Dwarves

The Stout Folk are an ancient race, older than elves, humans, and even dragons. Their "creator" was a proud "god", who was later revealed to be none other than a foul demon-lord who "survived" the eerie end of all higher-beings in the form of a villainous shade of his former self and deceived dwarves into believing he was their creator. Despite this deception, many of the Stout Folk have learned the truth and become followers of the one true god who seeks to protect them and guide them to a new age. Althos and his most benevolent followers seek to correct this misconception and convert the Stout Folk to the true faith.

-From the Grand Chronicle, Volume 1

Dwarves are a powerful, industrious species that has spread across the multiverse. They are an unspeakably ancient race that was first created in a distant universe, that followed their creator, Morehammer, as he made an empire that spanned entire universes. In the current age, "Morehammerians" are among the enemies of the Althonite Empire, but many dwarves have become fierce and proud Althonians.

Trivia:

• Dwarves are commonly enslaved by a number of races; from giants to dragons and even dark elves. This is due to the fact that many of their kind have innate connections to stone and earth.
• The only ongoing war that Althos is engaged in is with the remaining followers of Morehammer, the ancient creator of dwarves and one of the last remaining vestiges in the universe of Althos's birth.
• Dwarves are one of several races that dwelled underneath Puerto Rico, the birthplace of Althos.
• Dwarven civilizations number in the trillions across the universe, and in the septillions across the multiverse.

As usual, keep in mind all articles on this World Anvil are works in progress and thus are updated with new information as the story progresses. 

Basic Information

Anatomy

Dwarves, by and large, resemble short humans with much denser musculature, thicker bones, and supernaturally powerful limbs that specialize in working with stone and earth. They have two arms, two legs, and share the same basic "design" as other common humanoid races.

Biological Traits

The average life span for dwarves varies from civilization to civilization. The average height is less than four and a half feet (137 cm).

Genetics and Reproduction

Dwarves are a long-lived species and thus their pregnancies also tend to be on the longer side. A dwarven pregnancy lasts fourteen months and is often much more painful than the pregnancies of other humanoid races. Dwarves reproduce sexually, but are also capable of being created magically or by immensely powerful and ancient earth spirits.

Growth Rate & Stages

A dwarven childhood lasts 40 years, but dwarves themselves look like adult members of their race when they hit their mid-twenties. A dwarf is considered a young adult up until their mid 400s, and then a mature adult for over five hundred years. They become "old" when they are in their early 900s and then begin to die of old age at around their mid 900s. The oldest dwarves can, in strict theory, live to hit their late 900s.

Ecology and Habitats

Dwarves prefer to live underneath mountains but can be found, naturally, in canyons, mountain ranges, any subterranean environment, or even in and around hillsides if no other suitable environment can be found. They make their homes either underground or inside of places like hills and mountains. They use stone and earth to make homes that last for long times and other subterranean races have been known to take over abandoned dwarven settlements, or even to wage war on dwarves for the sake of forcing them to flee from their newly constructed homes.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dwarves are a mortal race and thus need food. A typical dwarven diet is dependent on their surroundings, but many dwarves eat fungi and strange creatures that live underground. They often "farm" fungi in manners not dissimilar to how farmers on the surfaces of the worlds that dwarves live in farm things like corn and tomatoes.

Biological Cycle

The only known perfectly natural significant change to dwarves is that the deeper that any particular dwarven clan lives the more likely they are to mutate and become significantly stranger creatures. On some worlds, where dwarves live particularly close to planetary cores they can become molten dwarves, or in places where their homes are near significant lodes of

Additional Information

Social Structure

Dwarves, when undisturbed by either other species or natural disasters tend to live in towns or cities with populations that can range from a few hundred to a few hundred thousand in number. They are an innately diplomatic and democratic race that barring a reason for some overarching authority figure tend to rule themselves in a style that mixes democracy with aristocracy and monarchy. Monarchs serve as mostly symbolic leaders, with the real powers in charge being councils that are made up of aristocrats and democratically chosen representatives in equal numbers.
Some dwarves become evil dictators and create dictatorial states. Another sort of government that may arise is a theocracy if dwarves are created by potent spirits or elementals, or move to an area where a powerful spirit gains influence over them.

Uses, Products & Exploitation

Dwarves are an independent species. They are also surprisingly diplomatic if approached respectfully and can be used by friends as suppliers of gems and ore, weapons, and armor, who ask for things such as diverse foods or animals from the surface in exchange for their finely crafted goods. 
When enslaved dwarves tend to be used as crafters of ornate homes, communities, and items. Sometimes dwarves are used for their raw physiques and are treated as a labor force by their slavers. Dwarves tend to be highly valued by forces that encounter and enslave them, even when used as a labor force, due to their innate skill at creating mines or producing high-quality goods.

Facial characteristics

Dwarves are extremely sexually dimorphic. Dwarven women are lean, shorter than males, and have extremely feminine faces. Even dwarven warrior women, who are at least as strong as warriors of either sex of other humanoid species, tend to look soft and not have visible muscles, aside from the very strongest members of the species. 
Male dwarves are immensely powerful, physically. They also have rippling physiques and proportionally match races such as giants and orcs.

Average Intelligence

Dwarves exhibit a truly staggering range of intellect. Every generation there are a number of dwarves born that exhibit intelligence at around genius level for races such as elves, the most innately intelligent and magical humanoid species. Dwarves tend to be on average more intelligent than humans, aside from deifically enhanced humans do.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dwarves are well-adapted to living underground and thus have sensitive hearing, touch, eyesight that needs only the smallest amount of light, and highly refined senses of smell that allow them to detect a range of gases that are undetectable to other humanoid races. As far as extrasensory capabilities go, dwarves are born with an innate connection to earth and stone that they can use to detect thing such as areas where stone is lightly packed together, or in rare cases even mold earth innately.

Civilization and Culture

History

In the unthinkably distant past, at least several billion years ago, an ancient deity of the forge and of the deepest places beneath worlds, named Morehammer desired children. He was a gruff god and didn't have the desire to find a mate among his fellow gods.
Instead of finding a deific mate, Morehammer chose to mix his passions for the forge, with his intense artistry. He created two statues out of volcanic rock in a distant universe's equivalent of the primal dimension of chaos, neutrality, and nature, known to scholars of the dimensions as the "Wildlands".
The two statues were of powerfully built young men of a race that hadn't yet begun to exist. Morehammer studied these statues for many years, judging them by standards that only he knew. One day, he decided they were good, and so the gruff deity breathed life into them. They were the most ancient dwarves, the very first primal quasi-ancestors of modern dwarf-kind.
*Author's Note: This section is a WIP, and will be edited over time*

Genetic Ancestor(s)

• Deity

Scientific Name

Terra tabernaculi Structores

Origin/Ancestry

Atlantan, Subterranean, & Hill

Conservation Status

Different groups have different statuses and legal protections in the context of the Althonite Empire. Morehammerian dwarves are considered enemies of the state and face overwhelming violence by the numerous armed factions that make up the military of the empire.
On the other hand, dwarves that convert to any Althonian faith fall under the legal protections of the empire and it works to protect even singular families from retribution by enemies of the empire. Althonian dwarves are also granted full citizenship in the empire and recognized as individuals deserving of protection by the religious authorities of the empire.

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Dwarves have a wide range of natural coloration, since some dwarves live deep underground and some live on the surface of the worlds they inhabit. Dwarves tend to have various artificial markings on their bodies. The pain tempers their discipline and the art on display allows them to showcase their sophisticated artistry on a medium that isn't stone or earth.