Raised by Dwarves
is a humorous Urban Fantasy cartoon/manga webcomic that follows the adventures of gay, gluttonous half-drow Horace, his long-suffering ill-tempered adopted werewolf sister Kossak, and the snarky dwarf who raised them, Brella Ironhammer as they try to make a living in the Medieval States of America. The comic is set in an alternate Earth that is overrun with the Fantasy Kitchen Sink, has no guns, and everyone uses bladed weapons, throwing weapons, or crossbows. Horace and Kossak's antagonists are varied, but include health nut elves, Big Al's Fat Buffet, human supremacists, zombie fanboys, and Brella's photophobic kobold boyfriend, Shade.
Raised by Dwarves provides examples of:
- Acrofatic: Horace. He's far more agile than his weight would make people think he is.
- Alleged Car: The Envy of Sisyphus, Brella's 1965 VW Bus. Brella has modified it so much that it is actually a house on the inside. With wheels and a weapons system. It was also demonically possessed at one point and required an exorcism.
- Badass Normal: Horace. While he's a half-drow and uses an ax, he is fat and has no special powers. Night vision doesn't count. All half-elves and elves have it. A great number of non-elf species also have night vision, including dwarves and werewolves.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: President Obama has become Barak Ogrebama, first ogre president of the United States. He is a frequent victim of speciesism because of this. Most historical figures have become this in universe, as their backgrounds are rather different than in our universe.
- Big Eater: Horace is one. In his first appearance, his date tells him that he eats a lot. Horace snaps that ten bowls of popcorn and five "Archmage Ann's" soft pretzels isn't a lot...and Brella tells her kids that Dwarfy's is the only buffet they haven't gotten kicked out of...and in his second appearance, he begs to visit Big Al's Buffet because it just opened and he already ate all of Dwarfy's kitchen. He doesn't gain weight easily, though. Elves and half-elves have elf metabolisms that make it easy to lose weight and hard to gain weight.
- Big Handsome Man: Horace considers himself this. Most of the men who date him and don't run away because of his appetite are chubby chasers...and consider Horace this as well. He also surprisingly chooses to wear a tight vest and shirt to accentuate his fat because he has no shame about it.
- Chubby Chaser: Every man who wants to date Horace and isn't freaked out by his appetite. Some are overweight themselves and think extra padding looks good on a man, and others are slimmer but don't like skinny men. These men tend to enable Horace's eating, much to the chagrin of Kossak.
- Elves vs. Dwarves: Two competing restaurant chains are Elfy's and Dwarfy's. Dwarfy's is equipped with a huge buffet and Elfy's caters to health nut elves. The standard elven-dwarven rivalry does exist though, but elves and dwarves make more of an effort to tolerate each other...despite elves trying to shut down dwarven tavern zoning permits and dwarves trying to shut down elf stores near their places of business.
- Fat and Proud: Horace. He does not want to lose weight, is healthy despite being overweight, and has dreams of Kossak letting him go into Big Al's without yelling at him. He considers his fat "padding," and does not like to lose it at all.
- Fantastic Racism: Human supremacy caused this world's Civil War, and it sadly still exists in the twenty-first century.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The entire setting is overrun by dwarves, ogres, demons, werewolves, elves, and even more. All of which have added a lot of elements of their culture to the Medieval States of America.
- Fantasy LGBT: Used with the main character, Horace.
- Happily Adopted: Horace and Kossak are content to be raised by Brella even though she isn't a member of either of their species. While Kossak has a biological family, her sister Marek feels more connection to Kossak (and uses her as a babysitter) than Kossak does to any of her biological siblings.
- Humanitarian: Kossak.
- In Spite of a Nail: History of the world surprisingly isn't all that different despite the setting being a Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
- Mama Bear: Brella Ironhammer. Do not mess with her kids.
- Medieval European Fantasy: More like Medieval-Inspired Urban Fantasy, but the world of Raised By Dwarves has—in several ways—kept medieval solutions for problems.
- Muggles Do It Better: Defied. Guns, bombs, and several other "muggle" solutions don't exist, and medieval fantasy solutions such as magic or medieval weaponry work so well that the world doesn't feel the need to "upgrade."
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Played with. Dwarves are as individual as any race's members would be expected to be, but they are a "strong race" created by the gods of alcohol, weapons, blacksmithing, armor, and mining. There is an organization in universe called Dwarves Against Media Discrimination that advocates against portrayals of Our Dwarves Are All the Same and negative dwarven stereotypes. Also played with in the character of Brella. She is a Wrench Wench who fights with her family's iron hammer, was born ten years before the Civil War, has a passion for steampunk and Gothic Lolita clothes, likes ale, modified her vehicle so that it's a house on wheels with sixteen different weapons systems, and works as a mercenary.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Werewolves are a race evolved from the now-extinct dire wolves. This has resulted in humanoids (in their demi-human form) with lupine ears, teeth, tail, and eyes (although werewolves see in the same color spectrum as most humanoids). Werewolves have extremely dense bone and muscle, with healthy adult werewolves weighing four hundred pounds on average. They have two transformed forms: An eight-foot-tall half-human half-wolf form that distributes the four hundred pounds into musculature and bone that fits its form (induced by the full moon), and a larger-than-average wolf form with the same extremely dense muscle and bone which a werewolf can transform into at will. In this comic, werewolves also retain their canine instincts. Kossak in particular likes chasing after balls and sticks and gnawing on chew toys or bones. She also chases after Frisbees if one is thrown at her.
- Straight Gay: Horace is either this or Manly Gay, since apart from him dating men in the comic he's not portrayed as overtly flamboyant or otherwise camp.
- Stout Strength: All "strong races" in Raised By Dwarves. This includes dwarves, specifically Brella, who beat up a Confederate soldier with her family's iron hammer. At the age of twelve. Unusually for a half-elf, Horace.
- Succubi and Incubi: There is an organization in universe called Succubi and Incubi for Non-Sexwork that advocates to give succubi and incubi equal opportunity working conditions in jobs that do not involve sex.
- Urban Fantasy: Practically the entire premise of the comic is placing characters and tropes typically common to Medieval European Fantasy in an Urban Fantasy.
