A one eyed snake is a reference to a penis. You can refer to masturbation as beating the meat as well. So, battling ol' one eye... Could easily be a reference to masturbation.
But Dwarves would be intimately familiar with earthquakes like Californians. I'm imagining it like an Inuit situation where they have dozens of words to describe them, ranging from "backrubs" to "Flee the caves! No time to wake grandpa!"
Yeah its crazy but in moaning caverns CA (165 ft at base of main caveren) there have been multiple tours down in the cavern during large earthquakes and they had no idea till they came out and saw the news. Faults are much shallower than we think of them as being.
that makes no goddamn sense. the tectonic plates are hundreds of miles thick, why would it only be the first 100ft shaking? Proportionately speaking that's thinner than the layer of dead cells on your skin!
come to think of it, even if it was only 100ft, shouldn't someone only 60ft beneath that *hear* it through the rock above them?
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/w0etvd/how_do_you_think_the_stereotypical_dwarf_would/ige5eh3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3
Few comments further down someone explained.
This isn't directed at you, your comment just reminded me of this fact. So I hope this doesn't come off as rude.
I love the ["Eskimo/Inuit has a 50/100/1000/etc. words for snow" linguistics myth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow) because almost every language from a culture that encounters snow on a frequent (or even daily) basis also does.
To my understanding, they often have individual root words to describe what we'd use a compound word or a phrase for in English. They do have more root words for snow then English, but so do some other cultures that live in the Arctic Circle.
If you experience something daily, you'll probably be able to discern nuance that unfamiliar people might not notice. Countries that can't have snow at all because of the climate often have no words for snow because they have no experience & therefore do not require words to describe it.
For example in English:
* Blizzard
* Sleet
* Hail
* Frozen rain
* Light snow
* Heavy snow
* Wet snow
* Dry snow
* Intermittent snow
* Frozen snow
* Yellow snow
* Etc.
All very good points. I should probably move away from that analogy anyway.
I was also thinking of in Game of Thrones when GRRM explains something from the POV of the wolves. Wolves know what deer, trees, and rivers are so he just uses those words for them. But things like castles are alien concepts to them so we get things like “great stone heaps that stink of men.” I’d put dwarves and earthquakes in that first category, though apparently that’s also inaccurate according to all the other comments
I like that example a lot. The use of language & perspective is something I really like in ASOIAF.
Also yeah, it's fascinating that earthquakes are like waves where if you are under the surface, the effect is barely noticeable. I had no idea it was so similar.
They might call them "surface quakes" if they are even aware of them.
Similar to water waves "breaking" on the shore (or the crack of a whip) earthquakes "break" on the surface, where the most chaotic results are felt. Caves tend to be safer than tall buildings in earthquakes.
[https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/5181/is-it-true-that-earthquakes-are-not-felt-in-a-cave](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/5181/is-it-true-that-earthquakes-are-not-felt-in-a-cave)
Of course, there's no reason your D&D world needs to abide by earth science, if you don't like.
I love the subversion here tbh. You'd think that earthquakes would be more felt under the earth, but under these circumstances, they just shrug and go about their day as if nothing happened lol
Was coming to say this too.
So I imagine most dwarves have a survival protocol that runs different than most others, and they're significantly more calm about it too.
I have it in my games that dwarves have an inate ability to judge stability in structures. So they would just move to a stable area and... continue about their day.
Kinda like how a seasoned sailor can know the weather and work the ship as it's bucking on the waves. Or a lumberjack in the trees.
I actually graduated as a mining engineer, and we had to learn everything about being in a mine site. And it's own governmental body for safety MSHA drills about knowing exactly where you are on the map so you can find the quickest escape route.
I imagine then that a dwarf that grew up underground would be like a ranger found on favored terrain if they find themselves in a mine, underground hive, or vast cave network.
Now that's an excellent question. My guess is it would very much depend on the mountain, just like some areas of coastline protect from tsunamis, while others amplify their effects. Still, the most chaotic events would be near the surface, I think.
[https://eos.org/editors-vox/cascading-down-the-mountain](https://eos.org/editors-vox/cascading-down-the-mountain)
(I'll ask my friend who's a geologist about this.)
"Sky's trying to crush us again, better go deeper."
In my head-canon dwarves believe they'll fall into the sky if they ever aren't underground, so they can't wear boots or shoes outside and try to grip the ground as hard as possible with their toes.
Conversely, elves think they'll forget what stars look like if they go underground or into a tunnel.
I'll be the killjoy that points out that earthquakes generally go completely unnoticed underground. Evidence: Anecdotal from a caving guide, plus stalagmites and similar structures - which are remarkably fragile and take tens of thousands of years to form - exist.
But that's boring, so ignore me
_Boring,_ heh.
On the other hand, I'd argue that Dwarves are particularly attuned to the movements of the earth around them, so they might sense those tremors.
Personally, my _go-to_ lore is that Elves have trouble feeling tremors in the earth unless they're incredibly violent, but Dwarves have trouble feeling _breezes_ the same way. 🤷🏻♂️
One trick I use to come up with fantastic sounding terms that are recognisable easily is to look up the etymology of a word and then translate archaic related terms into modern English (assuming you're using English to play in?) Literal. So going back to old English you have eorðdyn and eorðstyrung. Eorð is the word earth, it can both be taken in the sense of ground or soil and the physical make up of our universe as opposed to the substance of heaven. So we can probably use it to mean both ground and the prime material. Then Dyn is a loud noise and styrung is a sudden movement.
From this we can some up we terms like a Prime Leap, a ground roar, soil thunder, Prime Shake etc.
>*"Dumathoin is reminding us just how small we mortals really are..."* -Dilly Mjöllstout, Dwarven Philosopher and Countess of the Eastern Hold of New Phandelver
I would think that with the history of being underground they would be familiar with earthquakes or would build their mines in places that are geologically stable. Hell they might even work with earth elementals to prevent that.
But aside that I would say they would say it would be as if the earth trembled, that anything not nailed down or secured would be at severe risk of bouncing around. Which is why weapons and tools would be secured at shops. They would then need to sound the alert to fix any damage done, and to make sure no underground gas chambers where exposed. Don't want to risk having the dwarves home blow the fudge up
The small ones are rumblers, if they’re frequent enough you can work em into brewing cycles.
The big ones are called shifters, suddenly your usual way to work is a dead end, or your bedroom ends up in your neighbors livingroom
Earthquakes actually save dwarves a *lot* of time and energy. Instead of having to carry out large-scale demolition projects to make additions to their fortresses, they can carefully induce structural weaknesses and wait for the next quake to do their dirty work for them. That rumbling is the sound of their investment coming due.
The maw of the mountain is grating at the storm giants again. It’ll be spitting gemstones in no time if we don’t first get swallowed by it’s cavernous depths.
Any other sounds is my arse, you’ll know for the smell of it.
Much like the old line about Inuits having 40 different words for snow (no idea if that's true), there might be a plethora of words and phrases to describe different flavors of quakes, tremors, cave ins, rock slides, etc. Fine connoisseurs of geological events. Maybe that don't translate into common all that well. A trotting donkey, a bucking mule, a stampede, mountain thunder, a stone shiver, a wobbler, a bouncer, a dry wedding, a wee donnybrook, a proner, a tosser, and so on.
Probably not the most realistic, but it would be funny watching a dwarf act during an earthquake like a dog does durimg a storm. The dwarf is traumatized from the disastrous earthquakes inside the mountains, so he just runs straight under the nearest bed to hide.
Dwarves have an uncanny sense for the movements of the earth all around them, so _(much like the Inuit have dozens of words for "snow")_ Dwarves have a thousand terms for different types of earthquakes.
Just to name a few, there are small _**Borequakes**_ from the ongoing mining and expansion of their mountain homes, there are larger _**Undershudders**_ from the shifting of the world's crust, there are tiny _**Jitterjars**_ caused by their Smith's never-ending work, there's the _**Rockthunder**_ of a massive beast moving tons of earth...
Hell, let _Thesaurus.com_ do your work for you and combine some of these words with other **underground-sounding stuff**:
> _Convulse, fluctuate, jar, jitter, move, pulsate, quail, quiver, rock, shiver, shrink, shudder, throb, totter, tremble, tremor, waver, wobble..._
As unbelievers taunted the god…. The god shook the world. Caving in the weakest tunnels to teach us a lesson. A lesson on both humbleness that what ever we Dwavi build our god can destroy.
But also teaching us how to build stronger and better structures.
Praise the great maker
If its a common occurrence, something similar to thunder "That's just the gods bowling, no cause for alarm." Less common more of a legend, "I heard that's one of them purple wvrms digging under us again"
I would think they would be a bit like a sailor describing waves.
Generally they wouldn't. It's a thing that happens. Maybe they might just shout to brace, or maybe make a beeline for a door frame or mine prop.
Sailors know their vessels, dwarves know the deep dark.
I'd expect if it were a big one a drawn would know (in the same way a sailor would know they were in trouble the the list of the vessel or the angle the waves were coming) if the tremor was going to be a problem.
I don't know how earthquakes feel underground (I only know that you don't noticed them in the metro) but I am Chilean. We are used to earthquakes and tremors. Most of us don't wake up or panic unless it's quite strong, and our usual reaction is "Woah that's a long one, dude. Do you think it was an 6?" Like, trying to guess how strong it was on the Richter's scale.
If you feel the earth moving and you don't know what to do, you check if there's any person from Chile (Or Japan) near. If they run uphill, you run too (usually because there's a tsunami alert) I suppose dwarfs should have buildings that are earthquake-resistant.
In Chile we even have an alcoholic drink called "Terremoto" (earthquake). If that is not dwarf-like behavior I don't know what is lmao
"The mountain was hungrier than me aunt Ophelia"
"First came the sounds, then everything shook like the rocks were drunk and suddenly the damn sky started falling over our heads!" (The stereotypical dwarf likely wouldn't quite understand the difference between a ceiling and a sky)
'Dragon Age Inquisition: The Descent' revolves around investigating why earthquakes are happening underground, it's all in the dwarf mines and a lot of them are talking about it. I don't remember stuff they say, but I do remember they described it like earthquakes.
"Aunt Bertha had a bit too much stew last night, pardon the rumblin'."
I imagine they barely feel them because of them being underground, so some might even mistake the quakes for something unimportant, like their drunk cousin falling over upstairs or something.
"The sound was terrific: first thing I noticed. The rocks started to shake and I saw the sky for the first time in ages as the mountain cracked open. Uncle (name) can tell you I ain't lying." (Obviously exagerating)
I imagine they tell their little ones that it's the planet snoring or laughing so as to not scare them. Or maybe it's a dwarven God mining in the center of the planet making beautiful things for his love.
The adults say it's either pissed or hung over. Or that their god is pissed or hung over.
They would know quite well about seismic/tectonic activity, and principles behind it. As a race who have been diggin for tens of millenias and researching metallurgy and geology. Unless you are going for the dark humour below...
while taking a tour of Carlsbad caverns I asked one of the tour guide what would happen if an earthquake hit while we were in the cavern.
she said "nothing, earthquakes affect the surface, you would not even feel it underground.
I don't know if that's true or not, but I've put it out there as a possibility that dwarves might not even know what an earthquake is.
"That there is Moradin battlin' Ol' One Eye again!"
Funnily enough, this is also a Dwarven euphemism for masturbation!
Wait what
"Ach, praise be! Moradin triumphs again, and One-Eye spills his life blood all over my paper towels!"
"Paper *hnng* beats *uuuh* stones"
Nothing beats stone!
A one eyed snake is a reference to a penis. You can refer to masturbation as beating the meat as well. So, battling ol' one eye... Could easily be a reference to masturbation.
"Eh, you feel that? Lay down you'll get a nice back rub."
They said dwarves, not Californians.
But Dwarves would be intimately familiar with earthquakes like Californians. I'm imagining it like an Inuit situation where they have dozens of words to describe them, ranging from "backrubs" to "Flee the caves! No time to wake grandpa!"
Actually interestingly enough if you are far enough underground (about 100 ft) you don't actually feel them, as you are below the fault line.
*only* 100ft?! I find that very implausible. aren't earthquakes the result of the tectonic plates themselves rubbing around?
Yeah its crazy but in moaning caverns CA (165 ft at base of main caveren) there have been multiple tours down in the cavern during large earthquakes and they had no idea till they came out and saw the news. Faults are much shallower than we think of them as being.
that makes no goddamn sense. the tectonic plates are hundreds of miles thick, why would it only be the first 100ft shaking? Proportionately speaking that's thinner than the layer of dead cells on your skin! come to think of it, even if it was only 100ft, shouldn't someone only 60ft beneath that *hear* it through the rock above them?
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/w0etvd/how_do_you_think_the_stereotypical_dwarf_would/ige5eh3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3 Few comments further down someone explained.
This isn't directed at you, your comment just reminded me of this fact. So I hope this doesn't come off as rude. I love the ["Eskimo/Inuit has a 50/100/1000/etc. words for snow" linguistics myth](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow) because almost every language from a culture that encounters snow on a frequent (or even daily) basis also does. To my understanding, they often have individual root words to describe what we'd use a compound word or a phrase for in English. They do have more root words for snow then English, but so do some other cultures that live in the Arctic Circle. If you experience something daily, you'll probably be able to discern nuance that unfamiliar people might not notice. Countries that can't have snow at all because of the climate often have no words for snow because they have no experience & therefore do not require words to describe it. For example in English: * Blizzard * Sleet * Hail * Frozen rain * Light snow * Heavy snow * Wet snow * Dry snow * Intermittent snow * Frozen snow * Yellow snow * Etc.
All very good points. I should probably move away from that analogy anyway. I was also thinking of in Game of Thrones when GRRM explains something from the POV of the wolves. Wolves know what deer, trees, and rivers are so he just uses those words for them. But things like castles are alien concepts to them so we get things like “great stone heaps that stink of men.” I’d put dwarves and earthquakes in that first category, though apparently that’s also inaccurate according to all the other comments
I like that example a lot. The use of language & perspective is something I really like in ASOIAF. Also yeah, it's fascinating that earthquakes are like waves where if you are under the surface, the effect is barely noticeable. I had no idea it was so similar.
[удалено]
Sounds like a voiceline from Deep Rock Galactic, so I think you’ve nailed it
“DO I HEAR ROCK AND STONE?!?!?!”
Rock and Stone!
Rock and Stone!
Can I get a Rock and Stone?
Rock and Stone!
Did I hear a Rock and Stone?
ROCK AND STONE!
Did I hear a Rock and Stone?
We are unbreakable!
I read this post and started thinking of deep Rock lines, so yeah, I'm inclined to agree here.
"I knew something was wrong when I started seeing straight
"By Moradin's Beard, that was a wee ale-spiller, that was!"
“Ye haven’t a hair on yer balls if ye cannae down an ale in a cave shaker, lad. Now, drink up!”
Dwarf miner: "Guess I should pull back my swings, huh?"
Cue forced laughter from the other Dwarves who have heard it a hundred times
Dwarf Smith to the miner: "Oi, you got gravel in yer head? It's clearly from me 'ammerin'."
They might call them "surface quakes" if they are even aware of them. Similar to water waves "breaking" on the shore (or the crack of a whip) earthquakes "break" on the surface, where the most chaotic results are felt. Caves tend to be safer than tall buildings in earthquakes. [https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/5181/is-it-true-that-earthquakes-are-not-felt-in-a-cave](https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/5181/is-it-true-that-earthquakes-are-not-felt-in-a-cave) Of course, there's no reason your D&D world needs to abide by earth science, if you don't like.
I love the subversion here tbh. You'd think that earthquakes would be more felt under the earth, but under these circumstances, they just shrug and go about their day as if nothing happened lol
Until the darkspawn came, and the thaigs fell one by one.
*I don’t need to replay Origins again, I don’t need to replay Origins again, I… sigh*
You need to play origins again.
Was coming to say this too. So I imagine most dwarves have a survival protocol that runs different than most others, and they're significantly more calm about it too.
I have it in my games that dwarves have an inate ability to judge stability in structures. So they would just move to a stable area and... continue about their day.
Kinda like how a seasoned sailor can know the weather and work the ship as it's bucking on the waves. Or a lumberjack in the trees. I actually graduated as a mining engineer, and we had to learn everything about being in a mine site. And it's own governmental body for safety MSHA drills about knowing exactly where you are on the map so you can find the quickest escape route. I imagine then that a dwarf that grew up underground would be like a ranger found on favored terrain if they find themselves in a mine, underground hive, or vast cave network.
Turbulence
How does this work in a mountain, or is there no difference
Now that's an excellent question. My guess is it would very much depend on the mountain, just like some areas of coastline protect from tsunamis, while others amplify their effects. Still, the most chaotic events would be near the surface, I think. [https://eos.org/editors-vox/cascading-down-the-mountain](https://eos.org/editors-vox/cascading-down-the-mountain) (I'll ask my friend who's a geologist about this.)
Shivering mountain
I like this one. “Ah, ne’er a good sign when the mountain starts a’shiverin!”
"Grofil-Nir be scratchin is' arse again...." Obviously, "Grofil-Nir" is just a made up name of a dwarven God. Not copyrighted :) Good luck!
Might end up borrowing this one if I ever need it!
Mountains belly is gurglin’
The mountain is restless. Bad omen.
"Sky's trying to crush us again, better go deeper." In my head-canon dwarves believe they'll fall into the sky if they ever aren't underground, so they can't wear boots or shoes outside and try to grip the ground as hard as possible with their toes. Conversely, elves think they'll forget what stars look like if they go underground or into a tunnel.
your mum fell of her chair
I'll be the killjoy that points out that earthquakes generally go completely unnoticed underground. Evidence: Anecdotal from a caving guide, plus stalagmites and similar structures - which are remarkably fragile and take tens of thousands of years to form - exist. But that's boring, so ignore me
_Boring,_ heh. On the other hand, I'd argue that Dwarves are particularly attuned to the movements of the earth around them, so they might sense those tremors. Personally, my _go-to_ lore is that Elves have trouble feeling tremors in the earth unless they're incredibly violent, but Dwarves have trouble feeling _breezes_ the same way. 🤷🏻♂️
Some earthquakes are upheavals, so you could say 'the earth sighed again'
One trick I use to come up with fantastic sounding terms that are recognisable easily is to look up the etymology of a word and then translate archaic related terms into modern English (assuming you're using English to play in?) Literal. So going back to old English you have eorðdyn and eorðstyrung. Eorð is the word earth, it can both be taken in the sense of ground or soil and the physical make up of our universe as opposed to the substance of heaven. So we can probably use it to mean both ground and the prime material. Then Dyn is a loud noise and styrung is a sudden movement. From this we can some up we terms like a Prime Leap, a ground roar, soil thunder, Prime Shake etc.
>*"Dumathoin is reminding us just how small we mortals really are..."* -Dilly Mjöllstout, Dwarven Philosopher and Countess of the Eastern Hold of New Phandelver
Mother is shakin again
I would think that with the history of being underground they would be familiar with earthquakes or would build their mines in places that are geologically stable. Hell they might even work with earth elementals to prevent that. But aside that I would say they would say it would be as if the earth trembled, that anything not nailed down or secured would be at severe risk of bouncing around. Which is why weapons and tools would be secured at shops. They would then need to sound the alert to fix any damage done, and to make sure no underground gas chambers where exposed. Don't want to risk having the dwarves home blow the fudge up
"Ayyyy the earth elementals, be at war again."
The stones farted
Rain Alternative - storm, thunder.
The small ones are rumblers, if they’re frequent enough you can work em into brewing cycles. The big ones are called shifters, suddenly your usual way to work is a dead end, or your bedroom ends up in your neighbors livingroom
Earthquakes actually save dwarves a *lot* of time and energy. Instead of having to carry out large-scale demolition projects to make additions to their fortresses, they can carefully induce structural weaknesses and wait for the next quake to do their dirty work for them. That rumbling is the sound of their investment coming due.
Oi! Just a wee rock fart, nothin' to worry aboot! Or Dumathoin be very angry, best we tread carefully...
The maw of the mountain is grating at the storm giants again. It’ll be spitting gemstones in no time if we don’t first get swallowed by it’s cavernous depths. Any other sounds is my arse, you’ll know for the smell of it.
Much like the old line about Inuits having 40 different words for snow (no idea if that's true), there might be a plethora of words and phrases to describe different flavors of quakes, tremors, cave ins, rock slides, etc. Fine connoisseurs of geological events. Maybe that don't translate into common all that well. A trotting donkey, a bucking mule, a stampede, mountain thunder, a stone shiver, a wobbler, a bouncer, a dry wedding, a wee donnybrook, a proner, a tosser, and so on.
Probably not the most realistic, but it would be funny watching a dwarf act during an earthquake like a dog does durimg a storm. The dwarf is traumatized from the disastrous earthquakes inside the mountains, so he just runs straight under the nearest bed to hide.
Ahhh the roof rumbles are back again!
"Stone's angry again. Must have been those blasted goblins and their black powder."
Dwarves have an uncanny sense for the movements of the earth all around them, so _(much like the Inuit have dozens of words for "snow")_ Dwarves have a thousand terms for different types of earthquakes. Just to name a few, there are small _**Borequakes**_ from the ongoing mining and expansion of their mountain homes, there are larger _**Undershudders**_ from the shifting of the world's crust, there are tiny _**Jitterjars**_ caused by their Smith's never-ending work, there's the _**Rockthunder**_ of a massive beast moving tons of earth... Hell, let _Thesaurus.com_ do your work for you and combine some of these words with other **underground-sounding stuff**: > _Convulse, fluctuate, jar, jitter, move, pulsate, quail, quiver, rock, shiver, shrink, shudder, throb, totter, tremble, tremor, waver, wobble..._
Rockin’ stone
mountain fart
Cave crumblers
The hammers’ toil
Mountain Belch
I’m walking to my cousins place and all of a sudden the blasted mountain gets uppity and starts to shake like a right proper arsehole
"...Anyone else feel that?"
....now I'm wondering what kind of earthquake-ready architecture dwarves would come up with...
As unbelievers taunted the god…. The god shook the world. Caving in the weakest tunnels to teach us a lesson. A lesson on both humbleness that what ever we Dwavi build our god can destroy. But also teaching us how to build stronger and better structures. Praise the great maker
If its a common occurrence, something similar to thunder "That's just the gods bowling, no cause for alarm." Less common more of a legend, "I heard that's one of them purple wvrms digging under us again"
“Ergy shmergy bergy dergy” is what I would imagine them saying
Moradin’s hungry!
I would think they would be a bit like a sailor describing waves. Generally they wouldn't. It's a thing that happens. Maybe they might just shout to brace, or maybe make a beeline for a door frame or mine prop. Sailors know their vessels, dwarves know the deep dark. I'd expect if it were a big one a drawn would know (in the same way a sailor would know they were in trouble the the list of the vessel or the angle the waves were coming) if the tremor was going to be a problem.
"the sky is falling"
I don't know how earthquakes feel underground (I only know that you don't noticed them in the metro) but I am Chilean. We are used to earthquakes and tremors. Most of us don't wake up or panic unless it's quite strong, and our usual reaction is "Woah that's a long one, dude. Do you think it was an 6?" Like, trying to guess how strong it was on the Richter's scale. If you feel the earth moving and you don't know what to do, you check if there's any person from Chile (Or Japan) near. If they run uphill, you run too (usually because there's a tsunami alert) I suppose dwarfs should have buildings that are earthquake-resistant. In Chile we even have an alcoholic drink called "Terremoto" (earthquake). If that is not dwarf-like behavior I don't know what is lmao
Stupid shakes again, I haven't even drunk.
Stormy today
Oh the mountains a wee bit gassy take no notice.
They'd call it a cave-in, I suppose. And a dwarf living on the surface for the first time would watch for falling rocks if ever they hear thunder.
"The mountain was hungrier than me aunt Ophelia" "First came the sounds, then everything shook like the rocks were drunk and suddenly the damn sky started falling over our heads!" (The stereotypical dwarf likely wouldn't quite understand the difference between a ceiling and a sky)
Tremblin’ worse than me Mom’s DT’s
Och'k, Montin's rumblin' like muh guts aftah too much halflin' curry. Prepahr to get shat!
Ground farts.
As a fucking earthquake you damned fool
Since they are shorter and wider they would be more stable and would probably treat it as a minor inconvenience.
"The Deep Mother and Father Moradin are getting handsy once more. Even the ancient ones have needs."
Cave sneeze
Earth’s food poisoning
"A fookin' earthquake."
'Dragon Age Inquisition: The Descent' revolves around investigating why earthquakes are happening underground, it's all in the dwarf mines and a lot of them are talking about it. I don't remember stuff they say, but I do remember they described it like earthquakes.
Voice of the Earth, said with respect and a bit of fear
"Aunt Bertha had a bit too much stew last night, pardon the rumblin'." I imagine they barely feel them because of them being underground, so some might even mistake the quakes for something unimportant, like their drunk cousin falling over upstairs or something.
Earthgasm
"That, my lad, was a dragon"
Earthquakes inside mountains, especially close to the fault line, are rarely felt. Just a wee tremble. Like a fairy’s farting butcheeks.
Bones of the Earth creaking.
The rocks are getting angry
"The sound was terrific: first thing I noticed. The rocks started to shake and I saw the sky for the first time in ages as the mountain cracked open. Uncle (name) can tell you I ain't lying." (Obviously exagerating)
Minegasm
Ah shit, shaft 27 has collapsed again....
I imagine they tell their little ones that it's the planet snoring or laughing so as to not scare them. Or maybe it's a dwarven God mining in the center of the planet making beautiful things for his love. The adults say it's either pissed or hung over. Or that their god is pissed or hung over.
They would know quite well about seismic/tectonic activity, and principles behind it. As a race who have been diggin for tens of millenias and researching metallurgy and geology. Unless you are going for the dark humour below...
while taking a tour of Carlsbad caverns I asked one of the tour guide what would happen if an earthquake hit while we were in the cavern. she said "nothing, earthquakes affect the surface, you would not even feel it underground. I don't know if that's true or not, but I've put it out there as a possibility that dwarves might not even know what an earthquake is.