Appearance
Dwarves are generally stoutly built, their height ranging from 4-5 ft. tall on average, with hair and eye colors that tend to vary in darker tones, brown to black. A rare gene can cause dwarves to have bright red-orange hair, and is believed in the religion of the
Path of the Ancestors to be a blessing of luck granted by the Dwarves past lives.
Biology
Dwarves reproduce in typical mammalian fashion. They mature at the same rate at humans, typically reaching full adulthood by the age of 30. Unlike humans, they live far longer, averaging 350 years. The physiological differences between dwarven subraces can be quite distinct, ranging from differing skin tones, eye colors, and perceptual adaptations.
History
Their earliest historical records date far into the
1st Epoch, the first of these records estimated to be 1,500 years before the turn of the Epoch. These dwarves were able to form some of the first organized communities deep under the mountains. Their size and stoutness allowed them to be efficient in their tunneling, and escape the reach of the Dragons who ruled the overworld with impunity at the time. Having the outside world shut off to them, lest they risk subjugation by the dragons, they focused on building their civilizations underground. The first instances of these underground dwelling dwarves were named Duergar, living entire generations having never seen daylight. As the years passed, and the threat of Dragons waned, some adventurous Duergar made their way to the outside world, while most chose to delve deeper and deeper. Those who made the first communities of the overworld became the Mountain Dwarves. As this happened the Duergar only delved deeper and deeper, until they nearly faded from known history. Meanwhile, Dwarves continued to expand, conquering not only the underground, but the open field, causing the emergence of the
Steppe Dwarves and Dwarven Khans, very near the turn of the 1st Epoch.
Dwarves expanded rapidly, becoming highly militaristic, as any land they gained was likely already settled and claimed by others. They forced large populations of
Orc and
Minotaur to flee westward. Dwarves rapidly gained Sorcerous bloodlines of their own, which naturally rose to power. Dwarves were amongst the most numerous of Sorcerers at the height of the
2nd Epoch, believing that mixing bloodlines would create more powerful Sorcerers (rather than keeping them pure). This caused Dwarves to be among the races that suffered most during the Great Purge of the
3rd Epoch, alongside the Elves. The
Inniash Khaganate, upon its formation, consisted primarily of Dwarves. As globalization increased in the late
4th Epoch, and throughout the
5th Epoch, the Khaganate's population diversified. Dwarves can now be found worldwide, though their largest populations are still within the
Inniash Khaganate, with other significant communities in the
Arbethian Kingdom, and the
Tensun Trading Company.
