Norse Dwarfs First Draft

norse dwarfs

Quick Disclaimer

This page is about 90% work in progress. I’m writing it solo between my full-time, cursed bills (sigh) and a vanishing social life. But ideas never stop coming, piling up in my head day after day, sometimes good, sometimes bad…you decide. Progress is slow, but this is the part of the hobby I truly love and the project keeps growing, one piece at a time.

Support is always welcome. Thanks!

That said, instead of leaving everything empty and outdated, what follows is a first early draft: the homebrew starting point meant to show the direction of this page and, hopefully, one day become a fully playable army with a kitbashed miniature collection.

Let me introduce you to the Norse Dwarfs!

First Draft

Whenever Norsca comes up, everyone thinks of hulking marauders or Chaos champions. Well, that is fair enough…but it is NOT enough! Looking at those jagged coastlines and at the endless chain of peaks stretching from the Worlds Edge Mountains – the realm of the Elder Race – I always felt something was missing. The Dwarfs, of course…but from the frozen North!

Nothing here strays from official lore: Norse Dwarfs have been part of Warhammer Fantasy since the earliest editions. So why were they cut off from the tabletop?! Swallowed by the Shadowlands or Karaks with no more roads left? How does one simply erase Viking Dwarfs?!?! Dwarfs (already incredibly cool) and Vikings (always incredibly cool) carved into one legendary saga. Simply too incredible to be forgotten.

After extensive BG reading and YT watching, it becomes clear that Norse Dwarfs are not physically so different from their southern kin. They are not twisted like the Dawi-Zharr, perhaps “only” heavier drinkers and that says it all.

Ok, they know the secrets of gunpowder well, yet the incredible abundance of forests has made them great artisans in woodworking. Oh and as ever, when a Dwarf crafts something it becomes art. So for them, a crossbow often comes before a handgun, but one never says no to a cannon!

Living close to the Sea of Claws and the Frozen Sea, and alongside Norscan tribes (skilled sailors), they too learned the ways of seafaring. Not aboard big-iron vessels like those of Barak Varr, but on wooden drakkars of remarkable ingenuity. Who needs steam power or daemon engines when you have Dawi muscle?

They bear grudges, of course as all Dwarfs do, but the proximity of the Chaos Portals has forged them into relentless wardens. Hardened by constant warping pressure, the Norse Dwarfs holding back the tide of Chaos from the lands of the south.

Notes and suggestions: Norse mythology played a major role, along with my own Viking culture and the delirium of too many sleepless nights. Naturally, I drew inspiration from the oldest editions – may the Ancestors bless the 4th Edition – and from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, especially Stone & Steel and Sea of Claws. My thanks also go to the incredible Total War modding community for all the great chats! Beyond the Old World, I also wanted to include elements inspired by the Iron Hills armies from The Hobbit as well as that beautiful video game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II. This 2006 real-time strategy classic reminds me I’m getting old…I wish I were like Durin the Deathless, able to play again and again without end.

Ready to sail on a Grubark to hunt Leviathans and Reavers? Ready to seal a Chaos Portal with nothing but angry runes? Ready to shout like a four-feet-tall Berserker? Good. Then you are ready for the first draft of the Norse Dwarfs.