Gnarvesh

## **Description**

**Gnarvesh**, also known as ***"Dwarves," "Halflings," "Gnomes,"*** and ***"Littlefolk"*** are an intelligent bipedal mammalian race found throughout all of planet **Haven**, and are a member of the **Edian Races**, a group of ten individual races all descendent from the **Inomeni** race, the **Edia**, who once held dominion over the whole of the world. Gnarvesh are an immensely populace race, second-most of the Edian Races, only behind that of the **Mythra**. As a result, Gnarvesh can be found in nearly every corner of the globe.

For much of world history, the Gnarvesh have lacked much power and influence over Haven's political stage, not often holding positions of great power, usually lagging behind those of their contemporary Edian sister-races of Mythra and **Sylvians**, commonly only ever holding power in small, tight-knit Gnarvesh communities. This is due to the Gnarvesh's small stature, as it is often times difficult for one of that size to be able to hold their own in combat against those who are much larger.

The name ***"Gnarvesh"*** derives from the Edian word meaning ***"Folk of the Mountains,"*** so named for the Gnarvesh's native domain, that of high cliffs and mountain ranges. While inherently, the Gnarvesh are best suited for the high and rocky terrain of mountains and high hills and cliffs, throughout the years Gnarvesh have found themselves able to acclimate to nearly any environment or terrain, including fertile plains, verdant groves, temperate forests and even the hostility of arid deserts, and frigid tundra.

Gnarvesh are famed across the whole of the world for their people's great levels of hardiness and tenacity in the face of adversity. An old adage one may here while wondering about is ***"Stubborn as a Dwarf,"*** a rather popular phrase across the lands due to the truth behind it, as Gnarvesh are extremely stubborn, strong-hearted, and willful. For a Gnarvesh, it is either their way, or no way at all, and they will try their absolute hardest to mold the world, and those around them to follow in the vision or belief they wish to enact.

## **Biology**

### **Appearance**

Gnarvesh are one of the easiest of the Edian Races to discern from the rest of their sister-races, and that of course would be their short stature, standing at an average three feet, (0.91 meters) while the tallest of their kind only being in the upper four feet, (1.2 meters) while their fairly bulky bodies weighing in at an average one hundred and fifty pounds. (68 kilograms) Their short stature and thick build has been specially developed by the Gnarvesh to be able to withstand the hostility of their native mountainous environments, being able to easily traverse the rocky crags and outcroppings, while also being able to operate in high, low oxygen altitudes due to less need for oxygen flow when compared to other races of the world.

The face of the Gnarvesh is typically fairly rounded, with chiseled cheeks, rough complexions, and for the males, often times with a great amount of facial hair. Their ears are rather elongated, though not as much as races like the Sylvians, while their noses are often times quite large and bulging out, though this isn't uniform amongst them. Their feet are fairly large when compared to other races of the world, the soles of their feet covered in thick calloused skinned, able to withstand near any type of terrain, allowing the individual Gnarvesh able to walk across hundreds of kilometers of sharp, frozen, or even volcanic rocks.

Like most races of the world, the appearance of individual Gnarvesh can vary greatly from one another, from skin tone, to overall build of the body, asides from their short stature, very little is uniform amongst all of the Gnarvesh race. Their skin tone can vary quite extremely, from pale-white, to pitch black, even exotic colors like violet and green a Gnarvesh can adopt, though not as vibrant as other races such as the Sylvians. As well, the build of their person can differ heavily from one another, to the more common bulk and muscle, to the more rare slender and sleek, all dependent on the native environment in which the respective individual Gnarvesh was born to.

Throughout a Gnarvesh's life, their hair will continually grow at an extreme rate. In but a single year, the hair atop an individual Gnarvesh's head will grow a length of a full two feet, making most all Gnarvesh have a long mane of hair throughout most of the year. To keep from becoming a burden in day-to-day life, an individual will have to spend much of their time with its upkeep, be it tying it back away from their eyes, or cutting and trimming it down. As well as hair atop their heads, throughout the rest of their body, hair will continually grow out, though the rate in which this happens depends on the Gnarvesh's gender, with males experiencing body hair growth much faster than females, while females will typically experience faster head hair growth.

### **Physiology**

Nearly all of the Gnarvesh's abilities inherent to themselves are so that they are best able to survive and thrive in their native environments, that being of course high mountains, steep cliffs, and deep cavernous expanses. Their short stature and bulky build were specially developed to be able the hardships of life in mountainous expanses, able to withstand the low oxygen of higher altitudes, and being able to survive falls of incredible heights, with falls up to forty feet being able to be shrugged off by the individual Gnarvesh, while their feet and legs can withstand the hostile terrain almost endlessly.

As a consequence of their muscular and bulky builds, Gnarvesh are fairly physically strong when compared to other Edian Races. They are fairly difficult to push around or knock over due to their stout bodies, and if one manages to knock them to the earth, they will quickly return to their feet. While they are also able to carry a great deal of weight for an Edian race, able to carry great weights that some other races would find extremely difficult, as even the weakest of Gnarvesh's can carry at least over a hundred pounds of items. These abilities of strength and durability were specially developed to offset their race's inherent short stature, as if they cannot rely on physical height, then they must rely on physical strength.

One of the most impressive features of the Gnarvesh is their eyes, specially developed to be able to perceive things in the great dark found within cavernous expanses, as the light of day is snuffed out by the cavern walls. Having near-total night vision, a Gnarvesh can see in perfect clarity at nearly any light level, however, in total darkness, a Gnarvesh would have to first get accustomed to the dark, though they would have a much easier time of it than any other Edian race.

Alongside their eye's ability to see in the dark, the Gnarvesh race inherently possesses a knack for discerning patterns within things such as cracks in stone walls, or the accents of a crafted door, making them able to see sudden changes in said pattern other races may not be able to. Despite their elongated ears, a Gnarvesh's earing is typically at its best within areas with much echoes, such as caverns and mountain ranges, as they lack much close earing range. While not as powerful as a Sylvian's, a Gnarvesh's earing within vast areas is still fairly impressive, being able to detect faint echoes of predators in a cavern wall, or a would-be rockfall or avalanche in the mountains