: An interesting theory to be sure, but how do we know the
: cultists were dwarves? The only referance to dwarves
: in Muirthenme were as the masons who built the city,
: not as the cults that terrorized it. I imagine that
: they did _something_ good for the city because
: Connaught was loathe to exterminate them and only
: began to do so when thier abductions got truly out of
: hand. I've always imagined them to be a group of bored
: nobles perhaps, looking for something new and finding
: this. Sorta like how there's all those urban legends
: about bored yuppies joining demonic cults and
: worshipping satan, etc... :P or not.... Another theory
: might be that this whole "spider" thing
: reminds me a lot of R.A. Salvatore's "Dark
: Elf" series and if any of you are roleplayers,
: the Drow in Dungeons and Dragons....
You're right; they did do good things for the city. They built Connacht's most powerful weapon, the Tain; and, judging from the motifs on Muirthemne's architecture, they built a lot of the infrastructure as well.
How do we know that the Smiths were Dwarves? Well, of course, we *don't* know for sure. But there's a good bit of circumstantial evidence to suggest that some or all of the Smiths' membership was Dwarven:
1. The Smiths are known primarily for the artifacts, most or all of them magical, which they created. Now, the Dwarves are the preeminent craftsmen of the Mythworld; if *anyone* builds *anything* particularly unusual and impressive, the chances are good that he's a Dwarf. Furthemore, we know the Dwarves are capable of constructing magical artifacts as well as advanced technological ones.
2. Both on the Earthly plane and in the Tain, the Smiths seem to have always conducted their affairs underground. This suggests that they might be members of a burrowing race which is naturally comfortable below-ground, such as the Dwarves.
3. On the Earthly plane, the Smiths' base of operations was Muirthemne's complex of catacombs, which was originally built by the Dwarves (or at least its nucleus, the Mausoleum of Clovis, was).
4. The symbols within the Tain and on its artifacts are strongly reminiscent of symbols carved on the inner walls of the Mausoleum by its Dwarven builders, and also of symbols on the outer walls of Muirthemne.
5. Of all your units, only the Dwarves are able to pick up, transport and correctly position the crystals which unlock the barriers within the Tain (in the Summoner level, for instance). Now, this could just be a gameplay thing, since only Dwarves have the animations to make picking up and dropping the crystals look good. But then why aren't Dwarves required for crystal transport in a Murder of Crows? It seems as though perhaps the Smiths designed those barriers to be unlockable only by Dwarves, which would make sense if they were Dwarves themselves. Further, your Dwarves place the crystals properly when they approach the barrier locks, and they do this automatically and without any instructions. This suggests that some aspects of the barrier mechanisms, at least, are based on long-standing Dwarven technology and so can be easily understood by your Dwarves upon inspection.
Again, this is hardly *proof* that the Smiths were Dwarves. But in the absence of much evidence to the contrary, I think it's our best bet. It's certainly possible, though, that the Smiths also had some humans among their number; as you say, inducting a few high-placed lords would be very helpful in forcing Connacht to turn a blind eye for as long as possible.
--SiliconDream
