Part 4: Lore Dump 2

Update 04: Lore Dump 2

Dwarves


Dwarves in Midkemia are a bit of an oddity. Humans are, of course, the main species involved, and the moredhel, elves and other elf sub-types occasionally feature as important characters, but the dwarves are more or less persistently side characters that just mind their own business except when war literally comes to their doorstep. According to Feist, they also have their own unique type of magic, but as far as I'm aware it's never featured in any of the books unless it pops up in the later volumes which I haven't read. Their main roles in the first seven-ish books is, first, to help Pug and Tomas in the Mac Mordain Cadal, then working alongside the elves to blunt the western Tsurani front during the Riftwar, and lastly during A Darkness At Sethanon, where they have a role in helping cover the refugees from Armengar.

Magic


Magic in Midkemia is a dense topic, but like in any good fantasy setting, it's split into as many varied paths and types as possible, and no two species seem to handle magic the same way, so let's just stick to human magic for now. When the series begins in Apprentice, there's only one type of magic on Midkemia "Lesser Path" magic, which requires focus objects and tends to be very centered on crafting magical items and affecting natural forces. One of the reasons the Tsurani kick the Kingdom's ass at first is that they bring "Greater Path" magic to Midkemia for the first time. The caster doesn't need focus objects or to prepare artifacts for their spells and can just casually vaporize armies and sweep aside enemy enchantments if he's sufficiently powerful. Pug later turns out to be the first Midkemian "Greater Path" magician, hence his trouble mastering "Lesser Path" magic at the start of the novels, and eventually becomes the first(and to my knowledge only) human magician(aside from Macros the Black) who discards the "paths" entirely and groks that they're just a framework for understanding, not physical law.

In Betrayal at Krondor, that whole thing is just swept aside, and all mages function the same. Not that anyone could really pin down how they exactly should function, since Feist isn't very focused on pinning down the exact mechanics and details of his world, there's no encyclopedia of Kingdom heraldry, or exhausting listing of Tsurani political factions, which is sometimes frustrating when something mentioned in passing sounds very interesting, but is honestly probably to the benefit of the setting in general.