When the dwarves first arrived in the north, a dark race now only reffered to as the Bovo Popuo (dwarven for "The people from before") lived in the mountains. It is believed that the dwarves wiped out this entire race, but that their spirits still linger in dark places deep below the mountains.

Any thoughts to what race this might be?

-Havard

Elsewhere, Snorri suggested that the Bovo Popuo could be Garls. Garls are a race of primitive Giants, comparable to Ogres in size IIRC. Their culture would be neolithic. Some fan sources have suggested that they could be the ancestors of dwarves. They feature in the DA modules so bringing them in here would fit. They also appear in the AC9 Creature Catalog. Personally I like this idea alot.

Edit: Checking AC9, it actually describes the Garls as 10ft tall humans.

-Havard

Looking back at this now, I am leaning towards making the Bovo Popuo into Cavern Chokers.

Chokers first appeared in the Rockhome Gazetteer so they have a long term history as enemies of dwarves in Classic D&D and were also brought into the 3rd Edition Monster Manual.



Perhaps these Bovo Popuo Chokers are somewhat different from standard Chokers, just like Sahaugin are different from Sar Aigu?

-Havard