Indaks Tribe (Dune Dwarves)

Overview

The Indaks Tribe is the sole community of Dune Dwarves, a vital and unique faction within the Shifting Sands. Renowned for their mastery of sunstone quarrying and crafting, they are both revered and relied upon by other desert tribes. With their advanced knowledge of artifacts and devices, the Indaks embody the balance between tradition and innovation, thriving in regions where other peoples would falter. Their nomadic way of life, carried upon great sunstone-powered wagons, ensures that their presence is always shifting—much like the desert itself.

Appearance & Traits

Dune Dwarves are hardy, sun-kissed people, their skin tanned and toughened to withstand the relentless desert sun. With hair tones ranging from sandy blonde to ash-black, they often braid charms of sunstone into their beards and hair. Their amber or copper-colored eyes are said to reflect the desert light itself.

  • Their skin naturally resists heat and dryness, reducing their water needs.

  • They are stocky and broad, but built for endurance rather than brute force.

  • Their garb combines dwarven practicality with desert adaptation: loose desert robes layered over protective leather harnesses, with goggles or sunstone visors to shield from glare.

Territories

They can be mostly found in the Moving Stones Depression, a chaotic expanse where relentless winds grind massive boulders into motion, revealing hidden veins of metal and jewels. Here, the Indaks thrive as miners, daring to follow the shifting stones in search of treasures buried beneath. They also inhabit the Dead Spires, jagged mountains like blackened fangs tear into the sky. The Dead Spires hold the sunstone quarries, the lifeblood of the Indaks. They treat the quarries as sacred, believing sunstone to be infused with the desert’s essence. Lastly, they seasonally travel to the Shimmering Salt Flats, an endless, glaring expanse of dazzling salt crust. They trade with the salt with other tribes.

Culture & Society

The Indaks value ingenuity, endurance, and sacred craftsmanship. Every member of the tribe learns both survival skills and the basics of artifact-making, for technology is the tribe’s lifeline. Their nomadic lifestyle centers on great convoys of sunstone-powered wagons, which serve as both transport and home.

  • Leadership is not hereditary but earned through craft and wisdom. The Forge-Elder is the spiritual and practical leader, chosen by consensus of the artisans and miners.

  • Artifacts are more than tools—they are seen as living extensions of the desert itself. Every crafted piece is ritually blessed.

  • Nomadism is central: they never linger too long in one place, lest stagnation bring weakness and within the Moving Stones Depression, veins appear and dissapear quickly.

Technology & Artifacts

The Indaks Tribe is unmatched in its use of sunstone technology, a form of arcane engineering. Their artifacts range from simple lamps and tools to devastating weapons and massive wagons.

  • Sunstone Wagons: Mobile homes and workshops, some large enough to house entire families. They are powered by radiant cores that store and release the desert sun’s energy.

  • Weaponry: The Indaks craft sunstone-forged blades that glow faintly with heat, as well as crossbows with radiant charges.

  • Defenses: Their camps are ringed with sunstone beacons—devices that repel creatures of the night and amplify light.

  • Water gathering: One of their most prized technologies are filters, artifacts that pick mud from the Quicksand Swamp and turn it into clean water. Also, to walk through the swamp, they use special wide platform shoes.

Beliefs & Religion

The Indaks hold a profound reverence for the Desert Spirits, whom they believe flow into sunstone itself. To them, every mined shard is a piece of the desert’s essence, meant to be carefully shaped, never wasted. Quarrying is both a spiritual duty and a technological necessity.

The Ascension Ritual among the Indaks often includes sunstone dust burned into incense, inducing visions of the Spirits.

Relations

  • Desert Tribes: They trade sunstone and artifacts, but resent tribes who take their craft for granted. They participate in the anual tribes meeting in the Sacred Caverns.

  • Scorvians, Lizardfolk and others: Relations are nearly nonexistent, as Indaks rarely leave their region.

Reputation

The Indaks are mainly known as the Desert’s Artificers, unrivaled in crafting but also stubborn and secretive. To ally with them means access to powerful tools and weapons; to anger them means being cut off from sunstone trade entirely. Among the desert tribes, they are respected but sometimes mistrusted for their reliance on artifacts rather than pure survival.

Resources, Water sources and Survival

The Indaks Tribe sustains itself through careful mastery of the desert’s dangers. Their water comes from the Quicksand Swamp, where they use wide platform shoes and crafted filters to draw drinkable water from beneath shifting sands.

Their true wealth lies in sunstone, quarried from the Dead Spires and refined into tools, weapons, and artifacts. With sunstone-powered wagons, they trade these goods across the desert, securing food, hides, and herbs from other tribes. Small-scale hunting supplements their diet, though the harsh terrain offers little game.