Dwarf

*Dwarves have a well-earned reputation as a strong tempered and hardy people, ensconced within citadels and cities carved from solid rock. While some see them as dour and humorless crafters of stone and metal, dwarves and those who have spent time among them understand their unbridled zeal for their work, caring far more about quality than quantity. To a stranger, they can seem untrusting and clannish, but to their friends and family, they are warm and caring, their halls filled with the sounds of laughter and hammers hitting anvils.*

The single-mindedness of the dwarves is credited for the race's survival. Their ability to dedicate their efforts to a cause helped them survive in conditions that no other race would have long been able to and gave rise to a level of technology that far surpasses anything else in Cyril.

If you want to play a character who is as hard as nails, a stubborn and unrelenting adventurer, with a mix of rugged toughness and deep wisdom—or at least dogged conviction—you should play a dwarf.

## You Might...

* Strive to uphold your personal honor, no matter the situation.
* Appreciate quality craftsmanship in all forms and insist upon it for all your gear.
* Don’t waver or back down once you’ve set your mind to something.

## Others Probably...

* See you as stubborn, though whether they see this as an asset or a detriment changes from one person to the next.
* Assume you are an expert in matters related to stonework, mining, precious metals, and gems.
* Recognize the deep connection you have with your family, heritage, and friends whether cut or not.

## Physical Description

Dwarves are short and stocky, standing about a foot shorter than most humans. They have wide, compact bodies and burly frames. Dwarves of all genders pride themselves on the length of their hair, which they often braid into intricate patterns, some of which represent specific clans. A long beard is a sign of masculinity and honor among the dwarves, and thus a clean-shaven male dwarf is considered weak, untrustworthy, or worse.

Dwarves typically reach physical adulthood around the age of 25, though their traditionalist culture places more value on completing coming of age ceremonies unique to each clan than reaching a certain age. A typical dwarf can live to around 350 years old.

## History

Dwarves have a talent for subterranean navigation derived from the race's progenitor, the Stone. This connection allows dwarves to sense a passageway before reaching it and can navigate underground without getting hopelessly lost. Dwarves who live on the surface for a long time gradually lose this ability and those born on the surface appear to not possess it at all.

Records of early dwarven history in Silverstone's archives go back ages. However, there are large lacunae in the records of the earliest years due to records being lost or erased. As such, the origins of the dwarves are not clear. The Titans and the dwarves lived together during this time but their exact relationship remains unknown though they are credited as the main building force of the underground cities.

Each age the underground cities of Silverstone are for the most part safe from the effects that take place but instead they are invaded by creatures of the deep, twisted mutations of themselves turned demonic. The underground cities became disconnected from each other as the Deep Roads became unsafe and occupied by the unwelcome inhabitants. A Paragon whose name is lost rallied the dwarves out of their internal feuding and achieved the first victories, saving the Stalwart Spire. However it was only the Spire that was able to be protected by this paragon, some others such as the city of Cairne were protected by Steinmit and his golems, later he would mysteriously disappear along with all of his work and most of his golems but not before becoming a Paragon. The city of Creatlach was also among the survivors but after hearing stories of their defense all other dwarf cities nearly entirely excommunicate them and they are considered as dwarvern as surface dwellers. Lastly Barilock stood against the invasion through help of the dragon allies they made by shear luck.

## Society

### Religion

The dwarves are known to be very religious but only towards one goddess, some hold a small amount of worship of their own Paragons. Dwarves worship the Stonemother who was said to have created the dwarves from mud and put them on this planet, then she created the Titans to assist them, most of the early records are unreliable or lost but the current theory is this. Now the The Stone is that which grants the dwarves their canniness around the earth.

**Social Classes**

The dwarven social hierarchy is ruled by complex, interrelated, and rigid castes. The casteless are the lowest rung of dwarven society; outcasts in their own society, unable to take up work among the higher castes, nor to defend their honor in the Provings or fight the darkspawn to protect the city, dwarves rejected by the Stone itself. Dwarves who are exiled or born on the surface are also officially casteless - but with an increase in the number of higher-caste dwarves choosing to live on the surface, it is becoming difficult for some surface dwarves to be considered permanent exiles. The average dwarf will never see the surface, and often will have superstitious beliefs concerning surface-life (such as falling into the sky, or the sun falling to the ground).

Above the casteless are servants, artisans, miners, smiths, merchants, warriors and nobles, in Cairne smiths and artisans come before nobles as equals and in Ashfall there are no caste. While it is possible for some dwarves to better their family's station by performing great deeds and/or siring children with higher-caste dwarves, these remain rare and difficult circumstances. Lower-caste dwarves who rise in caste are generally considered "upjumped" by the highest castes. In dwarven society, children inherit the caste of their same-sex parent; should a son be born, he would inherit his father's caste, or his father's lack of caste, should that be the case.

It is also known that slavery existed in the times of the ancient dwarven empire.

Monarchy is the dwarven standard of government, but heredity tends to be a weak factor in determining who sits on the throne when the time comes for a new ruler. While a king may propose his heir to the throne, the next ruler is ultimately determined by a vote among the most powerful of nobles.

### Paragon

From time to time a dwarf may exceed so far past their expected potential that they are deemed as paragons of their kind and gifted with minor divinity, of the Paragon dwarves that have families they are instantly ascended to nobility and their family name becomes a staple of society and assigned roles denoting to their paragon's aspects. As an example the nobles of Ogalta have been the kings and queens of Silverstone as sole rulers and defenders of the dwarves, they also serve as the largest force against the monsters of the Darklands clearing it out more and more each year.

### Gender and sexuality

In spite of the fundamental conservativeness of the dwarven culture, sexuality plays an important role, largely due to the low racial birth rate. It has been suggested that the root cause of the low birth rate may be "corruption-caused infertility" contracted from exposure to the Darklands. As is common in surfacer society, nobles and other high-caste dwarves are expected to marry only within their caste. Dwarves do not often mate with other races as such contact is limited in the isolated Silverstone. And as they naturally consider themselves superior to other races, and such mingling is looked down upon in any case.

Female dwarves appear to have little control over their sexuality, as their most important asset, regardless of caste, is their ability to bear children. Noble females are especially pressured to marry and bear children. Male nobles are expected—even encouraged—to be promiscuous, in order to sire as many children as possible, often with noble hunters. Noble females are expected to guard their virtue.

Casteless females understand their value in Dwarvern society is solely in breeding among the castes, which gives them agency, in a fashion, as noble hunters, who seek the sexual attentions of noble males in order to advance themselves (and/or their families or 'sponsors'). Casteless males have a more difficult situation, as they can only hope to sire children with higher-caste women - most of whom are not in a position to pursue affairs with them, or are not interested in doing so. Additionally, in terms of courtship, it is noted that for a dwarven male to wear both vambraces indicates he is unmarried and eligible.

Interspecies relationships rarely result in children because of the low fertility rate of dwarves. Such pairings are more frequent with surface dwarves, as unions of this kind would be heavily stigmatized in Silverstone.

### Stoneseher

The judicial functions of government are split between the king and the Stoneseher. The king and his warriors deal with crime and maintain order, while the Stoneseher deals with civil disputes. The Stoneseher is also ultimately responsible for the preservation of all records current and historical. As a result, it is the supreme authority over the authenticity and binding nature of contracts, as well as legal precedent. The Stoneseher of Memories is considered a role of absolute impartiality in dwarven society, and commands enormous respect as a disinterested third-party in legal matters.

In dwarven society the role of the Stoneseher is one of great honor, privilege, and also hardship. A Stoneseher must honor the Stone, protect it, and present a new history to the Memories. However, this means that a Stoneseher must seek out knowledge and history beyond the city and its inhabitants, venturing into the Deep Roads to record the history of lost cities and ruins and dwarves whom the Memories might otherwise forget. A Stoneseher must be prepared to risk all—perhaps even their own life—so that the dwarven race might reclaim its lost knowledge and learn from it.

### Provings

The Provings are public arena battles fought for the sake of honor and glory and to entertain the masses that take place in an arena. Dwarves believe that a fighter who wins a proving has the approval of the Paragons and so they use provings to settle debates and honor challenges that could not be settled otherwise. This usually falls to warrior caste champions. Some Proving matches are fought to the death, but even in a dwindling society such as Silverstone, one death in a proving is thought preferable to the widespread bloodshed of a conflict between noble houses. In recent years, the provings have also been used for entertainment and events to honor special guests, and each year the best fighters in Silverstone meet for the "Trials of Blood," a great tournament that crowns the kingdom's best and most popular fighter.

### Surface dwarves

Dwarves who have left the Stone's embrace are considered by their subterranean brethren as non-dwarves, lost and rejected by the Stone. They have no caste and no right to be reinstated. In sharp contrast, the humans respect surface dwarves and value their hard-working ethics, cunning and skills they bring. Surface dwarves do actually hold an important and often way overlooked role on dwarvern society, they usually work in the Dwarven Merchants' Guild supplying Silverstone with surface goods and exporting its products but there are many smiths, stonemasons, bankers as well as thugs. They also are the main line of, warning if not defense at least of outside threats of which hold nearly no threat to the dwarves but nevertheless are dangerous,

Many dwarves have moved on the surface, either as members of expeditions funded by dwarven houses or guilds, for their own personal reasons, or as a punishment. In ancient times, the punishment of exile was very uncommon and was considered to be one of the fiercest.

According to dwarven scholars, surface dwarves may soon outnumber their underground-living peers.

## Alignment and Religion

Dwarves tend to value honor and closely follow the traditions of their clans and kingdoms. They have a strong sense of friendship and justice, though they are often very particular about who they consider a friend. They work hard and play harder— especially when strong ale is involved.

Unlike many other cultures in Cyril, dwarves do not worship anthropomorphic gods. Instead, their philosophy promotes personal excellence and an almost intimate tie to the Stone that houses them. Referring reverentially to *"the Stone"*, the dwarves speak of it as being alive. They are the Stone's children; they respect her, they fear her, they cherish her, and they give thanks to her for protecting them and providing them with her bounty. This religion has been practiced for as long as the dwarves have records.

Their other cultural beliefs are more akin to ancestor worship. Dwarves who lead a strong and noble life are said to strengthen the Stone when they die, becoming one of the Ancestors. Those who are ignoble or disgraced would weaken the Stone and are therefore rejected by it for all eternity. Surface dwarves and casteless are believed to be rejected by the Stone. Paragons are seen as the highest form of ancestor worship.

## Adventurers

Dwarven adventurers tend to work as treasure hunters or sellswords. They often leave their citadels and subterranean cities in search of wealth to enrich their homeland or to reclaim long-lost dwarven treasures or lands taken by the enemies of their kin.

Typical dwarven backgrounds include artisan, merchant, miner, and warrior. Dwarves excel at many of the martial classes, such as barbarian, fighter, and ranger but also make good clerics and druids.

## Names

Dwarves honor their children with names taken from ancestors or dwarven heroes, and it’s quite rare to invent a new name or to borrow a name from another culture for a child. When introducing themselves, dwarves tend to list their family and clan, plus any number of other familial connections and honorifics. Dwarven names usually contain hard consonants and are rarely more or fewer than two syllables.

### Sample Names

Agna, Bodill, Dolgrin, Edrukk, Grunyar, Ingra, Kazmuk, Kotri, Lupp, Morgrym, Rogar, Rusilka, Torra, Yangrit

## Settlements

There are currently three remaining dwarven cities where once existed twelve great kingdoms adjoining the dwarven empire. The Stalwart Spire, the capital of the empire, is the largest, greatest and proudest of the three. The other dwarven cities are Creatlach and Cairne, there is also one which is not part of historical dwarvern settlements called Barilock.

### The Stalwart Spire

The Spire is built within the heart of the tallest mountain in all of Silverstone and it reaches throughout almost the entire mountain but not vertically. The insides are ages old and are presumed to have been built by the titans, perhaps the biggest feature of the Spire is the lake of magma which surrounds the noble district.

### Barilock

Is less of a city and more of a large set of patchwork settlements, within the Darklands presides an extremely large set of caves, illuminated by the local flora, here exist as well as many other natural wonders in which dwarves decided to settle around. Barilock while not an extremely traditional dwarvern city still serves the dwarf ruler but many things are ignored out of lack of care. This zone is an extremely spiritual area for the dwarves and the caves have been known to sing--many scholars believe this is the closest they can get to their ancestral mother and so druids, shamans, and other similar dwarves come here to sit in tranquility.

### Creatlach

Exiled for eternity, Creatlach used to be the burial ground of great paragons, nobles, and warriors however during the first invasion of this age they received no support from their king or people and being that the giant catacomb city that it is they had nearly no warrior caste to speak of, so they did what they had to. It has been for a long time suspected of the noble cast of Ashfall to be practitioners of necromancy and the theory was correct, they resurrected their dead to fight for them. When news of this spread the king exiled Ashfall dwarves and deemed them as casteless, while some may blame the king for not being strong enough for his people what's done is done. Now Ashfall has created a society around necromancy being allowed free reign, they have also as necessity required it rid of the caste system and each Ashfall dwarf no longer belongs to a family instead each is given a birth name then later in life when they set on their career path are given a name based off of their personality and career. Many of the members in Ashfall have much less saturated skin then their brethren and have a personality best described as stoic.

### Cairne

Is the most in tune with fine dwarvern craftmanship and is the greatest exporter of it, any dwarvern invention was made here first. They have mastered clockwork, mechanical weaponry, and steam power--many of the surface dwarves from Cairne go to Asterinatalnu, a city known for its non-pollutant machinery. Though some may consider the Stalwart Spire to be the most aggressive towards caste enforcement Cairne is known for their particular hostility towards the lower caste due to their perfectionist nature and superiority.