*Sigh*

Dwarves. Or at least that’s what I’m breaking down to call them now. They don’t have noses or beards or any of the general attributes of Fantasy Dwarves besides their size. I’ve been wrestling with other names like Pygmy and Imp, but for right now…DWARVES.

I still need to do a rant about my favored brand of fantasy(summation: not middle-earth style,) but the idea behind these dwarves is that there is still a large population of them that lives a tribal lifestyle. There’s a plot explanation for a broadening of them geographically and culturally so there are two groups of them: Secluded, tribal types, and Modern “Civilized” types. Both groups have a great connection to tattooing their bodies for many reasons. Some of the explanations are different between them, and one side might get them in entirely different places than others, but all in all, tattooing is a big thing for them. Which makes up for the pretty simple physical body designs they have. The tattoos are probably harder to come up with than most outfit ideas.

Top two guys are primary characters from the story. Lorcan and Hewitt. More about them later(that Lorcan isn’t even complete…) Next one is a character I’m thinking of featuring early on. Those horns aren’t attached, it’s just an accessory. Next two are just doodles(both urban dwarves. the second one looked like Mr. Satan from Dragonball, so I put some dragonball designs for his tattoos.) And the last one is a tribal Dwarve, particularly the tribe that lives in a dark cave region. Dwarves have tapetum lucidum in their eyes like cats so they can see in the dark. This is why they pretty much always squint in light(and until recently their eyes always looked completely closed unless they were in the dark.) They’re very adept in the dark and very agile. There skin can come in pretty much any color and it’s more durable than human skin(allowing infant tattooing and in general to not be a big deal.) Relative to their size, they’re pretty strong, being about as strong as humans on average. Because of their small hands, they’re very capable with intricate machinery and tools.

Etc etc etc. There are a handful of other races in the story, but the Dwarves are the most prevalent besides humans. I’d like to think not by too much, though. I’m trying to create a good balance of races amongst the relevant characters, so we’ll see how that goes…

I haven’t even introduced the true protagonist of this story yet. Maybe then, I’ll actually give the working title and basic plot XP. For now, this rant is long enough as it is. So, later…