CallumStephenDiggle
patreon
Dwalf concept art.
🕑 Added 2025-09-11 09:54:20 +0000 UTCWhile I’m working on the next page, here is some concept art for Concavia to keep you going.
In case you don’t remember previous details about the Dwalves, the race of Dwalves are the offspring of the dark god Dhegoma and the goddess Swoma, who were born in secrecy in the depths of Concavia. Their father, Dhegoma, was the ill-begotten child of the primordial goddess Mehter and the primordial god of darkness, Támhas. Thus the Dwalves were born of the line of darkness, and as a result their forms are pitch without edge.
Dwalves are shadowy beings that hate the light. They cannot travel in the day without possessing animals and wearing their skin. Sunlight turns their bodies to stone, but open flame also weakens them and stiffens their shape. It stops them from shapeshifting or slipping through cracks in surfaces.
In bygone times of myth and legend, Dwalven hosts fought in service of Támhas to oppose the forces of light. They were routed and scattered throughout the dark halls of the earth. In this calamitous war, all of the gods and goddesses were slain, save for the goddess Mehter and the sleeping sun-god Leuada. As a result of this ancient war, the loyalists of Támhas were forced outside the world and were held there by a warding mark, a magical sigil that sealed them away. Mehter stationed the Alves there to guard this seal and to ward off Dwalves who might regroup in an attempt to break it.
In the ages since, the Dwalves have made many attempts to free their father, grandfather, and mother from the void without. Some plots came close to success, such as their infiltration of the Talanean empire which brought on its fall and the Great Flood. Now they rally again, and a dark cloud gathers in the north…
I’ve based the Dwalves in Concavia on my reading of source documents concerning the dwarfs of Germanic myth and legend. In various sources, they are described as dark elves, intermediary beings between gods and mortals. They are dark in the sense of being shadowy and elusive, slipping into people’s ears and noses while they sleep to cause nightmares or illness.
They are called dwarfs not because of small stature, but because they can shrink and slip through any crack or hole they choose. They may travel in daylight in the form of animals, but the sun is harmful to them. This image of the dwarf from myth and legend is far removed from popular fantasy portrayals. They are more like spindly shadows, the word “spider” is sometimes used to describe them.
So in Concavia, I have tried to be more faithful to the old sources, to recover the image of the dwarf (or Dwalf, as I call them) as a truly terrifying, eldritch, shadowy figure that can shape-shift, vanish through cracks in stone, and phase through sand.
You’re probably wondering, how can anyone kill a shadow that can vanish in a moment? Well, I’ve pulled their weaknesses from the same old sources and baked them into Concavia’s lore. They are vulnerable to all forms of light, including fire and are also harmed by iron and the sound of iron clanging on iron.
Here’s an excerpt from Concavia regarding iron:
“Iron is the blood of Támhas. It runs red in the stone. It is the ore men also call bloodstone.
The seams of iron that snake underfoot and through the high hills were cooled and set after Támhas’ soul was sundered from his shape, and his soulless shell was made into our world.
To the Dwalves, iron in its raw form brings no hurt. They dwell among it, delve through it, and carve their halls deep where iron threads wind like old scars. But once iron is taken and wrought by fire and will, it becomes more. Wrought iron strikes dread in the hearts of Dwalves, for it shows sway over their lord. What was once his life-blood has been tamed and turned into a thing to be wielded like any tool. To wield such a thing is to bear a token of Támhas’ overthrow.
The Dwalves, lesser than Támhas in might and standing, and born of his shadow, feel the bite of worked iron’s edge. The din of iron on iron also weakens them and keeps them from shifting their shape or slipping through stone. Most of all they hate the ringing of iron bells.”
“Who is doomed || Dwalves to find,
Mark this lay || to mind now bind.
Gift a mistress gold || give a maid silver,
Copper for craftsmen || cast but a sliver.
For the shape-shifter || in stone-bound hall,
Smith shaped Iron || shall bring his fall.”
Let me know what you think down in then comments 👇🏻
Comments
Callum Diggle
Thanks so much Maeve!
Callum Diggle
Yes, there are even Dwalves who have set themselves up as God-kings among the mortal race of Maälisets (Neanderthal like people) for example. There are races who are a result of interbreeding with Dwalves too, the upper rank of the dark Witamen who ruled Atlantis from the shadows in the age of copper were a result of mixing with Dwalves. After the deluge these dark Witamen were transformed into Meres and stripped of ‘the Craft’ (magic). You’re astute to point that out, yes it’s a matter of point of view. From their own perspective, the servants of Támhas are not immoral or amoral, they view their devotion as a moral framework in and of itself. The Dwalves are the children of Dhegoma and Swoma, Swoma was the child of Mehter and Leuada, dhegoma was the product of Tàmhas forcing himself upon Mehter, the act that led Leuada to attack Tàmhas separating his soul from form, from his dead form they made Concavia to hold Tàmhas’ disembodied spirit outside the world. The relationship between Dhegoma and Swoma was one of love, they married and had many children. Leuada = Mehter = Tàmhas │ │ │ └── Dhegoma │ ├── Duneos = Florawah │ └── The Alves │ ├── Firalah = Woodir │ └── The Albes │ └── Swoma = Dhegoma) └── The Dwalves This area of Atlantean technology is something that I’m leaving purposefully vague, it’s something that our characters in the age of Iron could not possibly have known, all of what we do know are from the fragments of the past that survived the Great Flood. The Nunacairns knowledge of ‘the Craft’ (magic) was greater back then also, mortals still had contact with immortals in this age, although less frequent than in the age of silver, but it did happen and they did learn from them. No need to apologise! ☺️
Erika Spooner
Are there any races or beings who are related to Tamhas or other dark gods who do not serve him? Could there be beings who were the result of interbreeding between beings like Dwalves and beings not related to Tamhas? If so, what traits could these offspring have? I've noticed that although Tamhas and those serving him are referred to as foes, I don't think I remember you saying they were evil. Does this mean that those who want Tamhas to return to his body so he can send them to the Ether aren't immoral, just opposing the interests of the other side? You also said that the Dwalves were the children of a son of Tamhas and Swoma, how did this happen? Was there a relationship between them? Also, what kind of technology or magic did the ancient Nunacairn have before the deluge? Sorry if this was a little long.
Maeve Hightower
They look really cool.
Callum Diggle
Haha cool idea, but I’m not trying to do a Tolkien here where Middle-earth is our own Earth during an ancient, imaginary period of time. There won’t be any event in Concavia that transforms it from a hollow world to a sphere like in Tolkien’s Akallabêth where Eru transformes the world after the destruction of Númenor from a flat earth to a globe. Concavia is very much in a fundamentally different reality to our own with some very differential governing laws.
Daniel Bensen
I also like the idea that they've had dealings with Atlantis. Makes you wonder if Concavia was earth all along!
Callum Diggle
Haha yes! I hadn’t heard of the phrase con-langing before, but that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and enjoying it I might add! Going to the absolute etymological root of a word is a great way to make a particular name feel really old I think. That’s interesting about Bulgarian too.
Daniel Bensen
Hurray Indo-European con-langing! The name Támhas brought a smile to my face. The Bulgarian word for "dark" is tămen.
