Dwarf

Dwarves are a stocky, usually bearded people who live in mountains and underground. They love mining and strong drink. You know the drill.

## History

#### Origins

According to legend, long before the dawn of the Dragon Empire, the dwarves were first built by their giant masters to explore within and under their mountain homes, to search and mine in places too small and deep for the giants to reach. Eventually, the dwarves dug deep enough that they exceeded the reach of their creators, and founded their own underground homeland, which they creatively named Underhome.

#### The Derro

The dwarves continued to expand the tunnels of their new homeland, searching tirelessly for new treasures, sights, and opportunities anywhere they could be found. One day, a clan or an expedition or an outpost -- none remember which -- named Derro, on the lower frontier of Underhome, dug far deeper than any had before, and they found... something.

No one knows what Derro found, and perhaps no one ever will -- but whatever it was, it changed them, gradually at first, then all too quickly. The clan or expedition or outpost known as Derro turned against their brethren with a horrific violence and shocking rage. The dwarves of Underhome had no choice but to seal the lower tunnels and abandon the Deep Frontier to the Derro forever.

#### Orcs and Forgeborn

After such unimaginable tragedy, the dwarves of Underhome vowed never to dig so deep again. So, they built autonomous worker drones -- the first orcs -- to expand their frontiers for them -- but still never risking breaking back through to the Deep Frontier. The new servants proved so useful, they were gradually expanded to other menial duties, and eventually pervaded much of dwarven society.

But only ever as workers, never a citizen amongst them. And we all know how that turned out in the end. The elves, who supplied and supported the rebellion, have been enemies of the dwarves ever since.

In their place, the dwarves created the forgeborn, a new kind of worker to replace their escaped orcs, but without souls to make them yearn above their purpose.

#### The War of Underhome

Ages after it began, the long-standing bitterness between the dwarves and elves exploded into all-out war when drow scouts were captured in Underhome's outer tunnels. The Dragon Empire, not wanting to burn too many bridges with the Court of Stars, supported Underhome's war effort but didn't officially join the war.

Eventually, after centuries of fighting, the armies of the Drow Houses breached the king's palace, and the dwarves were forced to flee back through the old tunnels they originally dug for their former giant masters. The giants, at least, had since vacated what would become the new Dwarven Kingdom in the wake of one of their many wars with the Dragon Empire, and so the dwarven diaspora had found their new homeland.

## Society

The dwarven kingdom is the current homeland of the dwarven people. It is led, unsurprisingly, by the king, who is currently King Skalrag.

#### Procreation

Dwarves were, long ago, crafted from stones by giants for the purpose of digging and building. Craft is at the core of their being, and so, when a family of dwarves wishes to grow their number, they build for themselves a child from clay, or wood, or mud, or whatever suits them, and each parent, through the love of their act of creation, imparts a tiny fragment of their soul to the child. When the new soul claims its form as its body, the child is born.

As you've probably guessed, this process is pretty different from how other mortal races typically procreate. There are a few major implications to this. First, a parental group can be of any race, gender, or even *number*, provided at least one of them understands this process (usually a dwarf), and they share a bond with one another powerful enough to allow the soul fragments to coalesce into a new soul. This process can also be altered to create a false child, such as was done with the orcs and the forgeborn.

#### Clans

Dwarven society is largely structured along family lines, which are grouped into clans. A dwarf's full name is generally made up of three parts: their personal name, their family name, and their clan name -- though they will generally leave out the family or clan name in less formal settings, depending on the circumstance.

The most powerful of the dwarven clans constitute the upper echelons of dwarven society, with the most powerful claiming the royal palace, and that clan's leader the crown. For this reason, clans often demand a great deal of respect and loyalty of their members, and powerful clans can often claim the loyalty of smaller vassal clans.

#### Religion

The primary faith of the dwarven people is the reverence of accomplished ancestors. Ancestor worship has been adopted and endorsed by most major clans and every ruling clan for as long as it's existed. The devout consider necromancy a violation of the exalted rest of their beloved ancestors, a blasphemy they hate even more ardently than most already distrust the practice.

There are some minority religions, however, despite the prevalence of ancestor worship, particularly amongst dwarven expatriates in the Dragon Empire. A fringe group of death cultists known as the Church of the Golden Eye recently gained notoriety for claiming the office of High Cleric, the ear to the dwarf king on spiritual matters.

#### Gender

Dwarves born within the dwarven homeland are traditionally still created in the rough image of their original giant creator -- broad, bearded, and male. Despite being technically sexless beings, dwarves are assumed by many non-dwarves to be men, and through their long relationship with the humans of the Dragon Empire, many dwarves consider themselves to be men, due to their closer resemblance to human men than to human women.

Despite all this, dwarven women do exist. Within traditional dwarven society, they're often physically quite similar to dwarven men, including the traditional dwarven beard. Some of the more hardline traditionalist families or clans reject the validity of dwarven women, causing many to masquerade as men for much or even all of their lives. Others will be afforded feminine titles and pronouns, even if their appearance seems masculine by human standards (a notable example of this is Captain Khanddolyn). Outside the dwarven kingdom -- and particularly within the Dragon Empire -- it's more common for dwarven women to change their appearance to be more typically feminine, such as by shaving their beard and magically altering their face and body (a notable example of this is Madam Hellsang).

#### Magic

Dwarves have always been known for the quality of their craft, and their magic is no different. Their magic is very physical, often incorporating the use of magical runes -- such as simple enchantment glyphs, firearms, rune-crafted prosthetic limbs, and piloted war machines known as golems. Wizards who specialise in these runes are known as runecasters, and make up one of the Dwarven Kingdom's largest guilds, the Runecaster Society.