Dwarf

Dwarves are the oldest surviving race on Hearth, descendants of a race of celestial ancestors who as one were banished to Hearth for their rebellion against their god himself. Those who left their Mountain That Walks reverted to mortality and adapted to their chosen terrain.

There are no less than 5 types of dwarves in the world of Hearth: Common, Dream, Duergar, Glacier, and Midgard.

Common (Mountain) Dwarf
Common dwarves live in the mountains and just beneath the ground, most preferring to always live at least a couple day's journey from the surface. Many factions have a thriving relationship with humans. Humans buy their ores and metal craft, and dwarves buy their wood and collect their fanciful tales and songs. Many humans have also gone to live beneath the ground, as the temperature is warmer below year round than at almost any time during the year, even within the Ring. In turn many dwarves like the bracing chill and exciting winds of the surface world, enough so that have formed extended colonies above. These Dwarves are eagerly welcomed into human communities, particularly if they have smithing and stone-working skills, and humans into dwarven, especially as entertainers. In fact, it is uncommon but not unheard of for dwarves and humans to be married, usually human males to dwarven females, though they are incapable of producing offspring.

Dream Dwarf
Dream dwarves are the rarest of all dwarf kind and few are seen. They are the philosophers and mentalists of their people, with a tie to the earth even the Midgard have not achieved. It is within locales of deep crystal and psychic nodes that they first formed. The duergar were once dream dwarves, but they went mad with the revelations that were discovered as their deepest meditations took them to the Edge (see Far Realm). The dream dwarves are those that were able to send their insecurities and fears into the crystals, to stabilize their minds and perform a sort of deep therapy upon themselves.

Duergar Dwarf
Duergar fear the light and chill of the upper lands and dwell deeper than the roots of the mountains. There they hide in a frantic psychosis ever since the first dream dwarf approached the Edge and peered over. This madness spread through the dreams of their people and even while in the womb their young are influenced and driven insane. They hold an intense hatred for surface dwellers due to their fracturing of the crust. With the earthquakes and constant seeping magma their civilization, though still impressive, is nothing like it once was. Though they take prisoners topside, and strike raids upon the common dwarves for slaves, they don't dare openly oppose them or the humans except in bouts of suicidal insanity. Mountains are so plentiful that common dwarves have multiplied like vermin to their minds, and vastly outnumber them. Even with their psionic powers they could never hope for victory until something is done to lessen the normal dwarf population.

Glacier Dwarf
Glacier dwarves were once a small, primitive people living in the freezing ice caves of the acrtic circles of Hearth, but since the Years of Frost they have risen an impressive society and their numbers have been able to increase and spread with the surplus of frozen land now to be found. They rarely tunnel into earth itself, and find the thought slightly offensive. Clean ice is their medium.

The most famous glacier dwarf city is the Azure Floe on the beaches of a great frozen sea.

Midgard Dwarf
Midgard dwarves are the ancestors of all the dwarves of Hearth. When they refused to obey the tenants of the higher planes they were cast down with their precious mountain and have wandered since. This incredible mountain slowly wanders the world. Within is a paradise of both worked and unworked caverns that reflect their exalted origins, filled with metal and stonework the like of which is unequaled anywhere on Hearth. They have nothing to do with the other races if they can help it, instead pursuing their own goals and wills as they always have.