Do Dwarves not exist in the lore of this game?

I would love to play as a dwarf like in Warhammer etc.

They do exist, but they are all stone now. So unless you like playing as a rock...

They turned themselves to stone at the end of Eye of the North expansion for Guild wars. There is currently only one know to still be above ground and he is at the Priory.

@Mist.6217 said:They turned themselves to stone at the end of Eye of the North expansion for Guild wars. There is currently only one know to still be above ground and he is at the Priory.

There's also part of another in another part of the world. (See spoilers...)

! You meet his head and upper torso in Ember Bay as part of Living World Season 3, and he gives you his thumb.

Then play Warhammer. Problem solved.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dwarf

To catch up with the lore. They are very present and essential for the lore. Just never as a playable race.

Dwarves were a non-playable race in GW1. They were pretty much typical fantasy dwarves (lived in mountains, did a lot of mining, made some of the best quality metal and armour and weapons in existance, made and drank a lot of ale etc.)

In one of the first of GW1's rare free updates (Sorrow's Furnace, no it wasn't originally in the base game) a prophecy was introduced that at some point way back in the past there had been a battle between The Great Dwarf (described variously as the creator and god of the dwarves, the first dwarf and a kind of spiritual manifestation of all dwarves) and something called the Great Destroyer. This was recorded in the Tome of Rubicon and the prophecy said that if the true name of the Great Destroyer was read from this book it would bring back the Great Destroyer and this time it would be the end of all dwarves and possibly Tyria as well. So of course the Stone Summit - a militant, xenophobic and generally not very nice rebel faction of dwarves - wanted to steal the book, read the name and destroy their kin. (If I remember correctly they believed they'd be immune for some reason.) They were stopped by the other dwarves, with the help of some human allies (aka the players).

Later, in Eye of the North, it turned out there was some truth to this prophecy when the Great Destroyer did return, along with an army of smaller destroyers who all emerged from underground forcing the asura up with them and began attacking the dwarves, the humans and pretty much everyone else they came into contact with. The dwarves began looking for ways to defeat the destroyers, ideally without killing themselves in the process.

One dwarf - Ogden Stonehealer - reached out to other races to try and raise an army...with mixed results. He ended up with about 3 or 4 norn, a few humans and a couple of asura and their golems...all insisting they were just as good as an entire army. Which turned out to be true - with the help of the dwarves they managed to fight their way through to the Great Destroyer and kill it, which severed it's control over the smaller destroyers and left them uncoordinated so while they were still dangerous they couldn't carry out the kind of attacks they had been doing.

While that was happening King Jalis, the dwarves leader, discovered and performed a magic ceremony which 'manifested' the Great Dwarf in the form of turning all living dwarves into single-minded destroyer fighting stone constructs. They abandoned their surface dwellings and went on the attack - pushing the destroyers back underground and hunting them down relentlessly.

250 years on - in GW2's present day - they're still at it. We now know that the destroyers were just the tip of the iceberg of Tyria's destruction. The Great Destroyer was Primordius' 1st champion - the one which woke up first and was supposed to prepare for it's master's awakening by conquering a suitable area and collecting magic for it's master. Killing it delayed the dragon waking up but didn't stop it completely, and as far as we can tell Primordius has now taken direct control of the destroyers (or may have created another Great Destroyer. There was another champion which made it to the surface - called the Destroyer of Life - but that was killed by Destiny's Edge shortly before the start of GW2.

But it wasn't a total loss. The delayed awakening of the dragons bought us time for various people (notably the scholar Durmand) to study the Tome of Rubicon and other works which mentioned destroyers and other contemporary sources and get some idea of what was coming, so that when Primordius and the other dragons awoke we weren't as completely unprepared as the dwarves, mursaat, seers, forgotten and jotun had been last time it happened and able to mount a defense and look for ways to survive before they totally wiped us out.

In Tyria it's widely believed (among people who think about it at all) that the continued stone dwarf offensive is the main reason so few destroyers have reached the surface and the reason Primordius isn't as much of a threat to us as the other dragons...yet. Whether that's true or not we don't know. The asura had already abandoned the underground by then and the only other sentient race to make it to the surface is the skritt who (even in large numbers where they're somewhat coherent) are not a reliable source for anything that happened earlier than 5 minutes ago, but it seems like a likely explanation.

(Edited because I, appropriately, forgot to include the forgotten on the list of races that fought the dragons before.)

the dwarves are mostly extinct and the few that remain are made of stone. doubt they'll ever be playable if they add new races (and that's a big if to begin with) since anet made them go extinct because they were to generic. (might not have been the exact wording)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dwarf

I'll just leave this here.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/40283/high-elves/p1

@"Ardid.7203" said:I'll just leave this here.https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/40283/high-elves/p1

What does a race that never existed in the guild wars universe have to do with one that does/did?

They share various features just for being fantasy staple races. IMO the reasons that make the community reject Elves also explain the removal Anet made with the Dwarves when they send them into the deep transformed in stone.

I got a talking Dwarf head in my pocket..found him in Elona.

Dwarves could very well be a playable race in a future expansion...If you think about it they might well be the only really possible true playable race added to the game, because they're the only ones that you can entirely justify not having interacted with up until when they're released.I mean you could come up with a explanation why most races' heroes haven't been fighting Elder Dragons so far, Tengu were having a kind of Civil War behind those walls between the ones that want to open up and the ones that don't (still hard to explain why the Tengu we do meet don't talk about that), Quaggan, Kodan, etc could be explained by being from a isolated settlement fighting their own personal wars with a Dragon Minion somewhere (which is what we already know the dwarves are doing).

So basically it would be in the vs Primordus part of the story. The thing is for this to work, Dwarves must have a separate personal story, which can either start at the same event that leads the Commander (our current characters) into the depths, and then the Dwarf hero interacts with Logan and the remnants of the Pact in a different set of missions, until it reaches a culmination point at the same boss fight as the Commander, so basically having an entirely different story on the new expansion.OR, the Dwarves personal story could start around the same time as the Commander is in Ember Bay, except that the Dwarf Hero is fighting underground while we're above.Later (around the PoF story time) the Dwarf hero might end up meeting the Pact, and becoming a commander himself.That ends his "Personal Story", but not really.The Dwarf Commander's Season 4 story would also be slightly off, with him eventually meeting Kas and Jori (or some other Dragon's Watch member that isn't interacting with the Commander in that episode), help them out, get inducted into the guild, and then within a couple more "dedicated" episodes end up seamlessly overlap with the Commander's story by the time Season 4 ends and we go back to the Depths in the expansion.(I'm making this up as if it would be released in the next expansion, but the same methods can be used for whatever expansion they came out, just has to hit pretty much the same plot points of meeting the pact, becoming a commander under Logan's pact, then getting inducted into Destiny's Edge.

Don't expect new races in GW2. It's very unlikely we ever get any but even if, it won't be dwarves.

Nice write up, @Danikat.8537.

Dwarves no longer reproduce or heal, they're just stone constructs now.

@Steve The Cynic.3217 forgot about that, didn't spend much time in that map.

Last dwarf i played was a Frost Death Knight in WoW.. bada$$ character.. but , but... just bring in the TENGU allready.. do it Anet.

If it's just the physical appearance you like, a suggestion would be to make the shortest and largest human ~~male ~~possible. There are plenty of face and hair templates that can make him look "dwarvish." - ok, a slightly tall one but hey, there must be some "taller" dwarves right? (I've done something similar to make "drow" elves in the game minus the ears. It's quite close.) Even better, make him an axe/hammer wielding class to finish the effect.

Oh @anet- how about a head piece that turns ears into elf ears? :-)

@"derd.6413" said:the dwarves are mostly extinct and the few that remain are made of stone. doubt they'll ever be playable if they add new races (and that's a big if to begin with) since anet made them go extinct because they were to generic. (might not have been the exact wording)

they are technically immortal now, just cannot reproduce.Rhoban is still alive and kicking with only the head, til he's crushed into a spec of dust that can no longer hold his spirit.

@crepuscular.9047 said:

@"derd.6413" said:the dwarves are mostly extinct and the few that remain are made of stone. doubt they'll ever be playable if they add new races (and that's a big if to begin with) since anet made them go extinct because they were to generic. (might not have been the exact wording)

What if he got crushed to be just his eyes and mouth... in separate pieces? Would he still be able to speak and see, or is he still alive because he still has his whole head?

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:

@"derd.6413" said:the dwarves are mostly extinct and the few that remain are made of stone. doubt they'll ever be playable if they add new races (and that's a big if to begin with) since anet made them go extinct because they were to generic. (might not have been the exact wording)

as long as the 'container' is large enough to hold his spirit i guess?

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:

@"derd.6413" said:the dwarves are mostly extinct and the few that remain are made of stone. doubt they'll ever be playable if they add new races (and that's a big if to begin with) since anet made them go extinct because they were to generic. (might not have been the exact wording)

im more into this one too.i dont think it's possible to "kill" the dwarves cuz they conciousness wont die maybe unless u turn them to dust.. if u Smash the head into smaller pieces i believe they would still be able to interact with the surroundings. meaning that the eyes will still be able too see for example. im more interested in how he manage to talk. is it kinda magical? cuz it cant be originated in creating Sound by exhaling air from the lungs(Fantasy aspect accepted a non talking dwarf head would be useless) but the question is .. if ist only the mouth or parts of the head with te mouth are remaining at a place without a neck.. is that still able to talk?

this question becomes important as soon as u look at a Stone and wonder.. is this the eye of an dwarf but can we assume that he cant see anymore just because ist only the eye?

@norbes.3620 said:

@Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

@crepuscular.9047 said:

@"derd.6413" said:the dwarves are mostly extinct and the few that remain are made of stone. doubt they'll ever be playable if they add new races (and that's a big if to begin with) since anet made them go extinct because they were to generic. (might not have been the exact wording)

I tend to believe they're conduits of life now, in stone bodies.They'll survive breaking in half, but at some point there's just too little body left to hold the conduit.But with that logic it should be possible to 'reattach' broken parts as well. Given they have time and space for it while under constant siege of living primordial forces.

Being a conduit would also imply that the spirit of the dwarf has to choose which half to inhibit should he break.One dwarf may choose to stay in the lower half so he can still run. The other might choose to remain an upper half.

If i remember correctly, their minds are also connected as the Great Dwarf, no? As if they were a single individual controlling several bodies. If that were true, they could intelligently inhibit broken parts to the point that 3 half dead dwarves become one fully functioning dwarf again