Dwarves

A pair of two well-armed dwarves.

**Dwarves** are a race of stout and stocky individuals from Eukitia. Relatively shrewd, reticent and wary of other races, dwarves typically live in massive underground cities under the control of various mining leagues. Unlike most of the races of the Third Era, dwarves aren't particularly common outside of their own subterranean communities they have forged with gnomes.

## Description

Dwarves are relatively short compared to most other humanoid races, standing roughly around 4 feet tall on average. Like the rocks that surround them, they are extremely hardy, notable for their immense resilience against poisons. Most dwarves sport some form of beard, even females of the race - however, the latter can depend on the individual. Beards are typically a point of pride for dwarves, and another person cutting the beard off of another dwarf is considered a crime worse than murder to them due to the shame it brings. Dwarves tend to be quite wary of non-dwarves, usually approaching them with distrust. This is not true of all dwarves, particularly adventuring ones, however the vast majority are.

Most of the time, dwarves live in the same cities and civilizations as gnomes, as a result of an ancient joining between the two cultures. Gnomes are one of the few races dwarves do not innately distrust.

## Society

Dwarves, unlike other races, are relatively isolationist and prefer to keep to themselves. Due to some unknown, ancient event, dwarves as a whole have generally shied away from regular contact with other races, only a rare few having the gall to regularly interact with non-dwarves. For the most part, dwarves only truly trust gnomes, who they have lived with for time immemorial.

### Mining Leagues

The dwarves, rather than organize themselves into political entities like states or empires, rather live in underground mining leagues. These organizations run more like a business than a state, and have the primary goal of ensuring monetary growth. Each league's ultimate goal is to mine riches from the depths of the lands and sell them to outside powers. In this way, the dwarven mining leagues contribute significantly to the economies of Eukitia, and should they stop selling their ores could damage it irreparably. Most leagues treat their members more like employees than citizens, and the upper leadership tend to act more like business owners than they do leaders.

### Subraces

Dwarves, similar to elves, have a form of dimorphism based on where their mining leagues are. Due to the fact that dwarves rarely leave their homes, they have separated into two distinct subraces based upon their locations.

* **Mountain Dwarves** are the more common of the two subraces, and are the dwarves who have lived in subterranean cities beneath mountains for generations. They are typically stockier than hill dwarves and naturally stronger.
* **Hill Dwarves** are the less common of the two subraces, originating from mining leagues not lucky enough to claim a mountain as their own and instead resigning themselves to hills. Due to living in more open environments, hill dwarves became more cunning than their mountain cousins.

### Underdark Relations

Dwarves, as a race that is constantly mining underground, are no strangers to running into the Underdark and the races that live there. Typically, mining leagues are extremely aggressive towards anything living in the Underdark, especially the shadar-kai. It is widely accepted that dwarves are the primary bastion against the Underdark, and are the main reason that there have been no significant incursions of Underdark forces into the surface world.

### Technology and Dwarven Trains

Due to their relations with gnomes, dwarves have access to significantly advanced technology. Most of this technological development goes into dwarven mining equipment, like automated drills and smelting machinery. However, most major mining leagues have access to what are known as Dwarven Trains - massive machines with a drill on the front end, designed to slowly carve massive tunnels through dirt and stone. These trains, while expensive, are extremely proficient at mining mass quantities of ores, as well as for creating routes to travel through long distances.

## Combat

Dwarves are extremely proficient with warhammers and warpicks. Most of their weapons are similar to the tools they use for mining. Due to their regular encounters with the Underdark, dwarves are used to fighting in tight tunnels and chokepoints and have become extremely proficient with it. In more aggressive mining leagues, dwarven trains may even be outfitted for warfare and armed with cannons and ballistas.