The Gold Dwarves of Karnigan

Gold Dwarf

The Gold dwarves live north of their cousins, the Iron dwarves, their home is cold and rocky, forming a race that is tough and highly resistant to the elements. Gold dwarves are the aloof, confident and sometimes proud subrace of dwarves that predominantly come from the Karnigan. They are known to be particularly stalwart warriors and shrewd traders.

Nations

Karnigan - The fortress of Karnigan is in Aurune high up in the mountains, filled with snowy plateaus and cliffs, and sprawling evergreen forests. The Northern Dwarves live a comfortable existence, high in the mountains of the earth in vast fortresses mining and digging out the valuables on the world.

History

The Dwarves were created early in the worlds history by Moradin. They were created to be a strong and hardy race who loved their god and delighted in the earth as he did. The Dwarves were one race for but a short time and split into two nations. The Gold dwarves being those wanting to strike out on their own and found a new nation. One group stayed in the temperate mountains of Aravin, thought to be their birthplace. The other group moved north to the frigid steppes. This latter group became known as the Gold dwarves.

The history of all dwarves is marked with conflict between the Elves and with many of the lesser races who constantly infringe upon their home. The rivalry of the Elves and the dwarves for each other goes back millennia, and is deeply rooted in the thought of both races.

It is unknown precisely when the northerners broke off from their mountain home to settle a land yet so different than the one from which they came and some that originally left didn't go north and went elsewhere and their fate still remains unknown. Many theories exist, but all that is known for certain is that the northerners have developed their own culture. Hunters and gatherers still by necessity, they have nonetheless built settlements, especially along rivers and frozen lakes. True to their love of the earth, these settlements are built from hills and cliffs, or from gigantic snow-caves, in the highest altitudes some of which are legendary sights.

Appearance

Gold dwarves are stout, tough individuals like their shield dwarven brethren but are less off-putting and gruff in nature. Conversely, gold dwarves are often less agile then other dwarves The average gold dwarf is about four feet tall and as heavy as a full-grown human, making them somewhat squatter than the more Iron dwarf. Gold dwarves are also distinguishable by their light brown or tanned skin, significantly darker than that of most dwarves, and their brown or hazel eyes. Gold dwarves have black, gray, or brown hair, which fade to light gray over time. Gold dwarf males and some females can grow beard, which are carefully groomed and grown to great lengths

Personality

Northern dwarves are more reserved and temperate in their moods than their cousins from the Badlands. Northerners still enjoy a stiff drink and the company of their own kind, and they are especially partial to song. Northerners, however, do tend to have more of a respect for the gods, and the deeper matters of life. They are more inclined to rite, ritual, and prayer; and more likely to take oaths or abide by codes of honor. While few northerners will become scholars, almost all would respect and befriend a scholar. They are ambitious, but they are less likely than the iron dwarves to pursue their ambition with extremes of passion and recklessness.

Northerners are fierce fighters, and are very adept at survival in extreme circumstances, turning their environment from foe to friend with ease. Northerners are also extremely loyal to those they call friends.

Culture

Humans who wander into the gold dwarven strongholds may be surprised to find a people far more confident and secure in their future than most dwarves. Whereas the Iron dwarves suffered serious setbacks during their history, the gold dwarves have stood firm against the challenges thrown against them for the most part with the excpetion of a few instances and so have few doubts about their place in the world. As a result, gold dwarves can come off as haughty and almost Elf-like in their pride, believing themselves culturally superior to all other races and lacking the fatalistic pessimism of their Iron dwarven cousins.

Customs and Religions

Like all of the Dwarven kin, the Gold Dwarves have a deep respect for their creator, Moradin. They retain knowledge of him, and share many ancient hymns of Moradin’s praise with the Iron dwarves. Additionally, the northerners still love the earth on which they walk, and respect it. They make their homes from it and make their living from it.

Mages are almost non-existent among the northern dwarves. Clerics and paladins are common. The use of divine based magic prayer and devotion to Moradin is the source of most magic on the frozen steppes. Blessings of strength, healing, good fortune, and the rebuke of evil things are common powers for clerics.

The most sacred site in gold dwarf civilization is the city of Thullurn, where the regional church of Moradin is centered. There, Moradin's clerics sponsors a rich culture of manufacturing and craftsmanship as well as serving as the city's executive and judiciary branches of government.

Art and leisure

Gold dwarves are a deeply materialistic race who believe that the resources of the natural world exist only to serve the purpose of conscious beings. To a gold dwarf, there is no greater purpose than to fashion the minerals of the earth into things of beauty.Gold dwarf guilds take great care in their craftsmanship, often spending centuries to perfect their work and mark it distinctively as their own, a practice which is carried down to even the most simple tools, marking such items with detailed runes and carefully shaped flairs.

Gold dwarf warriors employ a large number of finely crafted weapons and armor, often enchanted with runes or prayers. Most commonly, dwarves employ weapons that can also be used as tools, such as axes, picks, or hammers, alongside more specialized weapons like urgroshes. Some unique items of note crafted by gold dwarves are mobile braces, rope climbers, or drogue wings used for riding hippogriffs.

Gold dwarves enjoy the company of small ice spiders as pets such as the spitting crawler or even shocker lizards. Sheep frequently kept as livestock as well, alongside pack mules as beasts of burden. For mounts, gold dwarves usually use riding rams or more rarely, hippogriffs.

Psychology

Gold dwarves are both materialistic and ritualistic, valuing themselves and others by what they possess and by the reputation of their family. Gold dwarves are deeply conservative, rooting their values and beliefs in traditions that have survived for millennia even as the world changed around them. From infancy, gold dwarves are taught that their life is determined by tradition, from what their profession shall be to who they shall marry. Gold dwarves who lack faith in the old ways or who go so far as to challenge cultural taboos are seen as dangerous deviants unworthy of friendship or trust by the majority of gold dwarves, creating an enormous social pressure to conform. In part because of their conservatism and staunch belief in their own cultural superiority, gold dwarves rarely venture outside of their kingdom