Race Preview: Dwarves

Dwarves are shorter than humans, stockier, and more muscular. They are suited for living in rough territory, requiring a fair amount of climbing and moving through tight passages. Male Dwarves typically have beards, there is no intense cultural stigma attached to beards. Some male Dwarves are beardless. Their custom is for a male to begin growing his beard on the first day he enters battle, and to shave it when no longer capable of fighting. Because of this tradition, some older Dwarves, and Dwarves whose jobs do not require them to learn to fight (scribes and historians) do not grow beards.

The Dwarves have a colored caste system, using their clothing and items to define their purpose in the nation. Everything is very purposeful, very regimented and clear-cut. Dwarves have no time for misunderstandings or confusion, and they keep all aspects of their lives carefully organized for ease of reference. Dwarves are all about purpose: everything, and everyone, should be clearly defined. They have been at war for many thousand years, and they understand that in times of great stress, confusion can leads to death. Thus, the Dwarven society has become brutally efficient, with no thought for anything beyond their battle and their god.

Male Dwarves stand approximately 4’6-5’, with females rarely growing above 4’5. Dwarven hair and eyes range in colors. Hair color primarily tends toward pale blonde or light brown, and eye color ranges through browns, greens and blues with the occasional silver or yellow. Their life expectancy is near 200, if a Dwarf could survive the war for that long. Typically, it is closer to 70, as they are butchered by the Abyssals on a nearly constant basis.

Long ago, the Dwarves lived above ground with the other races of the Accordlands. However, according to myth, when the battle against the Dragon tore apart the world and cast the body of the Dragon deep into the earth, a decision had to be made. The other races swore to stay above and fight against the released spirit of the Dragon that had become the Storm. The Dwarves marched below, to carve out a new world beneath the surface of the earth and serve as guardians over the corpse of the Dragon. Creatures of the depths fed upon the flesh of the ancient beast, and grew. They manifested strange and evil powers and have become a race unto themselves-the Abyssals. These creatures live for nothing except to cause havoc, pain, and death. The Dwarves fight against them as they always have, but occasionally an Abyssal gets by their guard and is released into the world above. On these occasions, a Dwarven hunter is sent to carry out their sworn duty-to hunt down the Abyssal, no matter where it goes, and to destroy it.

Too soon, they were forgotten completely by the upper world, and forced to live on their own. They created means to keep themselves fed - farmed where they could for fungi and hunted cavern-dwelling creatures for meat. The Dwarves quickly began to segregate into castes, each responsible for some critical task integral to the society’s survival. Some divided to cover the necessities of food, others became crafters of cities, and more (the largest part) dedicated their lives to the battlefront. Unlike some societies, however, the Dwarves place no value on these differing commitments but realized that it takes the contributions of many to create a secure civilization.

The Dwarven nation is divided into cities ruled by the Master of the City. All Dwarves owe allegiance to the King, but the High Priest of Kor stands at close second on the fealty chain. The Dwarves believe in their fight, and they live for justice, honor and good. They know quite clearly the difference between good and evil, and get annoyed when someone tries to muddy the waters with shades of gray.

The Dwarven society has a tight hierarchy led by the lineage of their ancient hero, Hember. The royalty of the Dwarven people is descended from Hember’s direct male line, and maintains control over all the final decisions of law and state. However, the High Vicar of Kor is above even the King, and his word is the word of Kor himself. Although the High Vicar rarely interferes in legal or political matters, if the safety of a city or the stability of the Dwarven culture is at stake, the High Vicar does not hesitate to step in and perform Kor’s Will.

Below the King and his heir, there is a large council of masters from each of the castes. One master is elected by their caste to stand before the King and process law. The King cannot create law. The council must create the law, forge its being, and then present it to the King for approval. In this manner, the common people of the Dwarven lands have a great deal of say about the creation of law. The king, however, is still the one who carries out the law of the land, and his guardsmen and Magisters bring lawbreakers to justice, obeying the laws as written by the council and signed into authority by the king.

Standard Dwarven Racial Traits

+2 Constitution, –2 Charisma. Dwarves make fine combatants and clerics. While dwarves are not stupid, their regimented castes and fierce racial specialization makes them slow to adapt to new situations.

Darkvision: Dwarves can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and dwarves can function capably without any light at all.

Magical senses: Dwarves are magically attuned, and intuitively feel underlying effects of the world around them. Dwarves may detect evil or detect magic, as per the spells of the same names, each a number of times per day equal to their Wisdom modifier (if positive; a minimum of once per day applies). Additionally, dwarves suffer no ill effects for sensing overwhelming evil. This is a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to the dwarf’s character level.

Resistance to toxins: Over the course of several generations below ground, dwarves developed an ability to resist airborne toxins. Dwarves have a +6 racial bonus to resist initial damage from any poison gas, though secondary damage (if any) has the normal effects.

Automatic languages: Dwarves speak Dwarven. Additionally, Dwarves may choose one of the following languages to be an automatic language, with the other languages being bonus languages: Abyssal, Deverenian, or Terran.