The Nibelings

Far beneath the earth’s surface dwell the Nibelings: scurrying down narrow and lightless corridors, tending their dreadful forges, making beautiful things that the surface world will never see. They are squat, hairy, pale, greedy and cruel. They do not eat and they do not age. They are neither male nor female; how they procreate is unknown. At the touch of sunlight they turn to stone. When they must go up to the surface world, they carry dark-horns that shroud them in perpetual shadow.

They are hideously ugly, yet they perceive beauty far more keenly than any other creature will ever know. To them, the glitter of a diamond is a symphony of pleasure that can never be expressed in words. Conversely, their own faces are physically painful to look upon, so they abhor mirrors.

They love beauty, but only if they can possess it. If they cannot then the next best thing is to destroy it. Feuding Nibeling clans will sometimes arrange for their rivals’ treasures to be defaced if they cannot be stolen. The beauty of living things confounds and sometimes enrages the Nibelings, because it can neither be controlled nor preserved. Some Nibelings keep beautiful birds frozen in time so they will never die; others coat human women in gold so they will be young forever.

Despite their greed, or rather because of it, Nibelings respect the laws of ownership above all else. Theft is a crime far worse than murder in their estimation. If a Nibeling kills an enemy—whether a rival or an outsider—they will not pillage the body, because they consider the victim’s possessions to belong to the next of kin. Fallen Nibelings’ possessions are normally retrieved by their clan members, but if a human is killed in Under-Land then their corpse may lie unlooted for decades or centuries. If a treasure is very valuable, the Nibelings will concoct complex legal strategies to justify their claim to it: “The necklace belonged to my great-uncle until it was lost in a wager, but that wager was later proved to be unfairly won, thus the ownership in reality remained with him and later passed to my second cousin, who…” Some items may remain in legal limbo for a long time.

The Nibelings are the greatest craftsmen in the world. They know how to grow gemstones under the light of a false moon, to dam rivers of gold and tap wellsprings of silver. They can make treasures so beautiful that any human who looks upon them will be overwhelmed with desire. Some will sacrifice anything to gain possession of the treasure; even those who resist will be haunted by the memory for years, dreaming of the treasure, crying out for it in their sleep.

If a Nibeling gives treasure in exchange for a promise, then the promise becomes magically binding. If it is not fulfilled, a terrible curse will fall upon the oathbreaker. This is how the Nibelings acquire their slaves. They go up to the surface on moonless nights and trade gold for oaths of service. Often they can find humans who are willing to swear over seven generations of their children for a golden bauble or a flawless diamond. Down in Under-Land, the slaves toil in the forges, starved and mistreated, often blind from living their entire lives in pitch darkness; but they still retain possession of the treasures for which they sold themselves into bondage.

Alfred Kubin

Things found in a Nibeling Redoubt:

— Slaves with gold torcs hauling huge bricks of coal
— Seraglio with beautiful youths caught in endless time loop, peepholes in walls
— Immensely desirable goblet encased in unbreakable ice
— Gem garden protected by elegant marble golem
— Workshop with cursed tools for creating fractal filigree
— Banquet table set with eternal food, to be looked at rather than eaten

Nibelings encountered:

— Master craftsman surrounded by adulating yet secretly envious entourage
— Lawkeeper with eidetic memory of legislation and jurisprudence
— Poet trapping beautiful words in amber
— Indentured young artisan toiling at furnace, sooty and spiteful
— Slavemaster exasperated by slaves’ propensity to age and die
— Red-handed outlaw, clanless, desperate, clutching stolen gauntlet

Reasons for humans to visit their realm:

— Ransom a noble son who has been enslaved
— Buy a magic weapon
— Act as mercenaries in Nibeling clan war
— Steal a fabulous treasure
— Gain access to a river of gold
— Retrieve valuables from an unclaimed corpse

Reasons for Nibelings to come above ground:

— Retrieve stolen treasure, possibly from centuries ago
— Seek adjudication on dead human’s line of inheritance
— Capture animals for menageries or laboratories
— Acquire slaves
— Raid and plunder the thrice-damned elves (elves do not have property rights, and thus can be stolen from without repercussion)