Dwarves

Dwarves, known as the Andvrgar in the dwarven tongue, are a race of short humanoids who arrived to Ondorwis during the Elder Days, and are one of the few Elder Races who have persisted to the modern era. Resilient and long lived, the dwarves are renowned for their skill in crafting stone, and primarily reside within settlements called holds, most of which are located underground.

While the various holds are quite independent from one another, they are bound together by a set of common traditions which span thousands of miles and thousands of years. As a whole, the dwarven race is united by the loose confederation of holds known as the Durian League.

Dwarves tend to interact fairly frequently with the dominant humans of Arvinder, with many of their holds being located within the mountain ranges of human nations. Trade is heavy between the two races, and dwarves can often be found in human cities, especially those near their holds.

## History

Dwarves first arrived to Ondorwis in 9,350 BC, in the modern day Dragonridge Mountains. The population from which modern dwarves descend arrived in a single massive wave, with the group being estimated to number between nine hundred and two thousand individuals by modern dwarven historians.

## Physical Appearance

Dwarves greatly resemble humans, with the most noticeable difference being their size. Most dwarf men stand between 3'7'' - 3'11'' inches tall, and weigh between 130 and 160 lbs, weighing more than most comparably sized humans (usually children) due to their broader, stockier builds. Dwarf women tend to be somewhat smaller, usually standing between 3'3''- 3'7'' inches, tall, and weighing between 110-140 pounds.

Dwarves tend to be quite stocky, with broad shoulders and short yet powerful limbs, and have high amounts of body hair, with it being highly unusual to see a dwarf male without a hairy chest. Furthermore, the males are capable of growing extremely prodigious beards, for which they are famed.

Most dwarves have pale skin tones due to residing underground, bereft of sunlight, though dwarves who reside in holds closer to the surface are often possessed of darker (but still overall light) pallors. Dwarven eyes come in colors similar to those of humans, but the most common colors are brown, black, or grey, with blue or green eyes being rarer. Hair colors are similar, with brown and black being most common, for according to the dwarves, they are the colors of earth and stone. Red hair is fairly rare, and is believed to be connected to the fire with which dwarves fill their forges, and the fires within the earth. Blonde hair, especially golden blonde, is rarest of all, and especially prized, for it symbolizes gold, the most beloved mineral of the Andvrgar. Greying hair which occurs due to old age is believed to signify the call to all dwarves to return to the stone from which their legends say they were sculpted, while white hair, only achieved by the truly ancient, represents the white hot fire of the dwarven soul, readying itself to leave its mortal body.

## Life Cycle

Dwarves enjoy a lifespan that can extend well over two centuries, frequently reaching as long as three. As if to pay for their long lives, the Andvrgar are not a fecund people, and are slow to breed and slow to grow. Dwarven pregnancies last for twenty six months, and typically produce a single child. Twins are viewed as an extremely rare blessing, certain to be celebrated by an entire hold, while triplets are so rare that news of such would surely spread like wildfire to the entire dwarven race.

Andvrgar remain helpless infants for the first several years of their life, usually beginning to crawl between the ages of two and five, and walking between the ages of four and nine. They begin puberty between thirty to forty five years of age, for the most part, and fully mature both mentally and physically between sixty and seventy. The prime of dwarf adulthood is usually between sixty and one hundred, during which time they resemble a human in their twenties. The dawn of a dwarf's second century to about three quarters two it coincides with the slow exit of their peak, and entrance to their middle years, with a dwarf aged a century and a half being the equivalent of a human in their late thirties or early forties. The latter decades of the second century, then up to around two hundred and twenty or two hundred and thirty years signify that a dwarf is well into their middle years, and the presence of wrinkles, graying hair, slowing limbs and early aches are often felt, much like a human in their fifties (during this time, female dwarves begin to lose their capacity to bear children). Dwarves of around two and a half centuries old are well into the winter of their years, and any dwarf that age or older is considered elderly. By the time a dwarf nears the age of three hundred, they are considered venerable, and any age beyond that is viewed as ancient, like a human living into their eighties and nineties.

The oldest dwarf in history was known as Grelod the Harridan, who survived to the age of three hundred and forty two. To this day, "Grelod" is used as an insult to an irritating old woman, such as one's wife, mother, or most frequently of all, mother in law.

## Abilities

Dwarves, due to their small stature, are generally speaking weaker than humans or other creatures of similar larger stature who are as proportionally athletic as they are. Many dwarves live lives full of toil, however, and so are athletic enough to be comparable with most average humans. Their short legs also make them much slower when running than races with longer limbs.

The Andvrgar, however, tend to have quite superb endurance, finding it very easy to build stamina with much shorter training times than might be required of a human. They are also gifted with an extraordinary powerful liver, which makes them more resistant to toxins and provides them with a naturally high alcohol tolerance.

Lastly, dwarves have extremely fine senses of touch, allowing them to easily detect changes in temperature and notice subtle textural variations in objects. The greatest concentration of touch receptors is within their hands, and when pressing a bare palm against a wall or floor, dwarves, can often detect the vibrations of footsteps of creatures within a hundred or so feet of them, unless they are prodigiously stealthy.