Dwarf

Standing between 48" and 54" and weighing up to 170 pounds, Dwarves tend to be stocky and quite muscular. They favor long beards and mustaches, too. They are prone to take pride in large projects and complicated tasks. Indefatigable, they relish opportunities to showcase their organization and their willpower, usually building huge permanent structures.

Dwarves live in kingdoms they call "Duns". They tend to laugh little unless there is beer involved. They appreciate precious metals, deep tunnels and dark mines. They love the earth and, generally speaking, avoid the sea. They distrust horses and elves and magic and have an outright hatred for goblins. While they have no real ability at magic, they delight in battles and fighting.

Common Dwarves come from Dun Festog or Dun Oromir in Westrun. While they are called Hill Dwarves among their own kind, this name is usually an attack on the types of Mountains they live in, which are generally smaller than those of their cousins far to the North. Hill dwarves have light brown skin, ruddy cheeks and bright eyes. Their hair is brown, gray or black.

Mountain Dwarves
Dwarves from Northrun come from the towering crags above the North Sea. Their Dun is called Balnolmor. They are taller and stouter than their counterparts, have lighter skin and somewhat lighter colored hair. Their skin is slightly redder in appearance.

Deep Dwarves
Dwarves from Eastrun are called Deep Dwarves. Their skin is a pale brown and their eyes are a washed out blue.

Sundered Dwarves
Sundered Dwarves are the generations that have been forcibly evicted from their original mountain Dun and have adapted to generations of living above the surface of the Ground. Sundered Dwarves are taller, slimmer, with skin that appears more human than dwarven. They have hair that looks almost blue. Sundered Dwarves do not have the usual dwarven fear of the sea. Some have taken to building ships based on those of the Northruner humans.

Gully, Duergar and Derro Dwarves
There are three types of Dwarves that travelers and explorers have told tales about. First, because Goblin types have been known to keep captured Dwarves as slaves. Generations of them in captivity has created the abomination known as the Gully Dwarf. They are alleged to be fawning, servile and sycophantish. Second, under the Celede Proclamation the Dwarves that were sent to guard the Drow elves were corrupted by their proximity. They live in perpetual deep darkness and have all but forgotten their original commission. Third, a splinter tribe of Dwarves, called the Duergar, have made themselves the mortal enemies of all Elves, and especially the Drow faction.

Arctic, Wild and Ore Cutter Dwarves
Dwarven legends are full of stories of Dwarves that have allegedly passed from recorded history during the Fourth Age. The Arctic Dwarves, long rumored to be a splinter faction of Mountain Dwarves, supposedly make their home in the snow caves that appear on the great ice shelf far above Northrun.

A similar story is told about the Wild Dwarves, believed to have branched off from Eastrun Dwarves long ago. Sometimes called Jungle Dwarves, these people still live on the surface among the trees as all Dwarves once did.

Another group of Dwarves about whom tales are told are the Ore Cutter Dwarves. They are supposed to be gifted with magical powers and unsurpassed skill at stonework -- they are allegedly at peace with all living things and bring gifts to Dwarven younglings during the night of the Winter Solstice.