Dwarf
| Dwarf | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Race | |
| Pronunciation | Duh-worf |
| Population | 100 Million |
| Naming Customs | Any Irl Customs |
| Traits | |
| Magic Potential | No |
| Min/Max Age | Immortal, an average of 600-700. |
| Min/Max Height | 3'6- 4'7 |
| Average Weight | 200lbs |
| Eye Colors | Any Natural Colour |
| Hair Colors | White to Brown, Black is Rare |
| Skin Tones | Any IRL Colours |
| Half-Breed | Humans |
| Artist Credit | none |
The Dwarven civilization of Pannotia dots the rugged landscapes of every continent in the known world. In sprawling mountain cities climbing up the sides of imposing peaks or humble fortresses tucked around outposts, you’ll find the enduring sons and daughters of the very stones themselves. Among the most ancient of races, they’ve had enough time to leave a mark on every living creature in Pannotia. Directly or indirectly. As long as the obsession with wealth grips dwarven culture, the world will hold its breath in anticipation of the next great war. Their numbers may be smaller in comparison to the other great races of Pannotia, but when unified under a common cause, they are a threat to all who oppose them.
Physical Appearance and Biology
Dwarves are no great mystery in terms of physique and appearance. The the common dwarf height varies between 3’6 - 4’7. They are thick-bodied beings who more often than not have a burly disposition, naturally built to survive the hard labor so abundant within their territories and to withstand the dangers they so typically had to face in their race’s youth. They are long-lived, with the oldest recorded dwarf having seen twelve and a half centuries. Though this is an exceptionable age. Most dwarves will live upwards to six or seven hundred years, reaching maturity at the age of 18. They may keep a youthful appearance for approximately two hundred years before growing more gray and wrinkly with every decade hence, sharing the looks of a centenarian human around their sixth century.
As hairy as they are stout, dwarves place a great deal of importance on personal grooming. Men and women alike are known to grow facial hair, though current trends have seen the women keep themselves clean-shaven to stay closer to the fashionable Ironhurst look. The men, on the other hand, take pride in both hair and beard, with even the poorest of male dwarves finding ways to never leave for work without a thorough brushing of hairs and teeth. These luscious locks the dwarves are so prideful of come in colors ranging from white as paper to dark browns. Black is an uncommon color, those with it prefer to live bald due to superstition. This is considered a less shameful option, and their bravery is usually treated with respect.
Society and Culture
Clothing
Dwarven fashion is not necessarily anything to write home about. It is considered uninspired and tasteless for the most part, a random hodgepodge of whatever articles of clothing or accessories display their personal wealth. Middle-class dwarves are those who tend to be seen as the best dressed as they can afford to purchase imported fashion from foreign cities, unlike the upper class who think themselves above it. Furs and animal skins are a common sight in every stratum of dwarven society, the rarity of the source being the only separator between the classes. Not much thought goes through most dwarves’ heads when it comes to the arrangement of their clothes, the ‘flex’ being the more important factor to them.
One aspect of dwarven fashion that cannot easily be frowned upon is their jewelry. With such a great abundance of metals, minerals, and gems to experiment with, dwarven jewelers excel at crafting some of the most beautiful jewelry to grace the world. The quality of the work is highly sought after outside of dwarven cities, as the majority of the products get bought up by the native dwarves before any surplus might be snatched up by thrifty merchants who’ll resell it in foreign cities for great profit. Designs vary wildly, only the imagination of the jeweler or commissioner being the limit.
Cuisine
Nothing is as filling as a dwarven meal, for a dwarf’s appetite cannot be underestimated. With their race most often based in hostile environments where hard labour is demanded of them every day, their food has to do its fair share of the work too. Their cuisine is born from the dishes and meals prepared for the labourers and soldiers of generations past, consisting mostly of hearty stews and coarse bread. Goat milk is an essential part of any dwarven cook’s pantry, being a key ingredient in several meals ranging from brown cheeses to thick, gravy-like soups. No kitchen goes without it.
Dwarven ale, more commonly nicknamed Mountain Breakfast, is capable of keeping hunger at bay throughout the day. This hearty drink is a staple of their very lifestyle and so important to the work effort that there are several laws ensuring a steady, constant supply of it to workers, soldiers, and even slaves. Though they consume several pints a day, they are not troubled by intoxication, as their hardy bodies deal with the alcohol so rapidly that the most common side effect is particularly jovial dining. Singing is simply a fact of life you must endure if you are to ever work or live with a dwarf.
Arts
Dwarves are master builders, their buildings made to withstand the wear and tear of the centuries. Their architecture is exclusively of stone and metal, with every brick, slab, and tile laid with utmost care and dedication to their undying craft. Their cities may not reach the same size as the other population centres in the world, but what they lack in numbers they certainly make up for with imposing structures and marvelous feats of engineering only recently matched by a select few cities such as Ironhurst. On the inside, the buildings can become surprisingly warm, as their people have had thousands of winters to learn how to keep their harsh breath out of their homes.
Brass adorns the linings of the vast majority of dwarven architecture, as a cheaper alternative to the rich man’s gold that sits atop the towering homes of the grand merchants, judges, and the rest of their civilization’s upper crust. Their large palaces sit just as crowded as any of the other houses in their cities, gleaming with golden doors, golden windowsills, and personal sigils made of pure silver on the walls so all may know who earned such privilege.
The brazen homes are significantly less extravagant, often clustered together into neighborhoods within neighborhoods, similar to that of apartment complexes in human cities. These residences will see the wealthier living on the upper floors, where they may enjoy the shine of sunlight and suite-like conditions with all the space a middle-ranking dwarven officer or court official might need. Practically, as a rule, the lower you go down in these clusters, the more dwarves will live together and the more poverty you’ll encounter. Though it is a quaint fairytale that the dwarves are immensely rich, the sour truth is that upwards to forty percent of city-dwelling dwarves live in cramped basements with the stench of the upper levels’ waste flying down the chutes just mere inches from where they sleep.
There are also villages and outposts for agricultural and less-than-ideal industries such as leather tanning, found a day’s ride at the least from the cities. Here you’ll find a rare luxury to the city-dwellers. Homesteads. Truly private. Small stone huts peppered around fields and animal enclosures, with no need to worry about nosy neighbours. The trade-off is a more dangerous living, with bandits being well aware of the army’s patrol schedules and routes. Out on the frontier, they must fend for themselves unless a garrison has been afforded to them, which can be just as much of a curse with how much the soldiers eat. Nevertheless, this is the life they chose, and there seems to be no sign of the life going out of style any time soon.
Mentality and Creed
Dwarves are a fascinating ambivalence of strong, raw emotion and rigid adherence to the word of law and the rule of bureaucracy. They deem it to be in poor character to hide one’s emotions from another, a kind of dishonesty that could just brand you a traitor in even your closest friend’s eyes. Honeyed words and beating around the bush is behavior best kept away from their kind, as it will only serve to greatly upset them or in the worst cases create loud, verbal altercations with a stout man or woman who will gladly die on whatever hill they’re on. Matters of honesty, emotional or otherwise, are in fact taken so seriously by the dwarves that in most dwarven nations the practice of sarcasm between dwarves is outlawed and punishable by public branding.
This naturally brings us to the dwarven view of their governance. The dwarven political systems are lauded across the world for their intricacies and lack of widespread corruption. A fact that the dwarves are rightfully proud of, and see it as a matter of great importance to the livelihood of not only their civilization but themselves as individuals. The masterfully crafted dwarven bureaucracy and the laws they’ve forged are widely viewed as the true strength of their race, and thus it must be respected and protected at all costs. This strict adherence does not mean that crime is a thing of the ancient past, though. The rigidity of bureaucracy often leaves loopholes for perceptive crooks to take advantage of, and due to the nature of their law enforcement, these individuals will not be apprehended unless a law is passed to make it a crime. And among a race of such emotionally rich individuals, there is plenty of room for crimes born in the heat of passion or delusions of injustice.
Though foreign races may frequently bear an ill perception of the dwarves, this just as often comes from gross misunderstandings of the dwarven mindset. They are by no means a naturally cruel race of people, but rather a race of long-lived people with plans for futures, entire human lifetimes ahead, and memories stretching back as long as recorded history allows. With emotions at their level, it is hard for them to let go of even the smallest of slights without some form of compensation. It can be difficult to understand, accept, or simply tolerate the conclusions that can come from dwarven mentalities, but you are always certain they will be upfront about whatever their disagreement may be.
Religion
Religion within dwarven society is hard to define, as there is no organized faith found among their nations or settlements that can be considered uniquely dwarven. Though individuals or clans may follow certain world religions or something of their own making, there is no faith that is recognized to be a state religion of any dwarven realm. Instead of gods and spirits, they are more commonly drawn to worshipping the political systems of their homeland, viewing it as a structure built by their forebears that provides them with safety and prosperity. This phenomenon is even seen among dwarves born and raised in the nations of other races, though rarely with the same fervor as one might expect to see in any dwarven hold.
These systems can make dwarves very rich if they know how to navigate their Byzantine bureaucracy, leading some zealots to wrongly view wealth itself as a virtue. This has brought forth an ugly subculture within dwarven kind that praises the rich for their righteous paths and will turn a blind eye to wrongdoings and unethical practices, professing a blind loyalty to these ‘prophets’ in the delusion that they simply know what is right. Always.
This worship of riches is a trend that is worrying more conservative elements within dwarven society, as the seeds of greed have grown strong within the heads of these select few false prophets, challenging the very integrity of dwarven politics that makes them so uniquely steadfast.
Trivia
- Despite technically being ruled by them, kings and queens have never been allowed into the lawmaking process at any level. Dwarven nobility is excluded from the bureaucracy as part of an ancient pact struck between the commoners and bluebloods. The nobility will often fill the ranks of the military instead of finding political influence.
- Dwarves are completely incapable of yielding Potentia, Pannotia’s magical current which allows those knowledgeable in the arts to perform acts of sorcery. It is widely unknown why Dwarves cannot participate in this, with it being one of the world's greatest mysteries, which many have tried and failed to unravel.
- Dwarves are inherently scared of water. Few are taught to swim due to their lacking connection to the seas. Because of this, there are almost no dwarves found to be living in harbor districts of foreign cities.
- “Your mother” jokes are considered extremely offensive to dwarves. One of the longest trials in dwarven history came about from a goblin engineer calling a dwarven foreman’s mother dumb in playful jest. The foreman broke the goblin’s hands for the transgression, which led the goblin’s employer to file a lawsuit. The legal battle lasted for decades after the goblin had passed away, as both parties simply wouldn’t give up and would continue to sue one another for increasingly petty things.
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