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| Dwarf |
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Dwarves are known for their skills in warfare, their ability to withstand physical and magical punishment, their knowledge of the earth's secrets, their hard work, and their capacity for drinking ale. Their mysterious kingdoms, carved out from the insides of mountains, are renowned for the marvelous treasures that they produce as gifts or for trade. |
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| Extended Race Information |
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Dwarves are natural miners and smiths, and they control most of the percious metals found naturally across the continent of Khorvaire. Powerful dwarf families mint coinage and operate banks, issue letters of credit, hold loans, and collect debts. Dwarf bankers and merchants wield a great deal of economic power throughout Khorvaire, and they are well respected as a result. To an extent, they are also feared, since dwarves are known to be ruthless in collecting unpaid debts.
Personality
Dwarves are slow to laugh or jest and suspicious of strangers, but they are generous to those few who earn their trust. Dwarves value gold, gems jewelry, and art objects made with these precious materials, and they have been known to succumb to greed. They fight neither recklessly nor timidly, but with careful courage and tenacity. Their sense of justice is strong, but at its worst it can turn into a thirst for vengeance. Among gnomes who get along famously with dwarves, a mild oath is "If I'm lying, may I cross a dwarf."
Physical Description
Dwarves stand only 4 to 4-1/2 feet tall, but they are so broad and compact that they are, on average, almost as heavy as humans. Dwarf men are slightly taller and noticeably heavier than dwarf women. Dwarves' skin is typically deep tan or light brown, and their eyes are dark. Their hair is usually black, gray, or brown, and worn long. Dwarf men value their beards highly and groom them very carefully. Dwarves favor simple styles for their hair, beards, and clothes. Dwarves are considered adults at about age 40, and they can live to be more than 400 years old.
Names
A dwarf's name is granted to him by his clan elder, in accordance with tradition. Every proper dwarven name has been used and reused down through the generation. A dwarf's name is not his own. It belongs to his clan. If he misuses it or brings shame on it, his clan will strip him of it. A dwarf stripped of his name is forbidden by dwarven law to use any dwarven name in its place.
Relations
Dwarves get along fine with gnomes and passably with humans, half-elves, and halflings. Dwarves say, "The difference between an aquaintance and a friend is about a hundred years." Humans, with their short life spans, have a hard time forging truely strong bonds with dwarves. The best dwarf-human friendship is often between a human and a dwarf who liked the human's parents and grandparents. Dwarves fail to appreciate elves' subtlety and art, regarding elves as unpredictable, fickle, and flighty. Still elves and dwarves have, through the ages, found common cause in battles against orcs, goblins, and gnolls. Through such joint campaigns, the elves have earned the dwarves' grudging respect. Dwarves mistrust half-orcs in general, and they grant individual half-orcs the opportunity to prove themselves.
Alignment
Dwarves are usually lawful, and they tend toward good. Adventuring dwarves are less likely to fit the common mold, however, since they're more likely to be those who did not fit perfectly into dwarven society.
Dwarf Lands
The dwarven homeland is the Mror Holds, a loose-knit federation of otherwise unconnected dwarf clans in the mountainous terrain in the east of Khorvaire. The dwarves have never had a unified empire and thus have never risen to the prominence of the elves or humans, or even goblinoids, though their control of mineral wealth has always made them important allies of the greater powers. The Mror clans were subject to the king of Galifar before the Last War, but they suceded from Karrnath early in the war, marking the greatest degree of unity and independence the dwarves have ever possessed.
Dragonmarks
The dwarven House Kundarak carries the Mark of Warding, enabling the house to protect its vast stores of wealth and provide security for buisnesses and precious goods. House Kundarak works closely with the gnomes of House Sivis in the production and verification of important documents and the like. |
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