Praise of the Victorious Dead

Translator's Notes: This was a tricky one to translate. As should be apparent, dwarven poetry features heavy alliteration and while there is some similarity between Dwarvish and common, a few changes had to be made to keep that up. Unfortunately, I was unable to maintain the strict rhythm of dwarven poetry, which is made to sound like the steady beat of a smith’s hammer, throughout the poem.
1. Deep is what the dwarves call the lower tunnels beneath their mines, where some of the most frightening of underground monsters live.
2. The word Dwarrodwelt literally translates to dwarf home, but dwelt can also be translated as dwelling, so I chose to go with this to keep up the alliteration. It’s a colloquial phrase for any dwarven settlement rather than an actual city name.

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So, I wrote a Dwarf poem to contrast with the Mechanist poem, since both worship the same deity. Thing is, though, dwarves don't write about the element that they have in common with the Mechanists. Yes, there is the aspect of crafting as a way of discovering your soul, but they don't actually write poems about it. See, the works themselves are the meaning; you wouldn't write a poem about your craft unless the things you crafted didn't have meaning of their own. Instead, poetry is about chronicling their history, praising the glories gained in combat, validating their culture and giving hope to a people who need to be constantly on guard from threats from monsters the likes of which surface-worlders only see in their darkest nightmares. Hence, the above poem.

Oh, interesting point for any D&D fans. "Soul-Singer" is what dwarves call their bards. Two-fold meaning: 1) Their songs and poems contain the soul of dwarvish culture; and 2) When in battle, their songs reach into the souls of those who are in combat and bring out strenght and honor that they might not have known was there.