There are so many things more interesting things to dive into in drawf culture, and that is just including the 'present' times.
People have different priorities at the end of the day. Shadowcatcher's point is as valid as anyone elses given it's made in good faith. Not to put you down, nor do I think you even mean anything bad about it, I'd just like to point that out. Also I do appreciate that I seem to have made an interesting enough setting for you to think about!
... I will say, there is a sad lack of lesbians. or gay men, thinking about it.
Mostly Im touching romance with a 10 foot pole. It took 2 years for me to write a vote that even allows for the possibility of Romance. Snorri's a widower and I think a lot of my writing about his feelings over his wife is a pretty bog standard, if extreme, example of holding the torch. Same thing with Dolgi and Jorri's nuclear family, and Fjolla's quiet relationship with Joll really. I'm not
against giving my thoughts on how being gay would work for Dwarfs, though I haven't thought about it much beyond the generalities
The basics of it are pretty similar to any Dwarf relationship out of wedlock in my mind though.
- keep it hush, hush more because Dwarfs in general are pretty private about intimacy.
- no one's gonna give a hoot what your sexuality is as long as it doesn't impede on your/the Clan/the Hold's honour or your ability to do your duty.
- as a communal society in general, giving someone grief over it would probably be seen as unnecessary and poor form. A positive spin to it could be that given how familial relationships are pretty overriding in Dwarf Culture, a Dwarf would probably beat the ever-living crap out of someone for being a bigot to their relative over their orientation like they would whenever someone insults a member of their Clan. I can also see bad spins to it, but hell why would I want to write that? Life's already tough enough and this is ultimately a story based on a universe made up to justify armies of little plastic fellas fighting each other.
- In my mind I've got the same thoughts as Cubicle 7 when they added that "Don't judge whom someone loves," stricture to the Cult of Rhya in 4th edition WFRPG, but for the Cult of Valaya. If admittedly less important because Romance doesn't seem to be a big deal to Dwarfs, politically and religiously speaking I suppose.
How that works for marriage is that..well idk really. Marriage is definitely more of a duty to create children for Dwarfs for pretty obvious reasons, not that romance isn't there or not considered of course. Quite literally a Dwarf woman's favour is seen as a priceless treasure for a suitor and the woman in question has a supreme veto over who they end up marrying according to 1st ed Stone and Steel. Going off topic, I must say there's a real interesting mix of patriarchal and matriarchal tendencies in Dwarf culture for 1st ed in general really. Most official power structures were male-dominated/only and yet it's clear if you read into it that Dwarf women have a very large amount of soft power and even hard power should they choose to exercise it.
Uh anyway, tldr: I don't even really trust myself to do a cis romance without falling into stereotyping, let alone a gay or lesbian one. Don't really wanna bungle it up either really, since I'd feel real bad and there are potential consequences if the stereotypes I could end up using were harmful or propagated misinformation about LGBTQ+ people.
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