Dwarves

Dwarves are a stout and rugged people, known for their mountain kingdoms and warrior culture. The Children of Durn are renowned craftsmen and expert warriors but tend to be isolated from the rest of the world.

Appearance
Dwarves are stocky humanoids, averaging about 5 feet all and 170 lbs. Dwarves have notably wide bodies thick bones and muscles, giving them a very solid build, often compared to a short rectangle due to their somewhat flat skulls. Dwarves usually have a fair skin tone, though their complexion can range through all manner of earthy colors. Blonde, red, black, and brown hair are all equally common among them, though Dwarves almost always have icy and light-colored eyes.

Most Dwarves have no shortage of body hair with both sexes able to grow rather thick beards. Male Dwarves take great pride in their beards, frequently growing them to absurd lengths. Their squat bodies cause them to walk with a noticeable waddle at most times, and their short fingers are rather strong but are ill-suited for working with particularly fine detail.

Dwarves usually live around 200 years, although some particularly hardy ones can achieve nearly 500. Dwarves age like most humanoids, reaching adulthood around 80 and turning grey-haired and wrinkled with old age. Notably, older Dwarves tend to get even shorter with their burly physiques pulling their spines down.

Overview
Dwarves tend to be blunt and honest, giving them a reputation for being rude, showing no interest in pretending to like people they do not. Dwarves are usually quite friendly to those they encounter unless given reason otherwise, though they are also slow to grant trust and will act guarded and private until their distrust has been alleviated. Among their friends and family, however, Dwarves are known to be jovial and rowdy with a love of good drink and song.

Dwarf culture tends to be quite conservative and very slow to change, valuing tradition and the decisions of their forefathers over innovation. This makes Dwarf communities rather stable if somewhat stagnant, usually lagging behind the other races in terms of technological progress. However, they are a curious sort and greatly enjoy partaking in exotic art and goods, especially alcohol and food, which has led to both good trade relations and, less fortunately, raids from the Dwarves.

Generally, Dwarves have a very deep sense of honor with which they judge themselves and others. Honesty, fortitude, and relentless courage are their prime virtures, with cowardice being extremely shameful. Above all else Dwarves despise lying, and most will immediately develop a hatred of liars with even white lies agitating them somewhat. Dwarves also glorify combat a great deal, finding it to be a noble profession or even a sport of sorts. This has led to many tales of Dwarf scouts cheerfully declaring their intent to raid a settlement and warn them to prepare their defenses for the oncoming battles, though such raids have died down greatly over the years. Dwarves are all trained in combat to some degree as part of their upbringing, including women.

Religion
Dwarves focus their spirituality in two main areas: their creator God Durn, and the spirits of their ancestors. Dwarven prayer tends to be a very private affair with public sermons being rather rare and usually taking the form of a feast when they do. As such Dwarven shrines tend to be very small but well-crafted, watched over by a singular Cleric who also acts as its defender. Since Durn is a god of both craftsmen and of war, Dwarves feel little need to pay much mind to the rest of the pantheon, save for the occasional prayer. As such, Dwarven priests are also frequently blacksmiths or warriors, supplementing each trade with their divine prowess.

For ancestral worship, Dwarves build large tombs and burial mounds, often divided up by family. Dwarves will often enter these tombs to speak to their family, asking for insight or even merely relating recent events to them or reminiscing about old times. Dwarves, moreso than any other race, despise those who would desecrate their burial sites, such things sending them into a frothing rage. Sometimes even the dead will show their outrage, briefly returning as deadly Draugr to defend their crypt and slaughter the invader.

Government
Most Dwarf settlements are governed by the elder, usually the oldest dwarf in the settlement although sometimes they are decided by the populace. Larger settlements are ruled by an Oligarchy of three to five elders. They have little formal government aside from a strict list of simple rules passed down through generations, with new ones rarely being added and even fewer ever being removed. Elders usually gain power through the respect of their younger peers, although they have been known to overthrow corrupt or senile elders only to be replaced.

Dwarves do not value wealth as much as they value skill, so merchants rarely gain any status resembling nobility. Craftsmen and mine bosses usually fill those roles, but Dwarves are quick to turn on those who go against their codes of conduct and honor, even their superiors. Civil wars and riots have been witnessed within Dwarven communities, but they never last very long and rarely end in much death (but quite a lot of fist-fighting).

Dwarves will allow select few outsiders to live among them, and even then only when they've demonstrated themselves both trustworthy and useful to the community. These immigrants are, however, granted full liberties as part of the clan and are expected to return the favor by pledging loyalty to their new home.

Craft
Dwarves are fairly well known for their architecture and blacksmithing skills. Much like Dwarves themselves, their buildings and tools tend to be simple, efficeint, and sturdy. Dwarven architecture is often very geometric and blocky, with many simple runes and designs built into it to denote their pride in their craft. They rarely try anything too ornate, gaudy, or complex, preferring to keep it simple and stick to what works. They also enjoy crafting gargoyles, dragon heads, and other monstrous icons into their buildings and boats, feeling it gives the material a sort of life on its own, literally in some rare cases. Even tunnels tend to have some limited artistic flourish to them, since what may be a mine tunnel one day may be a residential hall the next.

Dwarves who dwell underground like to create their buildings out of the raw rock itself, although their stone-masons are unsurpassed in brickwork as well. Dwarves who still live above ground primarily use wood, though they almost always lay a sturdy stone foundation. Their ship-making skills are also top-notch, often employing the same techniques into their wooden houses. This is because they would often repurpose their ships as roofs, or at least incorporate the deconstructed ship into the buildings.

Tools and weapons are also highly prized when made by Dwarf hands. Dwarven smiths are legendary in their craft, mastering the use of bronze, iron, steel, and other alloys. Dwarves are known for spending much time mining for useful metals, creating whole new colonies just to dig for it. Like their architecture, Dwarven tools are pragmatic and geometric, often with varying degrees of surprisingly intricate designs where they can be fit, depending on the skill of the craftsman. Dwarves have little use for gold outside of currency, sometimes using it for an extra decorative touch or to trade away to other races for more useful materials.

Dwarves have little in the way of what other races would call "fine art", feeling that something that doesn't have a use besides looking pretty as a waste of materials and time. As such, they pour their artistic and creative expression into forging gear and creating buildings.

Military
Dwarves have a very proud military tradition that they always keep sharp. Their warriors tend to be a proud sort that relish the chance for combat, even expecting greater rewards in the afterlife for dying a glorious death. The joy with which Dwarves will march to battle is somewhat off-putting to other races, especially since they have a tendency to be quite friendly with their opponents even amidst the carnage. In early days Dwarves raided and stole from others, feeling it was just a contest of strength and the spoils being the reward. They would even often grant gifts to those that successfully repelled them. Later, Dwarves became a much more reactionary force, defending their homes viciously and rarely waging offensive battles in other peoples' lands.

Dwarf warriors tend to favor heavy and simple weapons. When not wielding swords and shields they could be found with one or more axes, maces, or hammers. Their armies tend to have few ranged specialists, although they are notably quite deadly with their crossbowman. Once gunpowder was granted to them by the Gnomes, Dwarves also picked up a taste for canons for both defensive and siege purposes.

Dwarven armies are often accompanied by Clerics of Durn, who bolster their forces with divine magic as well as being rather deadly combatants in their own right. Use of military magic is usually relegated solely to increasing the effectiveness of their warriors, although some Clerics will use offensive spells as well. Most feared, however, are the Dwarven Berserkers. Berserkers will go mad with divine rage (and usually more than a little mead), becoming almost supernaturally strong, fast, and tough. Tales of the laughing maniacs tearing through whole units, naked save for an animal hide and two axes were told in many campaigns involving the Dwarves.

Magic
Most Dwarf magic comes from their Clerics, with Arcane magic very rarely ever practiced. While an individual Dwarven Mage might crop up, they rarely stay within Dwarf society who, as a whole, have little interest in pursuing that sort of magic, finding it dangerous and impractical. What they lack in Arcane ability, however, they make up for in foiling it. Dwarven distaste of magic has lead them make astonishing leaps in disrupting it, both Arcane and Divine. They have developed a number of purely mundane methods of foiling particular spell types as well as a specialty in anti-magic Runes. Runes, exclusively created by Clerics with a specialty in forging, can exude all manner of effects, all of which relating to preventing a certain form of spell from altering the inscribed object or location.

Fashion
Dwarves prefer simple clothing that denotes their trade. For example, it is common to see a blacksmith casually wearing his apron and warriors often insist on wearing their chain shirt while out in public. Dwarves enjoy braiding their hair, incluidng beards for Dwarf men, and decorating it with beads, rings, and rune-scribed talismans. Wealthy or noble Dwarves often denote their status with gold jewelry and hair decorations but never dip into actual opulence, as gaudy outfits are heavily frowned upon. When the Dwarves began to interact more with other races, it quickly became fashionable for Dwarf women to keep their beards shaved off.

Mountain Dwarves
When Dwarves began settling mining colonies, many eventually took to the more sedentary living conditions. These would become known as Mountain Dwarves, named after their preference for living in their cavernous mines-turned-homes as opposed to the open sea like their forefathers. The practice of transforming emptied mines into living spaces became so common that soon Mountain Dwarves greatly outnumbered their seafaring brethren, eventually physically adapting to their subterranean lifestyle.

Dwarves vary little in their physical diversity, but Mountain Dwarves have notably better dark-sight than those that dwell above-ground. This causes Mountain Dwarves in particular to have very light skin and a very "squinty" appearance when above ground.

Culturally, Mountain Dwarves have become the "standard" that most other races consider when they think of Dwarves. Rather than the raiding parties of the old days, Dwarves are known for their mountain fortresses and willingness to partake in peaceful trade. Mountain Dwarves keep to themselves, and they prefer it that way.

Salt Dwarves
Named for their tendency to spend a lot of time near or on the ocean, Salt Dwarves are closer to their roots than their subterranean brethren, maintaining a strong naval tradition and the lust for exploration that once defined them. WIth the world having few new places to discover, Salt Dwarves maintain their culture out of dedication and pride, often offering their services as warriors and sailors to the denizens of Froskal. Ironically, the Salt Dwarves have also developed large settlements, just favoring frozen coasts over dark tunnels.

Salt Dwarves usually appear more tanned and a little taller than most Mountain Dwarves, with their hair tending more towards blonde. Their builds tend to be somewhat leaner and lighter, helping facilitate swimming. Salt Dwarves are a little more open to other societies and are quicker to make friends, but also have a stronger tendency towards violence, especially in response to slights against their honor or ancestors. Salt Dwarves still have a reputation for being somewhat brutish, though never quite on the same level as Orcs.

Lost Dwarves
Formed from various mining expeditions that dug too deep into the Underworld and, as a result, found themselves lost or trapped within it. In such a hostile land even Dwarves find it difficult to survive, and so Lost Dwarves usually tend to be rugged and more than a little paranoid. They are known for digging themselves deep fortifications and reacting to all potential trespassers with a lot of aggression and suspicion, if not outright hostility. Lost Dwarves are not nearly as numerous as the other two, but there are enough to form sustained colonies with a distinct identity.

Lost Dwarves tend to look sickly pale with blotchy skin and yellowed eyes, with some Dwarves even comparing them to corpses. They are susceptible to numerous twitches and tics, and their paranoia even extends to other Dwarves. In fact, they have spurned quite a number of intended rescue attempts, but the stubborn Lost Dwarves refused to leave the fortified camps that their ancestors fought and died protecting.

Pre-History
Dwarves were among the second generation of sentient races that were created on the world. Dwarves claim that they were created before the Elves, who claim otherwise. This is a hotly debated issue among both Dwarves and Elves, and no clear answer has ever been found. Durn, their creator, is said to have chiseled the first Dwarves from stone and imbued them with the traits he held dearest.

The Great War
When The Great War was declared, Dwarves were on the front lines immediately. Serving as the front line for the forces of Heaven and gladly serving as shock troops against the forces of evil. Dwarves' natural ruggedness and value of determination made them excellent front-runners for the armies, a fact that would continue to fill them with pride and solidify their military tradition.

The Dark Times
When the gods left and the war ended, the Dwarves were more affected by others by the coming of The Dark Times. Directionless without their god and left without a war to fight, the Dwarves looked to others to find an outlet for their combat prowess and make up for their lack of infrastructure. They became known for traveling across the world, picking fights with any evil forces that they might find and raiding their former allies when no other opponents were available.

Despite their often violent behavior, Dwarves managed to maintain fairly cordial relationships with their allies since they were also first and foremost vanguards against evil. However, the conflict between their crafting skills and lack of raw material production became more and more of a problem as time wore on, with the Dwarves suffering several deficiencies of both metals and food. It was during this time that the first major mining operations took place on lands the Dwarves bought (or took, in some cases), with some clans being badgered into becoming full-time miners so that the other clans could have access to steel more regularly.

The Return of the Gods
The Dwarves in particular were overjoyed when Durn returned to them, holding grand celebrations. They were the only "good" race to oppose The Divine Pact, but after Durn accepted the terms they began to come around, vowing to continue the good fight despite their god's indirect role. The Dwarves were quick to establish a very strong religious tradition, especially at their sedentary mining settlements. It was this time that the mining Dwarves chose to settle into their new lifestyle, adapting to the relatively peaceful new landscape.

Notable Settlements

 * Bronzecrag: Effectively the capital of the Mountain Dwarves as the largest kingdom ever created by Dwarven hands. Formerly a mine built in the copper-rich mountains of northern Tyravia, the mine discovered huge veins of iron and other metals as well and thus became hugely prosperous. Its proximity to other major kingdoms only helped it flourish.
 * Isighall: The largest colony of Salt Dwarves on Froskal.
 * Schwartzschrekt Barrows: Originally a Dwarven mining operation built on a massive battle site on Ibianus. Attacks from the locals and a lack of valuable metals to mine caused the Dwarves to abandon it only for it to be picked up by a human lord who would continue its tragic legacy.

Notable Dwarves

 * Ivar Stoneheart: A Dwarf that chose to side with the Radiant Empire. Notable that he shaved his head and his beard as a sign of devotion to a new cause.