It’s Midgard Monday! Each week, we visit a corner of the wide world of Midgard. Look for standalone content you can drop into your campaign—whether it’s in Midgard or your own homebrew. Find new inspiration each Midgard Monday!
Midgard is vast and filled with different peoples. Wildly different cultures can exist just a few miles apart, each one a potential heritage for your character. Consider this your invitation to raise a tankard, call out praise to Ninkash, and embrace your inner dwarven adventurer!
A stout drink and a bold heart help you claim this achievement: a full set of Ironcrag heritages, drawn from the thirteen major cantons of the Crossroads region of the Midlands. Drink deep, leave a comment, and maybe, just maybe we’ll crush some foes along the way.
Juralt
The Canton of Juralt is considered a lesser canton, with a population of roughly 8,000. Located smack in the middle of the Ironcrags region, its brewers, smiths, and miners are far outnumbered by its warriors. Most claim the badgers on Juraltic livery are matched to the canton’s general attitude: bold, independent, strong, and loyal.
Juralt Canton Heritage
Nestled within a ring of the Juralt peaks, the warm, verdant lowlands of this canton enjoy the protection of half-feral griffons and the extremely well-practiced pike walls employed by the residents. These bellicose dwarves often march out in free companies, serving in conflicts around the Ironcrags, or raid neighbors when mercenary contracts are sparse. They have perhaps the best relationship with Hammerfell, which keeps them supplied in fresh arms and armor.
Common backgrounds this for heritage include border raider, homesteader, mercenary, rustic, and soldier.
Pinion Whisperer. You have proficiency with the Animal Handling skill and double your PB for WIS (Animal Handling ) checks involving raptors, griffons, or great cats.
War Footing. You’ve spent a significant amount of time drilling, sparring, and otherwise participating in martial activity. You have proficient with halberd or pike. and you have advantage on one initiative roll of your choice until you finish a long rest.
Languages. You know Dwarven and one additional language of your choice. Typical Juralt characters choose Common or a language common in a neighboring region, such as Darakhul, Draconic, Elvish, Giantish, Goblin, or Northern.
Stoneless
The Stoneless claim no canton, but all the skies, as these dwarves (and a few non-dwarves) either served or regularly serve as airship crew. Many dwarves can find them to be an odd bunch, but they appreciate their skills and welcome them into their communities.
Stoneless Canton Heritage
Enclaves of Stoneless heritage members exist in most cantons. They’re drawn from old airship hands who settled down and never lost their habits. Someone in your family might have suffered an injury, preventing them from continuing to serve aboard Liftgas ore airships, or become a thrall and decided to keep their feet on the ground for a while.
In any case, members of the Stoneless heritage have a roaming, open culture developed through the years since airships began plying the skies. They are accepting of each other, not necessarily all dwarves, though a little skeptical of their ground-based peers and relatives. Many have spent their whole lives as crew members, drifting between ships.
Common backgrounds for this heritage include border raider, maker, mercenary, and rustic.
Roamer. You’ve seen distant lands and embraced element of the culture of another place. You can choose a feature from another heritage with your GM’s approval. If this ability is from a primarily non-dwarven heritage, your foreignness means you have disadvantage on CHA (Persuasion) checks with dwarves.
Rigging Ratatosk. You have proficiency with the Acrobatics skill and double your PB on STR (Athletics) checks involving climbing or maneuvering in tight spaces. You have advantage on DEX saves against falling off an edge.
Languages. You know Dwarven and one additional language of your choice. Typical Stoneless characters choose Common.
Lost
Those from the Lost Cantons represent dwarven families and clans originally from communities either destroyed, failed, or abandoned, now living in another Canton as a small hall or enclave. They might keep different traditions, or slightly isolate themselves, but they keep a foot in both places.
Lost Cantons Heritage
There are many lost cantons, communities which failed to thrive before being abandoned. These five represent the most well-known and have the greatest chance of remnants living elsewhere in the Ironcrags. Additional notes on these places can be found in the Midgard Worldbook and the various Warlock Grimoires, as well as the 3.5 supplement, Dwarves of the Ironcrags, or the 4E supplement, Iron Gazetteer. Friundor in particular is the site of the adventure in Halls of the Mountain King.
Common backgrounds these heritages share include homesteader, maker, mercenary, outcast, and rustic. These represent individuals and families either away when the canton fell and resettled elsewhere, left just before the canton’s demise, or escaped the canton’s fate some other way.
Adopted Home. You spent substantial time in a haven Canton, where you or your relatives escaped after the fall of your previous canton. Choose a heritage feature from the canton you settled in.
Legacy of the Lost. You or your family are from a fallen, destroyed, or otherwise lost canton of the Ironcrags. You have one of the following heritage features based on your previous home. You cannot select one of these as a part of your Adopted Home feature.
Friundor (Golden Citadel, or Rygar): Stories of the Old Masters. You’ve heard tales about the secret order of dwarves once based in Rygar’s Citadel. You have proficiency in the Religion skill, and can double your PB for checks involving dwarven religious matters.
Krongard: Eldritch Scars. You or your relatives suffered extensive magical attacks during the fall of Krongard. You have proficiency in the Arcana skill. In addition, as a reaction, you can add your PB to a save against a magical effect that targets you or includes you in the area of effect as a reaction. You can do this once until you finish a long rest.
Sargau: Underdeep Veteran. You or your relatives fought the doomed battle against the ghouls or derro who consumed your former home. You have proficiency in the Nature skill. In addition, as a reaction, you can add your PB to a save against an attack or effect from a derro, darakhul, or ghoul. You can do this once until you finish a long rest.
Villershall: Enduring Resourcefulness. You or your relatives learned how to live through the year-long siege that ended in Villershall’s destruction and the flight from that ruin. You have proficiency in the Survival skill, and you can double your PB on WIS (Survival) checks to find food in the wild or navigating underground.
Volund’s Beard: Past Glories. You or your relatives descend from those last dwarves to live in the halls of Volund’s Beard, before the iron ran out and the pastures were overgrazed. You may have even visited its abandoned temples and cold, stripped forges. You have proficiency in the History skill, and you can double your PB on INT (History) checks involving dwarven communities.
Languages. You know Common and Dwarven and one additional language of your choice. Typical Lost canton members choose Common.
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