Dwarves

Overview
Dwarves are earthy mountain people who hail from a city that now ceases to exist. The city Lamanan was a testament to metal working, it was the ruling seat for the Dwarven King Metagost. Its spires reached higher then any metal smith dare make today, its forges burned brighter. To hear any Dwarf tell the tale Lamanan is the lost land of paradise.

It is the loss of this city that makes much of what the dwarves are today who they are. Physically they are the same. Dwarves are squat people, the tallest are four foot even, they make the Vitaen look tall. Some outsiders might comment that Dwarven women look quite a bit like their men, though never within the earshot of a Dwarf himself. The men all grow beards, and beards play a key role in their society. The longer and bushier a beard grows the more the males are to be trusted. This is because thieves, murderers and other unsavory types are quickly shaved. If one found a male past their puberty with a cleanly shaven face, then one had to watch their property. It is a mark of shame to have a beard shaved.

Dwarven hair comes in all colors from blondes to black hair, and one thing to note is that no dwarf suffers from baldness. Their eyes are generally the color of the metals that they love so dearly, golds, silvers and copper. They are stout people, none would ever be considered svelte. Even the shortest dwarf would weight a solid one hundred pounds. Women dwarves look much the same as their men without full beards, though they do have standard breasts, but with their rotund features these can be misleading. Most female dwarves decorate their hair, and different decorations mean different thing. If a female decorates their hair with flowers they are looking for a husband, if she has gems braided in her hair she is married -one gem per year of marriage. If she has ribbons then she is a widow and in mourning.

Culture:
Since Rhaziel destroyed Lamanan, Dwarves have no home city, and thus they keep their customs but might also celebrate others. There are still feast days that all dwarves celebrate even if they are the only ones in the town. One such day is the first beard hair that a child sprouts. This signifies a dwarven child is growing up. Dwarves marry and give birth just like all other races, and they celebrate these events as well.

Aging and smithing:
Dwarves live to two hundred to three hundred years before old age takes them. Anything a Dwarf crafts from a forge is almost guaranteed to be of fine value, though of course only according to like skilled crafters of other races. A novice dwarven silver smith will make slightly better valued items then a novice human silversmith.

Personality Traits and Ideology:
Dwarves are quick to anger, their temperament is renown for its volatile status. Dwarves tend to die violent deaths only because they are rash and prideful. It is not unusual to see a Dwarf get into two or three altercations in a day, and if they are in a seedy part of a town it can end in their deaths.

However with the exception of one thing, the dwarves are also generally quick to forgive. Once they let out the burst of anger then they generally are fine with whomever angered them. There is one glaring exception. Rhaziel. They hate the dragon god for what he did to Lamanan. They hate anything that has to do with him. Dragoon, Annora, anything that Rhaziel touches the dwarves hate. It is rumored that they even plot to dethrone the dragon god.. or perhaps take the one thing he considers most precious to him since he took their precious shining jewel of Lamanan.

No one puts it past the dwarves to plot such things, though no one truly believes that he Dwarves would actually try to do anything to Rhaziel or Annora unless one or the other happened to manifest in sight. It is a good thing that Dwarves procreate well, for their temperament would have ensured the destruction of their race long before now.