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{{Info races
{{Info races
|image = Dwarf.png
|image = Dwarfsplash.png
|pronunciation = Dwoh-rf
|pronunciation = Dwoh-rf
|classification = [[Human]]
|classification = Human
|subraces = Mithorrin, Aldor, and Urdweld
|nicknames =  
|nicknames = Stout Folk, Mountain Men, Deep Folk
*Stout Folk (endearing)
|languages = [[Common]], [[Dwarven]]
*Fallen Folk (derogatory)
|naming = Scandinavian, and Fantasy Dwarven names.
*Forge Fathers (praising)
 
|languages = Barrudh
|distinction = Stout, compact humans with exaggerated facial features and incredibly effective mining, smithing, and battle techniques
|naming = Old Norse with permutations
|maxage = 130 years
|distinction = Stout, mountain-dwelling people who show unerring perseverance and skill with crafting
|body = Average to Strongman
|maxage = 200 years
|height = 4’0” - 4’11”
|eye = brown, gray, green, and blue.
|weight = Varies based on Subrace
|hair = Blond, brown, black, red, and (when older) gray or white.
|eye = Varies based on Subrace
|skin =  
|hair = Varies based on Subrace
[[File:Skin1.png]]
|skin = Varies based on Subrace
[[File:Skin2.png]]
[[File:Skin4.png]]
[[File:Skin3.png]]
|}}
|}}
Secretive and proud, the Dwarves are the only known civilization to live underground in the world of [[Aloria]], building their grand holds with vast tunnel networks that run like highways across the various continents. The Dwarves are equally a very ancient [[Race]], predating many of the modern races in the world, and potentially even the [[Allorn Empire]] in having a civilized state structure, though keeping themselves distinctly isolated from the rest of the world. While ignoring most of the woes of the surface world, the Dwarves faced calamity after calamity in the last 1000 years, resulting in a staggering loss of life and a decline of their Empire. In present times, the Dwarves constantly struggle against extinction and the world forgetting about them, too proud to accept being consigned to a footnote in history, but equally pushed into a corner by forces beyond their control.


The Dwarves of [[Aloria]] are a people defined by adversity in the face of great tragedy. Dwarves are said to have originated from the very mountains themselves, and some scholars still debate just how far back the existence of the Race goes, a difficult task given the majority of their time has been spent living underground. Dwarven Kingdoms once occupied great and awe-inspiring caverns of stonework and glittering gemstones, and the mightiest of surface and subterranean fortresses whose ruins yet litter [[Ellador]]. A suspicious people, they have been forced to immigrate into Ailor society in order to survive deadly encounters with [[Dakkar]], [[Isldar]] and the greed of their own people. Up until a few short years ago, it seemed to many like their people risked dying entirely. But with newfound wealth and hope spawning from the depths of Ellador, the Dwarven people are beginning to find a real foothold in all corners of the world, spurred on by the uncovering of a third split of Dwarven society in the Urdweld. Along with the Aldor and Mithorrin, who are still greatly divided peoples within the same Race, the Dwarves are united by their adaptive personalities, hardy bodies, and shrewd tactical minds. They are a people defined by their Clans, their Kings, and their almost unilateral faith in Duindin and his teachings.  
==Core Identity==
===Playing a Dwarf===
To play a Dwarf, is to specifically choose for the backstory of belonging to a race which seems to be facing extinction, but tries to spit into the face of fate and go down kicking and screaming. Dwarven history is full of catastrophe, but far from becoming depressed about it, the Dwarves continue to battle against what most [[Ailor]] scholars have already consigned them to, and should the unthinkable become true, they will at least fight to make sure the world does not forget them. To be a Dwarf is to struggle with the constant realization that there are perhaps only an estimated 150,000 Dwarves left in the world, but to also not give room for self pity or just being mad at everyone around them. Being a Dwarf, is not to endlessly complain about the misery that has befallen the Race, but salvaging what can be found out of a bad situation, that which the Dwarves are known for.
===Tunnel Empire===
The Dwarves once had a vast underground Empire that spanned several continents and could in total sphere of influence even be compared as a rival to the Allorn Empire in its height. Dwarven holds were built primarily on [[Ellador]] before it froze over, but also on [[Northbelt]], with partially still existing tunnels connecting all of them, showing Dwarven engineering prowess as they built through solid stone and even under oceans, something even modern civilizations can only dream of. While many surfacers (Dwarves born and living mostly on the surface world) have gotten used to the open air, many of those who once lived underground (or continue to do so in [[Regalia]]) are uncomfortable lacking a clear ceiling above them.
===Facing Extinction===
Possible extinction or Racial integration among Ailor is a constant concern for the Dwarves, and one that has led to many disastrous attempts to reclaim the old homeland, as well as the creation of fringe terrorist groups of Dwarves who inflict their rage on the world. The majority of the Dwarves however are far more focused on attempting to salvage what they can, and mostly finding wealth in what others consider scrap. Dwarves are the perfect salvagers, able to fix up broken and discarded weapons and tools in no time, and even repairing technology mid-combat. Their ingenuity especially shines in moments where odds for them look bleak, giving rise to their sturdy reputation.
===Grudge Tellers===
The Dwarves have a great deal of grudges, and are commonly known as people who do not forgive, and do not forget. There is a great deal of racial animosity that they have towards the [[Nelfin]] Races, with varying degrees for the different types. Dwarves do not care for [[Suvial]], [[Fin'ullen]], or [[Solvaan]], and have a moderate to high distaste for the [[Isldar]], because they frequently clashed with their re-conquest plans. The group the Dwarves hate the most are the [[Teledden]], because of their scheming and backstabbing nature, and because they are largely the reason why the decline of the Dwarven Empire was set in motion. Only the most supreme of hatred among Dwarves is reserved for the [[Evolism|Evolist]] Isldar, once called the Death Isldar, who often worship the [[Evolism#Ravaal,_the_Glacial_March|Glacial]], the mother of all genocide on the Dwarves. This hatred is in spite of the recent greater division in Isldar society, which have seen less extreme factions of the Evolists emerge. Dwarves in general try to avoid being backstabbers, traitors, or swindlers, the truth and honor to their word is immensely important, as are bonds of alliance and friendship. Dwarves can even on a personal level, declare some action as a grudge, meaning that they declare a vendetta against a persona until their crime has been settled. This is sometimes where a Dwarf’s pettiness will shine through, declaring a grudge over a spilled drink, only to retaliate by burning someone’s house down.


==Physical Characteristics==
===Foundry Hearts===
Dwarves can generally be described as very short humanoids, though upon closer inspection their proportional differences become apparent. Dwarves are broader than their Ailor cousins by a considerable margin; though to make them have a comparable weight despite their lacking height. Dwarves do not grow above five feet in height, with the smallest of their folk coming in at four feet tall. Females tend to be a few inches shorter and a little less broad than the males, though they remain thicker and stickier than most other Human Races. A Dwarf’s lifespan is about 130 years, but earlier deaths are common. While Dwarves reach maturity at a comparable speed to [[Humans]], they will begin to show grey in their beards shortly after their one hundredth birthday, and will only begin to show dehabilitagine effects of aging one year prior to their death. Dwarves will usually sprout brown, red, and black hair, and very rarely golden hair. Dwarven eye colors tend to stay around black, brown, or grey. All Dwarves can very occasionally have blue eyes, and this is thought to be a child who has received a blessing from [[Duindin]].  
The Dwarves are, despite all the attempts of various other Races, unbeaten in the heat of a forge. They have the most skilful hands, the quickest grasp, and the easiest execution of complex forging techniques passed down through the generations. While Ailor and Nelfin may make more aesthetically pleasing items in a forge, Dwarves build to last and endure, and also forge with a purity of metals not quickly equaled by other Races. Nearly all Dwarves have a complex cultural understanding of geology, engineering, architecture, and knowledge of metals and ores that makes them excellent prospectors and explorers of soil riches.  


All Dwarves have three interesting traits owed to their stocky bodies and the hardy lifestyle of their ancestors. Their respiratory systems are incredibly adaptive after evolving to suit the harsh conditions their ancestors endured. This means that Dwarves can extract oxygen from heavily contaminated or dirty air. They’re capable of breathing smoke (even [[Obscura]] smoke) with only minor discomfort, and poison gasses have dramatically reduced effects on them. For example, gas potent enough to knock out an Ailor will only make a Dwarf feel very fatigued. Dwarves are incredibly resistant to poisons entering their bodies through other means as well, taking roughly thrice the dosage of the other Races for any effects to begin to show. Dwarves have a curiously accelerated healing rate when compared to other Human Races. As a general rule, a Dwarf will spend half as much time in a healing house than an Ailor will with identical injuries, and their bones will be twice as unlikely to break. A Dwarf’s wounds will clot fairly quickly, blood forming into thick, protective scabs to shelter open injuries. Dwarves take in a very demanding diet to keep up with these abilities, needing twice as much food to feast upon as even the hardiest of humans. Famine is a constant concern for the Dwarven people, making them ideal trading partners for those lands with plenty of agricultural gains. Dwarves who live very average physical lifestyles will garner enough exercise to maintain a “chiseled” physique, resulting in the stout but powerful people. This varies a little when dealing with Urdweld who have a skinnier, slightly hunched build. Dwarves who do not engage themselves physically will earn a most impressive beer gut, and become more fat than stocky within a few short years. Dwarven magic users tend to suffer this most of all, as do scholars. Half-Dwarves will take on a Dwarven appearance over whatever the other parent was, though they do inherit the above quirks at lessened effectiveness. As a final note, a half-Dwarf will ''always'' age at the same speed as an Ailor, with an identical lifespan, regardless of parent Races. Aldor tend to have slightly tanned skin. Finally, female dwarves are technically capable of growing beards, but it takes dwarven women five years to grow a full beard.  
==Design==
===Mental Characteristics===
Dwarves are resilient yet adaptable, stubborn yet empathetic, and hardworking yet playful. These contradictions all come together to create the Dwarven mentality of life. Having suffered betrayals and warfare against an assortment of enemies, even to the point where their once-great empire has crumbled to a few remaining Great Holds, Dwarves have an uncanny ability to take whatever is being thrown at them and launch it right back with greater ferocity. Dwarves as such have a very strong survival instinct and look to find ways to maintain their footing in Aloria, lest their Race slip into irrelevance and squander what their ancestors had accomplished. Dwarves are known to stick to their plans and see them carried out, but also know when a plan needs to change for the greater good and can abandon them with a sense of accomplishment and understanding.
===Physical Characteristics===
Dwarves are known to be the shortest Race in Aloria, with all of their members being shorter than five feet tall. Often mistaken for shorter Ailor, Dwarves tend to have wider frames if they were scaled up to the size of an Ailor, and also have greater development of muscle mass in comparison, especially in their arms and torso. Their skin is known to be tougher than others, with their hands and feet often remarked to have a leathery texture, as if they are callused, yet lacking the hardness that is associated with them in Ailor. Many Dwarves often have semi-exaggerated facial features, such as more pronounced brows, ears, and jaws, though it is also just as common to have very Ailor-like features. Dwarves also grow their hair faster than other Races, with the men often fastening various ornaments to them as a cultural fashion. Dwarves are capable of the full range of skin tone complexions. Dwarven hair colors equally have a large range, from black to blonde and anything in between, while eye colors can be green, brown, blue, or gray. Half-Dwarves are an average height between both parents, but retaining the Dwarven bodily proportions, thus appearing like a stocky short Ailor with more pronounced arms and facial features and body hair. Women Dwarves can grow beards, but many also don’t (or shave).


===Mithorrin===
==Heritage Traits==
Mithorrin can best be described as “traditional” Dwarves. Up until the year 26 AC, they were the only species of Dwarf known to exist. Mithorrin tend to have very pale skin.  Their facial features are large and dramatic, if not a little bloated. Their brow, nose, ears, and jaw tend to stick out away from their face. Mithorrin will style themselves very aggressively to reflect their culture and personality, with braided or wildly-cut hair. Braids, mohawks, shaved heads, or grown out long hair are all very common among the Mithorrin, and males are also fond of growing out and styling their beards with equal dramatism. The more elaborate a beard the more potential for trouble however, as it is common all dwarven cultures for one dwarf to tug on another’s beard, usually as a sign of dominance or disrespect. Mithorrin lie on the more extreme end of the physical spectrum for Human species and are capable of carrying around twice their body weight on their backs. Males and females aren’t entirely similar, but they’re certainly not diverse, with universally broad, strong builds. With origins in the Elladorian Holds, their skin is always on the paler side and their hair is often light, with blondes, reds, and lighter browns as the vastly dominant colors. Black and darker hair colors aren't as common among the Mithorrin. Common eye colors are greys, blues, and occasional greens. Mithorrin Clans tend to be centered around Duindin and can be considered more traditional, and Dwarf-centric.
When designing a Character, Proficiency Points allow for a limited Ability selection with Point Buy Packs. Heritage Traits adds free Packs and Mechanics on top of that to help with cultural themes. Free Packs grant Abilities usually, while Mechanics change the way a character functions in Roleplay through subtle, and usually out of Combat ways. In essence, Mechanics just add aesthetic flair that invest in the niche of each culture. Free Packs never raise Proficiency Points, but the character must be able to purchase them normally. (ex. if a character is a certain Affinity that locks them out of a category, they cannot take that specific free pack and must choose the alternative option.) If a Free Pack grants Magic of some type, that Magic can be of any Alignment the character can normally choose, or limited to a select alignment, which will always be written in the Free Pack description.  


===Aldor===
Mixed Heritage characters (i.e. characters born from two parents of different Cultures) may take one parent's 'Free Packs' and mix and match up to 5 Mechanics from both parents, although some Peoples cannot produce Mixed Heritage children (due to Magical/Fantasy reasons).
Aldor have undergone centuries of inbreeding with Ailor cultures, and as a result look far more approachable and pleasant to the Ailor eye than their Mithorrin counterparts. They have very similar faces to the Ailor, but mostly maintain a stocky, Dwarven build (Though, naturally, they aren't as wide as the Mithorrin). Gender diversity has also been wildly enhanced by mixed genetics. Male Aldor tend to have broader, rather masculine frames, while female Aldor tend to have smaller (but still broad by Ailor standards), rather feminine frames. Physically, Aldor are less impressive than their cousins, and while they can hold more weight than an Ailor, they tend to lose out in shoving matches due to their short limbs. Perhaps the most notable trait of the Aldor is their diversity. Centuries of blending with Ailor culture has spread the Aldor far and wide. They can be found as far as [[Daendroc]] or [[Ithania]], and their skin, hair, and eye color vary as much as the natives of these lands. An Aldor from Daendroc can be darkly tanned with brown hair and eyes, for example. Aldor do not tend to identify themselves by Clans, being far more prone to ingratiate themselves in Ailor society. Aldor tend to be very adventurous, and when Dwarven remains are found within ruins, it is more often an adventurous Aldor than an elusive, unburied Mithorrin. Aldor tend to die young due to their adventurous and glory-driven lifestyle.
===Free Packs===
 
* Dwarves can choose one Pack from either the [[Training Point Buy | Training]] or [[Athletic Point Buy | Athletic]] Point Buy categories.
===Urdweld===
* Dwarves can choose one Pack from either [[Tech Point Buy | Tech]] or [[Athletic Point Buy | Athletic]] Point Buy categories.
Said to be so ugly that they sought gold to afford good looks, the Urdweld are considered eyesores among the Mithorrin and Aldor. This is cultural bias at its greatest, as the main difference between the Urdweld and their brethren kin is the large red noses and pronounced brow ridges that give off the impression of an eternally angry expression. They have a very similar physical size and build to the other splits of dwarfkin, but they are typically a few inches shorter and less muscular. A remarkable trait of the Urdweld is their hair, which grows an inch every week, six times as fast as any other Race. It is very common to find Urdweld Dwarves with hair sticking out almost every part of their skin. Not even their women are spared from this freakish growth, as they too are known to grow hair in every place a man could expect. Their skin ranges from a sickly pale to ashen grey and even darker shades of black, as hundreds of years with very little contact with the outside world has kept them away from the sun. The Urweld split enjoys a slighter longer lifespan of 150 years of age. Urdweld hair, of note, is near always black but appears in a bizarrely wide variety of styles, cuts, and textures. A dark blue hair color is a rarity among their people. Somewhat more common is a sickly dark blue eye color, though about half maintain the usual dwarven eye colors.
===Mechanics===
 
* Dwarves gain +1 Main Defense Stat while another Dwarf is within a 5 block range, which can break Cap up to 11. This mechanic can stack up to a +2 bonus.
==Mental Characteristics==
* Dwarves are barely affected by Alcohol that gets other people drunk, needing insanely high proof, and always being able to keep their drinks down.
All Dwarves will have a unifying tactical, enduring, and intensely stubborn view of the world.  Given the many tragedies inflicted on their people, all Dwarves possess a hardy mental fortitude to match their physical constitution. While capable of being “merry” with all sorts of folks, all Dwarves are also inherently distrustful of other Races, and thus are prone to intense loyalties and bitter grudges. Additionally, Dwarves of all sorts value competency and strength, though each of the Dwarven peoples has a different perspective on what it means to truly be strong in the face of adversity.
* Dwarves have perfect vision (night vision) underground and in dark surroundings, needing no light.
 
* Dwarves are masters of the forge, able to perform feats of metallurgy in half the time of other craftsmen. Additionally, any metal item that a Dwarf produces is considered master class when compared to others.
The Mithorrin, being the most traditional of the Dwarven species, greatly value loyalty and the honoring of their ancestors. Unity is a strong trait within these Dwarves; they will gather a close-knit circle of friends and neighbors whenever possible. Mithorrin consider the safety and advances of the Dwarven people paramount above all, and worship Duindin more intensely than their brothers. While this circle will usually remain among Dwarves, the Mithorrin will occasionally befriend a non-Dwarf. This is a great honor to Dwarven society, with these few friends of the Dwarven people being christened “Ørbrodir”, or “Brother of Stone“. Mithorrin will go out of their way to be “Merry” with all, using that word to differentiate between those they consider true friends and those they will drink and sing and do business with. Mithorrin have slow-burning tempers, but when they boil over they are capable of an intense display of fury.
* Due to their vast understanding of architecture and metallurgy, Dwarves may gain additional insight from event items that may not be obvious to others (inquire with DM/Event Hoster for opportunities).
 
==Culture==
Aldor, being the product of Ailor and Mithorrin relationships over several centuries, are greatly opposed to the traditionalistic practices of the Mithorrin. Like the Mithorrin they possess an intense mental fortitude, but they see this trait as proof Dwarves are meant to be free and act as individuals, rather than remain in the “stuffy” clans of the Mithorrin. Aldor are more suited to inventor and tinkerer work, with some preferring to study with other Races to advance their chosen technology. A Mithorrin Dwarf may see an obstacle as something to be endured and fought directly, but an Aldor is more likely to manipulate others to solve the problem at hand. Their thought process is immediate, bordering on the impulsive, a stark contrast from the usually patient Mithorrin. Aldor are not quite as disciplined as their Dwarven brothers and are more susceptible to addiction and vices. That said, they are usually very empathetic to non-Dwarves, and make for fine merchants and workers within Ailor societies.
===Language===
 
The Dwarves speak a fantasy language called Barrudh, which is not comparable to any real life language. The base for its design is taken from old Norse, but distinct norse sounds are replaced by much harsher tones. For example, the Norse word for War is Krig (pronounced as Kreeg), which is then changed to the Dwarven Kraag (close to the word Crag). This produces a more guttural language with a somewhat norse base, but with a more fantasy like spelling. Most Dwarven Fantasy name generators are good to generate a name, however a couple of gendered names are provided as examples below.
When it comes to engineering and finance there is only one Race that stands without a rival, and those would be the Urdweld. As much as the Mithorrin and Aldor hate to admit it, it was the Urdweld who truly made the Dwarves masters of the mines, with their astute, calculative minds set on efficiency and hoarding. Urdweld have begin to typically wear jewelry from other races to flaunt their influence. The Urdweld’s greed is a point of contention among the Dwarves, it having driven hundreds of conflicts between both their people and outsiders. If there anyone who would sell their mother, it would be an Urdweld, and as it happens they are actually known to do so. Unhinged capitalism aside, the Urdweld are quite fond of spending their hard-earned wealth. The indulgent waste of Urdweld nobility can cause economic booms for entire cities in Aloria, and even the lowborn of Urdweld are able to throw away money that would make the average [[Regalian]] merchant sweat.


* Male Coded Names: Fokuth, Fignam, Khemrul, Affroul, Throdin, Hammoir, Thamrug, Kirem, Barivoc, Girfak, Fovrim, Gotmolin, Dvorun.
* Female Coded Names: Thirrsu, Dwothal, Kathil, Barridora, Kursbaer, Gimmora, Krozza, Ranthea, Lodi, Strosshil, Vosdrine.
* Dwarven naming customs does not officially support a Unisex or Non binary naming style, but both male and female can technically be unisex.
===Magic Chains===
The Dwarves have a dubious attitude towards the Occult, notably because there is no real historical context to [[Magic]] usage in their Empire. They are not incapable of using Magic, but Magic has a difficult place in their society due to Magic being involved with their greatest collective traumas. Mages simply did not exist for 21,000 years among the Dwarves, until the Allorn agents first used it to convince them to turn on the Dregodar. Somehow, Magic started appearing among their people after it was first used on them by the Allorn agents, causing Mages to be born, and Magic to also be taught to some of them. As the Empire collapsed, Dwarves became hostile to the concept of Magic, and started persecuting their own magically inclined population. As time progressed however, simply killing magically inclined Dwarves became more impractical as their population sharply declined. Instead, since then, the Dwarven elders have agreed to the Magic Chaining policy, where Dwarves who use Magic are tolerated, but only while they have a non-Magic using Dwarf retainer. The Magic using Dwarf is clad in ceremonial robes, and finally has a heavy anti-Magic collar and shoulder guard piece installed kept in place by chains that blocks their usage of any kind of Magic (this cannot be reproduced on other Races, it somehow only works on Dwarves). The retainer is then given a key, which they can use to unleash the chains, which allows the Dwarf to cast Magic freely. The retainer is always trained and drilled into ensuring that the Mage-Dwarf only ever uses Magic in the interest of Dwarven society, or for assistance in the forge, for example by casting fire magic to heat up a furnace. Regalia adopted part of this policy of Mage-collaring in the latter half of the 3rd century AC, but did away with it when Regalians overwhelmingly voted that it was cruel, while the Dwarves continue to maintain their policy to this day. They generally believe that independent and freely operating Magic users are a danger, and that they are in part at risk of being seduced and controlled by the Elven Evil, and other evil Magicness (as they call it).
===The Velheim Bond===
The [[Velheim]] people are considered “Bonded” by the Dwarves, and them in return by the Velheim due to their close cooperation. Since the Dwarves lost most of their holds from the [[Dakkar]] invasions, and the spill-over of the Dregodar conflict, the Dwarves were in a near state of collapse, only to be pulled back from the edge by the Velheim in Ellador. The Velheim had been living and trading peacefully with the Dwarves for centuries, though both largely ignored each other, and the Velheim also didn’t take a side during the conflict between the Dwarves and the Nelfin who would eventually become the Isldar. However, when the Dakkar struck, the Velheim sent food and medicine into the Holds, asking for nothing in return (despite lacking food themselves). Then, when things got really bad and around Cataclysm, even while the Ailor towns were under attack by Vampires, they still found time to send soldiers into the mines with the Dwarves to help build defenses against further Dakkar attacks, teaching the Dwarves (who had never fought a war against anyone in pitched siege battles of their cities) how to build defensive structures. The Dwarves eventually answered in kind by sending squads to the surface to protect coastal villages from Vampire attacks, using their inherent immunity to Vampire powers to sniff out parasites and purge them. This shared trauma, but also alliance, was finally solidified when in the fires of chaos in Dwarven society, the god Dáuw was born, supposedly to mundane parents, and led the Dwarven people to unify religiously with the Velheim people, after convincing the remaining elders he was a god in his own right. The Velheim people were apprehensive to accept Dáuw as a god at first, but with the intervention of Halfvel, who approved, news of him spread, and he was adopted into the pantheon. This is the reason why Dwarves can (nowadays) always be found in Velheim cultural festivities, Velheim districts, or generally around Velheim people, and vice versa, because these people share a unique cross-racial bond of friendship and alliance. Many Dwarven cultural expressions have adopted Velheim norms, and vice versa, while many Dwarven children being born are also half-Dwarf half-Velheim. That being said, Dwarves are always sure to protect quintessentially Dwarven customs, so while the two are very strongly related, they are not the same, and never will be.
===Religion===
Dwarves nearly exclusively follow the [[Fornoss]] Religion, though a small minority has converted to Unionism also. Exact data on this is hard to track, because Dwarves in general are spread far and wide over the world. The majority still holds onto the remnants of their subterranean empire. Some have started communities above ground, others have joined Ailor communities, and others yet travel the world. Some of those traveling the world or joining Ailor communities in Regalia have joined [[Unionism]], but Fornoss is still dominant. Dwarven religion was originally called Duindún, a faith in which it was believed that [[Dragon]]s breathed the fire of life into the earth that birthed the Dwarves, and that those Dragons then turned into Dwarves and became the founders of the various Holds. With the calamities occurring, and the damage done to their society by a Dragon, the Dwarven Race collectively abandoned the faith of Duindún and mass converted to the Fornoss faith. This coincided with the sudden appearance of Dáuw, who proved his godhood, and then led the Dwarven people to join forces with the Fornoss Velheim in particular.
===Families===
Dwarven families are fairly nuclear (meaning two parents and children) though Dwarves inherently dislike children and find any reason to ship them off to daycare. Dwarven society has a strong daycare system in place where (ironically) Velheim Ailor are paid to take care of the children until they grow old enough to behave in the household, and be taught Dwarven culture and traditions. Dwarves are the only race with a very strong communal elderly care system in place, where elders are moved to retirement and veteran homes where the elderly and war maimed convalesce together. Dwarves have no overt attitude towards same-sex relations or gender-identity, with exact gender identity being already somewhat fluid between Dwarven sexes as men and women and everything in between roughly looks the same.
===Fashion===
Much of Dwarven fashion has been lost to Velheim fashion out of pure necessity. The Dwarven Empire was once set up in such a way that each great Hold produced something useful for the Empire, and the weaver’s hold was one of the first Holds to go down during the Dakkar invasion. As such, Dwarves had since then mostly used cured leather and hides which put a severe strain on the cattle ranching Hold which was still existing. When the Velheim sent supplies, clothes were some of the most well-used, as Dwarves wore much less cold-resistant clothes from Ellador being much warmer than it had gotten around Cataclysm. Their clothing industry lacked a design for heat resistance (as the tunnels themselves were often quite hot and prone to humidity) so the Velheim clothes became the new norm eventually due to the ease of trade. Dwarven elements still incorporated into the clothes are Dwarven patterns and an overabundance of jewelry and decorative rare-earth metals.
==History==
==History==
Dwarves are scarcely found in the texts of other Races due to their self-imposed xenophobia and isolation throughout most of their ancient history. Dwarves appeared to simply sprout up from the mountains, a myth the Dwarves seem more than happy to spread. In the days before the oldest written records of Ølovomm, the days the “Ancient Holds” were rumored to exist, but very few records of these exist into the present day. Rumors of such Ancient Holds existing as far north as Jorrhildr have spread into the current day, adding to the number of dead adventurers littering the frozen wastes of Jorrhildr. Rumors of ancient subterranean Holds connected to vast and fortunate cave systems keep adventurers coming to Ellador and Jorrhildr both. The first “modern” Dwarven Hold was the [[Ølovomm]] Hold, established somewhere around 700 BC by a group of a dozen or so Dwarven colonies who--in a rare moment of Mithorrin innovation--observed the changing world around them and sought to unite themselves in order to remain relevant and successful in the developing world. Each Hold’s Kings came together to form the Hold’s council, or “Mountain Council.” To this day, Holds operate on an Mountain Council of exactly seven Kings. Even though this was never intended to be a permanent system, the fierce traditionalism of the Mithorrin has set the method in stone for good.
The Dwarven Empire has existed for as much as perhaps 20,000 years, making it one of the longest living Empires in the world and also one of the most stable. Dwarves tell tales of the wealthy and massive holds, vast sprawling urban caves and underground cisterns housing millions of Dwarves and spanning continents. Each Hold had a specialty it delivered and Dwarven society lived in communal unity in their disregard for surface dwellers. A curious thing to note was the complete absence of Magic among Dwarves for the better part of history, until Cataclysm at the least. Scholars have speculated that because there was no magic underground and the Dwarves largely ignored surface situations, that the Demons who cyclically invaded during Void Invasions did so blind to their presence.  
 
Dwarven population skyrocketed due to Ølovomm’s success, and as the centuries went on, more Dwarves broke off from Ølovomm to form their own Holds in Ellador’s many mountain ranges. The Holds [[Skorr]], [[Østrey]], [[Tehl-Humm]], and [[Æthrammar]] were all born over the next few centuries and operated on a disturbingly identical system to their father-hold. In fact, every Hold functioned so similarly that a Dwarf could be placed in any of them and live their life with near-complete familiarity, minus that with the populous. Years of prosperity tempted fate, and eventually the Dwarves had their first hostile encounter with another Race. The Dwarves were not unfamiliar with the other Races of Aloria, but certainly treated them with distrust. The Dregodar had been long-time neighbors of the early Dwarves, but contact was sparse. Traditionally, the Dregodar constructed their temples atop the tallest mountains in the region, which often sat them right atop the Dwarven Holds. The Mithorrin only considered their lands to be subterranean, but somewhere around 170 BC, Altalar spies discovered a scheme devised by the Kings of the Hold of Østrey. The Mountain Council of this Hold had been secretly hoarding a mass of treasure for their own benefit, including a small but beyond valuable collection of [[Starris]]. To avoid a civil war, these Østrey Kings made a deal with the Nelfin agents, organizing an attack against the nearby Dregodar. The other Holds followed suit, and the Dregodar people were quickly massacred; their temples destroyed, their people slaughtered, their [[Dragons]] butchered and their remains hoarded by the Dwarves, quickly casting any hopes of an alliance to the winds.
 
By 56 BC, the fleeting alliance had dissolved due to the latter party’s growing distrust. Alone, the Dwarves continued their offense on the Dregodar and alone killed the last of the Black Scale Mountain Dragons. However, the beasts reincarnation as the [[Great Ice Dragon]] spelled disaster for the Dwarves. Hundreds, if not thousands of lives were lost to the dragon’s magic. Though the Dregodar vanished from Aloria after this event, the Dwarves took this loss heavily as it was their first substantial loss of life in war. After this event the Østrey Kings moved their secretive treasury and departed the Hold with a small band of followers, retreating south. Dwarven history leveled for the next few decades, remaining steady and predictable just as its inhabitants demanded. Throughout and after the war with the Dregodar, Holds had continued to sprout up, with the famous Holds [[Brohl]], [[Grebor]], and [[Aldruin]] being formed around this time along with a few others. The Dwarves kept their doors sealed throughout the [[Cataclysm]], still fearful of interaction with the other Races. Despite their best efforts, doom eventually came from within to shake the Dwarven people.
 
The [[Dakkar]] were uncovered in 26 AC in the Hold of Skorr, which had grown famous for its bountiful and astronomically deep mines. The Dwarves of the Hold were treated to immediate hostilities, and after years without conflict and no specialized weapons, the Hold only held out against the Dakkar horde for three days before the populous was routed and slaughtered. The Hold of Skorr became the first of any Dwarven Hold to fall. A year later, a second Hold, Fummd, was overrun. Dwarven refugees became common in surrounding Ailor settlements. These would become the Aldor over the course of time, but in these early days, they were treated with the same distrust their ancestors had shown the Ailor. The Dwarves and the Dakkar remained locked in a subterranean war for centuries. The next Hold to fall was the first to rise, the Hold of Ølovomm, resulting in a massive crash in Dwarven morale.
 
In the years following, the two remaining Holds of Grebor and Aldruin would make many attempts to recover the strength of their people but fail as many Dwarves, particular the Aldor Clans, flocked to Regalia to assist them in the many wars following 300 AC.  A brief alliance was made with Regalia, along with [[Orcish]] smiths, to construct the Great Dredge Fleet of 302 AC, a mobile force fueled by Regalian coal, Dwarven engineering and Orc explosives. This was a decisive alliance Regalia’s ultimate victory in the conflict. With the announcement of the 11th Creed, hope for a renewed Dwarven Empire was made possible, with many Dwarves attempting to create a lasting alliance with the Empire, but each ultimately failed. In 304 AC, with the assistance of Regalian Black Powder, the Dwarves were able to find a curious gas deep below their remaining Holds. With this technology, Airships were soon flying across Aloria, and the Regalian Empire paid the Dwarves considerably for this advancement in technology. This Loftoren Gas would make airships more readily available and became a crucial part of Dwarven metallurgy practices moving forward. Then, in 305 AC, an illness spread like wildfire across Aloria. The Dakkar were forced to retreat to the very lowest depths of Ellador, confined there and leaving the grand majority of the Dwarven Holds uninhabited. Tragically, the Dwarven people had suffered too many losses and simply did not have the numbers to retake all of their Holds. However, in the spring of 305 AC, after a little over a year of Isldar forces slowly advancing on the Dwarven Holds, the Isldar attacked and ultimately took Aldruin. Most of the populace was led off in chains, and with Grebor alone standing, ready to blow themselves up, the Dwarven people reached their lowest point.
 
A year later, the misery and woe of the Dwarven people were finally answered. Andinn Blackhammer, himself a minor King in the Hold of Grebor, set off into the depths of their Hold. He emerged many months later, along with a veritable army of Urdweld, a Dwarven split-species that had been removed from surface life for generations. With them they brought riches untold from the depths of the world, and Andinn himself with a one-handed Starris Warhammer, the likes of which the world had never seen. He rode out from Grebor within a week and charged the Isldar forces who had been besieging Aldruin. As luck would have it, the Isldar had already begun their retreat to centralize their hold on Ellador, but Aldruin met with a small band of Isldar and for the first time in their history, scored a resounding victory for the Dwarven people over the Isldar. In short order, he was named “Lord of the Dwarven Kingdoms”, with some whispering him to be the second coming of Duindin himself. Whatever the case, what was undeniable was the influx of Urdweld and Mithorrin into Human settlements. Many went sent by King Blackhammer himself to make lasting ties with the Regalian Empire and other world powers, as many Holds were left in ruin and unrecovered. With Grebor and Aldruin back under Dwarven control, and many Dwarves being sent out abroad to make lasting ties, the fate of the Dwarven people finally seemed to be looking up.
 
==Society==
Aldor society does not formally exist, instead adapting to whatever society they are born into. Mithorrin society has a very strong, flat structure. A Clan of Dwarves tends to share the same surname, or similarly styled surname, being led by a King, recognized as the ruler of said Clan. Being centered around the idea that all within the Clan are equals (so long as they pull their weight), kindness and decency is expected among most Dwarves. Kings are chosen by bloodline by their respective Clans and while respected, their word is more suggestion than law. A King will generally pass on the title of King to their eldest son, but in times of great strife, it is best assumed that the most competent Dwarf will lead a Clan as their King. Chosen Kings have exactly the same rights as other Mithorrin, but are generally treated with more respect and gratitude. Mithorrin society is so strong that those who leave it generally struggle to identify superiors and inferiors. A fresh trainee may be given a newly-forged Warhammer, while a hardened veteran may content himself to a simple club. Mithorrin women, like Urdweld, tend to be more fierce and ambitious than women in many Ailor cultures, but the majority will focus this efficiency on “keeping the hearth strong”, which can range from cooking to metalworking to the defense of a Hold. Female Dwarves never become Kings, instead preferring to serve as engravers, homemakers, merchants, or Forge-Sisters (a priestess) of Duindin. Male Dwarves tend to be far more humbled. They’re happy to be smiths, soldiers, mining workers, and other less refined jobs. Urdweld will organize themselves by age, with the eldest having the final say in matters of business on behalf of the Urdweld within their Clans. Urdweld have a curious fascination with Duindin, and seem to think of him as more of a mighty and demanding god than a kind, just one, and this reflects in Urdweld’s high expectations of excellence and business savvy amongst each other.
 
===Politics===
The Dwarven political system is a relatively simple one. Every Clan of Dwarves must have a King, running of a Monarchy system. Each King is seen as the nearest representation of Duindin among their people, that usually being the most battle hardened, wise, and hard working of their people. In each Hold, seven Kings form a “Mountain Council”, so named due to each Clan typically coming from a different section of mountainous caverns. Some Holds, such as the Battlehammer controlled Aldruin, prefer to let a prominent King take a leading position in the Hold, with an Duin Council acting beneath them. If a King is to die, they are replaced that very day by the Clan as a whole, typically coming down to a simple vote, and usually falling to the son of the former King, assuming they are of age and competent enough to handle the position. The Kings essentially serves as a ‘face’ for the Hold; they handle trade deals, immigration, negotiations, and inner-Hold disputes. With the recent ascension of the Blackhammer Clan, Kings are also expected to take constant leadership in military conflicts and expansion. Dwarven Holds are surprisingly huge, rivaling the size of Human Kingdoms. Clans and Kings may exist outside Dwarven Holds, with Andinn Blackhammer, in particular, professing a need for new Clans to be formed abroad, but they follow much the same political structure.
 
Aldor practically have no politics of their own, since they lack any sort of unity as a Race, other than their tendency to blend into Mithorrin Clans. Most are politically apathetic and carefree, with a fleeting, critical interest of politicians and their craft. Others may be straight up anarchistic, and work to disassemble or slander political movement simply because they disagree so vehemently with it. Urdweld, given their smaller numbers, are run by a small council of “Deep Ministers” that handle all matters of business and alliance brokering, and delegate particular tasks and “city-targeting” to smaller groups of Urdweld. Urdweld are encouraged to travel to Ailor and other such settlements to broker alliances, gather wealth and intelligence, and establish Clans.
===Culture===
Aldor do not follow any particular culture at all, much like their societal and political practices. They are free spirits above all and will either assimilate into Mithrodin culture or Ailor depending on their birthplace.
 
Urdwelder Culture is a harsh way of life. Compassion and empathy are foreign concepts to the Urdweld. The closest thing one comes to sympathies in Urdwelder diasporas is to assist those whose downfall hurts their interests. It isn’t uncommon for Urdweld of the same blood to offer one another favors in times of need, so long as the debts can be repaid in due time.
To be in the debt, for an Urdweld, is a great shame for themselves and their clan. The market decides everything after all, and if a Dwarf isn’t able to keep up then they had this coming. Debts are an awfully integral part of Urdweld culture, as clans are renowned to keep close accounting of every minute detail of every debt and grudge they possess. The grudges of the Urdweld have been the undoing for countless figures and societies throughout the eons they have dwelled under mountains or in the great cities of Aloria. While they may not possess empathy, they certainly respect the debts and grudges of their kinsmen, and will do everything in their power to strike a name out of their tomes, even generations after the death of the author.
 
Mithorrin Culture is incredibly pragmatic and rigid. Indecision is looked down upon, with a Mithorrin Dwarf generally being expected to take to a trade at maturity and stick with it for life. This culture-ingrained lifelong dedication makes the Mithorrin natural masters at their crafts, if not a little jaded or uninspired. Some Mithorrin will take to their craft with flying colors, while others will find it unfulfilling and exasperating. Both are expected to follow their choice to the grave. In Mithorrin culture, beauty is functionality, so only the most functional, critical, and integral items are embellished with the Dwarven Alphabet and script the people consider appealing. Cornerstones of bridges, for example, are often ornately decorated, as might be the central pillar of the King’s chamber. The Mithorrin also practice blocky, squared-off tattooing. Traditional Mithorrin tattoos always originate from the chest over the heart, as it’s seen as the integral piece of the Dwarf’s body. Proud or successful Dwarves may have their tattoos stretch to their fingertips or knees, but the design will always originate at the heart.
 
Pipe-smoking is of crucial importance to Dwarven life. A Dwarf crafts his own pipe when they reach adulthood, and carry it with them as a treasured possession. Typically this pipe is inscribed with the Dwarf's name and the names of their mother; a reminder that home is not far when the proper time is taken. The pipeweed used by Dwarves often are underground fungi and plants, with a particular strain, “Duindin’s Draft”, is rumored to have magical properties, but this is met with merry laughter from the Mithorrin, who proclaim it to simply be “the finest smoke one will find away from Duindin’s realm”.
 
===Religion===
Most Aldor nowadays are [[Unionists]], [[Old Gods]] worshippers, or agnostic. Mithorrin, however, keep to their old ways as always, with continued worship to the [[Dogma of Duindin]]. This obscure religion is loosely comparable to ancestor worship, though the particular focus is on Duindin himself. Duindin was a Dwarf of great renown, who ruled over the Hold of Ølovomm as the one and only “Underking”. At this time, there were the Holds of Ølovomm in the Northern Mountains, the Skorr and Østrey to the East, the Tehl-Humm to the West and the hold of Æthrammar in the South. The only reason these Holds are known to exist is the above ground entrances or ruins each has. Many more are rumored to have secretive entrances dotting Ellador and Jorrhildr. In this age, Duindin was seen as a God walking among the early Dwarven Clans, capable of defeating any foe in combat with his magical, returning throwing hammer. Whether these tales are all hyperbole or based in some truth isn’t so important to his worshippers; the glory-filled stone tablets passed down through the Clans steel the resolves of many worshippers to this day. Priests and Priestesses of Duindin are referred to as the Forge-Brothers and Forge-Sisters, and tend to spread Duindin’s prime message to the Dwarven people. Duindin, as the father of all Dwarves and the only true creator and leader of their people, is to be honored by workmanship in smithing, stoneworking, fighting, and defending one’s clan. In the early days of Ølovomm, texts indicate followers of Duindin were capable of forging and bestowing magical boons, for both weapon and incantation alike. This age has long since past, whether true or not. Some theorize this is due to the loss of followers in Duindin’s faith. Duindin’s followers believe only by restoring the dwarven populace and those faithful to Duindin will such gifts be bestowed upon their people again.
 
Worship to Duindin is only done once a month when the moon is full. Clans will gather outside, typically among the peaks of their mountains, and set up a great outdoor smithy. Manipulating steam and mirror technology to capture the light of the moon, they will begin a 24-hour chant, smithing and creating all the while. The very greatest works of the Dwarven people are forged during this time, chanting and singing all the while. The Urdweld also proclaim to worship Duindin once a month, though their rituals are secretive and never done in the open, the Urdweld preferring to retreat in solitude, or among what few of their clansman they truly trust, and chant towards their deity in a loud and impassioned prayer. An Urdweld among the group may cut themselves and bleed onto a piece of worked metal, to be worked and forged into a glorious weapon. Rather than use it, however, Urdweld are more likely to sell it to continue amassing wealth, an all-important facet of their relationship with Duindin. To an Urdweld, Duindin was the most successful of any Dwarf and brought about an age of prosperity they hope to achieve again.  


===Economy===
Dwarven Empire history comes to a quick, unexpected, and violent end during the Dregodar conflict. While the Nelfin who fled the Allorn Empire for Dragon Worship persecution had somewhat chilly relations with the Dwarves on the surface, open conflict was unthinkable because the Dwarves had no reason to go to the surface, and because the Dregodar loved building castles high up in the mountains, far away even from the surface ground. It was through the insidious infiltration, manipulation, and demagoguery of Allorn agents using magic and other foul tricks to deceive the Dwarves into thinking that the Dregodar were actually plotting their destruction. Eventually the Allorn agents succeeded, and three wars with the Dregodar over a timespan of about 100 years were the result. The first two wars were largely inconclusive, while the third war caused a calamity for the Dwarves.
The Hold of Grebor has fully abandoned its ways of old and thrives on foreign trade. The Mithorrin remaining in the Holds use the Regal to promote foreign trade. Grebor’s main economic deals come from their contracting of steam and airship technology to the Regalian Empire. The Hold of Aldruin, having only just been reconquered, works off of a similar system, and is more open to outsiders living there than Grebor. Both Holds have deep and expansive mine systems they are in the midst of reconquering after the Dakkar Invasions. [[Steel]], [[Crysteel]], [[Ferr-Iron]], and very rarely their own metals such as [[Metalitra]] and [[Mithrantine]] will be sold to foreign traders and nations, themselves eager to get their hands in the profitable, if dangerous, markets of Ellador.  


Steam power was an invention of the Dwarven people. Their Holds were warmed using steam and thermal heat, and many of these systems are still functioning today in even the most damaged Holds, like Alum-Berghul. Stonework traps involving the usage of pressure plates dot many Dwarven Holds to ward off intruders and outsiders; a Dwarf will be able to feel the shift in the stone beneath their feet and walk through the traps when entering a Hold or important chamber. Cog-work is readily evident in Dwarven Holds, though of a slightly clunkier nature than the fine clockwork machnications of the Qadir.  
At the apex of the third war, the Dwarves threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers into pitched battle in the Valley of the Long Song, where they faced the collective forces of the Dregodar in a pitched battle to protect Aurora, their Violet Dragon. The battle was disastrous for the Dregodar at first, who were unable to defend themselves with their feeble weapons and pacifist attitude against the Dwarves who came with vast engines of war.100 years of preparation had more than equipped the Dwarves for victory, all the while the Allorn agents sat back and wasted no Allorn lives on the destruction of the Dregodar heretics. In a pivotal moment of the battle, Aurora was supposedly slain by a Dwarven Wyvern-killer weapon, but unleashed a massive magical spell that warped Ellador into a hellish frozen wasteland.


===Combat and Warfare===
The whole Dwarven army was killed by frost on the spot, while all the Dregodar became Isldar. The nearby hold of Rammtuunh which had its gates open to supply the battle also saw its forge die down in a near instant, and all inhabitants freeze to death in a matter of minutes. Recent historical review, following the outbreak of the Isldar Civil War and subsequent discoveries of the true fate of Aurora, have pointed out that it was not Aurora who committed this act of grand genocide, but the Glacial Ordial God who preyed on Aurora’s moment of doubt and weakness about her cause, and invaded her mind, using Dragon Magic to inflict death on the world while holding Aurora’s soul hostage in an undead Dragon’s rotting vessel. This was made worse by the awakening of the Dakkar; fanatical Power [[Arken]] worshipers who started a religious war against the Dwarves from the far deep, manipulating their tunnels and giving the Dwarves a rude awakening that they were not the only race living in the deep tunnels by flooding many of the holds with lava and armies of stone-scaled lizard-men. Hold after Hold fell with millions of Dwarves being killed in the process, and several million more afterwards dying of famine and isolation caused by the collapse of the vast network of tunnels.  
Combat and conflict are as a part of Dwarven culture as their beards. Whether it’s splitting an opponent's kneecap into splinters, or resoundingly outmaneuvering a foe in business, every Dwarf is accustomed to and drawn to conflict and confrontation. In martial combat, shields are often used to bash and protect the Dwarves’ small frames. Axes and warhammers are of course favored by the Dwarven people, going along the matra of “A warhammer will shatter the kneecap, and the axe will shred the tendons behind it. Duindin may take care of the rest”. The Mithorrin’s compact size and furious strength makes them a true danger to any they can get their hands on. Generally, Aldor make up for their lack of combat ability by being great smooth-talkers, diplomats, or quick-thinkers. Urdweld are more likely to use crossbows made of [[Duinsteel]], favoring sneak attacks over any sort of direct combat, something frowned upon by their surface kin.  


With the arrival of the Urdweld came the arrival of the [[Urdthogg]], a subrace of Bathogg that is uniquely capable of riding into tunnel systems. With it’s sleeker, jet-black mane and forward protruding tusks, the Urdthogg is capable of speeding its bearer along tunnel systems. It’s abnormal hind length strength allows it to climb steep walls for short bursts, making it a dangerous beast underground. These Urdthogg are being trained to work on the surface, but they have not yet been used, with smaller horses and war-ponies remaining in use by the surface clans. Dwarven mages are a true rarity among the Races, with most serving the Mountain Council of their Hold directly. Urdweld tend to have slightly more mages among their clans, with each clan typically having one Mage, who doubles as a sort of Priest to Duindin.  
When the dust of the conflict settled and the final defensive lines held, there were only two holds left: Grebor which was once a cattle farm for the Dwarven Empire, hastily converted to a defensive hold, and Anduin, which once acted as the bureaucratic capital of the Dwarven Empire, but now had ledgers upon ledgers and cabinets upon cabinets of data stored for an Empire that no longer existed, instead melting its desks and boxes into barricades and using the bureaucratic paper as fuel for the furnaces. Both of these Holds are on the southwestern tip of Ellador, and all other Holds, including the connections to them across the oceans, were lost. Some went silent without a word, some died in calamitous manners like volcanic submersion, or mass-slaughter by the Dakkar. The surviving holds are still routinely under attack by the Dakkar, and some even by Isldar who want to keep Dwarven reclaimers away from their territory, but are generally considered stable, even if both barely have 80,000 inhabitants between them left. Many Velheim have also moved in, supplementing both defenders and caretakers of the local economy so that there is a roughly stable position from which the Dwarves could consider reclaiming their empire, but there are still millions of Power seduced Dakkar living in their old collapsed holds, and the Isldar and Vampires also make expansion on the surface hellish.  
===Trivia===
* If there would be any type of person who hates the Ordial, it would be Dwarves. There was something so sickeningly evil (in the eyes of the Dwarves) for the Glacial to use Dragon Magic to cause death just to empower herself and for the glee of it, and then further to also lie about it and pretend to be a Dragon all along.
* Just because Dwarves and Velheim Ailor are closely allied, does not mean they are incapable of struggling with one another. Dwarves and Velheim both are somewhat ignorant and very stubborn people, so conflicts frequently arise over who has the best warriors and the most honor.
* Contrary to popular belief, you can always tell the difference between a short Ailor and a Dwarf, purely by looking at the length of their arms and the size of their feet and hands in comparison to the rest of their body.  


==Trivia==
{{Peoples}}
*Dwarves are known for three particular metals they have shown an aptitude in crafting. The first is Metalitra, a heavy sort of metal that features dark swirls across whatever it is made of, ideally heavy armors and heavy weapons like axes, battle hammers, maces and platemail. This is used by all Dwarves and is even used for walls and defenses in Dwarven Holds. The second is Mithrantine, a metal that bears half the weight of Steel, that shines and twinkles as an ore, and produces beautiful grey-white products. It is as durable as Blacksteel, but due to how light it is, is not typically used to craft heavy or blunt weapons, purely for use as bladed weapons or armor. More expensive than even Blacksteel, ancient Mithrantine weapons of power exist into the present day. While the forges of Grebor and Aldruin have tried their best, no Smith has been able to take Mithrantine and reforge it. The third metal is “Duinsteel”, a mysterious metal used by the Urdweld. In direct sunlight, it will began to quickly disintegrate, but when used underground or in moonlight, it will function as a lighter alternative to steel.
*Andinn Blackhammer has professed a desire to discover a ranged weapon capable of combating the [[Wyverns]] of the Isldar. Despite the efforts of their best smiths, neither the forges of Aldruin or Grebor have succeeded, leading to hopes that the Clans moving abroad will innovate and craft such a weapon.
*The Urdweld are rumored to have been hidden below the surface of Ellador, in the western tunnels, for centuries, hoarding a large mine of Mithrantine and potentially more. Whatever the exact wealth of the Urdweld, what can’t be denied is each Urdweld who leaves Ellador does so with a pocket full of coin and a checkbook ready to be filled.
{{Races}}
{{Accreditation
{{Accreditation
|Writers = LumosJared, Jonificus
|Writers = MonMarty
|Processors = HydraLana, Dosier, Hobblinghobbit, Katiesc
|Processors = Okadoka, birdsfoot_violet, FireFan96
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[[Category:Races]] [[Category:Human Races]]
[[category:Heritages]] [[Category:Human]]

Latest revision as of 21:36, 28 September 2024

Dwarf
Race
PronunciationDwoh-rf
ClassificationHuman
Common Nicknames
  • Stout Folk (endearing)
  • Fallen Folk (derogatory)
  • Forge Fathers (praising)
LanguagesBarrudh
Naming CustomsOld Norse with permutations
Racial Traits
DistinctionsStout, mountain-dwelling people who show unerring perseverance and skill with crafting
Maximum Age200 years
Eye Colorsbrown, gray, green, and blue.
Hair ColorsBlond, brown, black, red, and (when older) gray or white.
Skin Tones

Secretive and proud, the Dwarves are the only known civilization to live underground in the world of Aloria, building their grand holds with vast tunnel networks that run like highways across the various continents. The Dwarves are equally a very ancient Race, predating many of the modern races in the world, and potentially even the Allorn Empire in having a civilized state structure, though keeping themselves distinctly isolated from the rest of the world. While ignoring most of the woes of the surface world, the Dwarves faced calamity after calamity in the last 1000 years, resulting in a staggering loss of life and a decline of their Empire. In present times, the Dwarves constantly struggle against extinction and the world forgetting about them, too proud to accept being consigned to a footnote in history, but equally pushed into a corner by forces beyond their control.

Core Identity

Playing a Dwarf

To play a Dwarf, is to specifically choose for the backstory of belonging to a race which seems to be facing extinction, but tries to spit into the face of fate and go down kicking and screaming. Dwarven history is full of catastrophe, but far from becoming depressed about it, the Dwarves continue to battle against what most Ailor scholars have already consigned them to, and should the unthinkable become true, they will at least fight to make sure the world does not forget them. To be a Dwarf is to struggle with the constant realization that there are perhaps only an estimated 150,000 Dwarves left in the world, but to also not give room for self pity or just being mad at everyone around them. Being a Dwarf, is not to endlessly complain about the misery that has befallen the Race, but salvaging what can be found out of a bad situation, that which the Dwarves are known for.

Tunnel Empire

The Dwarves once had a vast underground Empire that spanned several continents and could in total sphere of influence even be compared as a rival to the Allorn Empire in its height. Dwarven holds were built primarily on Ellador before it froze over, but also on Northbelt, with partially still existing tunnels connecting all of them, showing Dwarven engineering prowess as they built through solid stone and even under oceans, something even modern civilizations can only dream of. While many surfacers (Dwarves born and living mostly on the surface world) have gotten used to the open air, many of those who once lived underground (or continue to do so in Regalia) are uncomfortable lacking a clear ceiling above them.

Facing Extinction

Possible extinction or Racial integration among Ailor is a constant concern for the Dwarves, and one that has led to many disastrous attempts to reclaim the old homeland, as well as the creation of fringe terrorist groups of Dwarves who inflict their rage on the world. The majority of the Dwarves however are far more focused on attempting to salvage what they can, and mostly finding wealth in what others consider scrap. Dwarves are the perfect salvagers, able to fix up broken and discarded weapons and tools in no time, and even repairing technology mid-combat. Their ingenuity especially shines in moments where odds for them look bleak, giving rise to their sturdy reputation.

Grudge Tellers

The Dwarves have a great deal of grudges, and are commonly known as people who do not forgive, and do not forget. There is a great deal of racial animosity that they have towards the Nelfin Races, with varying degrees for the different types. Dwarves do not care for Suvial, Fin'ullen, or Solvaan, and have a moderate to high distaste for the Isldar, because they frequently clashed with their re-conquest plans. The group the Dwarves hate the most are the Teledden, because of their scheming and backstabbing nature, and because they are largely the reason why the decline of the Dwarven Empire was set in motion. Only the most supreme of hatred among Dwarves is reserved for the Evolist Isldar, once called the Death Isldar, who often worship the Glacial, the mother of all genocide on the Dwarves. This hatred is in spite of the recent greater division in Isldar society, which have seen less extreme factions of the Evolists emerge. Dwarves in general try to avoid being backstabbers, traitors, or swindlers, the truth and honor to their word is immensely important, as are bonds of alliance and friendship. Dwarves can even on a personal level, declare some action as a grudge, meaning that they declare a vendetta against a persona until their crime has been settled. This is sometimes where a Dwarf’s pettiness will shine through, declaring a grudge over a spilled drink, only to retaliate by burning someone’s house down.

Foundry Hearts

The Dwarves are, despite all the attempts of various other Races, unbeaten in the heat of a forge. They have the most skilful hands, the quickest grasp, and the easiest execution of complex forging techniques passed down through the generations. While Ailor and Nelfin may make more aesthetically pleasing items in a forge, Dwarves build to last and endure, and also forge with a purity of metals not quickly equaled by other Races. Nearly all Dwarves have a complex cultural understanding of geology, engineering, architecture, and knowledge of metals and ores that makes them excellent prospectors and explorers of soil riches.

Design

Mental Characteristics

Dwarves are resilient yet adaptable, stubborn yet empathetic, and hardworking yet playful. These contradictions all come together to create the Dwarven mentality of life. Having suffered betrayals and warfare against an assortment of enemies, even to the point where their once-great empire has crumbled to a few remaining Great Holds, Dwarves have an uncanny ability to take whatever is being thrown at them and launch it right back with greater ferocity. Dwarves as such have a very strong survival instinct and look to find ways to maintain their footing in Aloria, lest their Race slip into irrelevance and squander what their ancestors had accomplished. Dwarves are known to stick to their plans and see them carried out, but also know when a plan needs to change for the greater good and can abandon them with a sense of accomplishment and understanding.

Physical Characteristics

Dwarves are known to be the shortest Race in Aloria, with all of their members being shorter than five feet tall. Often mistaken for shorter Ailor, Dwarves tend to have wider frames if they were scaled up to the size of an Ailor, and also have greater development of muscle mass in comparison, especially in their arms and torso. Their skin is known to be tougher than others, with their hands and feet often remarked to have a leathery texture, as if they are callused, yet lacking the hardness that is associated with them in Ailor. Many Dwarves often have semi-exaggerated facial features, such as more pronounced brows, ears, and jaws, though it is also just as common to have very Ailor-like features. Dwarves also grow their hair faster than other Races, with the men often fastening various ornaments to them as a cultural fashion. Dwarves are capable of the full range of skin tone complexions. Dwarven hair colors equally have a large range, from black to blonde and anything in between, while eye colors can be green, brown, blue, or gray. Half-Dwarves are an average height between both parents, but retaining the Dwarven bodily proportions, thus appearing like a stocky short Ailor with more pronounced arms and facial features and body hair. Women Dwarves can grow beards, but many also don’t (or shave).

Heritage Traits

When designing a Character, Proficiency Points allow for a limited Ability selection with Point Buy Packs. Heritage Traits adds free Packs and Mechanics on top of that to help with cultural themes. Free Packs grant Abilities usually, while Mechanics change the way a character functions in Roleplay through subtle, and usually out of Combat ways. In essence, Mechanics just add aesthetic flair that invest in the niche of each culture. Free Packs never raise Proficiency Points, but the character must be able to purchase them normally. (ex. if a character is a certain Affinity that locks them out of a category, they cannot take that specific free pack and must choose the alternative option.) If a Free Pack grants Magic of some type, that Magic can be of any Alignment the character can normally choose, or limited to a select alignment, which will always be written in the Free Pack description.

Mixed Heritage characters (i.e. characters born from two parents of different Cultures) may take one parent's 'Free Packs' and mix and match up to 5 Mechanics from both parents, although some Peoples cannot produce Mixed Heritage children (due to Magical/Fantasy reasons).

Free Packs

  • Dwarves can choose one Pack from either the Training or Athletic Point Buy categories.
  • Dwarves can choose one Pack from either Tech or Athletic Point Buy categories.

Mechanics

  • Dwarves gain +1 Main Defense Stat while another Dwarf is within a 5 block range, which can break Cap up to 11. This mechanic can stack up to a +2 bonus.
  • Dwarves are barely affected by Alcohol that gets other people drunk, needing insanely high proof, and always being able to keep their drinks down.
  • Dwarves have perfect vision (night vision) underground and in dark surroundings, needing no light.
  • Dwarves are masters of the forge, able to perform feats of metallurgy in half the time of other craftsmen. Additionally, any metal item that a Dwarf produces is considered master class when compared to others.
  • Due to their vast understanding of architecture and metallurgy, Dwarves may gain additional insight from event items that may not be obvious to others (inquire with DM/Event Hoster for opportunities).

Culture

Language

The Dwarves speak a fantasy language called Barrudh, which is not comparable to any real life language. The base for its design is taken from old Norse, but distinct norse sounds are replaced by much harsher tones. For example, the Norse word for War is Krig (pronounced as Kreeg), which is then changed to the Dwarven Kraag (close to the word Crag). This produces a more guttural language with a somewhat norse base, but with a more fantasy like spelling. Most Dwarven Fantasy name generators are good to generate a name, however a couple of gendered names are provided as examples below.

  • Male Coded Names: Fokuth, Fignam, Khemrul, Affroul, Throdin, Hammoir, Thamrug, Kirem, Barivoc, Girfak, Fovrim, Gotmolin, Dvorun.
  • Female Coded Names: Thirrsu, Dwothal, Kathil, Barridora, Kursbaer, Gimmora, Krozza, Ranthea, Lodi, Strosshil, Vosdrine.
  • Dwarven naming customs does not officially support a Unisex or Non binary naming style, but both male and female can technically be unisex.

Magic Chains

The Dwarves have a dubious attitude towards the Occult, notably because there is no real historical context to Magic usage in their Empire. They are not incapable of using Magic, but Magic has a difficult place in their society due to Magic being involved with their greatest collective traumas. Mages simply did not exist for 21,000 years among the Dwarves, until the Allorn agents first used it to convince them to turn on the Dregodar. Somehow, Magic started appearing among their people after it was first used on them by the Allorn agents, causing Mages to be born, and Magic to also be taught to some of them. As the Empire collapsed, Dwarves became hostile to the concept of Magic, and started persecuting their own magically inclined population. As time progressed however, simply killing magically inclined Dwarves became more impractical as their population sharply declined. Instead, since then, the Dwarven elders have agreed to the Magic Chaining policy, where Dwarves who use Magic are tolerated, but only while they have a non-Magic using Dwarf retainer. The Magic using Dwarf is clad in ceremonial robes, and finally has a heavy anti-Magic collar and shoulder guard piece installed kept in place by chains that blocks their usage of any kind of Magic (this cannot be reproduced on other Races, it somehow only works on Dwarves). The retainer is then given a key, which they can use to unleash the chains, which allows the Dwarf to cast Magic freely. The retainer is always trained and drilled into ensuring that the Mage-Dwarf only ever uses Magic in the interest of Dwarven society, or for assistance in the forge, for example by casting fire magic to heat up a furnace. Regalia adopted part of this policy of Mage-collaring in the latter half of the 3rd century AC, but did away with it when Regalians overwhelmingly voted that it was cruel, while the Dwarves continue to maintain their policy to this day. They generally believe that independent and freely operating Magic users are a danger, and that they are in part at risk of being seduced and controlled by the Elven Evil, and other evil Magicness (as they call it).

The Velheim Bond

The Velheim people are considered “Bonded” by the Dwarves, and them in return by the Velheim due to their close cooperation. Since the Dwarves lost most of their holds from the Dakkar invasions, and the spill-over of the Dregodar conflict, the Dwarves were in a near state of collapse, only to be pulled back from the edge by the Velheim in Ellador. The Velheim had been living and trading peacefully with the Dwarves for centuries, though both largely ignored each other, and the Velheim also didn’t take a side during the conflict between the Dwarves and the Nelfin who would eventually become the Isldar. However, when the Dakkar struck, the Velheim sent food and medicine into the Holds, asking for nothing in return (despite lacking food themselves). Then, when things got really bad and around Cataclysm, even while the Ailor towns were under attack by Vampires, they still found time to send soldiers into the mines with the Dwarves to help build defenses against further Dakkar attacks, teaching the Dwarves (who had never fought a war against anyone in pitched siege battles of their cities) how to build defensive structures. The Dwarves eventually answered in kind by sending squads to the surface to protect coastal villages from Vampire attacks, using their inherent immunity to Vampire powers to sniff out parasites and purge them. This shared trauma, but also alliance, was finally solidified when in the fires of chaos in Dwarven society, the god Dáuw was born, supposedly to mundane parents, and led the Dwarven people to unify religiously with the Velheim people, after convincing the remaining elders he was a god in his own right. The Velheim people were apprehensive to accept Dáuw as a god at first, but with the intervention of Halfvel, who approved, news of him spread, and he was adopted into the pantheon. This is the reason why Dwarves can (nowadays) always be found in Velheim cultural festivities, Velheim districts, or generally around Velheim people, and vice versa, because these people share a unique cross-racial bond of friendship and alliance. Many Dwarven cultural expressions have adopted Velheim norms, and vice versa, while many Dwarven children being born are also half-Dwarf half-Velheim. That being said, Dwarves are always sure to protect quintessentially Dwarven customs, so while the two are very strongly related, they are not the same, and never will be.

Religion

Dwarves nearly exclusively follow the Fornoss Religion, though a small minority has converted to Unionism also. Exact data on this is hard to track, because Dwarves in general are spread far and wide over the world. The majority still holds onto the remnants of their subterranean empire. Some have started communities above ground, others have joined Ailor communities, and others yet travel the world. Some of those traveling the world or joining Ailor communities in Regalia have joined Unionism, but Fornoss is still dominant. Dwarven religion was originally called Duindún, a faith in which it was believed that Dragons breathed the fire of life into the earth that birthed the Dwarves, and that those Dragons then turned into Dwarves and became the founders of the various Holds. With the calamities occurring, and the damage done to their society by a Dragon, the Dwarven Race collectively abandoned the faith of Duindún and mass converted to the Fornoss faith. This coincided with the sudden appearance of Dáuw, who proved his godhood, and then led the Dwarven people to join forces with the Fornoss Velheim in particular.

Families

Dwarven families are fairly nuclear (meaning two parents and children) though Dwarves inherently dislike children and find any reason to ship them off to daycare. Dwarven society has a strong daycare system in place where (ironically) Velheim Ailor are paid to take care of the children until they grow old enough to behave in the household, and be taught Dwarven culture and traditions. Dwarves are the only race with a very strong communal elderly care system in place, where elders are moved to retirement and veteran homes where the elderly and war maimed convalesce together. Dwarves have no overt attitude towards same-sex relations or gender-identity, with exact gender identity being already somewhat fluid between Dwarven sexes as men and women and everything in between roughly looks the same.

Fashion

Much of Dwarven fashion has been lost to Velheim fashion out of pure necessity. The Dwarven Empire was once set up in such a way that each great Hold produced something useful for the Empire, and the weaver’s hold was one of the first Holds to go down during the Dakkar invasion. As such, Dwarves had since then mostly used cured leather and hides which put a severe strain on the cattle ranching Hold which was still existing. When the Velheim sent supplies, clothes were some of the most well-used, as Dwarves wore much less cold-resistant clothes from Ellador being much warmer than it had gotten around Cataclysm. Their clothing industry lacked a design for heat resistance (as the tunnels themselves were often quite hot and prone to humidity) so the Velheim clothes became the new norm eventually due to the ease of trade. Dwarven elements still incorporated into the clothes are Dwarven patterns and an overabundance of jewelry and decorative rare-earth metals.

History

The Dwarven Empire has existed for as much as perhaps 20,000 years, making it one of the longest living Empires in the world and also one of the most stable. Dwarves tell tales of the wealthy and massive holds, vast sprawling urban caves and underground cisterns housing millions of Dwarves and spanning continents. Each Hold had a specialty it delivered and Dwarven society lived in communal unity in their disregard for surface dwellers. A curious thing to note was the complete absence of Magic among Dwarves for the better part of history, until Cataclysm at the least. Scholars have speculated that because there was no magic underground and the Dwarves largely ignored surface situations, that the Demons who cyclically invaded during Void Invasions did so blind to their presence.

Dwarven Empire history comes to a quick, unexpected, and violent end during the Dregodar conflict. While the Nelfin who fled the Allorn Empire for Dragon Worship persecution had somewhat chilly relations with the Dwarves on the surface, open conflict was unthinkable because the Dwarves had no reason to go to the surface, and because the Dregodar loved building castles high up in the mountains, far away even from the surface ground. It was through the insidious infiltration, manipulation, and demagoguery of Allorn agents using magic and other foul tricks to deceive the Dwarves into thinking that the Dregodar were actually plotting their destruction. Eventually the Allorn agents succeeded, and three wars with the Dregodar over a timespan of about 100 years were the result. The first two wars were largely inconclusive, while the third war caused a calamity for the Dwarves.

At the apex of the third war, the Dwarves threw hundreds of thousands of soldiers into pitched battle in the Valley of the Long Song, where they faced the collective forces of the Dregodar in a pitched battle to protect Aurora, their Violet Dragon. The battle was disastrous for the Dregodar at first, who were unable to defend themselves with their feeble weapons and pacifist attitude against the Dwarves who came with vast engines of war.100 years of preparation had more than equipped the Dwarves for victory, all the while the Allorn agents sat back and wasted no Allorn lives on the destruction of the Dregodar heretics. In a pivotal moment of the battle, Aurora was supposedly slain by a Dwarven Wyvern-killer weapon, but unleashed a massive magical spell that warped Ellador into a hellish frozen wasteland.

The whole Dwarven army was killed by frost on the spot, while all the Dregodar became Isldar. The nearby hold of Rammtuunh which had its gates open to supply the battle also saw its forge die down in a near instant, and all inhabitants freeze to death in a matter of minutes. Recent historical review, following the outbreak of the Isldar Civil War and subsequent discoveries of the true fate of Aurora, have pointed out that it was not Aurora who committed this act of grand genocide, but the Glacial Ordial God who preyed on Aurora’s moment of doubt and weakness about her cause, and invaded her mind, using Dragon Magic to inflict death on the world while holding Aurora’s soul hostage in an undead Dragon’s rotting vessel. This was made worse by the awakening of the Dakkar; fanatical Power Arken worshipers who started a religious war against the Dwarves from the far deep, manipulating their tunnels and giving the Dwarves a rude awakening that they were not the only race living in the deep tunnels by flooding many of the holds with lava and armies of stone-scaled lizard-men. Hold after Hold fell with millions of Dwarves being killed in the process, and several million more afterwards dying of famine and isolation caused by the collapse of the vast network of tunnels.

When the dust of the conflict settled and the final defensive lines held, there were only two holds left: Grebor which was once a cattle farm for the Dwarven Empire, hastily converted to a defensive hold, and Anduin, which once acted as the bureaucratic capital of the Dwarven Empire, but now had ledgers upon ledgers and cabinets upon cabinets of data stored for an Empire that no longer existed, instead melting its desks and boxes into barricades and using the bureaucratic paper as fuel for the furnaces. Both of these Holds are on the southwestern tip of Ellador, and all other Holds, including the connections to them across the oceans, were lost. Some went silent without a word, some died in calamitous manners like volcanic submersion, or mass-slaughter by the Dakkar. The surviving holds are still routinely under attack by the Dakkar, and some even by Isldar who want to keep Dwarven reclaimers away from their territory, but are generally considered stable, even if both barely have 80,000 inhabitants between them left. Many Velheim have also moved in, supplementing both defenders and caretakers of the local economy so that there is a roughly stable position from which the Dwarves could consider reclaiming their empire, but there are still millions of Power seduced Dakkar living in their old collapsed holds, and the Isldar and Vampires also make expansion on the surface hellish.

Trivia

  • If there would be any type of person who hates the Ordial, it would be Dwarves. There was something so sickeningly evil (in the eyes of the Dwarves) for the Glacial to use Dragon Magic to cause death just to empower herself and for the glee of it, and then further to also lie about it and pretend to be a Dragon all along.
  • Just because Dwarves and Velheim Ailor are closely allied, does not mean they are incapable of struggling with one another. Dwarves and Velheim both are somewhat ignorant and very stubborn people, so conflicts frequently arise over who has the best warriors and the most honor.
  • Contrary to popular belief, you can always tell the difference between a short Ailor and a Dwarf, purely by looking at the length of their arms and the size of their feet and hands in comparison to the rest of their body.
Peoples of Aloria
Central Peoples
• Ailor • Narim • Solvaan •
Northern Peoples
• Dwarves • Isldar • Sihndar • Urlan •
Eastern Peoples
• Skyborn • Sihai • Dragonkin •
Southern Peoples
• Allar • Bralona • Maraya • Slizzar •
Western Peoples
• Asha • Eronidas • Fin'ullen • Kathar • Lanlath • Maquixtl • Suvial • Yanar •
Accreditation
WritersMonMarty
ProcessorsOkadoka, birdsfoot_violet, FireFan96
Last EditorOkaDoka on 09/28/2024.
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