Dwarfs are short and stocky, with the heavy shoulders and shorter legs of underground dwellers (imagine a badger standing on it's back legs). They have thick hair and beards, and short hair which covers the rest of their bodies except their hands and faces. They can tolerate a great range of temperatures and are also resistant to poisons and poor quality air. Female dwarfs are usually larger than males and, in a society which respect strength, many are found in postions of leadership.

The saying "blind as a dwarf" is proverbial, at least in areas where dwarfs are scarce, and dwarfs' eyes are small and deepset beneath heavy brows. However, they are not blind, but rather very short-sighted. Their close vision is as good, if not better, then a human's. Dwarfs have large noses and an incredibly acute sense of smell and their large hands are very sensitive, helping them find their way around below ground. Dwarfen runes were originally fashioned to be read in the dark by touch.

Dwarfen hearing is extremely sharp and they are also sensitive to noise both above and below the human audible range, which makes dwarfen music a peculiar experience for non-dwarfs. Whilst all dwarfen speech sounds much alike to humans, to a dwarf each Clan and Hall has a quite distinct accent.

Many dwarfs remained on the Earth after the coming of Night. Because of the strong Clan ties of the dwarfs, it is very rare for a Clan to be split between the two worlds, so Clans are either 'with Duana' (living on the plane of Earth) or 'living in the Halls' (living in the World) and it is rare for a Clan to change it's status. A Clan is a territorial entity, generally occupying a single dwelling place, although he underground tunnels and aboveground fortresses of a Clan can be vast.

Each Clan is further sub-divided into Halls, which are kinship groups claiming descent from a common ancestor, usually a famous hero of the Clan. Within the majority of Clans, marriage between members of the same Hall is frowned upon (it is regarded much as marriage between cousins is by Western societies) and upon marriage the male dwarf joins the Hall of his wife. Dwarfs almost always marry within the Clan; in the rare cases of marriage between Clans, the male dwarf assumes the Clan name of his wife.

Dwarfs are probably the most human-like of all the sentient races. Like humans, they have a keen interest in both wealth and warfare. However, these interests often cause conflict between the two races. Before the Fall of Night, the dwarfs were great travellers. Their greatest passions were mining and exploring. They combined these passions in the creation of the Deep Ways. This intricate and vast underground highway system linked mines, dwarven cities and fortresses and natural cave systems. After they were forced to retreat into their mountain strongholds, many of the Deep Ways were abandonned and parts lost to the forces of Endless Night. The Deep Ways are said to allow underground travel across the continent. However, many of the Ways are difficult to follow without a guide as well as dangerous and the dwarfs guard their secrets closely, worried that the Ways could become utterly overrun with creatures of the Dark.

Dwarfs are masters of Elemental magic and their cities are full of mechanical marvels driven by bound elementals. Although more cautious then before, the dwarfs have emerged from their citadels again and are beginning to trade once more. It is now not uncommon to find elemental devices in the rich households of the Golden Empire.

Those dwarfs who do not choose to become craftsmen often take up a trade involving travelling. This may seem an odd choice for a people not apparetly built for long-distance journies. However, dwarfs have incredible stamina and a love of adventure and discovery which keeps them moving on. Many become merchants, where their passion for tight bargaining is notorious. Others form bands of mercenaries or engineers, selling their skills across the world. Most keep links with their Clans, and a dwarf who had no contact with their Clan would be regarded with deep suspicion by other dwarfs.

Dwarfs and Magic

One branch of dwarven magic specialises in the summoning and taming of unintelligent elementals, which are worked into equipment and ingenious machines. Earth and fire elementals are the types most commonly used. Air elementals are difficult to contain and water elementals cannot be affected by magic.

However, the dwarfen tongues are unsuited for magic involving organic matter, probably because many of their words for these substances are borrowed from other tongues.

Dwarfs and the Gods

• Desert Dwarfs
• The Green Halls

Desert Dwarfs

One of the most unusual dwarfen clans inhabits the great northern desert. It is suggested that they were driven from their mountain strongholds when the Night swept across the world and took refuge in the natural lava tunnels of the great volcano which rises in the middle of the desert. The dwarfs themselves say that the darkness under the mountains rose up against them, when they violated a sacred peak in search of iron ore. Pursued by demons and living shadows, they were about to be overwhelmed when the Sacred Fire beneath the desert came to their aid and destroyed their enemies is a rain of burning stone.

Nowadays, the dwarfs still live in the tunnels, although they have also built a quite extensive settlement of lava blocks on the slopes. Because of the 'promise' their ancestors made to the fire of the desert, they do not quarry rock underground or dig for ores. However, the desert sands around the volcano are littered with large pieces and smaller fragments of iron. The 'sky-iron' was the gift of the Fire-god who saved the dwarfs. It is of exceptionally high quality and the weapons forged by the dwarfs of the desert are prized around the World. Forging is done deep in the heart of the volcano, where the tunnels lead down to extremely hot areas.

The dwarfs also make obsidian weapons and tools of great craftsmanship. There is limited trade with the city for both obsidian and the extremely expensive sky-iron weapons. This trade is delicate and difficult, due to the dwarfs' customs and xenophobia. For example, it is utterly forbidden for any quarried metals or gems (including coins, weapons and even horseshoes and belt buckles) to enter the city precincts. The dwarfen priests belive that if this were to happen, the wrath of the mountains would fall on them again. Anyone caught trying to smuggle such items into the city is liable to the death penalty.

The Green Halls

After the Darkness drove the dwarfs underground, the dwarfs of the Green Halls remained in closer contact with their human allies than any others. They supplied weapons, although they were too hard pressed in their underground wars to lend soldiers to the war above ground. Eventually, after the priests of Endless Night were driven from the human lands to the north, the Green Hall dwarfs marched out and were largely responsible for the priest's final defeat.

The dwarfs then restablished trade and open friendship with the people of Bretanny and have expanded their underground workings considerably. The Halls are vast, although human visitors not of Bretanny seldom make it past the entrace complex. There are also strategic fortresses above ground, protecting entrances to the Halls and it's approaches. The Halls link up with the old Deep Ways, although many evil creatures still lurk in the darkness.