Clan dagger

Krohan Veldollow sheathes a clan dagger.

A clan dagger is an important symbol of personhood in dwarven society. Each dagger represents a dwarf's membership in a clan, a social relationship considered paramount in many dwarven societies. All dwarves born to a clan receive their own clan dagger, whether at birth or upon reaching adolescence.

Creation

A Vahird dwarf wears their clan dagger on their chest.

A clan begins forging a dagger for a dwarf when their pregnancy is announced. While each dagger is unique to its dwarf, each is set with a gemstone of a cut and color unique to their clan. The gem's details are established upon the clan's founding in the carving of its founder's statue and kept constant over generations.

The setting of the dagger's gem is performed in a ritual ceremony called the Welcoming, typically held 10 days after the dwarf's birth at the clan founder's statue and led by the clan's oldest living member. The ritual lights a spark within the gem that remains until the dwarf leaves their clan, whether voluntarily through adoption or marriage in a ceremony known as the Farewell, by force upon banishment, or in memory of the dwarf after their death. In all such rituals, the spark is returned from the gem to the clan founder's statue.

Upon adoption or marriage in Highhelm, the gem in the exiting dwarf's clan dagger is removed in a Farewell ceremony and replaced with a new gem from their new clan in a new Welcoming ceremony. The emotional strain of a Farewell ceremony is so great that it has resulted in adoptions and marriages being cancelled before the ceremony can be completed. Other married dwarves might forge sheathes bearing each other's clan gemstone.

Loss

The spark is considered paramount to the dwarf's soul, and many believe that a slain dwarf whose dagger is lost cannot pass on to the clan's hall in their afterlife. As such, dwarves seek to recover a fallen kin's clan dagger even moreso than their remains so that they can perform a Farewell ritual and rest their spirit.

Losing a clan dagger through negligence, however, is considered shameful. The dwarven slur of "empty sheathed" suggests as much of the recipient of such an insult: lacking so much in honor or responsibility that they have lost or discarded their clan dagger. Likewise, selling such a gift at any point in a dwarf's life is considered a taboo among their kin.

A small minority of Highhelm dwarves are without a clan, such as those descended from exiles or who did not receive a clan dagger upon their birth. Such dwarves can join a clan through petition, marriage, or recognition, though banished dwarves often find their petitions ignored.

Of non-dwarves

People of other ancestries can be offered honorary adoption into a dwarven clan, though such membership is limited. Non-dwarven clan members bear clan daggers that have only ornamental gems lacking a dwarf's ritual spark, and are not invited to participate in Welcoming or Farewell rituals.

In Highhelm

In Highhelm, clan daggers are a dwarf's most visible sign of their position in its caste system. The hilt of a Highhelm dwarf's clan dagger is forged of the metal corresponding to their clan's caste: goldhilt, steelhilt, or ironhilt.

Stealing or forging a clan dagger in order to claim association with a clan, or to help another do so, is a serious crime in Highhelm.

In Dongun Hold

In Dongun Hold, gunsmithing clans of dwarves have adjusted traditions around clan daggers and applied them to clan pistols.