Dwarf

The Stout Folk

Dwarves, sometimes called the Stout Folk, were a natural humanoid race. Dwarves were a tough, tradition-abiding folk known for their strong martial traditions and beautiful craftsmanship.

Basic Information

Biological Traits

Dwarves were a short race, as their name implied, standing from 4'3" – 4'9" (1.3 – 1.45 meters) on average, with gold dwarves a bit shorter. What Dwarves lacked in height they made up for in bulk; they were, on average, about as heavy as humans. A dwarf could weigh anywhere from about 160 – 220 lbs (73 – 100 kg). Dwarven males were a bit taller and heavier than their female counterparts.[5] Like humans, dwarves had a wide variety of skin, eye, and hair colors, typically pale among shield dwarves and deeply tanned or brown amongst gold dwarves. Hazel eyes were common throughout the race, with blue eyes more common amongst shield dwarves and brown or green eyes found amongst the gold dwarves.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Male dwarves were often bald and grew thick facial hair sometimes used to display social status. Unusually for humanoids, both sexes naturally grew ample facial hair though the majority of shield dwarf females shaved their beards off. This hair was often dark in hue, though among shield dwarves blond or red hair was just as common. Gold dwarves took the care of facial hair to an extreme, carefully oiling and grooming it, with some adding perfume and ornamentation.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Dwarves highly valued the ties between family members and friends, weaving tightly knit clans. Dwarves particularly respected elders, from whom they expected sound leadership and the wisdom of experience, as well as ancestral heroes or clan founders. This idea carried on to relations with other races and dwarves were deferential even to the elders of another, non-dwarven race.
Personality
Whether or not the dwarven claim that they were carved from the world’s stone was true, dwarves shared many qualities considered similar to the stone they lived with. Strong, hardy, and dependable dwarves were polite, particularly elders, and possessed a wisdom beyond that of many other races. Dwarves valued their traditions, regardless of the subrace they came from, and looked for inspiration from ancestral heroes. Dwarves were also known for their stubborn nature and cynicism, traits widespread amongst the dwarves but which contributed to and were commonly offset by their bravery and tenacity.
Dwarven friendship was hard to earn, but was strong once won. Naturally dour and suspicious, the stout folk were slow to trust others, specifically towards those outside their family, suspecting the worst of an individual until the outsider proved many times their good will. Once this trust was gained, dwarves held their friends to it and viewed betrayals, even minor ones, with a vicious propensity for vengeance. A common gnomish oath, remarking on this dwarven sense of justice, was “if I'm lying, may I cross a dwarf.”
For dwarves, loyalty was more than a word and that it should be both valued and rewarded. Dwarves believed it a gift and mark of respect to stand beside a friend in combat, and an even deeper one to protect that ally from harm. Many dwarven tales subsequently revolved around the sacrifice of dwarves for their friends and family. Just as dwarves were known for their dependability as friends and allies, dwarves also harbored grudges far longer than many other races. This may have been on an individual basis between a dwarf and one who had wronged him or against entire races, even if warfare with the enemy had long since ceased.
Dwarves were a careful and deliberate race, with a more serious disposition than other races, who they sometimes viewed as flighty or reckless. A dwarf did all things with care and a stubborn resolve, with brash or cowardly behavior unusual for the race. However, dwarves did succumb easily to wrath or greed, which were the most common vices of the race.
Dwarves who left their homeland to become adventurers did so for a number of reasons. In part, a dwarf might have been motivated by simple avarice, given the dwarven love of beautiful things. As often, however, a dwarf might have been motivated by a drive to do what was right for others (particularly their clan) or a love of excitement for, as settled as dwarves were, they rarely tired of thrills. But even these wayward dwarves retained the spirit of their brethren, hoping that their accomplishments abroad could bring honor to themselves, their clan, or both. Given that successful dwarven adventurers were likely to recover rare items or defeat enemies of the dwarven people during such challenges, this was a hope not entirely without merit.
Culture
Dwarves highly valued the ties between family members and friends, weaving tightly knit clans. Dwarves particularly respected elders, from whom they expected sound leadership and the wisdom of experience, as well as ancestral heroes or clan founders. This idea carried on to relations with other races and dwarves were deferential even to the elders of another, non-dwarven race.
Likewise, dwarves, perhaps more-so than most other races, turned to their gods for guidance and protection. Non-evil dwarves looked to the divine for comfort and inspiration, while the wicked looked to their divine overlords for methods through which to obtain power over others. Individual dwarves might have been faithless, but the race as a whole, regardless of sub-race, had a strong inclination for religion and almost every community maintained at least one temple or ancestral shrine.
Clans
Most dwarven societies were divided into clans built along family ties and political allegiances. These clans were usually led by hereditary rulers, often monarchs of a sort and descended from the founder of the clan. Dwarves strongly valued loyalty to these rulers and to the clan as a whole and even objective dwarves tended to side primarily with their kin over other races or communities.
These clan-structures promoted a tradition of inbreeding. This was so excessive, that it was considered one of the reasons for the dwarves' low birth rate.
Most dwarven clans focused on one or two kinds of crafting, such as blacksmithing, jewelry, engineering, or masonry. Dwarves strove to avoid overspecialization by sending some of their youth as apprentices to other clans, which also helped to foster racial unity. Because of the long age dwarves exhibited these apprenticeships might last decades.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Dwarves did not forgive past wrongs easily and the entire race had more or less declared war on goblins and orcs as a whole, wiping them out where they found them. Many dwarves viewed these races as a foul infestation of their mountain homes and their duty to purge them. Likewise, many dwarves viewed drow and grimlocks with a similar hatred and few dwarves had forgotten their ancestral hatred of the giants who once enslaved them. Because of this, dwarves generally viewed related races, such as half-orcs, with distrust. Dwarves got along pretty well with gnomes, with whom they shared a love of fine crafting, and passably with humans, half-elves and halflings. However, most dwarves commonly believed that true friendships can only be forged over long periods of time and a common saying was that “the difference between an acquaintance and a friend is about a hundred years,” meaning that few members of the shorter-lived races ever forged strong bonds with dwarves. There were exceptions, however, and some of the strongest friendships were those between a dwarf and a human whose grandparents and parents were also on good terms with the dwarf.

Lifespan

Dwarves aged much like humans but over a longer period of time, remaining vigorous well past 150 years. Most dwarves lived to see their bicentennial and a few lived to be over 400.

Average Height

4'3" – 4'9" (1.3 – 1.45 meters)

Average Weight

160 – 220 lbs (73 – 100 kg)

Average Physique

Usually stout and muscular.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Like humans, dwarves had a wide variety of skin, eye, and hair colors, typically pale among shield dwarves and deeply tanned or brown amongst gold dwarves. Hazel eyes were common throughout the race, with blue eyes more common amongst shield dwarves and brown or green eyes found amongst the gold dwarves.