The Nydor are a people of the dwarf, not a separate lineage — a theological schism from the Aureum, the same biology turned to an inverted covenant. The Nydor broke away from their Aureum cousins to embrace the darkness the sun-worshippers rejected, establishing their civilization in the shadowed realm of Emblydium beneath the black sun. These tusked, ash-skinned dwarves have become master slavers and makers of cruel war machines, trading instruments of oppression to surface nations in exchange for a steady supply of captives.
The Nydor still worship Aurigeum. They kept the theonym when they split — the same daemon, the same captured-sun theology — but they read it differently. The Aureum see Aurigeum's vessel-bound sunlight as an oath: light must be channeled and shared, the covenant is distribution. The Nydor see it as a hostage relation: if light can be held in a vessel, it can be withheld. What can be withheld can be used to break a person. The Nydor's slave camps run on artificial dark; every cell that has had its mirror disconnected is a theological statement. This is Aurigeum as domination — the same daemon, the same name, the inversion as clarification rather than apostasy. The Aureum call it heresy. The Nydor call it the honest reading.
Their long, unkempt hair and prominent tusks give them a bestial appearance that matches their harsh philosophy. The Nydor believe that strength comes through domination, and their underground forges ring constantly with the creation of chains, weapons, and mechanical contraptions designed to control and terrorize.
Aspects
- Strength rules the weak
- Darkness reveals truth