Dwarves are a short but hearty people, and are generally more pragmatic than the other races. While some live underground, many more do not.
Origin
Dwarves are the youngest of the old peoples, and they were made by a disease. About thirty thousand years ago the Laughing Plague came to Alaria out of the plane of Glyssen and drove nearly everyone it touched into a fevered, murderous, laughing madness. A few in every population proved naturally resistant. They did not go mad, but the sickness still worked on them, and the ones who lived sealed themselves away from the laughter in the deep stone while the surface tore itself apart above.
What happened in the deep was more than survival. Down in the old places the rock is threaded with titan-bone, and titan-bone holds Deoric, the command-language that costs life to speak. Pressed against the living stone of the Stone Elemental Plane and its Kethic current, that buried Deoric woke and spent itself on the survivors all at once. It burned the plague out of them, and the cure took the life-price Deoric always takes, paid by the Deoric itself as it consumed away in the working. In the same stroke it wrote the stone into the survivors and fixed it there. They came up shorter, harder, slower to age, set against the world the way rock is set against everything, and their children were born the same. It was a single event, not a slow adaptation to life underground, that ended with a new species where the plague-survivors had gone in. It is why the Uline and the Hestrube run so close to earth and stone in their blood; the alignment is older than either culture, struck into the whole race at its making.
The plague never ended. It still circulates in the deepest tunnels, down among the Kackles, and the Uline hold the line against it the way their ancestors first did, by keeping to the deep stone and not letting the laughter back up into the light.
Vitals
- Size: Medium
- Height: 3.5-5 feet
- Weight: 100-180 pounds
Heritages
- Drasnian (Stout Dwarf) — Eldest and most populous heritage, dispersed across Alaria through trade, war, and enslavement; value education, money, and cultural legacy. See Drasnian.
- Uline (Chain Dwarf) — Industrious underground dwarves who adapted to mine life over generations; pragmatic and stubborn, masters of iron combat and air-circulation engineering. See Uline.
- Aureum (Sun Dwarf) — Sun-worshipping underground dwarves who harness liquid sunlight to ward off darkness; law, honor, and the sanctity of one's word define their culture. See Aureum.
- Glorindian (Gold Eyes) — Golden-eyed dwarves from eastern mountain gold mines with supernatural metal-sensing; secretive and nomadic due to a long history of exploitation. See Glorindian.
- Hestrube (Graylings, Stone Dwarves) — Living-stone dwarves from deep caverns where elemental magic merged earth and flesh; patient as mountains, they move through solid rock at will. See Hestrube.
- Grendel (Chord Dwarves) — Wandering caravan dwarves whose culture centers on music, storytelling, and fierce clan loyalty; their harmonies can influence emotions and inspire extraordinary feats. See Grendel.
- Verucan — Volcanic dwarves with glowing red-veined obsidian skin who build civilization inside active volcanoes; sacred fury and passion drive their forge mastery. See Verucan.
- Yorinthian (Winter Dwarves) — Frost-touched dwarves serving dragon goddess Nabuhe in frozen Hannoweir; cruel and rigid, they believe strength is only earned through suffering. See Yorinthian.
- Strømgodden (Battle Dwarves) — Battle-devoted dwarves of Trømgar whose spiked armor turns their bodies into weapons; glorious combat is a sacred offering and rite of passage. See Strømgodden.
- Nydor (Dark Dwarves) — Aureum breakaway who embraced darkness; tusked, ash-skinned master slavers of Emblydium who trade war machines for captives under the black sun. See Nydor.
- Velwey (Dream Dwarves) — Dream-harvesting dwarves of Movasi who extract and crystallize dreams via hallucinogens, Psy dream-walking, and Deoric ritual; not a playable race. See Velwey.
- Surry (White Dwarves) — Translucent-skinned deep-cave dwarves adapted to total darkness; pragmatic cannibals who view all flesh as sustenance in their resource-scarce fungal kingdom. See Surry.
- Gruynmar — Bronze-skinned seafaring dwarves who live on iron clan-ships; sole keepers of gunpowder secrets, feared naval warriors with deep clan loyalty. See Gruynmar.
- Fengruk (Forgewardens) — Sacred smiths of Gondurak who treat the forge as a life metaphor; patient teachers shaped by the belief that hardship and discipline temper true potential. See Fengruk.
- Cendelle (Celestial Draugr) — Ancient guardians of portals to Celesté beneath Dnykuul; millennia of planar exposure grants silvery-flecked eyes and awareness of otherworldly presences; true-name exposure makes them vulnerable to mental attack. See Cendelle.
- Sennites (Lake Dwarf) — Slimy green-skinned lake-adapted dwarves of Sennos who traded forbidden Deoric secrets with deep entities to survive a flooding catastrophe; reviled for valuing survival over honor. See Sennites.
- Zwaeron (Tundra Dwarf) — Gray-blue, frizzy orange-haired tundra dwarves who abandoned mines for the open snow; nomadic dire wolf riders who scorn underground life and prize freedom. See Zwaeron.
- Dernish — Siege-adapted mountain dwarves of the central Widebarrow whose concentric capital and deep-debt service rotations are built around the generational Lyzine threat from below. See Dernish.
- Carillon — Artisan-academic dwarves of Urok's southwestern coast whose twin city-states, Maun and Wisgarrd, devoted themselves to music, theater, gem-craft, and magical enchantment with dwarven rigor. See Carillon.
- Trakkozur — Weathered deep-cavern dwarves of Eoga who seem primitive but are the ancient wardens who chained the titan Hykravones in Deoric beneath the Cascades of Ygg. See Trakkozur.
Game mechanics
Hearty and Gruff
Passive ability. It costs 1 less XP when you choose to spend XP to increase your maximum hit points.
Additionally, when wielding a shield or heavy weapon, you get +1 on your A/D rolls.
You are also immune to the frightened condition.
Drasnian (Stout Dwarf) — Alert
Passive ability. You have advantage on all cunning checks to determine if someone has bad intentions. When combat begins, you may treat your initiative roll as its maximum value.
In addition, you gain the Observant talent as a racial ability (it does not count towards the number of talents you have).
Uline (Chain Dwarf) — Mountain-born
Passive ability. You gain your choice of a basic attunement to earth or darkness.
Aureum (Sun Dwarf) — Sunsmith
Major ability. As an Aureum, you are privy to the secret methods of extracting liquid sunlight from the sun's rays, and you always have a flask of sunlight available. It emits light out to 10 feet, and dim light for 10 feet beyond that. You may use this flask for any one of the following abilities:
- Health and Rejuvenation: As an interact action, you may drink the flask and gain the benefits of a short rest.
- Smash: As an interact action, you may crush or throw your flask to cast Blinding Sun.
Once you have used your flask, you cannot do so again until you spend 10 minutes in private at sunrise or sunset to capture the sun's rays. The sunlight within a flask expires after 12 hours.
Glorindian (Gold Eyes) — Auric Sight
Passive ability. You can sense the location and approximate quantity of gold, silver, and other precious metals within 120 feet, even through solid barriers. When examining valuable objects, you automatically know their precise worth and can detect any counterfeits or impurities.
Additionally, once per long rest, you may spend 10 minutes concentrating to divine the location of the nearest significant treasure hoard within 1 mile.
Hestrube (Graylings, Stone Dwarves) — Stone Flesh
Passive ability. Your body can shift between flesh and living stone at will. While in stone form, you gain +2 to defense rolls against physical attacks but move at half speed. You can sustain yourself by consuming 1 pound of stone or minerals daily instead of normal food.
Grendel (Chord Dwarves) — Chord of Kinship
Major ability. When you and at least two allies who can hear you begin singing, humming, or playing instruments together, all participants gain +2 to their defense rolls and cannot be charmed or frightened for the next minute, so long as everyone continues participating in the music.
Verucan — Molten Heart
Passive ability. You gain a basic attunement to fire. Your body radiates heat—creatures that grapple you or hit you with unarmed attacks take 1d4 fire damage.
Yorinthian (Winter Dwarves) — Winter's Embrace
Passive ability. You gain a basic attunement to ice. You are immune to cold damage and environmental cold effects, can see normally in blizzards and other winter weather conditions, and suffer no movement penalties from ice or snow. However, you take double damage from fire sources.
Strømgodden (Battle Dwarves) — Spiked Charge
Passive ability. While wearing your specially crafted spiked armor, when you move at least 20 feet in a straight line and make a melee attack, you may choose to body-slam your target instead. You must choose the might stance and your armor counts as a heavy piercing melee weapon. Add your armor's defense bonus in place of a weapon die roll. However, the violent impact damages you as well—you take damage equal to the target's defense roll.
Additionally, whenever you are grappled while wearing your spiked armor, the enemy immediately takes damage equal to your armor's defense bonus, and takes the same damage again at the start of each subsequent round they maintain the grapple.
Nydor (Dark Dwarves) — Forge of Oppression
Passive ability. You gain a basic attunement to darkness, and you have advantage on crafting checks for weapons, armor, and restraints.
Cendelle (Celestial Draugr) — Celestial Resonance
Passive ability. You can telepathically communicate with other Cendelle within 1 mile and share rush points with willing Cendelle within 30 feet during combat. When another Cendelle within 30 feet takes damage, you may choose to split the damage between both of you.
However, any creature that learns part of your true name gains advantage on all mental attacks against you, and you automatically fail saves against effects that target your true name.
Surry (White Dwarves) — Corpse-pale Adaptation
Passive ability. You require no sunlight and can survive on any organic matter, including normally inedible substances like leather, paper, or corpses. You have darkvision to 120 feet, and can always determine the direction towards any corpses within 1 mile.
Gruynmar — Gunpowder Mastery
Passive ability. You can craft and use firearms, which count as heavy ranged weapons with 90-foot range that deal piercing damage. Firearms require gunpowder charges and take a full action to reload after each shot.
You can craft a basic firearm in 3 days with access to a forge and 50 ducats worth of materials. You can create gunpowder charges from sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (5 ducats of materials yields 20 charges). In settlements, charges typically cost 1 ducat each when available.
Fengruk (Forgewardens) — Master of the Forge
Passive ability. Your deep understanding of metallurgy and transformative processes grants you the following benefits:
- When using a workshop for magical crafting, treat it as one level higher than it actually is (maximum level 7).
- When using components with the "neutral" tag (typically metals and gems), treat them as one level higher for all crafting purposes.
- You have advantage on all crafting skill checks.
Sennites (Lake Dwarf) — Amphibious
Passive ability. You can breathe underwater and have a swim speed equal to your movement speed. Your webbed hands give you D2 on checks requiring fine manipulation with tools when dry, but you have A2 on all swimming-related checks.
Sennites (Lake Dwarf) — Deoric Secret
Major ability. You know fragments of the language of truth. As an action, you may spend 5 HP to speak a word of power, producing one of the following effects:
- Cause a lock within touch to unlock
- Extinguish all non-magical flames within 30 feet
- Heal yourself or a creature you touch for 2d6 HP
Zwaeron (Tundra Dwarf) — Wolf Rider
Passive ability. You gain the Beast Companion talent as a racial ability (it does not count towards the number of talents you have). Your companion is a dire wolf with the statistics of a warhorse but with a bite attack (1d8 damage) instead of hooves. If your wolf dies, you may spend a month in the tundra to bond with a new one. You have A2 on all checks related to wolves, canines, and tracking in snow. You are immune to the effects of extreme cold and suffer no penalties from snow, ice, or blizzard conditions.