Dwarf

Typical Attributes

Bod 6, Chi 5, Mnd 5, Ref 4

Schticks

• Earth Sense
• Fascination (#)
• Long Life (4)
• Sturdiness

Description

Dwarfs are short, stubborn, conservative, hard workers and tend to form the backbone of society. There are three subtypes of dwarves, the mountain dwarfs, qazm (simply known as dwarfs), the hill dwarfs, nuchiil (known as gnomes) and the plains dwarfs, munifs (known as halflings). Gnomes are rather rare, but the other kinds are successful and plentiful.

Mountain dwarfs tend to be dark and swarthy, plains dwarfs tend to be fair and ruddy, with hill dwarfs somewhere in between. Few dwarfs can be called beautiful, though some of them are cute or magnificent.

All dwarfs love work, and love to see the produce of their own work. They usually excel at some worldly craft, such as gardening, wine-growing, jewelry or metalworking. All dwarves show great respect for what has been brought about through sweat and toil. They are considered good craftsmen and workers, careful merchants, conscientious administrators and predictable, somewhat boorish nobles. A dwarf will never let go of a task until he considers it finished.

Socially, all subgroups are seen as materialistic and worldly. Dwarfs are greedy and avaricious, hoarding wealth, knowledge and hiding precious possessions like wives and daughters. Halflings are much more gregarious, and like to integrate themselves fully in any settlement they enter. They still live in close-knit family groups, however. Gnomes love crafts and can be obsessive with perfection, but place little regard in the finished product. All city dwarves usually live in ghetto-like separate sections of the city, largely because they are uncomfortable in human-sized houses. Often, other outlandishly sized or strange-looking humanoids, like Ogres, live in or near these dwarven quarters, finding the dwarfs tolerant and open-minded.

Halflings and gnomes are spread quite evenly all over the world. Dwarfs prefer colder climes, and are found in mountains and to the north. They consider Hiyal to be a holy city, and claim it was originally a dwarf city, the ancestral home of all dwarfs. These legends are connected to the networks of mines and tunnels in the mountains outside Hiyal, many of whom were originally of dwarf construction. Some dwarfs dream of gathering all their dispersed brethren back in Hiyal, while others claim this is blasphemous and against the will of Fate.