Hey everyone! I'm excited to announce a project our team has been working on since November. The "Dwarves of Karak Dok" content mod follows the story of a race of Dwarves called the Balmer, the "Stone Folk", and their resurfacing into Skyrim after nearly three thousand years. We are Dwarf fanatics and the absence of Dwarves in the Elder Scrolls series thus far has always been a drag so we finally decided, "well...we'll just make our own." We've designed a new race of Dwarves based on a combination of Elder Scrolls lore and our own creative ideas. Great strides have been taken to mesh our story with the game's lore and we've written extensive back story to tie the Balmer in with their mysteriously missing cousins, the Dwemer, so that players can have a truly fun and immersing experience. If you're a Dwarf fan in any capacity, I think you'll enjoy this very much.

Until the CK releases and some technical questions get answered we can't say much about timelines but we're looking at a Q1 2012 release for the first of three chapters.

Our website is updated frequently with new concept art and updates to the project. You can also follow the project on FB and Twitter if you like.

Read on for more info and check out the MWH Games team site: http://www.mwhgames.com

Dwarves of Karak Dok

Fight alongside Thorsen Ironheart and his company of Dwarves from the Mithril Warhammer clan as they attempt to thwart the evil that froze and banished them from Tamriel three thousand years ago. Discover the ancient secrets of the Dwarven city of Karak Dok and uncover the bloody history of a battle that has been raging under the mountains of the north for millenia. Learn the venerable art of Mithril smithing; brew and concoct ancient Dwarven potions; fight your way through throngs of nefarious, subterranean enemies and help reconquer the homeland of the Balmer, the “Stone Folk”, deep beneath the mountains.

Dwarves of Karak Dok is the flagship mod of MWH Games, currently in development for Bethesda’s epic RPG Skyrim. In the first of a three chapter story, due to release in early 2012, Skyrim fans can look forward to a new race of Dwarves called the "Balmer" as well as new dungeons and quests, Mithril weapons and smithing, new alchemy recipes, professional voice talent as well as the chance to quest and adventure with some incredible characters. In the following chapters, due to release later in 2012, players will experience the captivating depth and history of the Balmer race and continue along the Dwarves’ journey with a fully populated city under the mountain, craftable Mithril Armor, and new spells and abilities from the “Geomancy” school of magic.

Features:

• New race of Dwarves — Balmer, the “Stone Folk”
  
• Full set of craftable Mithril Weapons (Axes, Swords, Hammers, Bow & Arrow, Dagger, Shield)
  
• Dwarvish Alchemy recipes for new potions and poisons
  
• The “Mithril Smithing” ability – forge your own weapons from Mithril Ingots with new smithing recipes
  
• Professional voice actors & production quality recording
  
• Original Music
  
• Extensive back story and lore -- delving deep into the history and culture of the Balmer race
  
• New quests, dungeon crawls, and adventures
  
• Lots (and lots) of elf killing

Features Coming In Chapters II & III:

• Craftable Mithril Armor
  
• Fully populated, underground Dwarven Mountain Hold
  
• New spells and abilities from the “Geomancy” school of Dwarven magic

A couple of years ago I played an awesome dwarf oriented quest mod for Oblivion, I can't remember the name...
This sounds like fun , I'll keep an eye on it also please don't mix your dwarves with the dwemer lore

Sounds amazing. Will my Altmer character be killed on sight?

Haha, yes. Yes he will.

No, as long as you haven't somehow joined the Thalmor, then your char will be okay.

The Balmer are somewhat related to the Dwemer but not Dwemer themselves. You'll need to play the game to learn more but rest assured they are a new race.

Me + a band of Dwarves = piles of dead Thalmor (elves) and Falmer.

Sounds awesome to me. I'm always ready to slaughter the Thalmor.

I will be expecting this.

I would say it is probably a bad idea to make them related to the Dwemer at all. I would actually expect them to be related more to man and less to mer.

I am very interested in what sort of lore you have conceptualized for them.

Very cool concept art and all of that, though. If nothing else, this will be damn cool lookin'.

Damn this looks very nice!
I'll be watching this post.

the concept art looks nice. Any chance of any towns/dungeons etc concept art?

I agree with this.
I was pretty surprised myself when i found out a few weeks ago that the Dwemer, despite their things being called Dwarven etc, Arent actually Dwarves at all..., just odd elfs.

You really, really don't want to make them so related to the Dwemer. At all. Maybe as a race that worked with the Dwemer before they disappeared or something. The problem with trying to do anything like the Dwemer justice is their view of the world is as alien as alien gets, to both us in the real world and to the races of Tamriel.

Not to mention that "Balmer" doesn't translate to "Stone Dwarves", but "Stone Folk".

@JimReapa - Eventually yes, we're focused on props right now but landscapes and architecture design will begin early 2012.

Because the average Skyrim/TES player will at first know "Dwarves" to be "Dwemer" due to the current in-game lore, weapons, armor (e.g. Dwarven Armor), etc. we've drawn some similarities and distant relationship between them but they are as much their own race and culture as the Dunmer, Orsimer, or any of the other living races of Nirn.

And yes, the explanation isn't a literal translation of Balmer.

Glad you guys are excited though, we're working hard to make this thing awesome.

I am thoroughly excited! Curious, are the Balmer to be Technologically advanced like the Dwemer? Or just master stone architects like the Dwarves of typical fantasy?

Also, I am rather curious about their Culture: One thing I was fascinated by [from the Morrowind version of the Dwemer] the Dwemer, was their strong similarity to the Babylonian culture/Fashion.

Is there going to be any similarities to this Culture as well: Specifically the beards and clothing?! I hope so, that is strangely my greatest like. . . for some reason.

Will they be as arrogant as the Dwemer or less arrogant and more spiritual?

This sounds pretty neat, but my single strongest suggestion would be to avoid giving them names like you'd see in Warcraft or Warhammer.

+3 for taking on the project, doing the artwork, etc.
-1 for making a hash of the lore

Hey, at least they aren't rainbow ponies.

I would probably call them "true dwarves" or possibly Dvergr or Svartalfar from Norseish mythology.

It is up to you, however!

I fail to see how this breaks the Lore; ANYONE could create a unique race and place into in-game without it breaking the Lore.

Too true. The TES lore, as much as I love it, is a bit all over the place. If you study it enough you'll find there are plenty of contradictions and loopholes. For example read the article on inter-racial breeding. You could create a Cat-Dragon-Lizard man and as far the lore is concerned it's legit.

I don't want to give too much away Tale, but to answer your questions...

The Balmer are indeed technologically advanced and you'll see many similarities in culture and architecture to the Dwemer. Compared to the Dwemer though, as a culture and society they have focused their efforts elsewhere; they are masters of stone and steel. Our team and guild are made up of Dwarf enthusiasts so you'll see a lot of parallels in the Balmer to Dwarves of typical fantasy.

Um, easily? Unless you go by a very loose definition of lore friendly ("it's ok as long as it isn't explicitly contradicted"), anything that isn't mentioned in lore won't be lore friendly. TES has no real Dwarves, so adding real Dwarves isn't lore friendly.

Er, no, not really. Reproduction between Khajiit and man/mer is iffy, but theoretically possible, since they are all descendent from the same proto-race (the Ehlnofey). Argonians, on the other hand, are a whole different species, and dragons are gods who don't reproduce at all.

All that being said, this is a mod, not official lore, and mods can do whatever they want.

Yes, that was a joke by the way.

Sounds awesome, the dwarven ruins were my favorites

This looks AWESOME!

Thanks for the support guys!

New concept art up today - 1h sword and 2h hammer.

http://www.mwhgames.com/new-weapon-concept-art-1h-sword-2h-hammer/

Nice art! I like the professional approach to this mod, especially the attention to lore. I'll be keeping an eye on this in the coming months.