> *"To be a dwarf is to be anchored by the wisdom of Tek, the voices of the ancestors, and the accountability to do what is right. One must constantly improve the world, for what else is the purpose of our lives of toil?" -Garum Khondurahl*
Hidden beneath the surface of the world, the dwarves have flourished with very little outside influence, leading to a unique and isolated situation. The children of [[Tek]], the dwarves interact with the lands beneath using senses oft overlooked. Cavern dwellers with tight connections to each other and a strong sense of unity, the dwarves survive a harsh and inhospitable environment using technology and their connections to each other. The centers of their world are their cities, called artifices, which seem less like buildings and more like gigantic and unfathomably vast machines in perpetual motion. Some claim these artifices are responsible for the turning of the world itself.
### Physical Characteristics
Most dwarves stand from 1.2-1.5 meters tall (4-5 feet) fully grown, but are built considerably more broadly than average [[Humans]]. Densely muscular, the dwarves have long, powerful arms and a low center of gravity. Their general strength, but particularly their grip, is much stronger than most surface dwellers: even [[Orcs]] would find it difficult to arm-wrestle a weaker dwarf. Their skin is a dark, almost metallic bronze with wiry dark hair of varying characteristics (straight, wavy, and curly are all roughly equally common). Their bone structure is generally square, blocky, and sturdy. Dwarven bone is considerably more dense than human bone and much more difficult to break.
Most notable perhaps are dwarven eyes, which are enlarged and milky, with extremely limited vision that is frequently blurred and unclear. Dwarves cannot see color and have a visual range that effectively ends at roughly 3 meters (around 10 feet). Dwarven ears are also rounded and more prominent. In addition, they possess both specialized molars and a larynx designed to make a broad variety of clicking sounds that are an integral part of the Dwarven language.
Dwarves are long-lived naturally, with a lifespan ranging from 115-130 years on average, provided one avoids accidental death in the harsh environment of the world beneath. Some live even longer and are venerated for their wisdom, with the old typically caring most for the young.
### Special Abilities
Remarkable creatures, dwarves possess an inherent sense of magnetic north at all times and a spatial memory that keeps a virtually perfect map of their journeys in three dimensions at once. This allows them to navigate their artifices and the labyrinthine passages of [[The Lands of Tek]] with relative ease. Dwarves supplement this natural sense of space with echolocation, using clicks and their highly sensitive ears to create auditory maps of their surroundings.
Dwarves also have an incredibly honed sense of touch, even in places such as their hands that are often heavily callused from work. This is considered the “dwarven eye” as much as the ears, and the typical dwarven greeting is a ritualized form of mapping the other person’s face with their hands, not that this is typically necessary for recognition given their ear for voices. Their sense of smell is also better than the average human’s, able to detect much more subtle scents and even some pheromones used by flora and fauna of the Lands Beneath.
### Language
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a language of crafters, Dwarven is a very complicated and precise language. It is harsh and frequently stressed on the consonants, with a wide array of clicks and supplemental vocalizations used as well as the words themselves. Spelling in Dwarven is phonetic, but due to this incredible vocabulary of clicks and vocalizations, the alphabet is considerably expanded when compared to surface versions. Additionally, the language is colored by tone and posture shifts, which may be the largest reason why most important dwarven records, such as histories or religious texts, are recorded through [[Theurgy]] as the voices of those who lived those thoughts and memories.
This is not to say that Dwarven is never written, of course. While dwarven eyes are mostly ill-suited to reading, they have found a clever workaround: most written records are either engraved on solid objects or painted on translucent fabric in dark pigment and then backed by a steady light, allowing the dwarves to see in contrast.
Each of the known dwarven artifices has its own dialect of the language, given they are separated by serious geographic barriers, but linguistic drift is kept from completely isolating them by regular trade and correspondence. It may take several weeks for a new dwarf to learn a different artifice’s dialect, but they are close enough that important concepts and technical words are usually mutually intelligible.
### Ethnicities
Variation between dwarven populations is generally seen between artifices, but physical differences are fairly minute between the different populations. Dwarves draw their lines of identity based primarily upon which artifice they call home, and each has distinct variations in their cultural practices. The Lands of Tek are perhaps more homogenous than an equivalent human population would be through shared religious doctrine, but the dwarves see clear differences, much like variations on a theme in a symphony. The notable differences will be outlined by existent artifices, as follows.
##### [[Bar Tarum]]
It is said sometimes that metal flows through the veins of Bar Tarum’s dwarves. Home to the most expansive mines in all the Lands of Tek, Bar Tarum is the home of dwarven metallurgy at its finest. Rare veins of unusual metals are everywhere in the surrounding rock, which allows for experimentation and a plethora of different alloys with strange properties. Bar Tarum is also near several areas of very active magma, which causes frequent earthquakes. The dwarves of Bar Tarum are resilient and sturdy even by the standards of their own kind and are ill-inclined towards panic. The danger of their home has made them unexpectedly vivacious creatures as well, and they are famous for their celebrations of life’s joys, knowing at any moment that disaster may strike.
##### [[Bhelladuhr]]
Also called the “City of Words”, Bhelladuhr is the oldest known artifice in the Lands of Tek and while it is full of craftsmen and miners as well, it shines most as a repository of knowledge. Here the dwarves maintain extensive libraries of miniscule text engraved by ingenious engineering on a vast collection of non-ferrous metal cylinders, many of which themselves serve as scroll-cases for even older painted silk documents. The dwarves of Bhelladuhr are renowned as scholars and dutiful natural philosophers, collecting and catagorizing most of what is known about the world beneath the surface. There is also a vast museum at the heart of the artifice. The dwarves of Bhelladuhr can often be picked out of a crowd by the ritual scarification on their faces, each marked upon reaching adulthood with seven virtues they have chosen (called “kh’urza-Tek”, which roughly translates to “god thoughts”) that represent their fundamental ideals. These virtues are accented with each passing decade by small embellishments, representing changes in the dwarf’s view of how to honor those virtues. This practice has spread in limited form to scholars from other artifices, but typically only those educated in Bhelladuhr.
##### [[Dhir Dharal]]
Famed among surface people, Dhir Dharal is the only known artifice with surface access, something that has perhaps colored their behavior more than any other factor of the city’s geography and trade. A vital interface between the dwarves and the world above (whom the dwarves call “skyborn”), the population of Dhir Dharal are often viewed as shrewd and worldly by their fellow dwarves. Their interactions with the surface have led to the extreme fortification of the city’s entrance and an embracing of martial traditions almost unheard of in other parts of the Lands of Tek. With trade goods from the surface world easily accessible here, Dhir Dharal is exceptionally wealthy, and it is not uncommon to see clothing, food, drink, and other commodities that are seldom seen in other artifices. Skyborn outsiders, however, are very seldom permitted within the gates and even less frequently beyond the uppermost caverns.
##### [[Dhuldarim]]
While every dwarven artifice is home to all manner of artisans, it is in Dhuldarim that both the craft of gemcutting has reached its peak and where the stones used in its construction are most plentiful. Located beneath and around several crystal forests, as well as a wealth of different minerals, Dhuldarim is famed for its gems and delicate crafts. It is also one of the centers of golem-shaping, a part of dwarven [[Theurgy]] that stretches back into the Revealing. The dwarves of Dhuldarim are, even by the standards of their own people, very tightly knit. Isolated from contact with the surface world and even to a degree other artifices, they can come across as clannish or naïve to most, but are typically characterized as intensely curious and creative as well. Dhuldarim prides itself on its crafts, even if it rarely reaps the full benefits of the trade sent to Dhir Dharal. Relatively close by is the Rift, one of the few known passages into [[The Deep]].
##### [[Mirndahr]]
Centrally located in the Lands of Tek, Mirndahr is considered not only the great crossroads for the dwarves, but also the “bread basket” for the whole of the dwarven realms. Most of the artifice is not surrounded by mine or workshop, but by fungal forests and tunnels teeming with life. The artifice itself is above an artificial lake full of fish and surrounded to the east, west, and south by tributaries of different underground rivers. Mirndahr is considered a rare jewel by the dwarves, one of the few places where food is easy to come by and survival not quite as difficult. Its denizens share a reputation for earthiness and level-headed cooperation that has greatly endeared them to the other artifices. Gifts of food are expressions of love in Mirndahr and hospitality a sacred virtue. Their exports can be found far and wide in the Lands of Tek, bringing life wherever they travel.
##### [[Hirdoruhl]]
While every artifice, particularly also Dhuldarim, has golem crafting, the true center of this practice is in Hirdoruhl. Numerous orders of crafters within the city are responsible for both preserving this aspect of Theurgy and supplying the Lands of Tek with the majority of their golems. The dwarves that call this artifice home have a reputation for being reclusive and wise beyond their years, as if aged in the collective soul far beyond their fellows. Hirdoruhl is guarded by an elaborate carved labyrinth that supposedly dates from the days before The Revealing, said to be unsolvable unless the dwarves of Hirdoruhl wish one to enter. Whatever the truth, a guide is required to pass through even for foreign dwarves with their normally impeccable memories. Despite this formidable barrier, the dwarves of Hirdoruhl are said to be warm with visitors from other artifices, if shy. They also have a strong proclivity for the distilled drinks crafted from certain fungi and export such liqueurs with their golems.
### Geographic Ranges
The dwarven world is a vast honeycomb of passages and caverns that underlies the entire Eastern continent, limited in its spread only by the tectonic activity at the seashore. Largely barren and lifeless, inhospitable is an understatement for large portions of the Lands of Tek. It is also full of incalculable wonders and oddities that the surface denizens could not even dream of, some wondrous and many exceptionally dangerous. The artifices are connected largely by waterway travel, though “overland” passages are also important parts of these routes. The only known connection between an artifice and the world above is Dhir Dharal, situated high in [[The Stonemarch]], a range of towering peaks that forms the lion’s share of the border between [[The Kingdom of Yssa]] and [[The High Kingdom of Leus]].
Interestingly, dwarves have only been rumored to exist in the East, with no known artifices beneath The Imperium. It is whispered among the dwarves that their world once ran much deeper and further, but that portion of their realm was lost in the Revealing with the departure of their sleeping god, Tek. Now referred to as the Deep, few dare to venture below into those ancient spaces and even fewer return to tell of what they have seen.
### Religious Practices
##### Belief in the Gods
While small shrines to each of the gods of the East can be found among the artifices, there is absolutely no question that Tek is their chief deity almost to the point of monotheism. Honored as their sole creator and protector in the depths, dwarven philosophy and religion teaches that the dwarves were placed in the place meant for them by their sleeping god. While Tek is understood by the dwarves to be gone—or at least beyond their reach—along with his workshop and the place of their birth, [[Thuumdohlahr]], he is still worshiped in absentia. Myth tells that one day Tek will return, but the dwarves do not have the luxury of simply sitting and waiting, so they make their lives as best they can.
Dwarves know and understand little about the nature of the other gods, but seem fine with this. Generally their conception is that the other gods are to be honored when it is their due, usually under dwarven names, but their main domain is the skyborn world.
At the core of each of the artifices is a [[Heartforge]], a special forge kindled by Tek in the ancient days. This is a core part of most dwarven religious ceremonies, the center of their spiritual life, and the repository of the artifice’s history. Once these heartforges were connected to Tek’s own sacred fire and the golden city of Thuumdohlahr, but that connection was lost at [[Godfall]] along with much of the memories in each heartforge that predated the Revealing.
##### Funerary Rites
Central to the practice of theurgy and the maintenance of dwarven traditions, the body of every dwarf that dies (at least if it can be recovered) is washed and wrapped, then cremated in the flames of the Heartforge in a solemn ceremony. This marks the ending of one life and the beginning of the next, as the memories of the dwarf who died are added to the Heartforge through Tek’s magic. Those who wish to commune with the knowledge of their ancestors need only entreat the Heartforge afterwards, creating an unbroken chain of collective memory from the Revealing to the present day.
Because this communion with ancestors is considered a natural part of the dwarven life cycle, the idea of being entombed far from the artifices or buried in unfeeling stone is horrifying to most dwarves and they will go to great lengths to retrieve the bodies of their fallen from even the most dangerous collapses and cave-ins.
### Relationship with Magic
The dwarves have a strange, almost paradoxical relationship with magic: the Lands of Tek are full of the remnants of The First World and the gods that walked it, Creation accessible in many ways unheard of on the surface, yet the dwarves use barely any magic themselves and what they do use is typically channeled through the remaining gifts of their god. The ability to cast spells among the dwarves is unheard of, though there are stories that suggest rare dwarves are able to catch glimpses of [[The Sight]] (see [[Magic]] page for more info) as part of golem crafting. Their works, while often claimed to be magical in craftsmanship by the surface dwellers who carry them, are universally mundane in nature when examined by mages—merely so advanced in understanding that to the uninitiated, there is no difference.
However, dwarves seem to have a very intuitive grasp of how to activate and utilize divine artifacts—at least those of Tek, as they are exposed to little else. Their inherent sense of magnetic north is rumored to be a magical sense, as there are some indications that spells and other magical effects can temporarily distort it, but a dwarf would never claim to have magic. It is just a gift of Tek and an inherent part of the natural world to them.
### Notable Cultural Practices
##### Agriculture and Diet
Most conceptions of the dwarves paint them as craftspeople, largely because the people of the world above have difficulty conceptualizing a farm without the sun and seasons. The dwarves support their cities through intense and creative cultivation of aquaculture, fishing, fungal forests, and the raising of a wide variety of domesticated species: cat-sized lizards called norvar, beetles called oami, and giant arachnids kept for beasts of burden and textile crafting called tefia being some examples of this. The dwarves often integrate their waste management systems with fertilization and tend very carefully with a high focus on sustainability, given they do not have the plenty of available edible resources found on the surface. Every artifice is full of gardens that are the life and breath of the caverns and waterways where fishing is carefully managed, often in conjunction with non-dwarf but friendly peoples of the depths, most notably [[Goblins]].
##### Clothing and Crafts
Dwarven crafts are famed for their excellence and ingenuity, particularly their metallurgy and stone crafting. Along with mineral and metal crafts, they also produce timber-like building materials from large fungal growths specially dried and treated, elaborate pottery, incredible tools, and textiles of tefia silk that can even have flame retardant properties, useful to their wearers. Dwarves build and weave sturdy and practically, but are not without ornamentation. Geometric patterns and designs are particularly favored aesthetically, including in the faceting of gemcutting, an art exclusively honed by the dwarves. Dwarven fashion is varied across artifices and professions, but most favor practical garments with lots of places to tuck tools.
Dwarven metallurgy deserves special attention, far more controlled and advanced than surface crafts. They also have access to metals unknown to those above, including specific ores that have magic-disrupting properties and those that can pierce even the hides of [[Demons]] when properly made. The use of more complicated forging techniques and the widespread understanding of metallic structures and properties have made dwarven weapons and armor highly sought after and treasured when possessed by others. Equally valuable are their intricately cut gems, in a practice that borders on religious in its significance to the dwarves.
##### Architecture
Dwarves make their homes in complex, spiderweb-like cities of sprawling walkways and passages adjoining the great gears of their perpetually moving mechanical cities. Able climbers, they build vertically as much as horizontally, leading to city layouts that would leave surface dwellers both awed and terribly lost. They stay in harmony with the humming and whirring of their artifices, even building homes on moving pieces without disruption, synced with the rhythms of their home. Dwarven architecture is designed with seismic activity in mind, carefully planned and reinforced to withstand quakes. They also make full use of natural geologic formations to both power forges and bring life to the rest of the artifice. Hot baths and springs are common, as are aqueducts and irrigation networks of piping that carefully divert portions of the waterways around their homes.
##### Rites of Passage
Much like the people of the surface, dwarves mark the different stages of life with ceremonies that would not seem unfamiliar: name-days, births, funerals, etc. Most important of all is the rite of passage into adulthood, where every dwarf creates a master craft that demonstrates their learning and ability as well as their commitment to the artifice. This might be a specially grown crystal cut to beautiful design, reworking an irrigation system, translating an ancient text, crafting a new alloy, or any number of things that improve life for their fellow dwarves.
##### Love and Family
Dwarves are fundamentally communal creatures, with children raised in common and family structures that are virtually always multiple generations in the same home and frequently multiple families in the same workspace. Trades are very important, and dwarven children usually bond most with the parent(s) in whose footsteps they follow. As far as romantic bonds, dwarves do not really have a marriage ceremony other than the exchanging of a significant token, as relationships last as long as the involved parties agree and end without huge upheaval. It is very rare for a split to entirely separate a family.
Dwarven courting usually focuses on quality time spent, with the wooing party usually making tools or gifts for their prospective beloved. Female dwarves are just as likely to initiate these relationships as males. It is said that dwarven love burns as deeply as the heart of a mountain and is stronger than steel when forged properly, and endures for just as long.
##### Taboos and the Forbidden
Among the vast majority of dwarves, the largest and most obvious of taboos is for one dwarf to intentionally harm another. Perhaps because of the overwhelming danger of their surroundings, cooperation is considered the crowning virtue of dwarven artifices, and differences of opinion and personality are carefully worked out under the supervision of dwarven elders and even sometimes the ancestors via the Heartforge. The most severe punishment any dwarven artifice typically levels is ostracism, which exerts an incredibly powerful effect on the highly social population. Lesser things, such as theft, find their remedy in the practice of restitution from perpetrator to victim and the occasional public shaming.
In addition, most artifices are strictly forbid the allowance of skyborn into dwarven lands, with the only known exception being Dhir Dharal in very limited form. This is practical more than ideological, as the dwarves recall attempts to find and conquer their artifices during the ancient days of the Revealing. The teachings of the god Tek also forbid the practice of magic other than theurgy by dwarves, so the few individuals with a deep curiosity towards the taboo subject are on found on the surface, though the number of them can be tallied virtually on one hand at any given time.
The dwarves additionally do not provide skyborn with the secrets of their crafting styles. This knowledge is considered sacred to Tek and “not meant” for the peoples of the surface, including in Dhir Dharal. This has led to considerable frustration for surface scholars and crafters, but thus far the envy has been crushed before flourishing into conquering ambition by the might of the dwarven golems.
### Reputation and Relationships with Others
To the people of the surface world, dwarves are more creatures of the imagination than reality, as very few have ever encountered dwarves or even their crafts. That said, there is no shortage of story filling in the gaps about these mysterious underground dwellers, most of which are blatant hearsay or the inventions of scholars making assumptions based on merely seeing their handiwork. Dwarves are often portrayed as greedy, secretive, and xenophobic crafters of peerless skill occasionally helping favored heroes in the lore—all for a price. This reputation shifted somewhat after [[The Great War]] in 1002 RY, but when the dwarves of Dhir Dharal again retreated underground, this state of affairs basically resumed.
In the Lands of Tek, among the people who are actually neighbors with the dwarves, they enjoy a much better reputation. Seen by their neighbors as a generally benevolent and industrious people, the dwarves have cultivated a close relationship with various minor peoples and societies in the depths. The exception to this are the denizens of the Deep, the [[Forsaken]], who harbored for most of their shared history a mixture of hatred and fear of the dwarves that almost defied description, due to an ancient grudge crafted in the days of [[The Revealing]]. Things in this vein too have shifted due to events in the 960s RY, but such ancient wounds are slow to close.
For their part, the dwarves hold malice towards no one in particular, but a great deal of caution towards most that exist beyond their artifices.