Dwarf

### Overview

Dwarves are a humanoid race common throughout Aeglion noted outwardly for their short stature. Dwarves are a tough, tradition-abiding folk known for their strong martial traditions and beautiful craftsmanship. They excel at jobs other races find tedious, but also have a great love of exploration and discovery.

### Appearance

Sometimes referred to as Stout Folk, dwarves are a short race, standing from four to five on average. What Dwarves lack in height they make up for in bulk; they are, on average, about as heavy as humans. A dwarf could weigh up to 220 lbs. They have thick, heavy bones, tightly packed muscular sinew, and stability unmatched by other races. Like humans, dwarves had a wide variety of skin, eye, and hair colors.

Their hair is usually worn long, and dwarven men spend considerable effort growing, maintaining, and embellishing their long beards, carefully oiling and grooming it, adding perfume and ornamentations. Popular beard decorations among more traditional dwarves include complicated braids, small trophies of battle, or other objects associated with significant life events. Facial hair can sometimes be used to display social status. One of the worst offenses to a dwarven man is to shave his beard, as it is considered a deadly insult not only to the individual, but also to his ancestors and family. Clean-shavenness on a male dwarf is also a sure sign of madness. Dwarf women however, although prone to grow facial hair, mays have none without consequence.

Dwarves are a long-lived race. A dwarf was traditionally considered an adult once he or she reached age fifty. Dwarves aged much like humans but over a longer period of time, remaining vigorous well past 150 years. Most dwarves lived to see their bicentennial and a few lived to be over 400

Dwarven dress mirrors the items they so carefully craft, elevating function over style, but they are never plain. Most decorations also serve a practical purpose, such as special fasteners, reinforced seams, useful padding, or loops for holding weapons or tools.

### Personality

Dwarves are a careful and deliberate race. Whether or not the dwarven claim that they are carved from the world’s stone was true, dwarves share many qualities considered similar to the stone they lived with: strong, hardy, and dependable. Dwarves are also known for their stubborn nature and cynicism. Dwarves value their traditions, and look for inspiration from ancestral heroes.

Naturally dour and suspicious, the stout folk are slow to trust others, specifically towards those outside

their family, suspecting the worst of an individual until the outsider proved their good will many times. Just as dwarves are known for their dependability as friends and allies, dwarves also harbored grudges far longer than many other races. Dwarves rarely forgive a wrongdoing done to them or their families. Despite this, they are capable of seeing through ancient prejudices to value a battle-tested friend. For dwarves, loyalty was more than a word. Dwarven friendship is hard to earn, but true friendship to a dwarf is worth more than all the gold and gems they seem to crave.

Dwarves have been known to succumb easily to wrath or greed, which are the most common vices of the race.

Dwarves are often motivated by avarice, given the dwarven love of beautiful things. Dwarves hope that their accomplishments abroad could bring honor to themselves, their clan, or both. Dwarves are not entirely unsocial and more than a few had a natural knack for bartering or judging the value of an offer, something that sit well with their legendary crafting abilities. Dwarf elders, in particularly, possess great wisdom.

Dwarves love a hearty meal and good ale, often to excess. The great distances between dwarves' mountain citadels account for many of the cultural differences that exist within their society. Despite these schisms, dwarves throughout the world are characterized by their love of stonework, their passion for stone- and metal-based craftsmanship and architecture. While some dwarf clans may not be precisely militaristic, they learned long ago that those without axes can be hewn apart by them, and thus dwarves everywhere are schooled to be ready to enforce their rights and claims by force of arms. When their patience with diplomacy is exhausted, dwarves do not hesitate to adopt what they call "aggressive negotiations."

### History

Dwarves are a stoic but stern race, often ensconced in cities carved from the hearts of mountains or large cities in isolation. More than any other race, dwarves have acquired a reputation as dour and humorless artisans of the earth.

TBD

### Tribes/Clans/Subtypes

There existed several dwarven subraces. The best known are listed below.

TBD

### Society

#### Culture

Dwarves highly valued the ties between family members and friends, weaving tightly knit clans. Dwarves particularly respected elders, from whom they expected sound leadership and the wisdom of experience, as well as ancestral heroes or clan founders.

#### Clans

Most dwarven societies are divided into clans built along family ties and political allegiances. These clans are usually led by hereditary rulers, often monarchs of a sort and descended from the founder of the clan. Dwarves strongly value loyalty to these rulers and to the clan as a whole and even neutral dwarves tend to side primarily with their kin over other races or communities.

Most dwarven clans focused on one or two kinds of crafting, such as blacksmithing, jewelry, engineering, or masonry. Dwarves strove to avoid overspecialization by sending some of their youth as apprentices to other clans, which also helped to foster clan unity. Because of their long lifespan, these apprenticeships might last decades.

#### Homelands

Most dwarves preferred living in underground cities near the surface and in mountains. Carved into stone, these cities might take centuries to complete but are practically ageless once finished. Though dwarves are typically a martial race by nature, these cities had civilian populations that composed about one fourth of the total population and which are made up primarily of the young, the elderly, or a few regular adults. Depending on the clan, females may compose as large a portion of the military as male dwarves do. In their own homelands, dwarves continuously carved out new living space, mining the mountains’ riches as they did so.

The Dwarves of the Baren Isles lived in large cities scattered across those islands, particularly Silverforge. Dwarves in these cities tended to primarily be artisans, engineers and scientists.

### Relations

Taller races sometimes refer to dwarves as runts, although they find this extremely offensive.

Dwarves did not forgive past wrongs easily. Dwarves and orks have long dwelt in proximity to one another, and share a history of violence as old as both races. Dwarves generally distrust and shun orks. They find elves, gnomes, and halflings to be too frail, flighty, or "pretty" to be worthy of proper respect. It is with humans that dwarves share the strongest link, for humans' industrious nature and hearty appetites come closest to matching those of the dwarven ideal. Dwarves are incredibly hard working, dedicated, and tough, and see other races who do not share these traits as being frivolous at best, and weak and degenerate at worst. Elves are considered to be the ultimate examples of this, and it is rare to find much love between an elf and a dwarf.

Dwarves who migrated to human cities made a living as mercenaries, smiths, or artisans of various kinds. Dwarves are eagerly sought after as warriors, their reputation of courage and loyalty making them excellent choices for bodyguards.

### Alignment

Dwarves are driven by honor and tradition, and while they are often satirized as standoffish, they have a strong sense of friendship and justice, and those who win their trust understand that.

### Strengths and Weaknesses

Dwarves are unusually tough for humanoids, in more ways than one. Dwarven stomachs, for instance, are resistant to virtually all poisons and it took less effort for a dwarf to get back on its feet than other races. Dwarves also have dense bodies and are difficult to push around as a result, as well as having the capacity to bear loads that other races might find hindering.

It was occasionally believed that dwarves possess the ability to see in the blackest darkness. However, many dwarves did have an affinity in other ways for the caverns in which they lived, possessing a, extraordinary affinity for recognizing unusual patterns in stonework.

### Religion

Most dwarves venerate Ingorf, the God of the Forge, above all others

TBD

### Languages

Most dwarves primarily speak the Dwarven language, although most are also fluent in Common