So you want to play a dwarf?

Basic Overview

All you really need to do is to channel negative Scottish stereotypes and you have a fully fleshed out dwarf character!


Oh, you want more than sarcasm?


Dwarfs are renown as sturdy warriors and skilled craftsmen but they have a society as complicated as any other long standing civilized mortal race on Scarterra, so they have priests, mages, theurgy wielders, wilderness experts, sages, and more. Everything humans have and more.
Dwarf PCs can be warriors, divine casters, mages, or experts or some combination of multiple RPG archetypes in all their many variations.
You can even make a socially oriented dwarf diplomat. It's unusual for classic fantasy dwarf archetypes, but there is no reason you cannot make a socially oriented dwarf character. Scarterran dwarves suffer no social penalties.

There are four distinct dwarf cultures on Scarterra. Two are native to West Colassia (both centered in the the World Seam Mountains) and two are native to Penarchia (one on the outskirts and one in the interior). It just happens to be the case that at the time of the writing of this article, me the creator of Scarterra is focusing on West Colassia primarily now, and my plan to open a second campaign and novel setting in the near future is centered around Penarchia.
There is no reason you cannot have a dwarf character in one of the other lands, but your character and maybe his immediate family are likely to be the only dwarf or dwarves for hundreds of miles in any direction. Such dwarfs are definitely going to hear "I never met a dwarf before" quite often.
You can follow the hyperlinks for more information but a quick summary below.
Meckelorner dwarves are pretty close to the fantasy stereotype. There homeland is the northern portion of the World Seam Mountains. They are militaristic, proud, somewhat isolationist, mountain folk who distrust outsiders and value clan honor a lot.
Stahlheimer dwarves are a breakaway group from the Meckelorn whose adopted homeland is in the southern portion of the World Seam Mountains that kept most of their traditions but they assimilated more human cultural values, especially mercantile values. They focus less on self sufficiency than other dwarves and try to accrue wealth and power through trade though they still have the Meckelorn core values.
Mondarian dwarves are loosely based on the Menehune of Polynesian myth. They live in a series of tropical volcanic islands in the northern equatorial region of Penarchia and they still love honor, fine craftsmanship, clan loyalty and martial prowess but unlike most other dwarves, they also love the sea.

Penarchian dwarves live in the interior of Penarchia. In a way they are very isolationist compared to other dwarves but in another way they are outgoing. They want to keep outsiders out of their home territory and they spend more time underground than other dwarves. They are outgoing in that they will engage in commerce with almost any non-dwarves, but they want to engage in this trade on their terms.

There are two things that all four dwarf cultures have in common. One, their societies are very traditional and concerned with face. Two, their societies value skilled craftsmanship.

How does your dwarf character feel about his or her culture's traditions?

Many dwarves love every aspect of dwarf culture, or at least their particular slice of dwarf culture. You can certainly play a dwarf PC in this mold. Even a traditionalist dwarf could have ambitions or wanderlust or some other reason to leave their homelands and do exciting, adventerous things.

by Me with Hero Forge

Traditionalist societies are rough on their non-conformists and outsiders. While dwarf outsiders and outcasts make up a relatively tiny percentage of the dwarf population as a whole, they make up a fairly large percentage of dwarf adventurers, PCs and otherwise.
If you want to play a dwarf outcast, you as a player should figure out why he or she is an outcast. Did your dwarf choose to sever ties with his home culture or was he cast out of his home society? How bitter is she about this?
Pure edgelord absolute loners don't make the best RPG character as they tend to annoy the other players and possibly annoy the GM. Whether they admit it or not, most outcast dwarves are not pure bitter introverts and they will seek a community somewhere. A dwarf might join a non-dwarven organization and become a fervent convert to whatever this organization stands for. An outcast dwarves could also find a surrogate clan in their adventuring party.

If a dishonored dwarf was unfairly dishonored (or he was fairly dishonored but is remorseful about it), you could make your character's long development arc about reclaiming a position in respectable dwarf society.
More often than that, an outcast dwarf is going to have an easier to carving out a unique place for themselves outside of their home society.

Not every dwarf PC need be a die hard traditionalist or a tragic outcast from their society. Some dwarves mostly like their home society, but there are aspects of their native society that they are not comfortable with.
A lot of dwarves are still respectable parts of dwarf society, but they choose to spend long periods of time physically away from their homelands. Dwarf rangers fit this mold and they have their own distinctive subculture, but they aren't the only dwarves that make their livelihood away from dwarf lands and then periodically return to their homelands for short periods of time. Dwarves like this are still an honorable part of their home society but also enjoy time apart from it, theoretically the best of both worlds.

Cregor Redshaft by Eron12 with Hero Forge

Some dwarves either alone or with their spouse and children in tow opt to travel to non-dwarven lands and parley their skills for money for a few years or even a few decades, then they return home laden with experience and gold.
There are also small expatriate dwarf communities in various human lands throughout Scarterra and very few of these communities are made up of outcast dwarves.
You can easily make a dwarf character that is planning to spend a long time outside of dwarf lands but he has the intention of returning home...eventually. Also, just because the dwarf returns home, doesn't meant she has to stay at home. You can also play a dwarf born and/or raised in an expatriate dwarf community. A lot of dwarf adventurers come from both of these backgrounds.

What about your clan?

All four dwarf subcultures are different, but all four of them have a clan based social structure. Unless your dwarf was dropped off on a human's or elf's doorstep as a baby and raised by non-dwarves, your character probably grew up in a clan, even if he is no longer a part of said clan.
Whether your dwarf loves or hates his birth clan, or has a complicated relationship with his clan, you should be able to name your current or former clan.
There are hundreds of dwarf clans in Scarterra and as of the writing of this article, only seven or eight have been detailed. It's perfectly acceptable to use the Dwarf Clan Generator to randomly create a dwarf clan or you can use the chart without rolling and cherry-pick traits you as a player think are interesting. Then Scarterra can have one more clan to add to the wiki, huzzah!
As a player developing a character background, you can decide where your character falls into his general clan mode and where he differs from it.
Note that a married female dwarf on paper becomes member of her husband's clan but in reality probably has more of her personality and outlook instilled by her birth clan. Also, married dwarf women don't sever their family ties, so a married female dwarf sort of has two clans. Even a married male dwarf has some family ties with his wife's birth clan. While arranged marriages are a thing in most dwarf societies, most dwarves try to make sure their marriages are between dwarves who are well disposed towards the values of the clan they are marrying into.
Regardless, your character's clan ties are a major source of your his or her social hooks for roleplaying side quests and also influences your character's values and personal growth arcs. Like with dwarf society as a whole, you should figure out where your dwarf character agrees with his clan values and where he disagrees with them.

A love of craftsmanship

Dwarf culture values skilled craftsmanship. All dwarf characters get bonuses working with metal and stone, even if they are raised by outsiders, this trait is innate to them. That doesn't mean your dwarf player character has to have any training in metal or stonework.
Among all the dwarf societies, not everyone can be a blacksmith or miner, dwarves works all sorts of professions just like every other civilized race.
Their values of craftsmanship still permeates all of dwarf society. Almost all dwarves take great pride in their work, whatever their work happens to be whether they are priests, warriors, scholars, fur trappers, cooks, seamstresses, book binders or whatever else.
Dwarf PCs of any stripe should take pride in what they do. If you want to play a dwarf character without the race's stereotypical not-so-humble pride, than you need a good backstory to explain why your dwarf breaks from the mold in this matter.

So you want to play a divine magic caster, who is also a dwarf?

Krogresli by Eron12 with Hero Forge

The same basic guidelines apply with dwarves that apply with other races. A dwarf anointed or favored soul can be part of major religious pillar of their society, a minor religious pillar of their society or fringe religious group. In some ways, among dwarves (and other races) members of fringe groups are disproportionately likely to manifest divine magic, so don't let the fact that your dwarf caster is a member of a minority religion dissuade you from running with your character concept.
Whether your dwarf caster is a religious conformist or a religious maverick, you should put some thought into how their religion applies to the dwarf's clan and society at large as well as his or her personal goals and ambitions.

Mainstream Meckelorner dwarves tend to view Hallisan as their primary spiritual patron. Maylar and Greymoria worship is heavily restricted if not outright banned. Most Meckelorn Testers and Children are figuratively and all too often literally underground.
The other priesthoods have tiny formal presences. Nami, Zarthus, and Phidas are more tolerated than they are welcomed. Mera worship is more common among dwarves closely allied to the kalazotz than dwarves who are more distant from the bat folk tend to also be more distant from Mera. Meckelorners bear Korus no ill will but most don't give him much thought not counting the dwarf ranger subcommunity. Most Meckelorners appreciate Khemra's values of literacy, tradition, history and order but they also feel like they as dwarves don't need the Keepers telling them what to do because dwarves are pretty orderly to begin with.

Mainstream Stahlheimer dwarves are very similar to the Meckelorners in religious views with one major exception. While they still recognize Hallisan as the most important deity, they consider Khemra and Phidas to almost as important. The Stahlheimers are more distant from kalazotz so fewer of them venerate Mera highly. Stahlheim has a lots of extensive trading networks incorporating various human nations and the Elven Empire. Once in a while, a foreign missionary from one of these lands will convert a dwarf into their ranks.

The Mondarian dwarves (and the Mondarian humans who have adopted many aspects of dwarf culture) view Mera and Hallisan as the twin pillars of their spiritual lives. They have small but respected priesthoods of most of the others except for Maylar and Greymoria, but they are generally less overtly hostile to these deities than other dwarves. The Mondarian dwarves are by far the smallest dwarf enclave in terms of population. While a Stahlheimer or Meckelorner that is part of a fringe religious group probably has a small community of like minded worshipers to fall back on, a Mondarian with fringe religious believes is probably either acting alone or has to find spiritual community with non-Mondarians.

Penarchian dwarves mostly view Phidas as their primary spiritual patron, but they believe all the Nine should be given their due, at least a little bit. There are small priesthoods for every deity among them. While still fairly rare, pantheon casters are slightly less among Penarchian dwarves than other dwarves. Penarchian dwarf religion in general is pretty ritualistic and prone toward orthopraxy over orthodoxy. Penarchian dwarves are less likely to leave their homelands for extended periods of time than other dwarves, so Penarchian dwarf theurgists are disproportionally likely to have what their culture views as fringe religious beliefs or fringe beliefs in general.

So you want to play a warrior? who is also a dwarf?

In pretty every iteration of fantasy post-Tolkien, dwarves are warriors. If you want to play a dwarf warrior, no one will ask many probing questions. That said, you still need to figure out what motivates your dwarf warrior to pick up arms. Who or what does he fight for? What if anything is he willing to die for?
All four Scarterran dwarf cultures produce a lot of warriors. Meckelorner have a very strong warrior culture because they have a lot of enemies right at their doorstep. Almost every boy and girl is given rudimentary combat training when they become adolescents. More than a few of them discover that they both like martial arts and are quite good at it.

by Me with Hero Forge

Mondarians tend to range far and wide walking, swimming and boating. Since Mondarians are often separated from the bulk of their population for long periods of time as they go off on hunting or foraging expeditions, most Mondarians (dwarves and humans alike) work to make sure their sons and daughters can defend themselves when out in the wider world though this training tends to be pretty informal. The Islands of Mondert are not exactly a war-torn region but they are a bunch of tropical islands in a fantasy setting. That means they have to periodically deal with weird tropical monsters.
Penarchian dwarves and Stahlheimer dwarves are more insulated from routine dangers than the other two dwarf cultures but they believe in defending what is theirs, fiercely. Rather than making sure the entire population has combat skills, they usually set up a small portion of their population as professional soldiers who train in the art of war full time.

So you want to play a mage who is also a dwarf?

Typically in D&D settings, dwarves distrust magic or at least they distrust arcane magic and dwarf mages are rare. It is rarely explained why dwarves distrust magic.
Scarterran dwarves are less magic-phobic than dwarves in most other fantasy settings, but their society still produces proportionally fewer mages than other societies. At least Scarterran dwarves have a reason to distrust mages. Scarterran dwarves generally distrust Greymoria and Greymoria is the goddess of arcane magic.

by Me with Hero Forge

Dwarves are a pragmatic lot, but they at least recognize that arcane magic is utilitarian. They won't cast dwarf mages out of their society if they are willing to use their magic to help their clan and homeland. Most dwarf lands have strict maleficium laws to protect against criminal acts of magic but dwarf laws in general are pretty strict about everything, not just magic so this isn't that unusual.
A plurality of dwarf mages are rune casters. This generality holds true in all four dwarf cultures. They view this brand of arcane magic as being the most distant form of magic from Greymoria. It also synergizes well with the dwarves' natural aptitude in crafting things, but if you look around hard enough you can find dwarves of any magical tradition.

Dwarf hermetics (both of the book hermetics and aesthetic hermetic varieties) have small but generally respected communities in most dwarf societies, but not Mondert. Mondarian dwarf mages are more likely to be folk magicians, something rarely seen in the other three dwarf cultures. This is something the Mondarian dwarves picked up from the Mondarian humans.
Dwarf sorcerers are rare, but they are usually not discriminated against unless they are mistaken for warlocks. Dwarf warlocks tend are generally distrusted as they have mystically enforced loyalties to someone or something outside of proper dwarf society.

So you want to play a Rogue/Expert? who is also a dwarf

It is not particularly hard to justify an dwarf expert. Dwarves value excellence and they value knowledge. The same general guidelines for expert characters in general apply to dwarf experts with little tweaking.
If your expert is more of a criminal rogue you should figure out if this causes friction between the dwarf and his clan or society or whether she has managed to balance these conflicting aspects of her life.
In general, Meckelorner dwarves and Mondarian dwarves encourage their children to be well rounded and learn a wide variety of skills while Stahlheimer dwarves and Penarchian dwarves tend to encourage their children to specialize becoming unparalleled experts in one or two fields.
Don't let this constrain you. Player characters in general tend to break the norms of their society. Just make sure your dwarf expert takes quiet (or not so quiet) pride in what s/he does. That is pretty universal for Scarterran dwarves.

by Eron12 with Hero Forge