Dwarves

Clicking beneath the earth Winding deeper into its bones The dwarves tink tink tink away Eroding the world's stone

Broadbill the Elven Poet, Epics of our History

Basic Information

Anatomy

The dwarves are a stout species of burrowers. In keeping with this they have robust bones, and powerful arms. Their hands are broad and dexterous, with blunt claws, and calloused palms, well suited to tunneling through soft soils.
Dwarves usually walk bipedally, but adopt a quadrupedal stance when burrowing. Their posture is plantigrade, with four toes touching the floor when walking. The dwarven fifth toe is reduced to a dewclaw, and is totally absent in some colonies.
The skull of the dwarf is well muscled, with a sagittal crest for attaching their powerful jaw muscles. The snout is short and jaw broad, with large incisors sheathed in iron. Their vision is binocular with forward facing eyes housed in large orbits. A projection of bone goes over each eye, giving the impression of a prominent brow, and awarding the dwarves the nickname of "The Scowling Folk" amongst some surface dwellers.
Dwarves have a thin dark pelt all over most of their body, only the hands and snout being without fur. Their coat is complimented by the wooly beard that all mature dwarves grow. When not groomed the dwarven beard reaches to the waist, and covers the mouth.

Genetics and Reproduction

An adult dwarf is reproductively viable about every two months. If they are fertilized, the carrier will give birth to a litter of about six dwarflings in 190 days.

Growth Rate & Stages

Dwarven larva are born blind, tiny, and helpless. They spend the first three years of their life clinging to an adults beard, and mostly drinking milk, which all dwarves in a clan will produce when a litter is born.
After their third year most dwarflings will be able to walk, and accept solid foods. They'll usually spend the next two years learning to speak and the basics of their clan's craft, intermittently riding in their family's beards. When their last year as a larva passes the dwarfling will be an apprentice of the clan, and learn their clan's trade.
The dwarfs beard will begin growing after their first reproductive period, usually their 20th year. Though it will not be full sized for an adult until their sixth reproductive period. After this a dwarf will be reproductively viable for about 20 more years. Their first reproductive year is usually when an adolescent will seek out a new clan separate from their birth clan, courting various clansdwarves with their skills and crafts
At the venerable age of about 110 a dwarf will start greying, and their beard will lose some thickness. Living to this age is considered a sign of great wisdom, and greybeard dwarves will usually live in their own non reproductive clans.

Ecology and Habitats

Dwarves evolved to tunnel into the loam and soil of larderroot hills, sustaining themselves on their tubers, freed from the earth with stone tools.
Most modern dwarves, however, live in the stony cave systems of mountain ranges in large colonies. Carving out their own nesthalls, serpent pools, and meat snail ranches from the roots of the earth.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Dwarves are omnivores, as eager to dine on Roasted Serpents as they are to enjoy a lunch of Stewed Stonenuts. Much of a colony's protein comes in the form of meat snails and food serpents which are raised in subterranean snail ranches and aquaculture pools. This is supplemented by hearty stonenuts, larderroots, skink tails, and meaty gill trees.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Traditional colonial dwarves live in large cave cities called colonies. A colony will be divided into many clans of dwarves who share a Nesthall. Most clans are formed of about 20 like minded individuals, who usually share a trade, and are roughly the same age. A clan is a fluid combination of family, reproductive unit, voting bloc, and crafts guild.
Only one dwarf will be permitted to get pregnant in each clan, and this will almost always be the head of the clan and the elder dwarf. The whole clan will share caretaking duties, and consider all the dwarflings as their children.
Clans are also at the heart of the political system for most colonies. The head of the clan will speak for all its members on matters of the colony's governance, though never without referring to their clanmates' wishes first.
The economy too revolves around the clan system, as a clan works as an adhoc workshop and trade guild. The clan will share a trade and work on the same projects. One does not petition a blacksmith for a suit of armor, but rather order a whole set from a smithy clan.
Clans are fluid and most dwarves will be in many throughout their life as their ideals and interests change.

Average Intelligence

Dwarves as a whole have sharp minds, and good spatial sense; well suited to detailed crafts and architecture.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Dwarves have an array of sensitive whiskers on their upper lip and above their eyes. This, coupled with their keen sense of smell and low light vision, allows dwarves to navigate unlit tunnels with ease.
By human standards all dwarves are near sighted, only having good visual acuity within about 20 feet. This is not much of a problem in the cramped tunnels of a dwarven colony, but topsoiler dwarves have been known to wear tinted glasses to mitigate their poor vision.

Civilization and Culture

Naming Traditions

Although dwarven names vary vastly between cultures, there are some common elements.
Many colonial dwarves have names that start with the clan name, which is often a description of what the clan does, or just the name of the Headsdwarf. After that it is common to have a public and a private name. The public name being what strangers call you, and your private name reserved for your clan members, and relatives. Since clans are fluid and can change multiple times in one's life the public name is usually the most consistent, and is used on colony records. Public names are often a simple descriptive name, something like Strong Hands, Deep Voice, or Curled Whiskers; private names are more personal and are related to one's accolades or admirable traits, names like Honorable dwarf, Skilled speaker, or Caring soul, are common private names. Some dwarven colonies also have larval names, which is what the dwarf was called by their birth clan before they could speak. This name is used in the most intimate conversations with ones elders.
Topsoiler clans are often much larger and informal than a mountain colony's, some even being purely hereditary. Because of this topsoilers put much less emphasis on the clan name. Instead a topsoiler name is often composed of a public name, a private name, a trade name, and a location name, with their clan names tacked on at the end per tradition but not really telling much about the individual. The trade name describes what the dwarf does for a living, and the location name where in the warren they live.
Blindeye dwarves have a much less complex system. Most blindeyes only having a cave name and a surface name. The cave name being what their fellows call them, and the surface name an alias for when they have to talk to surface dwellers.
Coming lastly to Stonejaws, they often have a long string of deeds or interests as a name, with the most notable being their common name. It is extremely rude to refer to a Stonejaw by a clan name.

Beauty Ideals

Like their names, what dwarves find attractive in others varies between cultures. What follows in an extremely general rundown of some common themes.

Gender Ideals

Dwarves have no gender roles analogous to Human gender. Among Colonials and Topsoilers the closest thing to proscribed gender roles are a Clandwarf, Headdwarf, and Greybeard. The first two being your standard clan member, and the head reproductive dwarf, and the last a dwarf who has aged far past reproduction.
Blindeyes are all reproductive in a clan and have no specific leadership, leaving them without specific gender roles.
Stonejaws specifically reject Dwarven society in general, and thus lack gender as well.

Lifespan

160 Years

Average Height

0.91-1.06 Meters

Average Weight

31.75-34.02 Kilograms

Average Physique

Most Dwarves are stout and robust, with broad shoulders, and thick legs.