Dwarf

Like many races, the exact origins of the dwarves were lost in myth and legend. While many non-dwarven scholars believed that dwarves were not native to Abeir-Toril or its successor worlds, most dwarves believed that their ancestors came from the heart of the planet itself, given life by Moradin and being made by the All-Father’s hammer in the Soulforge. These legends held that the dwarves fought their way to the surface world, overcoming the dangers they faced below through strength of arms and skill.
The first known dwarven settlements on Abeir-Toril originated from the mountains of Yehimal. These dwarves settled underneath the junction between the continents of Faerûn, Kara-Tur, and Zakhara, and migrated in all directions from there, spreading across the face of all the planet, except for those who migrated northwards and came to rest in the mountains of Novularond, becoming the ancestors of the arctic dwarves. Those who turned westward to what would eventually become the continent of Faerûn settled in what is now Semphar. The dwarves then migrated westward from there founding many settlements. The first great kingdom of the dwarves was Bhaerynden, beneath the Shaar. The exact time of these events were unknown, but it was before the split of Abeir and Toril into separate worlds, since dwarves were also found on the continent of Laerakond.
The dwarves in Bhaerynden settled beneath the future plains of Shaar prospered for centuries but gradually began to endure schisms and fractures, which drove the dwarves apart. The first of these schisms occurred twelve millennia ago[as of when?] when Taark Shanat, the so-called “Crusader,” led a westward migration from the caverns of Bhaerynden. The descendants of these dwarves would eventually become the shield dwarves and forged the vast empire of Shanatar as well as the urdunnir, who moved deeper into the earth and faded from common knowledge.
Some time after this Bhaerynden fell to the drow shortly after their exile following the Crown Wars and these southern dwarves were driven into exile, ending the ancient kingdom. Their descendants would become known as the gold dwarves and would return millennia later with the collapse of Bhaerynden into the Great Rift, forming a new kingdom. Another dwarven subrace emerged from some of these southern dwarves, who instead of continuing their civilized ways and returning in future millennia, fled to Chult and embraced the ways of the jungle, becoming the wild dwarves.
The last dwarven lineage would form from shield dwarves of Clan Duergar. These hapless dwarves who lived beneath the Shining Plains were in time captured and enslaved by the illithids, becoming the separate but related race known as the duergar. Over the ages the twisting of illithid psionics and the infusion of diabolic blood would cause the duergar to grow more and more distant from their kin, until they could no longer be properly called dwarves.
Over the centuries, dwarves had entered into a long decline and most of the ancient kingdoms that once stood were now fallen. The shield dwarves had seen parts of the north overrun and conquered by the orcs of Many Arrows while to the south the gold dwarves had been primarily driven from their underground kingdom in the Great Rift towards the surface world. In spite of this, the dwarves remained a proud and hardy people, unshaken by the pitfalls that have befallen them.
The most significant event in recent history for the dwarven peoples had been the Thunder Blessing, from the year of the same name, in which, after centuries of demographic decline, a sudden boon in fertility occurred, resulting in the births of many twins amongst the dwarves. The Blessing was widely believed to have been the work of Moradin, possibly as the culmination of a quest by a dwarven heroine or as part of some grander plan of the All-Father. One of the consequences of this sudden boon was, other than a demographic resurgence that helped bring the dwarves out of their decline, was a sudden shift in culture. The so-called thunder children were radical in comparison with their parents and during their lifetimes over the Era of Upheaval, dwarves took a more active role in the world and abandoned some of their oldest traditions, such as the ancient fear of magic and the arcane.

Basic Information

Growth Rate & Stages

Dwarves were a long-lived race, though not so much as the Tel-quessir, and reached physical maturity somewhat later than humans. A dwarf was traditionally considered an adult once he or she reached age fifty. Dwarves aged much like humans but over a longer period of time, remaining vigorous well past 150 years. Most dwarves lived to see their bicentennial and a few lived to be over 400.

Ecology and Habitats

Most dwarves preferred living in underground cities near the surface and above the Underdark, built around mines that provided much of their livelihood. Carved into stone, these cities might take centuries to complete but were practically ageless once finished. Though dwarves were typically a martial race by nature, these cities had civilian populations that composed about one fourth of the total population and which were made up primarily of the young, the elderly, or a few regular adults. Females typically composed as large a portion of the military as male dwarves did.
At present, dwarves could be found all across Faerûn, although the greatest numbers were in the Underdark, the North, the East Rift, and the Cold Lands.
In their own homelands, dwarves continuously carved out new living space, mining the mountains’ riches as they did so. Dwarves in general stuck to these locales, disliking travel, particularly along waterways, but those who lived in human lands could find make themselves quite comfortable. Most who did made a living as mercenaries, smiths, or artisans of various kinds. Dwarves were eagerly sought after as warriors, their reputation of courage and loyalty making them excellent choices for bodyguards.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Like humans, dwarves had a wide variety of skin, eye, and hair colors, typically pale among shield dwarves and deeply tanned or brown amongst gold dwarves. Hazel eyes were common throughout the race, with blue eyes more common amongst shield dwarves and brown or green eyes found amongst the gold dwarves.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dwarves were unusually tough for humanoids, in more ways than one. Dwarven stomachs, for instance, were resistant to virtually all poisons and it took less effort for a dwarf to get back on its feet than other races. Dwarves also had dense bodies and were difficult to push around as a result, as well as having the capacity to bear loads that other races might find hindering with little ill effect. Dwarves also had a sense about them that few races did, with a preternatural awareness of their surroundings useful for a subterranean race as well as good judgment all-around in general.
It was occasionally believed that dwarves possessed the ability to see in the blackest darkness, like a drow, and there was evidence that this might be true though it was also possible that the tales were misheard recollections of duergar, who were often mistaken for dwarves. However, many dwarves did have an affinity in other ways for the caverns in which they lived, possessing a natural affinity for recognizing unusual patterns in stonework that could seem almost supernatural at times.

Civilization and Culture

Major Organizations

There existed several dwarven subraces. The best known are listed below.

• Arctic dwarves
  Squat and hardy dwarves from the isolated northern reaches of Faerûn.
  Gold dwarves
  Strong and muscular dwarves with tanned skin from the south, largely in the Great Rift area.
• Shield dwarves
  Tall dwarves, by comparison, who populate the northern reaches of west and central Faerûn.
• Urdunnir dwarves
  Stocky and muscular dwarves living in the Underdark.
• Wild dwarves
  Primitive dark-skinned dwarves primarily from the jungles of Chult.
• Duergar
  Duergar were a closely related race of humanoids, but separated from generations of divergence, slavery under the illithids, and the infusion of diabolic blood. They held themselves to be a separate race completely, and were often insulted if compared to surface dwarves.

Gender Ideals

Dwarven males were a bit taller and heavier than their female counterparts. Male dwarves were often bald and grew thick facial hair sometimes used to display social status. Unusually for humanoids, both sexes naturally grew ample facial hair though the majority of shield dwarf females shaved their beards off. This hair was often dark in hue, though among shield dwarves blond or red hair was just as common. Gold dwarves took the care of facial hair to an extreme, carefully oiling and grooming it,[4] with some adding perfume and ornamentations.

Culture and Cultural Heritage

Personality

Whether or not the dwarven claim that they were carved from the world’s stone was true, dwarves shared many qualities considered similar to the stone they lived with. Strong, hardy, and dependable dwarves were polite, particularly elders, and possessed a wisdom beyond that of many other races. Dwarves valued their traditions, regardless of the subrace they came from, and looked for inspiration from ancestral heroes. Dwarves were also known for their stubborn nature and cynicism, traits widespread amongst the dwarves but which contributed to and were commonly offset by their bravery and tenacity.
Dwarven friendship was hard to earn, but was strong once won. Naturally dour and suspicious, the stout folk were slow to trust others, specifically towards those outside their family, suspecting the worst of an individual until the outsider proved many times their good will. Once this trust was gained, dwarves held their friends to it and viewed betrayals, even minor ones, with a vicious propensity for vengeance. A common gnomish oath, remarking on this dwarven sense of justice, was “if I'm lying, may I cross a dwarf.”
For dwarves, loyalty was more than a word and that it should be both valued and rewarded. Dwarves believed it a gift and mark of respect to stand beside a friend in combat, and an even deeper one to protect that ally from harm. Many dwarven tales subsequently revolved around the sacrifice of dwarves for their friends and family. Just as dwarves were known for their dependability as friends and allies, dwarves also harbored grudges far longer than many other races. This may have been on an individual basis between a dwarf and one who had wronged him or against entire races, even if warfare with the enemy had long since ceased.
Dwarves were a careful and deliberate race, with a more serious disposition than other races, who they sometimes viewed as flighty or reckless. A dwarf did all things with care and a stubborn resolve, with brash or cowardly behavior unusual for the race. However, dwarves did succumb easily to wrath or greed, which were the most common vices of the race.
Dwarves who left their homeland to become adventurers did so for a number of reasons. In part, a dwarf might have been motivated by simple avarice, given the dwarven love of beautiful things. As often, however, a dwarf might have been motivated by a drive to do what was right for others (particularly their clan) or a love of excitement for, as settled as dwarves were, they rarely tired of thrills. But even these wayward dwarves retained the spirit of their brethren, hoping that their accomplishments abroad could bring honor to themselves, their clan, or both. Given that successful dwarven adventurers were likely to recover rare items or defeat enemies of the dwarven people during such challenges, this was a hope not entirely without merit.

Society

Culture

Dwarves highly valued the ties between family members and friends, weaving tightly knit clans. Dwarves particularly respected elders, from whom they expected sound leadership and the wisdom of experience, as well as ancestral heroes or clan founders. This idea carried on to relations with other races and dwarves were deferential even to the elders of another, non-dwarven race.
Likewise, dwarves, perhaps moreso than most other races, turned to their gods for guidance and protection. Non-evil dwarves looked to the divine for comfort and inspiration, while the wicked looked to their divine overlords for methods through which to obtain power over others. Individual dwarves might have been faithless, but the race as a whole, regardless of subrace, had a strong inclination for religion and almost every community maintained at least one temple or ancestral shrine.

Clans

Most dwarven societies were divided into clans built along family ties and political allegiances. These clans were usually led by hereditary rulers, often monarchs of a sort and descended from the founder of the clan. Dwarves strongly valued loyalty to these rulers and to the clan as a whole and even objective dwarves tended to side primarily with their kin over other races or communities.
These clan-structures promoted a tradition of inbreeding. This was so excessive, that it was considered one of the reasons for the dwarves' low birth rate.
Most dwarven clans focused on one or two kinds of crafting, such as blacksmithing, jewelry, engineering, or masonry. Dwarves strove to avoid overspecialization by sending some of their youth as apprentices to other clans, which also helped to foster racial unity. Because of the long age dwarves exhibited these apprenticeships might last decades.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Many dwarves were difficult to like and lacked the charm of many other smaller races, such as halflings or gnomes, though this was not a trait common to all dwarves and some possessed a great deal of charismatic power. Furthermore, dwarves were not entirely unsocial and more than a few had a natural knack for bartering or judging the value of an offer, something that sit well with their legendary crafting abilities.
Dwarves did not forgive past wrongs easily and the entire race had more or less declared war on goblins and orcs as a whole, wiping them out where they found them. Many dwarves viewed these races as a foul infestation of their mountain homes and their duty to purge them. Likewise, many dwarves viewed drow and grimlocks with a similar hatred and few dwarves had forgotten their ancestral hatred of the giants who once enslaved them. Because of this, dwarves generally viewed related races, such as half-orcs, with distrust.
In regards to their distant cousins the azers, duergar, and galeb duhr, dwarven opinions varied. Many viewed their distant relations with sympathy for their prior enslavement. On the other hand, duergar and dwarves had long been enemies and many dwarves viewed them with little more love than they did the drow who shared the Underdark with the duergar.
Dwarves got along pretty well with gnomes, with whom they shared a love of fine crafting, and passably with humans, half-elves and halflings. However, most dwarves commonly believed that true friendships can only be forged over long periods of time and a common saying was that “the difference between an acquaintance and a friend is about a hundred years,” meaning that few members of the shorter-lived races ever forged strong bonds with dwarves. There were exceptions, however, and some of the strongest friendships were those between a dwarf and a human whose grandparents and parents were also on good terms with the dwarf.

Genetic Descendants

• Gold Dwarf
• Shield Dwarf

Average Height

4'3" – 4'9" (1.3 – 1.45 meters)

Average Weight

60 – 220 lbs (73 – 100 kg)