The way the Dwarves see it, members of other races are divided into two separate camps. On one side are those who see the short, tunnel-dwelling Dwarves as pointlessly reclusive and too small to be truly dangerous. On the other are those who understand that it was their size and toughness that let them fight the dragons to a standstill in the tunnels beneath the Dunwarr Mountains and survive the wyrms’ genocidal wrath.
Reclusive and understated, Dwarves are a gruff, suspicious, and often surly lot. They still bear the pain and secret shame of being chased underground by the dragons, which makes them usually quick to anger, slow to forgive, and capable of holding even simple grudges for decades. Dwarves seem to age only a little more slowly than humans, but once they reach their grey-haired old age they can remain fit and vigorous for over a century.
Dwarves who wander from their mountain homes almost always do so with a purpose. Sometimes, such missions can be as simple as trading for the meats and grains that the mountains don’t provide. But just as often, their goals are grander: to recruit allies, achieve power, and work toward reclaiming their ancestral home of the Molten Heath from the dragons.
Appearance
While Dwarves’ skin and hair are similar to those of Humans, it is the proportions that differentiate the two races. Dwarves’ chests are barreled, their legs are stocky, and their arms are thick and powerful. Everything about them has evolved to make them more effective in tight, compact spaces, and there are few creatures as dangerous to meet in a tunnel as Dwarves defending their homes.
Society
Dwarven society in Dunwarr is commonly separated into guilds, with political power—including the monarchy— being held by the guild that is most profitable. That inequity means that the guilds are constantly vying for superiority and frequently at each other’s throats. It also means that ruling a Dwarven kingdom can be an exhausting, endlessly frustrating endeavor that commonly makes the monarch regret ever having taken the throne. Dwarves in other lands have developed their own societies, but still tend to look towards competence rather than blood for leadership.
Culture
There are ten guilds in Dunwarr—those of Masons, Miners, Smiths, Artificers, Brewers, Merchants, Warriors, Rangers, Explorers, and Runescribers—and they dominate much of life there. Not all Dwarves belong to a guild, though. By law, there can only be ten guilds, so Dwarves devoted to other traditions continually struggle to promote their own craft to replace an existing guild. Each of the guilds also engages in constant fights for power and prestige. The divisions between guilds and other groups, each of which promotes their own traditions and expertise as the most worthy, tend to affect every aspect of life in Dunwarr. It is generally assumed that Dwarves will follow in the footsteps of their parents, joining the same guild and contributing to the same cultural struggle.
The Dwarves of Forge operate with a more mercantile bent than through guild-driven dictates. This has created a more open, independent way of life, though some Forge Dwarves chafe at working with and relying on Humans for their livelihoods.
The Art of Dwarven Crafting
The craft of the Dwarves embodies exceptional metallurgy and stonemasonry married to ancient traditions, the result of a people seemingly made to create objects of tremendous beauty and efficacy. The very bodies of Dwarves give them a natural affinity for crafting, possessing muscles strong enough to swing hammers with perfect control and the manual dexterity to work the most intricate patterns seen in all the world. Where other civilizations use poetry and painting to convey their deepest emotions, Dwarves rely on the ancient forge to express themselves and can see emotion placed in a blade, in a hammer, or in a warrior’s talisman.
The work of hundreds of generations of Dwarves adorns most of their cities, and to call these settlements treasure troves would not be much of a stretch. The care they invest in their work stems from more than simple artisan’s pride. Dwarves see each piece they make as belonging to an unbroken chain of the artistry and memories of the Dwarven people as a whole, going back hundreds of generations.
To the Dwarves, craftsmanship is a part of their way of life, but stories are told of a craftsmanship that transcends even this—the creation of a Dwarven masterwork. Such a masterwork might be made but once a generation. This masterwork begins as a vision planted deep within the mind of a Dwarven artisan: a vision of a weapon, an artifact, or a suit of armor that is capable of surpassing the limits of its physical form.
A Dwarf might spend decades at their forge crafting brilliant jewelry, cannons, digging machines, armor, fixtures, or anything else their people might need, until one day the urge to create a particular work becomes too great, prompting them into seclusion to complete it. More than one Dwarf has departed on a quest to find a singular material needed to bring their vision into existence. Some never return, but those who do become champions of their race.
Such was the story of the outcast smith Gildspar, who forged the Mirror Hammer. Struck by a vision of this weapon and its function, he spent ten long years journeying to the heights of a mountain range where a perpetual lightning storm, said to be created by a floating magic rune, blasted away at the jagged peaks. Gildspar set metal ingots where lightning could strike them and infuse them with its energies. He then carved runes upon each ingot for every bolt of lightning that found its mark. He finally put the metal, charged with the energies of a thousand bolts of lightning, to the forge.
What emerged was the Mirror Hammer. In accordance with its name, when swung, the Mirror Hammer could reflect any magic and repel any blow. However, it had another power, one that revealed its true nature. When the Mirror Hammer struck the surface of a lake, the water would freeze into a silver pane, and anyone who looked into it could see visions of the distant past, the reflection of the ages.
The Pact of Stonesense
The Dwarves have always had a singular affinity with the Dimora, even as they have a seemingly innate distrust (and even hatred) of the Fae. The history carved into the walls of the Hearth Road claims that this relationship began when the first Dwarves fled into the Dunwarr mountains. The tales say that as the Dwarves dug deeper and deeper to escape the predations of the dragons, they came across the Dimora in the mountains’ very roots.
Perhaps recognizing fellow refugees from the world of light and sunlight, the Dimora are said to have given the Dwarves their ability to know stone or metal by laying hands on it. To this day, should a Dwarf come across one of these elusive elementals, they almost inevitably treat them with the utmost respect. Likewise, should an unwise adventurer attempt to slay a Dimora with a Dwarf present, they’re likely to get an axe-blade between the eyes for their impertinence.
Names
Dwarves are seen as an ancient race, and they take pride in their lineage and ancestors. Most dwarves proudly carry the name of their clan or family in addition to the name given to them by their parents. However, outcast dwarves often eschew the names of their ancestors when they leave dwarven lands and take up new names that are more befitting their new lives.
Dunwarr Dwarves
Dunwarr is the oldest of all the Dwarven kingdoms. The Dwarves who hail from beneath the Dunwarr Mountains see their lineage as predating almost every other culture in the world. According to their histories, they watched the Humans first gather in rudimentary villages, saw the Orcs first trade for steel to tip their sharpened sticks, and even witnessed the Elves settling into their land of the Aymhelin.
Those histories also recount with bitterness and frustration how the dragons chased the Dwarves from their home in Molten Heath and followed them all the way into the caves beneath the Dunwarr Mountains. They recount, with absolute accuracy, how the dragons tried to eradicate the Dwarves from the face of the Mennara.
The Dunwarr Dwarves see that history as their birthright. They believe that Dwarven society is among the most noble in the world, and that they deserve the respect and deference they once commanded. Their loftiest goal is to retake the Molten Heath and force the dragons who occupy their lands to accept their right to live there once and for all.
Before the humans built their grand castles, the dwarves built their mountain strongholds. Before the orcs armed their raiders with steel, the dwarves worked metals into machines of war. When the elves arrived at the Dunwarr Mountains, they found the dwarves already there, settling in after their exodus from the Molten Heath fleeing the Dragonlords.
But the grandest days of the Dunwarr Dwarves are behind them. Nearly broken by a series of brutal wars, too many of Dunwarr's grand halls now stand empty. Their guilds struggle to keep ahead of the universities the humans have built, and their guardians are spread too thin across the mountains to keep goblins and monsters in check.
The Dunwarr dwarves are not a gregarious people, and their relations with the other races are not always friendly. They have trade with the Daqan Lords, Isheim and the Free Cities and have the warmest relations with the wandering gnomes. The Dunwarr dwarves have no particular relations with elves or orcs.
Every Dunwarr dwarf knows and reveres the ancestors and the history of the Dunwarr people. They are proud of that history and proud of the great works of art and artifice built by dwarven hands. But every dwarf also knows that the Dunwarr stand on the brink of extinction. Dwarven pride alone will not be enough to bring their people back from the edge. And so the great forge masters work their steel tirelessly to forge weapons and armor for the brave guardians and sentinels of the mounts, who march through tunnels carved by powerful digging machines. Warmachines of uniquely dwarven ingenuity line the mountain walls, backed up by the alchemists and demolitionists owing their strange devices to centuries of dwarven research.
As a new darkness approaches and the evil things in Terrinoth stir once more, the dwarves of Dunwarr put aside their craftsman's hammers and take up axe and shield, suspicious of all outsiders and ready to weather the oncoming storm. A new Terrinoth will be forged in the din of ringing iron!
Forge Dwarves
Not all Dwarves feel that their destiny belongs underground. Like their ancestors of old, some of them wish to spread out under the sky, an aspiration they can largely achieve in Terrinoth. These Forge Dwarves have made their homes in Free Cities and baronial settlements across the Land of Steel, using their distinctive craftsmanship to create their own fate. They wheel and deal alongside other races, content to make their home away from the shadows and fire of the Molten Heath.
During the Dragon Wars, the dwarves of Yrthwright's Forge were conquered and enslaved by Dragonlord Avox, only to be freed by a human knight named Lady Ysbet. Since that time, the dwarves and humans have lived side by side in the Free City of Forge.
The dwarves of Forge have over the centuries acquired a rather different character from their Dunwarr brethren. While many Forge dwarves resent the presence of humans in their city, all have grown accustomed to dealing with and working alongside humans and some of the other races as well. More than their Dunwarr cousins, the dwarves of Forge have a keen mercantile sense, well able to parlay their superlative skill as craftsmen into a comfortable living and considerable wealth.
While the fact is that Forge is now answerable to the human Council of Thirteen is a sting to dwarven honor, no Forge Dwarf would ever countenance leaving the city. The volcanic mountain that plays host to the city, Yrthwright's Forge, is sacred to the dwarves. Forge dwarves maintain the shrines and mysteries of their sacred home, easily balancing their most ancient traditions and the new world.
Despite the occasional friction between the humans and dwarves living in Forge, Forge dwarves have much closer ties to humans than the Dunwarr do. Forge dwarves also maintain close ties to their cousins in the northern mountains, and dwarf pilgrims often travel back and forth between the two societies.
References
- Realms of Terrinoth
- Legacy of Dragonholt
- Rune Age