dweghom are intrinsically tied to the elemental forces of Earth and Fire. Earth signifies their resilience, while Fire provides a constant source of fury within them. They symbolise the deep meaning of Balance in Eä, with their ultimate control yet dance with chaos. And these elemental gifts, much like their relationship with War, are often as much a curse as a blessing.
Many Dweghom are gifted, able to work with the elements in powerful ways, and yet the powers are volatile and sometimes refuse to be controlled. Failed attempts to work with Fire and Earth result most often in the destruction of the fool who tried.
The cultures that have arisen against this backdrop therefore tend to find themselves in conflict with one another. The Mnemancers, obsessed with memory, clash with the Ardent, driven to initiate conflict at every turn and subject themselves to unreasonable danger in pursuit of the purity of War. All the while, the Tempered seek to establish peace for the faction through greater connection to the planet and an unadulterated connection to the Dweg’s foundations, which of course the others claim as well.
Why I Love the Dweghom
Like so much of Conquest lore, the Dweg faction provides a rich narrative to support its delicate Balance. It’s desperately imperfect and, in spite of the resilience of each individual Dweghom character, terrifyingly fragile. They have the power to overcome Dragons and have engaged with a primordial force directly, and yet feel like they might destroy themselves at any moment.
They’re also the textbook mountain-dwelling, beard-wearing, angular dwarven personifications of grumpiness whose stockiness has been scaled up to make them genuinely intimidating to look at, and that’s got to count for something. Throw in mechs made of stone, shoulder-mounted steampunk cannons and fully-armoured demi-dragons and what’s not to love?
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