Overview
Dwarves are a sturdy, resilient race known for their mastery of stone, metal, and craft. They dwell deep beneath the earth in magnificent halls carved from living rock, and they consider every finished joint a small argument with eternity.
Habitat
Dwarves live in the mountain itself — their home is Karn Dun, the Deep Delve, a vast city-hall carved into the roots of the range. They need three things: living stone with veins in it, a way down that is also a way up, and quiet long enough to finish a thing properly. They do not migrate; a dwarf who leaves the Delve for more than a year is counted as "abroad," not gone.
Appearance
A dwarf silhouette is a low, dense trapezoid — wide at the shoulder, heavier at the base, shoulders that look built to carry the other person. Males stand 1.37 m to 1.47 m, 113 kg–159 kg, built through the chest and forearms; females 1.27 m to 1.37 m, 100 kg–136 kg, lighter-jawed and quicker of hand. Skin is the warm red-brick of a fired wall, weathered to a deeper umber by the forge-glow, with a network of faint copper veins at the temples that flush when a dwarf is pleased. Beards are the crown: braided, ringed, and oiled, running from black-iron to auburn to a pale pewter, with the braid-length marking rank — three rings for a master, five for a guild-elder. Eyes are flat and stone-colored — amber, hazel, or a deep mossy green — with a hard, unblinking patience. The head is the tell: the beard is the dwarf, the face is just the mounting. Males are broader through the jaw and carry the beard to the belt; females braid tighter, shorter, and set a single ring at the braid's end. Elders are marked by the beard going full silver and the back straightening — a dwarf who hunches has given up on a thing. Everyday wear: a leather apron over a wool tunic, a tool-belt worn like jewelry, and boots that have outlived their owners twice.
Behavior
Disposition: clannish, honor-bound, stubborn, industrial. In peace, dwarves are meticulous, slow to anger, and absolutely incapable of leaving a thing half-finished. In war they are slow to start and impossible to stop. Strangers are met with a question about their craft, and the answer decides everything. The social unit is the clan-hall, ranked by oath and by work done. Two signature quirks: a dwarf who is lied to will not shout — they will simply stop talking, and the silence lasts years. And they pay in finished things, never in coin.
Warfare & Markings
Tactics: frontal, shielded, and unhurried — the dwarf line is a wall that advances. Armor: scale and chain of their own making, worn in place of plate for the same reason they trust their own joints over a smith's. Weapons: axe, warhammer, and the long two-handed pick. War markings: the Oath-Tattoo on the left forearm — a line of small runes, one per oath sworn and kept, inked in iron-black; the Battle-Braid, a single strand of the beard braided with a black thread for each battle survived; and the Delve-Scar, worn on the right knuckle, a deliberate chip from the first stone a dwarf ever cut alone. Post-battle: the fallen are counted, their oaths recited, and their tools laid on their chest — a dwarf buried with unfinished work is buried wrong.
Magic Alignment
Primary domain: stone-craft — dwarven magic is the metal's memory, the stone's patience. Secondaries: oath and divine. Named inborns: Darkvision (18.29 m, a warm amber in the dark), Stonesense (a dwarf can feel a wall's fault lines the way a human feels a heartbeat), Forge-Sight (metal glows faintly to a dwarf's eye when it is ready to be worked). Signature power: the Anvil-Song — a chant that lets a dwarven smith set a blade's temper with their voice. Limitation: dwarven magic only works on things that have weight; it cannot be spent on air, on light, or on a promise.
Religion
Dwarves keep Brakka, the Unbroken Word as their primary god — every oath sworn in the Delve is a seal on Brakka's wall, and a dwarf who breaks one has cracked the mountain. Urka, the Stone Mother is honored at every forge-lighting; the first ring of any new anvil is her voice. Priestly class: the Oath-Keeper, who records every oath in iron ink and reads them back at every funeral. Heresy is not blasphemy — it is a broken promise, and there is no rite for that one.
Society
Dwarven societies are built around clan halls and mining kingdoms. They value craftsmanship, loyalty, and tradition above all else. A dwarf's word is their bond — the only bond, in fact; everything else is furniture. The clan-hall is the whole of the law, because the hammer is the only clock and the oath the only law, and a dwarf who has not kept a word in a season is called "the one who forgot the stone," and the forgetting is the only kind the mountain remembers. No clan follows a craft it cannot read; it follows the oath that has held the longest, and the holding is the whole of the rank. A master is counted by the rings on the beard — three for a master, five for a guild-elder — and the counting is the whole of the measure, because a dwarf measures a dwarf in the finished thing, not in the years, and a dwarf who has finished a thing the clan forgot is the one the hall calls the oldest. Outsiders in the Delve are either a craft or a mistake, and the mistake is the one the stone keeps; a mortal who walks the delving is not a guest, it is a question, and the question is the whole of the warning. Young are raised at the anvil, where the ring is first lit, and a young dwarf who has not cut a full stone alone is not given a braid of their own. The one fact the surface keeps wrong: the Delve does not hoard the gold — it keeps the joint, and the keeping is the whole of the hall, and a dwarf who is counted is a mortal who is owed, and the owing is the only kind the stone keeps.
Home
They live in Karn Dun, the Deep Delve, a vast city-hall carved into the mountain's roots, where the hammer is the only clock and the oath the only law.
Relations
Generally neutral to other races, and the neutral is the whole of the law — the dwarf keeps the stone and it measures everything in the finished thing, and the measuring is the whole of the treaty. Deep respect for good craftsmanship regardless of origin — a well-made thing is the only universal language a dwarf fully trusts, and the trusting is the whole of the bond, because a dwarf does not measure a Human in the blood, it measures it in the joint, and a human who has finished a thing the dwarf forgot is the one the hall calls the kindred. The Dragon Kin of The Drakemoor share the stone with the dwarf, and the two have learned that a scale in the stone is not a wound, it is a word, and the word is the whole of the courtesy. The Orcs of The Fanghold are the rivals the Delve counts, and the counting is the whole of the law — the orc keeps the fang and the dwarf keeps the joint, and the two have learned that a fang in the stone is not a word, it is a mistake, and the mistake is the whole of the distance. Below, the ground-folk of The Forgotten are the banished the Delve takes in, and the taking in is the whole of the bond, because the forgotten are the ones the hammer keeps ringing for, and the ringing is the whole of the promise.
In the Story
In the current story, the dwarves are the joint below the camp — the Delve Uaellaen writes about when the finished thing is worth more than the year. The Forgotten keep their distance at the stone-line, and the distance has held for two seasons. This season a dwarf came up the delving with an oath that was not in the wall — an oath that is not in the stone, and the not-listing is the whole of the warning, because the Delve keeps its word, and the word has started to move. The Oath-Keeper is keeping the oath, and the keeping is the page the camp has not been shown.
Dwarves are the immovable object. Change them, and you change the world.