Not to come off in an inflammatory manner but when you are so blatantly criticizing the wiki it does make me wonder if you've read parts. I am including them below for your perusal at your own convenience.
Mostly, I understand your dedication to the race. Also understand, however, that in my critique and references I look for substance and not empty references. This answer applies to a lot of what you contested just above.
The dwarves are incredibly judgmental people and do hold extreme grudges. This is stated multiple times throughout the history's backstory.
When you say "grudge", you mean a race that does not forget harm. When I say a "grudge", I refer to the literal grudge system of the Warhammer dwarves, with the book of grudges, grudgekeepers, relevant blood oaths, slayers and all the honour duels. Other than being "revengful", this other fantasy universe demonstrates how a
trait can be made
part of a culture. This is missing.
On the subject of sub-cultures and sub-races. There are a few.
1. There are multiple Dwarven holds, most prominently Grebor and Aldruin, but there are also a handful of others. Notably, Grebor and Aldruin vastly differ on their social and political ideologies. There are even warring political factions of Ternoc and Fehrnen clans who battle within Aldruin for control. Grebor and Aldruin differ due to their stances on allowing trade, and Aldruin allows a little. Aldruin is the hold that fell to the Isldar in the past year.
The Grebor page describes how they are no longer the same as they used to be in culture, though still hold some of their original thought. Then it links the original thought, which is an unwritten wiki page. The Aldruin page hints even less, and does not even link to this one empty page.
once a Humorrin dwarf picks a job within their community, they must uphold that role and cannot change it.
This is not fraternity, but stubbornness. Fraternity would have been united holds against the Dakkar ... but it did not happen. Because it is a paradox in the race's lore. I roleplayed a dwarf of fraternity views, and splinter holds from the main kingdom always posed moral challenges, not even mentioning an apparent state of dozens of independent holds. If the individual dwarf cannot be independent per their racial lore, why are they splintered in their racial history and why are their insividual holds independent?
that the Aldor subrace of dwarves are glorified Ailor,
Well stated.
I struggled to find that, and really cannot do so. If you wish to educate me and take a screenshot or further discuss this topic I'd be more than happy to. My discord is Miss_Confined#8341
"A Humorrin might take minutes to decide what drink to order at a bar they've never visited, (...)"
Dwarf race page, mental characteristics section.
But I also am aware that the playerbase of dwarves is small. At it's height this past year there was about 5 dwarf players that actively were in my circle. Which is great!
Too small to be relevant to prompt change, too large and influential to be axed as a race. Too outdated and low in quality to appeal widely, but still a popular and beloved niche to gather small numbers.
A vicious circle, yes. I would say push for updates that you propose and write of your own, but the bearded lady suggestion did not go anywhere either.
I wish to instead point out some aspects of dwarf culture that do exist instead of writing off dwarf lore entirely as a loss to adapt it to something that does need a lot of work.
The main difference between you and I is that I nation-led dwarves in an environment where their player-written lore and history spanned 7 OOC years, and as such I really see how much weaker Massive's take on the race is.
I will state this clear: Tolkienism is not going to work. It did not work elsewhere either. Dwarves need more than what Tolkien gave them, and there are far more sources of inspiration out there. Warcraft, Forgotten Realms and Warhammer are just three, all far more popular in gaming.
What you can do? Spark this yourself. Leutz, Anglian, Vladno and Imperial cultures were all "created" mostly by players, and I bring them as examples because I saw them being created. They need a strong presence, a good appeal and an on-point design. Go further than the average player would. Make a dwarven clan that is as different from the Humorrhin definition as Ithanian or Vladno are from Heartland Ceardian.
