On the Supposed Inability of Dwarves to Become Lost Underground

Among the more flattering misconceptions Dwarves have permitted others to maintain is the belief that they possess an innate sense of direction beneath the earth. Popular accounts describe a Dwarf as able to enter an unfamiliar mine, extinguish his lamp, spin in place, and immediately indicate the nearest route to the surface. This is nonsense, although it is nonsense with just enough observational support to survive.

Dwarves raised in subterranean settlements are, unsurprisingly, exceptionally adept at reading underground environments. They notice gradients, air movement, mineral seams, tool marks, drainage direction, differences in echo, and structural patterns which an inexperienced traveller may not consciously perceive at all. A Dwarf who appears to “know” that a passage bends toward the surface may in fact have noticed cooler air, a floor deliberately graded for runoff, and support timbers in a style normally used near outer galleries. None of this is instinctive; it is expertise.

This distinction was demonstrated rather elegantly during the Kher Vann survey, when a Dwarven surveyor named Borik assured three Human assistants that he could find his way through an abandoned lower complex “with his eyes shut.” They took him literally and challenged him to do so. Borik accepted, tied a cloth around his face, walked directly into a support column, and called them idiots. He subsequently navigated the route correctly with the blindfold removed, and the assistants nevertheless recorded the experiment as inconclusive.