Dwarf
Dwarves are the oldest humanoid race on the planet. They are born of the planet, nourished by the planet, and return to the planet when they die.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
A Dwarf can grow to be ‘as old as the stone’. The oldest recorded dwarf was six hundred and thirty seven years old with the cause of death being a battle wound sustained fighting off human raiders. The age of a dwarf is not easy to determine from a glance, since the ‘aging’ effects they suffer are a result of flaws during the construction of the mold which become more apparent over time, appearing as gaunt cheeks (which would be hidden by beards), sunken eyes, or flaws in the skin, nails, or teeth. Adulthood is generally reached at the age of 40. Middle age is considered to be around 300. At 400 we start to see the effects of old age seep in, with the venerability settling in at around 550.
Gender can be neutral at birth with a lack of genitalia molded by the parents, following the old dwarven traditions. The child will grow up influenced by their own soul and the body mold to the proper definitions for male or female. However, to better connect with hominids, some dwarven families have begun to craft genitalia on their offspring to define their genders at the mold breaking.
Dwarves do not get very tall by necessity rather than the design of the race. Dwarves born from the mold are roughly half the size of a human baby. They grow to be around 4 feet tall, but there have been records of dwarves as small as 2 feet and tall as six feet. The determining factor of this appears to be influenced by the size of the tunnels and underground that the dwarf grows in. Smaller tunnels will make smaller dwarves.
Genetics and Reproduction
When a couple decides to become parents they are both given a mason vase the size of an average flower vase. The parents are tasked with filling these vases to the line marked inside with the dust of their ancestors. Parents will think of the traits they would like to pass on to their child and chose from the ancestor’s jars accordingly, adding as much as two handfuls of the dust to their vase.
Once both vases are full they are mixed with the muddy mixture of ground stone and dirt. When it reaches the proper consistency the mixture is then molded into the shape of an adult dwarf. The couple will either shape the clay themselves or hire an artisan to do it for them. At this time it is common to add some extra elements to the mold, such as carved stones for the eyes to influence the eye color or gemstones to grant specific attributes. Once the mold is near completion, a geode is placed where the heart of the dwarf will be.
The mold is then placed in a kiln for several years. This can be an artificial kiln or one created naturally by the heat of a volcanic vent. When the baking process is complete (between 2 – 10 years), the mold is removed from the heat and left to cool. After another year or two the mold begins to crack. The parents then take hammer and chisel carefully to the mold and break it apart. The stone at this point is only at most an inch thick. The offspring resides in the center of the hollow mold and takes its first breath when awakened by it’s parents.
Mixtures are carefully scoured and prepared to prevent plant seeds from making it into the mixture. Failure to scour these before the geode is sealed can result in birth defects. Some are minor and able to cope with, but some are fatal. There have been records of trees planting in a Dwarf’s heart or other vital organ, destroying the chest as the tree became unruly to handle. Pulling the offending plant out is out of the question as the roots become inexorably tangled in the veins and arteries.
Growth Rate & Stages
Dwarves grow based on their dietary needs being met. In theory, infancy could last the entire lifetime if it is denied the proper nutrients. There are advantages and disadvantages to the manipulated rates of growth for dwarves. Faster growing dwarves tend to be physically weaker, but more nimble or intelligent. Slower growing dwarves tend to build more strength and weight.
Fed an ideal diet, infancy lasts 4 years, toddler stage lasts 8 years, childhood lasts 12 years, and adolescence lasts 20 years, reaching adulthood at 45 years old.
Fed a quick growing diet, infancy lasts 1 year, toddler stage lasts 3 years, childhood lasts 5 years, adolescence lasts 10 years, reaching adulthood at 20 years old.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, their mental development sticks to the same maturity rate, thus, those who were given the abundance of nutrition and minerals end up less emotionally and mentally matured than those who are given an ideal or slow diet.
Ecology and Habitats
A dwarf is built for underground life. Over the millennia they have learned to read the stone for signs of weakness and the bounty within. They have become masters of moving and manipulating rock, soil, and metal for their own ends, creating cunning traps and beautiful architecture.
Dietary Needs and Habits
A primary diet for a dwarf consists of soft stone, dirt, fungi, and insects, which contain most of the nutrition needed for a growing dwarf. Decaying plant matter and carrion make up the secondary diet of dwarves and fill in the gaps in nutrition in the primary diet. The elite among dwarves will eat overland produce and overland livestock, which contain high amounts of the nutritional values dwarves need to grow quickly, thanks to the diets of the animals.
Stone is picked out for consumption based on the soil quality around it. Soil is farmed by composting. Fungi is typically farmed or found in the wild.
Food is stored in various manners, such as bins, barrels, and cold chambers.
Dwarves are capable of eating things inedible to other races, such as carrion, toxic plant matter, rocks, and dirt. Rock and dirt contain all the minerals that the Dwarven body needs to function.
Rotting matter enriches their blood and bodies, providing what the moss on their bodies needs to thrive. A poisonous subterranean mushroom grow in abundance, the toxins contributing to a key component in their digestive system. Other toxic mushrooms can be substituted to fill in the need in the surface world, most notably the Death cap mushroom.
Grains and grass seeds are toxic to Dwarves when raw, causing severe vomiting, dehydration, heart palpitations, asphyxiation, muscle pain, and in severe cases heart attack or suffocation. Fully cooked grains and grass seeds without the right seasonings are still capable of causing minor reactions and thus are often avoided. It takes a large amount of grain or grass seed to cause a severe enough reaction to kill a dwarf, generally a week of eating 2 cups of raw grain for every meal.
Common toxins such as Nightshade, Wolf’s bane, Fox glove, Ricin, and so on are still able to poison dwarves, but it takes larger doses to kill one with these.
Biological Cycle
Adolescence
Once a dwarf reaches 40 years of age they embark on a pilgrimage to the Heart of Terra. There, the children who turned 40 since the last ceremony gather and complete the coming of age ritual. Fast grown dwarves are forced to wait for their 40th year. Their bodies are turned to stone, clay, and dirt. They will spend the next year in the form of their ancestors and guarding the hidden tunnel going north. During this time they are able to remove minor birth defects that did not obstruct their bodies. So long as the plant did not destroy a leg and require the offending tree to be cut into a peg leg, for example, the damage done by the tree or plant can be repaired at this time.
During this time the moss that was used for their hair can be replaced. Some dwarves will remove the moss and replace it with other plants, like small fruiting bushes, grass, lichen, etc.
Death
Death to other sentient races is something that is barely understood by dwarves. Majority of the population only knows that when an animal or other hominid dies it is usually edible. Even if it is not edible to them, it will rot like the stuff that is edible and attract insects and animals that find it edible. Bones are confusing things that take a lot of time to turn into stone or dust that has about as much use as soft stone. Bone itself has been found by some craftsmen to be useful as decoration or intimidation.
When a dwarf dies they will go to great lengths to retrieve the bodies of the fallen, even if it means launching a campaign against those that hold the bodies. The body is placed in a sealed metal casket and entombed, the date carved into the stone surrounding it.After two hundred years, the casket is dug out and opened. The body of the dwarf at this point has returned to an earthen state and sealed in a stone jar with the name of the deceased engraved on the lid.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Dwarves are broken into six clans. Each clan utilizes a military like social structure, each operating independent of the others.
Each clan is broken out into smaller villages or battalions. All dwarves are trained to fight and each have their own profession. Dwarves who are unable to fight are ranked as civilians and take on roles that provide a benefit to their society. Each battalion has a battalion lord. War councils are held twice a year, where each battalion lord reports to central command.
Examples of jobs for non combatants: jeweler, farmer, shepherd, kiln operator, tailor, cobbler
Examples of jobs for combatants: blacksmith, armorer, fletcher, wheelright, carpenter
Facial characteristics
Dwarves have short and squat body structures and facial features. Bulbous and wide noses are common. Their eyes are wide and adjusted for being in the dark places with a secondary set of transparent eyelids to clear dirt and debris from the sensitive organs. They have larger ears compared to the proportions of other races. They are rounded and flat like a humans, but wider across with thicker skin, giving them sensitive hearing.
All dwarves keep beards, though the hair on their bodies is a type of plant growth rather than actual hair. It is a special moss often colored in various shades of red or brown. At times, strains of a silvery green or deep violets and blues that are mistaken for black have been seen on dwarves. The moss is fine but sturdy, thin enough to be mistaken for actual hair. It can be trimmed, cut, shaved, and styled with decorations and ornaments. A female’s beard and hair are often softer than a male’s due to slightly different mineral compositions within the body.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Dwarves have a heighten sense of hearing and low light vision due to their underground habitation. Light from the upper world tends to be bothersome to their eyes until they adjust, though they have found ways around that with tinted glasses.
Civilization and Culture
History
Dwarves were the second sentient race created by Atlor, the god of the Earth. They began their existence as mere golem sentinals to watch over the world through out the ages. During this time they launched two campaigns, the first was a mindless slaughter to thin the overpopulation of the various creatures after the birth of Am’Non. It was the kindest thing that they could do for the world to ensure that it did not collapse. The second campaign was against the dragons of the world when the race as a whole warred against itself. The details of these campaigns exist only as vague whispers and serve as legends now.
For their service to the world, Atlor granted them free will and turned their stone bodies to flesh and blood, true life. Armed with the wisdom that comes only from ages, the dwarves began to record the history that could be recalled as paintings on cave walls and verbal stories. They avoided going top side, wary of the other races. They spent their time continuing their duty to defend the stability of the world as well as expanding their own underground world. They began to fill their time with invention and craft.
Trade needs eventually necessitated the advent of going topside. Dwarves became the standard for metal craft and stone craft. In exchange for their gems and tools, they gained food and writing. The elves taught them the wonders of the top side world as well as the art of writing with paper and ink. Written records began to be kept shortly after.
When the war between Orc and Elf broke out, the dwarves retreated to their underground shelter, refusing to participate on either side. There was no need that the dwarves saw. Whatever damage the orcs and elves caused could be repaired by the world over time. Unfortunately, they did not prepare for the thought that war might seed itself in the human race as it did.
When the humans rose and began another bloody war with the orcs and elves, the dwarves kept a close eye on the combat, but ultimately did not get involved. Naturally, not all of the clans agreed with this decision and enterprising dwarves saw the opportunity that had passed them the previous war. Dwarven weapons and armor were provided to both sides, enriching several families during the time.
Some of these dwarves further insulted the clans by moving closer to valleys hidden in the mountain ranges and raising livestock that they had traded for, creating a monopoly on food stocks.
This went further when refugees of the war were led into valleys through underground tunnels to establish farming communities in exchange for the passage and land that was granted them. Once these transgressions were discovered the first war between dwarven clans broke out. The hurts of this war and disagreement have not yet faded and tension between involved clans still runs high.
Scientific Name
Sapius Lithius
Origin/Ancestry
Underworld
Lifespan
550
Conservation Status
This species currently thrives in the underworld of Eldris, barricaded within stone fortresses deep in the heart of labyrinthine caverns and tunnel systems.
Average Height
2-4 feet
Average Weight
150-500 lbs
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
Skin tones for dwarves depends heavily on the minerals present when they are being formed in the kiln. Stone being present will alter skin pigment to be lighter and even take a gray or light brown like tint. Dirt will present a dwarf with darker earth tones of skin. Clay specifically will give a pale tone, while chalk will make a dwarf white. If minerals are balanced, it is possible to get a mottled skin tone.
Eye colors, like skin tones, depend on the minerals present in the kiln. The more common colors are browns, blacks, and grays. Eye color is very easy to control by placing the desired shades and elements in the eye area of the mold. Long ago, dwarves would use precious gems to give richer eye colors, though that is not so common anymore after the myth of dwarves’ eyes turning into gemstones when plucked from the head sprung up by some drunkard in a bar somewhere. A dwarf’s eye color can be the same shade as any mineral or gemstone.
Related Myths
Related Materials
Game Stats
Ability Score Increase: Constitution +2 Size: Medium Speed: 25 feet Darkvision: 60ft Dwarven Resilience: Advantage on saving throws vs Poison, Resistance to poison damage Dwarven Combat Training: Proficiency with Battleaxe, Handaxe, Light Hammer, Warhammer Tool Proficiency: Gain one proficiency of your choice from the following:- Smith's Tools
- Brewer's Supplies
- Mason's Tools
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