Dwarves

Dwarves are all descended from the demigod Ivaldi, first of their kind, and Kytherea herself. The two produced seven children, each of whom had a husband or wife created for them by the gods, and each child had seven children, arranging marriages to form the twenty five families from whom all dwarves are descended. (One child, the odd number, married none other than the Sun herself.) Dwarves value tradition and patience, often taking a century to learn their craft to satisfaction and the rest of their lives to perfect it. Dwarves can live for over five hundred years, giving them a different perspective on the passage of time and cycle of empires. The overwhelming majority of dwarves have black hair and beards; those descended from the Sun might have red hair instead. Standing between four and five feet tall, dwarves are thickly built, and every bit as strong as humans.

Culture

Major language groups and dialects

Dwarven has remained relatively unchanged, but ten thousand years is a long time even for dwarves. Regional and House dialects have emerged, with slang and the occasional patois emerging that mixes dwarven with a human tongue, but generally speaking any dwarf can read the runes set down by their furthest ancestors (even if it takes them some time).

Common Etiquette rules

Manners are very important to dwarves, but so is respect of one's personal space. Pleases and thank yous will be heard often, but most dwarves dislike small talk, and it's considered rude to begin dialogue with perfect strangers. The rule of thumb for dwarves is that if they have shared coffee or beer with someone once, a polite greeting is called for. Twice, actual conversations are acceptable. Only after three shared drinking occasions will dwarves consider another worthy of deeper talks.

Common Dress code

Again pragmatic almost to a fault, dwarves dress for their careers and tend to eschew finery (except for merchants, who understand the importance of displaying wealth, particularly among humans). Dwarves who work outdoors favor skirts or kilts and loose tunics, while those who work at forges or workshops prefer breeches and heavy aprons. Formal events call for cleanliness above all; it's expected that hard working dwarves will attend holidays and other celebrations in immaculate work clothes, with perhaps a family crest serving as their only 'formal' raiment.

Ideals

Gender Ideals

Dwarves don't have rigidly defined gender roles, since childcare for them is such a insignificant percentage of one's life. Men and women both may elect to raise their children until the latter are in their twenties, at which point they're expected to fully apprentice themselves and take responsibility for their own lives. The parents may then move on to their own careers with plenty of time left.
Though the idea of infidelity grieves dwarves more than humans, they are pragmatic enough to understand that it happens, and there is even a clandestine tradition among noblewomen to seek a male family member of their husbands if the latter can't provide them with a child. For this reason, heritage is always tracked most carefully along matrilineal lines, and the mother's family is given slight deference over the father's.

Courtship Ideals

For nobles, none. For the middle and lower classes, little fuss is made over arrangements, and two dwarves who have been friends for a decade or two might decide to tie the knot. Divorce is not uncommon among such long-lived people, even those as unchanging as the dwarves, with little stigma attached; many couples persist until one or the other dies, however. Being pragmatic sorts, the courtship is typically to the point, almost brusque.

Relationship Ideals

Dwarven nobles often have arranged marriages, with mothers working hard to maintain ties between Houses while also keeping track of genealogy to ensure no problems with the children. For the most part, dwarves are unromantic creatures, valuing mutual respect more than love. A great deal of human theater is utterly lost on them.

Related Organizations

• The Blackhearts