radioactivesupersonic:

Y’know what would be a cool idea? Taking the commonly-accepted fantasy races and swapping around their domains and associations. Just to shake things up a bit.

Elves as subterranean builders and miners, spindly and pale from the lack of sunlight and with a highly developed sense of hearing, even to the point of echolocation, to get around in places with zero light. Talented craftsmen with small, precise fingers, masters of prosthetic technology because it’s all too easy for a delicate limb to get snagged in machinery or crushed in a cave-in.

Dwarves that are mountain and alpine-forest dwelling herdsmen, sturdy against the extreme climate. They pride themselves on the understanding that they know what’s important and are some of the best cavalry around- even able to tame and forge agreements with the big cats that wander the area. With solid legs and powerful shoulders from running up slopes or rappelling down them after stray lambs. Lowland dwarves that are seafarers, as surefooted on the rigging of a tossing ship as their mountain cousins are on the slopes.

Goblins and orcs that are city-builders and empire-makers, architects that build walled citadels and metropolises, the diplomats that pull the other races together and reap the profits in the form of the most trade agreements. Building roads to link settlements together and guarding them with rigorously trained and well-outfitted soldiers. Wealthy orc merchants who flaunt status with painstakingly etched tusks, inlaid with gold or precious minerals.