Dwarves

“I still say it’s a damn fool thing.” The stout oak barrel of a man was crouching down as low as his legs would allow, keeping his center of gravity as low as possible so he could avoid falling. “Staying up this high without solid ground to keep you up...” He had crates of goods with him, Steelwork, Brass, Iron, even some pieces of Mithral and Adamantine, but he was loathed to sell them, “I just don’t know why they couldn’t come down to us. A proper dwarf needs a foundation to stand on.”

What most people know about the Dwarves is that they are short. The other thing that people know is that they like to build big. Decorative Dwarven architecture is massive, made to accommodate giants. Some people have taken this to imply that there must be some connection between the Dwarven and Giant peoples, though the two have come to become bitter enemies.
When the breaking occurred, the underground was sealed away from the world above, the underground was left with very few means of accessing the surface. Some Dwarves by the edge sought to rebuild the connections between their cities and the surface world, others retreated deeper to the underground, founding new deep cities in the newly expanded caverns of the Underdark. This split remains between the various Dwarven cultures like the hill and mountain Dwarves, and the Gray Dwarves (the Duergar), deep in the Underdark. Dwarves have an innate distrust of the Skylands, “dirt where it has no business being,” or traveling on airships. Since the majority of Orizon’s culture takes place on the Skylands or traveling through airships, this mistrust has made it difficult for most Dwarves to engage completely with the world at large. Dwarves in the air tend to keep their center of balance even lower, afraid they might fall off.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Dwarves like most humanoids, have are bipedal and have two arms; unlike most humanoids they are stout. Their skeletons are similar to humans, just that their bones are smaller and wider. Their organ structure is different from most humanoids, having a longer lower intestines allowing them do digest more food than most species, albeit slower. Dwarves thus have slower metabolisms, which allows them to take on considerable bulk on their bodies. This also makes them store fat more easily across their body.

Biological Traits

Dwarves' biology is similar to most humanoids just to the extremes. Male Dwarves find themselves growing thicker and heavier facial and body hair, but they are more likely to go bald in their "younger" years. Female Dwarves are incabable of growing facial or body hair, but grow very thick long hair on their heads, and are more voluptuous in their physical form.
Dwarves, due to their time of living in caves and still mining to this day, have an ability to see in the dark. Their hardy metabolisms also slow most poisons, allowing them to drink insane amounts of alcohol without getting drunk.
Hill Dwarves
When the tunnels collapsed, not all of the Dwarves were trapped underground, sealed within their homes and mines. Some of the Dwarves were outside, traveling the old hills, instead of being locked in, they were locked out. Do to their time in the sun unlike the Mountain Dwarves they tend to have tan or dark skin tones with black or dark brown hair.
Mountain Dwarves
The Mountain Dwarves where those that where sealed in their fortresses 
Gray Dwarves (Duergar)
The Gray Dwarves are the descendants of the Dwarves that fled deep into the underground of the Orizon after the breaking trapped them. Constrained by limited resources their skin became sallow and pale, while their bodies became slenderer and their minds more rigid.

Genetics and Reproduction

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Growth Rate & Stages

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Ecology and Habitats

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The dangers of the surface, behemoth monsters and marauding war bands means that most entrances to Dwarven cities are strongly fortified. Still the Dwarven mines are a rich and efficiently managed resource base, and the Dwarves command a great deal of economic power through them. That power makes Dwarven cities a tempting target to raiders and marauding monsters that seek to claim the Dwarven wealth for themselves. Dwarven soldiers take their legendary toughness to extremes when it comes to defending their homes.

Additional Information

Social Structure

The Dwarves have a hierarchical social structure organized by family and by clan. Their position in this structure informs their position in the larger structure of Dwarven culture and tradition. In the deeper and more forbidding aspects of Dwarven society this social structure has also been used to support a loose caste system or to justify near slavery among the lower castes of Dwarven peoples, though outsiders almost never see this aspect of the grand Dwarven cities.
Hill Dwarves
These Dwarves roamed, they lost some of their militarism and tried to integrate more within the other peoples of Orizon, but they did become tougher to try to keep a place for themselves with these other people that once they were not so tightly aligned with before.
Mountain Dwarves
The Dwarves locked underground maintained themselves as military powerhouses. Their time locked underground disconnected them from the rest of the world but it also provided them with an abundance of metal and mineral wealth, allowing them to develop strong weapons and armor to fuel their defenses. Few of these underground Dwarves did not know how to handle an Axe or War-hammer as well as a pick.
Duergar
The Duergar of Orizon place their work above all other things. They are a functional people and have little use for art or artists. Duergar are rarely seen on the surface, those that leave the deep cities are those who want to leave the rigid society or be able to express their emotions. Other Duergar on the surface are there to learn and then report to their superiors down below.

Civilization and Culture

History

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Scientific Name

Homo Sapiens Nanus

Lifespan

350

Average Height

4'2"

Average Weight

145 Lb.

Discovered by

Karn