Dwarves

Dwarves are a race that mostly resides in subterranean or mountain settlements consisting of only dwarves, with a few outliers living or staying elsewhere amongst other species. Though most dwarves prefer to stick to their own settlements, some tend to make business with individuals across the lands, often offering dwarven technology in exchange for large sums of Brei, or resource trade with dwarven settlements. Dwarves tend to live to approximately 300, fully maturing and being recognized as an adult at 54 years old.

When first formed, dwarves are typically proportioned in a similar way to humans, albeit much smaller (approximately 3ft in height), as they age they appear to gain a much wider skeletal structure, putting on a lot more muscle mass as they age, this gives them their stocky appearance that characterizes the race.

## Reproduction/Formation

Dwarves are formed when magic is compressed in heavy stone, typically forming in mountains or caves. After this process is complete, a fully formed dwarf violently bursts from the stone. Due to the magic typically being in small clusters, it is common for dwarves to appear in caves near each other. Due to the nature of dwarven formation, in rare cases Dwarves form in the space of rare magical minerals, absorbing the minerals into their very souls, this gives these dwarves a particularly strong innate magical energy.

Dwarves often appear to have crystalline structures, typically of a similar colour to the mineral they are formed from covering their wounds in the place of scars, if the wound was large enough, these crystals can extend away from the wounds, forming small clusters of crystal over the wound. These clusters can be painlessly removed with a chisel, though some dwarves prefer to keep their battle scars.

## Abilities

* Crystalline Healing - when dwarves are injured, their wounds close over and heal faster than other races, allowing dwarves to have a chance to recover from otherwise fatal wounds. An average Dwarf heals at approximately 150% the rate of an average human.
* Tolerant skin - Dwarves skin is rather resistant to burns and heat

## Culture

### Names & Language

Dwarves are often named with a similar sound to earths Norse, Celtic and Gaelic names. This is exempted when Dwarven Royalty are formed, as they are often named after the minerals they form from. Dwarves tend to show less vocal etiquette compared to other races, preferring to be more blunt and brutally honest with their words.

### Traditions

- It is common dwarven tradition to store your own innate magic until coming of age in a ceremony known as Yormsday releasing their stored innate magic into an Ifrit crystal, powering a forge which will then be used to forge an Ornate Shield, Piece of amour, Tool or weapon. These are typically only used for ceremonial purposes, often being shared as an equivalent to human wedding rings. This tradition is often seen as the reason dwarves are seldom magically talented.

- Whilst rare for dwarves to regularly use magic even in small amounts, there are still few cases of dwarves who have become notable for their use of magic.

- In Dwarven civilisation it is common tradition to crown those formed from high value materials as royalty.