The Stoneholme Design Bible: Vocabulary, Voice, and Vision

The hammer has fallen.

Below is a growing glossary of vocabulary terms for writers, developers, and fans of AAW Games who want a peek inside the anvilspark of creation. This evolving lexicon not only sets the tone for Stoneholme but also provides a cohesive vocabulary to help unify the dwarven narrative voice.

Also interspersed: design notes, worldbuilding commentary, and the occasional dwarven pun. Because of course.

🔨 Foundational Lore & Vocabulary of Stoneholme

adamant
A mythic metal: dense, light, and unimaginably strong. Forged by Balir at the dawn of time, adamant is the bedrock of Stoneholme—literally. The city’s founding rests upon a sacred vein of adamant ore. Only the most skilled structors dare craft with it, and only two known alloys exist: adamanth and liavantium.

adamanth
A Drow-forged alloy of adamant and… something else. Corrosive in sunlight, this material is a haunting metaphor for the Drow’s twisted ingenuity—powerful, secretive, and always fleeting. Whispers suggest the Drow breed dweorg smithslaves to make it, unable to replicate the ancestral artistry themselves.

ancestral attunement
A rare property of select magic items, allowing attunement to a fourth item if ancestral criteria are met. Imagine dwarven heirlooms that grow in power with their bearer—plot-centric “clan” items designed for storytelling rather than power creep.

Ancestral Cabal
The silent stewards of the dead. These forgepriests oversee the placement of [stoneternals]—construct-like puzzle guardians of the Last Road of the Lost. Revered within Stoneholme, they are regarded by outsiders as mysterious priests. In truth, they are architects of memory and guardians of dwarven eternity.

Balir
Chief among dwarven gods. Patron of craft, order, and the forge. His will is felt not in sermons, but in every stroke of the hammer and every carefully joined seam. A structor’s wisdom is said to be Balir’s breath.

Butterdrum
A cautionary tale disguised as a surname. Once a clan, now a punchline. To work like a Butterdrum is to cut corners and spill your ale before the toast. (“Did Butterdrum masons build that bridge? Looks like it!”) But behind the joke is real lore—Clan Firebrand knows the truth, and they’re still buying rounds because of it.

clade
Smaller than a clan, deeper than a family. A clade is a dwarven familial unit bound by purpose, blood, and trade. Every dweorg belongs to a clade, often multiple. Naming conventions? Good luck. The Common tongue renders them hilariously as “FireBrandBrandBrandFromFireFireClade.”

clanarch
The acting leader of a dwarven clan. May be singular or plural. Example: Clanarch Butterdrum (gods help us).

clan fued
A rivalry without war. No bloodshed, no weapons. Just decades of passive-aggressive stonework and one-upmanship. Vital distinction: this is not a clan war.

clandustry
The lifeblood of dweorg society. More than just craft, clandustry is purpose, ancestry, and perfection made physical. A dweorg isn’t just a blacksmith—they’re a vessel for generations of learned excellence. Every dwarf is an artist. Every home, a workshop.

clanhold vs. clanholme

• Clanhold: Ancestral memory, sacred tradition, living legacy.
• Clanholme: The physical seat of a clan—its fortress, its business, its hearth. You live in your clanholme. You live for your clanhold.

clanstructor
Advisor to the clanarch, often trained under the high structor. Disagreements between the two? Said to herald the Dawn of a Clanwar. (Probably exaggerated. Probably.)

clan war
Cultural upheaval, sometimes violent. Clans fall. New ones rise. The city shifts. Clans change names or vanish entirely. These events reshape Stoneholme—and that’s just on a slow day.

Delving (of Stoneholme)
Capital D. The founding and expansion of Stoneholme into the adamant vein.

• First Delving: The current city.
• Second Delving: Hotly debated. Too soon? Too late?
• Fifth Delving: The final breath of adamant and the completion of the Eternals.

Some whisper the adamant comes from the heart of the Draco Prime. Lore-sensitive writers, proceed with caution!

Dis Pater
Archduke of Hel’s second layer. Patron of the fallen gitwerc. All infernal contracts eventually pass through his court—one way or another.

dvrger
Deep dwarves. Grim, traditional, and sometimes feared. Many dweorg believe the dvrger caused the Great Clan War. Others respect them more than the trade-chasing Emblan cousins.

Eternal
Sentinel constructs built in the likeness of past clanarchs. They patrol the Long Road, guarding the secrets and sovereignty of Stoneholme. You’ll learn more about them in an upcoming post—promise.

forge honor
The rite of joining a new clan. Outsiders can become trusted, even loved—but never political equals. You may serve the clanhold, but you cannot keep it. Dweorg must earn their bloodlines.

forgepriest
A structor touched by the divine. Members of the Ancestral Cabal, they rarely preach and never debate dogma. Dwarven faith is forged in silence and shown in action.

“Do you seek my wisdom, or that of Balir?”
“That is what Balir has crafted for me, but he has yet to finish his work on you.”

founding
Used both historically and personally. “Since my founding” is a common way to refer to one’s youth or birth, especially in Stoneholme where age and memory carry weight.

gitwerc
Once-warriors, now-devilbound. A corrupted dwarven lineage that forged pacts when honor failed. Their name is etched into the Last Road of the Lost. They exist in Stoneholme only as outlaws and whispers.

high clan
The five ruling clans of Stoneholme. Each controls a district—an entire city within a city. Trade, aesthetics, traditions—each high clan brings a different flavor to the capital beneath the world.

high structor
Advisor to the Monarch. Architect of the Eternals. They know every line of Stoneholme’s bones.

liavous ruby
A violet gemstone sacred to Stoneholme. Can be used to extend adamant supplies, making it essential to both economy and sovereignty.

liavantium
An alloy of adamant and liavous ruby. Only works properly within the Underworld—sunlight spoils its structural harmony. Curious, no?

Monarch / Monarchs

• The Monarch: Singular ruler of Stoneholme, currently High Clanarch Deepthunder.
• The Monarchs: The five ruling clanarchs of the high clans.
  Yes, the distinction matters. No, it’s not just semantics—it’s politics.

polytunement
A magical property allowing multiple users to attune to the same item. Dwarves don’t just hoard magic—they share it. At a price.

structor
Master of ancestry, artistry, and tradition. Dweorg structors are scholars of bloodlines, engineers of culture, and guardians of the forge’s sacred flame.

vassal clan
A minor clan that owes fealty to a high clan. Sometimes short-lived. Often the spark of a future clan war.

[walkabout] (Name TBD)
A dweorg tradition of exploring the world for 30 years before adulthood. A sacred rite of learning and humility. We’re still working on a name that doesn’t evoke real-world baggage but captures the spirit of dwarven pilgrimage.

“Amongst the humans, the student asks ‘Why is it this way?’
Amongst the dweorg, they ask, ‘Would not this way be better?’”

zwerc
Dwarves lost to the stars. Masters of interplanar magic who sacrificed tradition for discovery. Pitied and mistrusted, but not always unwelcome—especially if they’ve forged honor.