So I have been wondering for many years as to why we can not have a playable evil or neutral dwaf, Coldain dwarves would be perfect and they way they look would be amazing. Even if it can out as having to purchase it from Store, I would !!!
Considering that the alignment system in EQ2 is what other people expect you to be (and what cities you can start in) having an 'evil' anything just means doing the betrayal quest to move from one city to another. This also changes a handful of quests that go different paths if your "good" or "evil". Well, more like you support Freeport or Qeynos. Historically there have been some evil dwarves, mostly merchants and bandits. Garanel Rucksif is probably the most famous of the evil dwarves in EQ, having slaughtered one of his own relatives and the family he married into which caused the curse on the Estate of Unrest. Evil is what you do, not where you were born.
well the primary reason I would guess is that the dwarves are a kind of 'roman catholic empire' in that they do have a King..but the king was/is highly religious follower of Brell, who in EQ1 was definately one of the good goods, not a neutral party. the teachings of Brell permeated near everything in their lives, kinda like the High elves and Tunare, from birth to death. now you coudl betray and have him be 'evil' but from an rp standpoint...it'd prolly take a severe event to cause that in a dwarf.
Except that the Butcher Block Mountains was crawling with dwarven bandits, and the "miners guild 425" was actually a band of thieves and smugglers operating out of Kaladim. The dwarves as a race stood very firmly with the rest of the "good" races but they weren't the beacons of purity and light that high elves claimed to be. One of the really bad things about EQ2 is that is simplified the faction system that existed in EQ1. The only "good" god in EQ1 were the Marr Twins, and that was because of their sphere of influence. Honor, Valor, Love, Devotion and hunting. Well, maybe not hunting. Brell is honorable, and a good ally. Most of the time he doesn't really care what others are doing as long as they don't involve his creations. Most of the gods are like that. Inny is probably the great exception in that he sticks his nose into other god's affairs for his own benefit. Even Mithanial usually doesn't meddle in other deities affairs except to right wrongs created by other deities. Everything was based on relationships and factions in EQ1. Some of the "good" deities wouldn't support others because of rivalries. Most of the "evil" deities wouldn't support the others without a family tie. A lot of the deities were considered neutral because they didn't get involved unless what was happening was affecting them. Regular people weren't considered good or evil. You had the support of some factions, and you opposed others. If you lived in Freeport you generally were on the good side of the milita (D'Lere faction), or the Knights of Truth. Either way you might be on the good side of the Coalition of Ill Traders (smugglers and dealers in illicit goods). After a few hundred years spent in Qeynos (mostly in the company of barbarians) the dwarves could certainly be anything they want to be. Sure, your typical Qeynosian dwarf spouts the name of Brell every other sentence but that doesn't stop him from starting a bar brawl. Which also reminds me that the roughest bar in town with shady deals going on in it is owned by P.T. Irontoe. While he serves the queen, he isn't exactly an honest tradesmen. You can call him an honorable rogue if you want, but he consorts with smugglers and gnolls and he runs a fight club in his basement.
I wouldn't say crawling. it was 1 camp over by the docks. though the miner's guild was a rogues guild. but even they were Brell followers. it was like that with a lot of races. you only had 2 deity choices or 1 and Agnostic. the High elves only had Tunare unless you were a mage, then you had Tunare and Sol Ro. Iksar only had Cazic, and DE only had Inny or Sol Ro...and even then like the high elf, only mages could be Sol Ro...and I think even then only non-necros. Orges were Rallosian. Trolls I think got more choices like Inny, Cazic, and rallos. Humans had the most choices...and only bards could worship Veeshan. So I would say faith had a big thing with why Dwarves are Good...while other races like gnomes were neutral. as gnomes had the Dark Reflection (evil bertox worshippers) and the regular good gnomes (brell/bristlebane/sol ro I think mostly)
A bit of a note; Dark Elf Warriors could worship Rallos Zek, and Dark Elf Rogues could worship Bristlebane, same as Dwarf Warriors and Dwarf Rogues, though lore-wise Rallos Zek and Bristlebane worship were disdained/mocked by the Dwarves and hated by the Dark Elves. Ogre SKs had a choice of Rallos or Cazic, too, as I recall, but obviously Rallos had the majority of followers. ON THAT NOTE, Dwarves are still very much good-aligned, the majority of them (even Rallos Zek worshippers could be of Good alignment back in the day, even though he was evil in EQ2), but there have always been exceptions. I roleplay an evil Dwarf, actually; an old Necromancer named Voromyr Grimholt, that worships Innoruuk. (Little bit of a wall of text here, background for Voromyr if you're curious): Whatever caused his goodly spirit to wither and shrivel, and his mind to turn to the black arts, you might ask? During the Age of Turmoil, when his beard was black instead of white, he was a renowned smith and enchanter; he boarded a ship that would be lost during a storm. The sole survivor he spent three hundred years toiling in the bowels of a lich's lair, a lich (who had the Dwarf refer to him as "Master Whit") that would torture him with all kinds of black magic. He became a shell of a dwarf; the only embers of his soul that still burned within him were fear of pain, and hatred for his captor. It was not until his beard had turned from black to white that his hatred overcame his fear, egged on by a sentient sword. For though the lich had used Voromyr to forge a number of enchanted weapons, there was one he coveted above all; a long sword named Molobhehan, predating the Age of Turmoil. The blade was black, with a wide hilt, set with a pair of rubies that looked like eyes, with a larger red gem composing the pommel. The gems teemed with evil and radiated magic in the form of a glowing red aura that covered the entire sword; the lich, never doubting his slave of three hundred years' obedience, gave the sword to the Dwarf wrapped in sailcloth to repair it; long centuries ago it had been notched parrying its sister blade, the lich had said, though its sibling was lost to this plane. The creature left before the Dwarf could open the cloth the sword was wrapped in. It took three days for the skilled smith and enchanter to work around the blade's magics to repair the fine ebonsteel beneath. During those three days, the sword's malicious influence fanned the flames of the Dwarf's hatred. It burned brightly, and through that raw emotion, life returned to him. He smiled mirthlessly as the lich stepped into the room to collect the blade; he laughed as those old, strong arms lifted Molobhehan above his head. The lich opened its mouth to start a spell, one it would never finish; all he heard was the crazed laughter of its former slave as the enchanted sword cleaved its rotting corpse in two. For two centuries, Voromyr Grimholt was left alone in the lich's tower. There were few food stores to be had, however the lich was getting them; he survived those years, and continues to survive, thanks to the Necromantic magics (a bit of a note; as a skilled enchanter, Voromyr had receieved an extensive magical education, by Dwarven standards; the collected tomes of the lich only expanded upon this education.) he studied and plundered from the lich's tower. In the aftermath of the Shattering, the Dwarf, long removed from civilization, arrived in Freeport, dressed in plain black robes and a large wizard's hat, an Innoruukian pendant hanging from his neck. But anyway, yeah, I mean, betrayal quests aren't hard to do. I did it on Voromyr from Conjuror to Necro quite easily thanks to the Neriak faction quests, the vampire one is easy especially at level 20+.
