Stone Decay

As many know dwarves made from a ritual and not born. While the exact details are unknown to all those dwarves who have reached a hundred years or more what is suspected is that the dwarves are carved from stone and brought to life with the ritual to create a dwarf. This is proved by elder dwarves who reach past ripe age of three hundred years, as the magic that gives them life begins to fade and parts of their body being to turn to stone.

Causes

When the magic that give a dwarf life begins to fade their body begins to transmute back to stone, this will happen to many dwarfs sometime after reaching the age past three hundred though depending on ambient magic this can change significantly. There has been records of dwarven mages living to the age of four hundred before succumbing to stone decay.

Treatment

There is little that can be done to repair stone decay though surrounding oneself with raw ambient magic can arrest the condition for a time. As the dwarf ages the amount of magic needed to keep them animate begins to grow more as the years pass until it becomes nigh impossible to prevent the condition from transforming the dwarf back to stone. There have been a great number of rumors and theories about possible cures but all have either ended in failure, death, or been to difficult to try. The last experiment had a dwarf draw from the Chaotic Hells of the First World where raw magic is said to exist in it's purest form. The end result had demons invade the dwarven city killing a great many including the dwarf who was being treated for stone decay.

Prognosis

At first the dwarves extremities will begin to turn to stone, this will start with the tips of their fingers and/or toes as the magic begins to recede. Thereafter the dwarf will lose most of their hair as it falls out only to be replaced by stone. As the condition continues to it's next stages and the fingers and toes become fully stone the hands, feet, and limbs will petrify at an accelerated rate as the dwarf becomes undone. Should the dwarf survive to the final stage the stone decay the magic giving the dwarf life will quickly vanish as the rest of their body turns to stone.

Cultural Reception

Dwarves who show signs of stone decay are celebrated as their work is done and they are allowed to rest. Often such dwarves will continue as long as they can though some turn to drinking and reminiscing of the past.
A few dwarves have begun to believe that should they die as flesh their souls would continue on to the afterlife and those who fear missing their eternal reward take a poison or forcibly end their lives after getting their affairs in order. There has been a macabre trend as of late where some dwarves who suffer from stone decay attempt to position themselves in a pose befitting their lives such as stoneworkers grasping their tools in hopes their final pose befits that of a statue. Others plan on reusing their forms for the next ritual to create a dwarf, while the dwarf will not be the same nor have any of their memories these dwarves are often considered grandparents to the new dwarf. Regardless each dwarf is allowed to see to their own end and is often supported by the community where possbile.

Type

Magical

Origin

Magical

Rarity

Common

Affected Species

• Dwarf