Heft

A dwarf says something has heft when its importance is solid and unambiguous. A gold ingot impresses him far more than a pile of gold, or than finely wrought jewelry of the same mass. A metal gathered into a block is intrinsically material.

Dwarves value gold but do not covet it. They find the beauty of gold jewelry interesting, and coinage, those "pretty disks with writing", useful but somewhat childish. A gold necklace is worth the market rate of its gold and gems, and only marginally more if it feeds a worthy queen’s vanity. Its right place is in an ingot.

Metals become meaningful as ingots, tin and Actinate among them. Ingoting some metals costs more labor than it can justify, and dwarves pay it, because an ingot is real. Exceptions are few: a metal plainly serving a mechanical purpose has functional value. Arbor Dianae is one, which an artisanal dwarf appreciates because it is valueless without the work that made it.

To many this preference may seem irrational, but it is as culturally understandable as dragons and the golden piles they sleep on. A dwarf sleeps well when his storeroom is stacked with ingots.

See also: Wealth and Riches, The Ratchet, Ingot