Dwarves

Dwarves or Stonekin are a humanoid race, intelligent enough to learn writing and form societies. They consider themselves to be in the higher echelon of humanoid races, but in fact most of them are corrupted and degraded by the current timeline. 

One time it was true - dwarves ruled over large kingdoms, both under and above ground, and held their seats in shining halls of jewels and precious metals. However, being susceptible to greed and general short-sightedness when it comes to larger events, they fell from power, and are reduced both in numbers and ability.

Phyisique

Dwarves are squat, broad-shouldered and strong-boned. The largest dwarf is about five feet in height, but they can match any grown man in strength, and their skin is very hard to pierce through, much like a coarse shark's skin. They have flat skulls, deep-set beady eyes and large, flat noses with large nostrils. They have two sets of eyelids, one opaque and one solid, to prevent rocks and dust falling into their eyes while maintaining their sight. They see very well in dark places, even better than Orcs.

Male dwarves grow long beards and trim their hair short, while female dwarves grow their hair long (and do not have beards).

Dwarves can procreate the way humans do, but under duress a female dwarf can also lay eggs, which are placed in walled-in caves near geothermical spots. The entrance to the egg chamber is broken once the young hatch. This is an emergency measure, when, for example, a colony's population dwindles. Dwarves hatched from the same set of eggs are not considered relatives, and if they have any offspring between them, the same mutations do not appear as in human children of siblings.

Dwarven children reach maturity in about five years, much quicker than humans, and then age very slowly. Some Dwarven ancients are over a thousand years old.

Dwarves are not as keen in magic as some other races, but in turn are usually impervious to mind-controlling effects and some offensive spells. Dissecting a Dwarf, Ogklos Ogkloméos, the Kronzregi scientist concluded that their skin is impregnated with an anti-magical substance that is similar to granite's ability to withstand physical changes and lightning strikes, and it must be that they are so close to the minerals in the deeper crust of the world that they inherit this property from their surroundings.

Knowledge

Dwarves are quick learners, and most of them can write and read. Dwarves write in ancient runic, and sometimes their spoken language is mentioned as runespeak. Although rune symbols are written as – mostly – straight lines, in pronunciation and function they are more similar to cuneiform or picture writing. They use a limited set of runes that mirror spoken syllables. Their language sounds like a series of low shouts and barks for foreign ears.

'Name runes' an entirely different set from the traditional alphabet, and are usually scribed in a larger font, even in the middle of a text.

Dwarven names are formed of three or four runes. The first name and surname are determined by the spacing between the runes, which affects pronunciation as well. In the case of three-rune names, if the first two are close together, it’s a double first name, and when reading outloud, the sounds are pronounced rapidly after each other.

A two-rune first name and a single-rune surname is generally the privilege of females, such as Dai-Ig Ud. Female names also contain specific, milder sounding runes, such as E’, Yi’ or Ig. Males with three-rune names usually bear a single-rune first name and a double surname, such as Gan Gan-Da. When spoken, the first name sounds rapid and low, while emphasis is on the second rune, or the first member of the surname.

Two first names, both for females and males, usually signify noble or ancient descent. The same can be said about longer sounding runes, for example Ig-Ama Gud-Dúr suggests an ancient and noble descent.

Beliefs

Dwarves revere their ancients, born at the beginning of the ages, their deeds remembered in an oral history tradition.

One of the most famous Dwarven ancients is An’Tűr Tak-Da, the Ore Chariot God. This is how his story is described:

"He was always cheerful and boastful. He had immense physical strength. He could stack ten ore carts on each other without tiring. Nobody liked mending the ore carts in his colony, for it was an unkind and dirty occupation, but he took a liking to it. When everyone was complaining, he went and did it. One day, a group of marauding hill orcs attacked his steading, and caught the warriors unaware. A massacre ensued, and a few folk had barricaded themselves in the deep tunnels below the keep, An’Tűr Tak-Da one of them. Everyone was frightened and they began praying for their lives. ‘Aye, praying is useful’, he said, ‘but let me load this cart with some stringed and loaded crossbows, and this other with explosives, and then see what happens.’ The dwarves around him stood stupefied. He had no chance beating a hundred orcs on his own, yet nobody came to his aid. He loaded one cart with the crossbows, tied their levers to a timing mechanism and launched it across the opening of the hall they took shelter in. The orcs rushed it, but saw there were no enemies. Orcs are not very bright, and so they commenced examining the thing, and were in the middle of it when the time was up, and three scores of crossbow bolts pierced their skin. There was an enormous hollering and a few dead. It was only natural that when the second cart came speeding through the same door, they stood away. The cart was stopped dead on the track near a strengthened point of the cave wall. The orcs stayed away, watching what would happen. When the lit cord reached the explosives, the walls erupted and half of the enemy was buried beneath the stone. Amidst the chaos that ensued, An’Tűr Tak-Da rushed out of another opening with a pair of war picks in his huge hands, and began slaughtering the remaining orcs. When he was cornered, he eluded them. For a day and a night he waged his personal war on the intruders, and in the end, only four or five orcs left the tunnels alive."

Sometimes Dwarves with the necessary abilities convert to other faiths, but keep revering their Ancients even in secrecy.

Society

Dwarves form cities called colonies, usually deep within mountains of stable rock. A colony has common chambers, storerooms and sleeping quarters, and sometimes tunnels are bored very deep into the soil. The Northern Kingdom has colonies which, at their heyday, housed a hundred thousand or more inhabitants.

These colonies then, sometimes, form larger alliances, of which there are currently four: the most ancient Northern Dwarven Kingdom in the Cold Plateaus, the Southern Dwarven Kingdom on the shore of the Horn of the Inner Sea, the Eastern Colonies east of the Vyrk, and the Southern Colonies on the shore of Ganai'athi.

Dwarves form tight societies in which everybody has their intended role. Being lazy or idle is very far from a Dwarf's personality, and society as a whole values hard labour or great knowledge in specific things. This makes them look hostile to other races whom do not have the same look on life, especially Orcs. 

When waging war, Dwarven men favour the short glaive, spear or war hammer, and most of their troops are heavily armored.