- For role-play purposes, dwarven Cs are able to detect anything living or moving around them within Power Level area of effect and they can make a Power Roll to detect such things concealed by magic (such as a Shadowcloak spell).
- Weapons and armor of dwarven manufacture are nearly unbreakable and as effective as enchanted weapons and armor (+10/-10 to Combat and Damage rolls). They are incredibly valuable and rarely traded.
In the World of Mythandar©, the dwarves are less diverse, both physically and culturally, than most other races. The are all short and very stout (the average adult male will stand 4 1/2 feet tall and weigh over 200 pounds), with greater physical strength and toughness than the strongest human. They have heavy features - broad heads, large noses and ears, solid chins - hair of iron gray, earth brown, black or copper-red, eyes the color of gemstones, and skin like wrinkled old leather. As a people, they are fanatically loyal to family, clan and race above all else and will pursue grudges against those who wrong them with self-destructive stubborness. It's said that a dwarf wronged never forgives and never forgets.
Dwarves live for centuries, over 500 years for those lucky enough to survive a life of constant labor and battle. They have few children, making the race vulnerable to loss from disaster and warfare. Their sole advantage is that they are incredibly tough, stubborn and resilient to hardship and the elements, injury and the effects of magic.
The dwarves have always been an insular folk, seperate from the other races
of the world, living in isolation in their great fortress cities, constantly building,
digging, forging and gathering the treasures for which they are famous.
Dwarves prefer the company of their own kind and have little trust or interest
in others. They see humans as petty, greedy and lustful of their treasures.
Elves are too close to magic and far too alien in their affinity to nature. Dwarves
have little regard for halflings (though the two races may be related). Orcs, they
hate with a burning passion from thousands of years of endless bloody warfare.
Giants and dragons they fear and hate for both historic and economic reasons ...
The simple truth is that the dwarves would just as soon be left alone. However,
in a world inhabited by so many different peoples, they have had to find
ways to deal with their neighbors, and a few of them have learned to coexist
with humans in particular. Men have traditionally viewed dwarves as greedy,
obstinate, unfriendly and secretive. Dwarven skills at metal and stone work
and their reputations as warriors were legendary when men were still bronze-
age barbarians, and they have jealously sought to learn the dwarves' secrets
ever since.
DWARVEN CHARACTERS
Dwarves are physically stronger than humans, but slower and less agile. As warriors, they are devastating in battle, seeming to enjoy combat and able to withstand wounds that would fell or kill a normal man. They also posses an innate resistance to magic that makes them less vulnerable to spells and magical influence (some believe this is simply due to the fact that they are so damned stubborn).
The dwarf's Power rating is defensive. They do not use magic as do humans or elves - they don't cast spells. When magic is used against a dwarf, the character gets a Power Roll in order to resist its effects.
Dwarven Senses
Dwarven sight and hearing are exceptional. They can see normally in near total darkness and are extremely sensitive to low-pitched sounds and vibrations. This makes them well able to navigate underground ... It is also rumored that dwarves are able to smell gold (within Power Level area of effect).
The Dwarves worship their own patriarchal deity, Kor the Founder, God of Earth, Stone and Fire. Dwarven priests are few, but possess all of the divine powers of human priests. They tattoo themselves with dwarven runes and wade into battle without armor like beserkers, trusting in the power of their god to protect them.
The dwarves believe that their lives and accomplishments in the mortal world are of supreme importance in determining their fate in the afterlife. Those who live honorably and die well will be rewarded with all of the riches and comforts imaginable, joining their ancestors in Kor's Golden Halls in the Celestial Realm. Those who fail to live honorably or die as cowards will be condemned to the hellish mines of the Underworld for all eternity.
The dwarven race has inhabited the mountainous northern regions of Mythandar since the First Age, long before the rise of man. They reckon their history back to the First Age of Mythandar, when Kor defeated the Sons of Titan (with the aid of the Storm-god Valkan). Afterward, Kor created the Four Fathers of the dwarven race out of raw stone, breathing fire into them to give them life, and set them to digging, building and forging in the mountains of the world. These four patriarchs soon fell to quarreling among themselves, so they agreed to go their separate ways. Eventually, the Fathers founded their own kingdoms in the mountains of the world (where their wives and people came from is a matter of debate). All dwarves count their ancestry back to one of the Four Fathers:
The dwarves invented and perfected the skills of iron-forging, gem-cutting and mining. They invented runes, which are more pictographs than an alphabet, and developed methods of stone construction that are still beyond the abilities of men. They have also created great siege engines for warfare, including catapults, stone-slings and multiple spear-throwing ballistae.
When men began to spread across Mythandar, they came into contact with the dwarves, first in battle, and later to trade. It was the dwarves who first taught men to forge iron (and this is confirmed by the fact that the people of the Inner Sea Lands were still using bronze when they first met the iron-age barbarians of the North). Over time, the dwarves kept largely to themselves. However, they would on occasion ally themselves with men against dire threats. The last and greatest event that brought them together was the North War in 1440 IR. The drarves of Irongate, persuaded by the High Elven Lord Alandar of Ealdas, marched against the Wizard-King and aided Anglamar at Winter Gap.
Today, Irongate remains a thriving dwarven kingdom and an ally of men in the West, constantly fighting against the orcs and other monsters of the Far North and Icewall Mountains. Stonegaard, in the Dragonspines, is the lair of orcs, ruled by a powerful orcish warlord, King Huurk of the Bloody Tusk. The dwarves of Stonegaard were all slaughtered or scattered, and the few survivors have joined thier kin in Irongate or settled separate lives in Anglamar. From the Mysterious East, there are tales of Rifthaven, fabulously wealthy and as strong as Irongate in the West.