Lore Overview
Dwarves
It is believed that the dwarves first lived deep under the earth in the Lands Below before eventually mining their way upwards and breaking onto the surface world untold millennia ago, with different clans appearing on different landmasses. The authenticity of this 'surface migration theory' is a topic of hot debate between both dwarven and non-dwarven scholars and theologians, but from what little history from these times remains it is known that the dwarven people originally came from two clans. These clans, often referred to as the 'founding clans,' are the Earthenhammer and Stoneanvil clans. The members of the two clans supposedly were birthed from a mighty, rune-carved boulder deep within the Lands Below. According to dwarven mythology, this stone, called Uthar-Thedak or 'first clan' in the dwarven tongue, imbued the first dwarves with the foundations of their culture; a love of riches and industriousness. They also took their language and alphabet from the runes carved on the stone. Ancient dwarven stories tell of a deep dwarven clan that was entrusted with the safekeeping of the Uthar-Thedak, but whether the existence of the stone and clan are true is unknown.
As a whole, the dwarven race is well-renowned for their mining, brewing, smithing, and stoneworking, as well as their warriors and priests. While they are culturally unified by the aspect of life in a clan that is generally dominated by those trades that work with the gifts of the mountain, each subrace of dwarf and, indeed, each individual dwarven clan, varies wildly with what they most value and what their specific values are. Generally, most dwarves value industry and a good work ethic. Unfortunately for other peoples of the realm, dwarves also value vengeance and are known to harbor great resentments towards any grievances caused to them or their people. On Vukeron, this tradition of holding great grudges leads to general hostility towards the greenskins due to the Greenskin War of the not-so-distant past, as well as minor resentments towards elves for actions that are ancient even to the exceptionally long-lived elven people. On the flip side, dwarves can also be understanding and quite sympathetic, yet their more obtuse nature makes it hard to break through to them. The dwarves of Vukeron recognize the great pain and effort of the race of man during the Greenskin War and as such readily align themselves with worthy human causes.
Deep Dwarves
Deep dwarves are exceptionally similar to mountain dwarves, though they bear a more pallid appearance due to their subterranean home environment. Their harsh environment tends to produce leaner stock, though they are no less muscularly built than their surface-dwelling counterparts. Deep dwarves have red-hued hair and skin almost without exception, though their skin only bears a slight red pigmentation that sets them apart from their mountain-dwelling cousins. As a people, they tend to be more reclusive as living in the Lands Below teaches one to be quite wary about new faces and folk. They do not partake in the morally bankrupt markets of the Lands Below, such as the slave trade, and instead subsist mostly off of trade with other dwarven settlements, both on the surface and in the Lands Below. Over the millennia, their people have become better adapted to survive in the dark, magic-suffused environment. While they are agitated by sunlight, they also have much better darkvision than surface dwarves, and their exposure to magic has lent them some resilience to its effects.
Duergar
The duergar are the psionically empowered dwarves who live deep below the earth of the world in the Lands Below. Over the thousands of years that they have inhabited this strange, labyrinthine land, they have mutated and gained strange psionic powers that allow them to grow and turn invisible. Those who hone their psionic talents further are capable of empowering their strikes, manifesting weapons, or shrinking to a tiny size. The first of their psychic powers were awakened after the original mountain dwarf colonists that left the surface world to live in the Lands Below escaped from their enslavement at the hands of the illithid race and encountered a strange pool that seemed to be made of a liquid crystal. They drank from the pool and their minds expanded and their skin changed to a gray color. However, these changes also affected their personalities, and as such the duergar took on a more sadistic outlook. With determination and training, duergar today are able to overcome this but most choose not to because of the strict doctrines that not only go against cultural norms but are also quite intensive. The duergar are very industrialized, using constructs and mining apparatus to reduce the physical stress of mining on themselves. Their industrious nature and sadistic minds also lead them to partake in the slave trade, using duergar prisoners and other races as slaves in their great mines and forges. Some unfortunate individuals who offend the duergar are placed into constructs that act both as mining tools and as torture devices, slowly and painfully drawing from the pilot's lifeforce to power itself.
Half-Dwarves
Half-dwarves, generally being the offspring of a human and a dwarf, though it isn't unheard of for pairings with other races to occur, are readily accepted by most civilizations and peoples because of their inborn industrious work attitude and aptitude to strenuous labors. Culturally, they may take aspects from one, both, or none of their parents depending on how and where they were raised. Unlike other 'half-spawn,' half-dwarves generally do not feel discriminated against or out of place in their communities.
Derro
A strange and unique type of half-dwarf, the derro exist solely in the Lands Below and almost never venture beyond to the surface realm. Derro are the result of a human, specifically a grimlock, pairing with a dwarf, though most commonly these are duergar or deep dwarves as they are most geographically available. Their peculiar heritage mixed with their environment and gods invariably leads to derro being incredibly cruel, sadistic, and outright insane. Their skin bears a white-blue pigmentation, their hair is always a sickly yellow color, and their eyes are unsettling to those that see them as they appear to be either a completely pitch-black or milky-white color. The ancestral insanity of the derro makes them indiscriminate in their acts of terror, and they are renowned in the Lands Below for their slaving, torturing, and pillaging.
Unlike other half-dwarves, derro have differing abilities due to their unique ancestry and home region. The blood of the grimlock dilutes their dwarven powers slightly, reducing their night vision capabilities. Instead, they are granted minor blindsight to allow them to function even through magical darkness or if they are blinded. Additionally, the derro are highly resistant to magic. Unfortunately, their lives in the Lands Below have led them to be quite vulnerable to the sun. This sunlight sensitivity is enough to discourage derro from attacking surface lands, but under the guidance of particularly charismatic and bold leaders, they could be persuaded to brave the light of day in a raid.
Hill Dwarves
The hill dwarves are known as the 'peaceful' dwarves, though that isn't to say they aren't fierce warriors. The hill dwarves do not make their homes deep in the mountains like their brethren, instead choosing to live in large town centers with a multitude of other races. They pursue lives in the trades of stone and metalwork or brewing, much to the benefit of the communities they inhabit. Hill dwarves are the most pious of the dwarves, and many of them choose to become members of their god's church. Compared to the mountain dwarves and duergar, the hill dwarves are few in number.
Mountain Dwarves
The mountain dwarves are the dwarves who live deep within the halls of their great mountain keeps. They are known for their mining, their smithing, and their brewing. The mountain dwarves are most well known for their master smiths. This mastery over forge, flame, and stone has played a key role in defining the history and culture of the mountain dwarves. Their smiths are renowned for the creation of various masterwork items, whether they are arms, armor, or other items wrought from metal and worked in the forges of the mountains. Some of these items are used in the creation of powerful magical items. In fact, a number of mighty artifacts have been created from dwarven masterpieces. The most notable thing that the mountain dwarf smiths and tinkers have created was not simply a piece of armor or a weapon, though. Their most advanced and famous creation was the race of the vect.
The vect were originally created as a servitor race; a combination of magic and machine that would be the perfect soldiers and laborers. This went well for hundreds of years. However, in the year 1023 of the first era, an escaped vect slave named Metal Ox rose up and killed the royal family as well as freed his people. This has led to a splitting between the sympathetic dwarven populace who seek to truly repair their relationship with the race they created by offering tribute payments to their new sovereign nation and the grudge-bearing 'royalist' dwarven population that seeks to avenge the royal family's slaughter as well as the countless innocent dwarves that Metal Ox let his rage out on.
Sludge Dwarves
Originally the sludge dwarves were just another clan of mountain dwarves living in their mountain keep of Kizzad-Karum. There, they lived peacefully as the best smiths on Vukeron for hundreds of years. Then, one day, they shut their great hall's gates and forbade any and all visitors from entering for ninety-nine years. Unbeknownst to the outer world, the dwarves of Kizzad-Karum had taken to the worship of the demon lord Juiblex after discovering a large stream of some sort of magical, primordial ooze that mutated all who touched it into deformed hunchbacks. In a short time, the entire clan became mutants.
During the ninety-nine years of seclusion, the sludge dwarves worked towards completing a divine task given to them by the Faceless Lord himself, Juiblex. He decreed that the dwarves must forge his champion, a klurichir demon named Balthasafoss, a set of two powerful magical blades from the ooze that flowed through their home. The dwarves eagerly accepted this task and set to work building a new forge that would be capable of working the ooze into implements of war. This forge was built upon the river of ooze and named Simnak-Urad. After the construction of the forge, the master smiths and warlocks of the dwarven clan came together to create the Great Blades of Balthasafoss. After the ninety-nine years of seclusion, the sludge dwarves had finished their great toil and forged a set of ultimate weapons for their lord's demonic champion. The warlocks then summoned forth the great demon Balthasafoss and bestowed upon him the two great blades so that he could slaughter Juiblex's foes in the Blood War. The great forge of Simnak-Urad has been used many times since to create powerful sets of armor and weapons. One of these items is a greatsword called Urzam-Gurish, or 'Flesh-Eater' in common. The sword is a toxic blade, with a bright green coloration. It constantly excretes an acidic substance capable of melting many materials.
Urdunnir
The urdunnir are the descendants of a mighty mining clan of dwarves that managed to secure the blessing of the dwarven god Dumathoin. Their creation and existence is not known to many outside of the dwarves and, even among the dwarven peoples, only the priests know much about them. The general mythology states that after the Earthsplitter clan, a splinter clan of the original Earthenhammer clan, found a great treasure deep within a mountain. In their haste to claim their prize, the cave they had dug collapsed, trapping the entirety of their clan far under the earth. The miners of the clan desperately attempted to free their people, but their efforts bore no fruit. As air ran out and the life of the clan slowly drifted to the next realm, Dumathoin intervened on their behalf, destroying the rubble and blessing the clan with new life.
When the clan awoke, they were changed. Physically, their bodies had taken on a terrifying, zombie-like form, and their eyes were the colors of the precious metals and gems that they had died to collect. Though beyond the physical changes, they had gained magical abilities and talents that set them even further apart from other dwarves. The first of these abilities was to move slowly through solid stone without disrupting the earth. The next was the power to innately mold earth and stone by touch, with some having the more potent ability to mold metals by touch. The last was the ability to subsist entirely off of precious metals and gems. To go along with this, all urdunnir clans are given gem rations in the form of self-replenishing gem deposits as a gift from Dumathoin. After they received their blessing from Dumathoin, the Earthsplitters changed their clan name to Urdunnir, or 'ore-cutter' in the language of the dwarves. Over time, clans splintered from the original Urdunnir Clan, generally taking the name of either a precious metal, gemstone, or natural stone as their clan name.
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