You think you know dwarves. Meet the other six. Our first proper lore reveal is live, and the full version is on our site: The Seven Peoples of Mithrall. Here is the tour.
One race, seven peoples
The wider world has its elves, its humans, its orcs. You will not meet them here. This realm belongs to the dwarves, and the land itself reshaped them: six biomes around the neutral capital of Kahzul'Grim, and a people remade by each.
These are not classes. Any people can swing any weapon, learn any craft, wear any armor. Birth sets your look, your home, and a few small knacks. It never decides a fight.
Kahzuld, the common dwarves
The melting pot of Kahzul'Grim: artisans, brokers and diplomats who think in ledgers and favors. At home everywhere, master of nowhere. They answer to Peace-Warden Vahl'Dur the Evenhanded.
Volzar, dwarves of the Dark Lands
Basalt-grey skin fissured with ember light, eyes like open coals. Smiths before anything else, patient with metal and short with everything living, and they tame drakes the way others tame hounds. Grozal the Ash-Crowned rules from Grumm'Kadar.
Skral, dwarves of the frozen north
Frost-pale, rune-etched, disciplined, cold in every sense that matters. They believe endurance is a moral quality, and their feud with the Volzar is the oldest hatred in the realm. Fjoruk the Rime-Warden rules from Fjor'Grimm.
Galdruk, dwarves of the forest
Stag antlers, boar tusks, moss in the beard. The realm's traditionalists: rangers and timberwrights who cultivate the wood like a garden their grandfathers planted. Bryngar the Oak-Hearted keeps Bryn'Gald.
Grullok, dwarves of the jungle
They stopped fighting the jungle and let it in: living fungal caps, spore-marked shoulders, poison-lore, swamp paths no outsider walks twice. To a Galdruk that is heresy. To a Grullok, a garden is a forest you have insulted. Mhorruk the Root-Bound speaks from Morg'Vhun.
Sethuk, dwarves of the dunes
Skin like cracked sandstone under gold and turquoise. Caravan-masters and sun-priests who measure wealth in water and think in decades, the way stone does. Zarrok the Sun-Sworn holds court at Zarr'Ophal.
Hjorlok, dwarves of the plains
Ram horns, feathers, beadwork, herds. Shepherds, beast-tamers and riders who trust the wind more than any wall, and they argue with the Sethuk over who owns the horizon. Hjorvak the Wind-Sworn leads from Gron'Vael.
A birth, not a destiny
Each people carries a few small passives flavored by its homeland: heat, cold, poison, the saddle. Conveniences, tuned to matter at home and be near-invisible everywhere else. They will never win you a duel. Fights in Mithrall are decided by your skill and what you wear, never by the people you picked on a menu. No meta race, ever.
Reputation: seven ledgers, one realm
Every people keeps its own ledger, and your name goes in all seven. Reputation is earned by deeds, not by birth: run their caravans, defend their holds, trade into their markets, serve their kings. Everyone climbs at the same rate. Nobody starts trusted.
Earning that trust opens three doors:
- Their craft: each culture's blueprints, garb, weapon lines and signature end-gear. Style and prestige, statistically comparable to everyone else's best.
- Their gates: the six ethnic capitals stand out in the black zones, through full-loot country. Their markets, services and contracts open to the trusted only.
- Their secrets: each people guards knowledge older than all seven of them. Earn their trust and some of it becomes yours to learn. Who left it behind is a story for another post.
And the ledgers talk to each other. Three old feuds are alive: grow close to one side and the other will remember it. The Kahzuld stay neutral, trading with everyone. Your reputation across the seven peoples will be a map of your choices, written where every player can read it.
Whose trust will you earn first?
Tell us on Discord. The window is unchanged: Q4 2027, and everything you saw is first-pass concept work that will keep improving.
Full lore post: The Seven Peoples of Mithrall
Playtest sign-ups: playtest.anklebreaker-studio.com
- François