Appearance: The most notable thing about the Dwarven appearance is their height. Rarely do Dwarves grow any taller than four, maybe four and a half feet tall. However, they are also quite wide, giving most a fairly rectangular appearance. This width is usually because of their great muscular capacity, all crammed into one small package, though towards old age it's usually more fat than muscle. A symbol of pride for most Dwarven men is also a long beard, often braided a certain way to show what family they are from. However, there are some Dwarves who are exiled or choose self-exile, and they shave off their beards as well as the hair on their head to symbolize a disconnection from Dwarven society. Many, of both genders, also wear jewelry with amazingly well crafted stones, some designating a certain social standing.
Abilities: All Dwarves are natural born craftsmen. That may not be their chosen profession, but every Dwarf can craft to a decent degree, either stone, metal, wood, or any combination of the three. This also gives them a gift for appraising such works, many studying different eras of artistic influence so they can name just about any style of architecture or jewel craft they come across. Dwarves also have an amazing capacity for strength because of their natural builds. They are also the second longest-lived race, usually living about 800 years at least, the oldest recorded Dwarf living to 914 years before being crushed by a sculpture.
History: According to popular Dwarven legend they were spawned from the Earth itself. When the Elves were being created, they say, some of the powerful divine magics that gave them form and life touched the mountains and rocks. So forth came the Dwarves from crevices and caves, fully formed, and were taken under the wing of Dio. This explains why the majority of Dwarves are of the Earth element, although there are also colonies on other continents with mountains, but most return to the Earth continent to birth children. However, there is a minority of Dwarves in other elements, either because of an accidental or early birth, or from an exiled line.
Transportation: Most Dwarven travel through their cities and tunnels is done by a track and cart system, five person carts, with two of those people working a pump lever to make the cart go down the tracks, and one working the brake. When traveling across land they often use a small breed of horse developed so that they are easier for Dwarves to mount.
Religion: Dwarves largely worship Dio, as the supposed adopter of their kind. Even those few accidentally born outside the Earth continent, or the exiled lines, usually worship Dio despite whatever element they actually are. You will not find a Dwarven city with a large, amazingly built temple to Dio made of solid rock, with astoundingly beautiful art work dedicated to the God and some of his more notable followers.
Language: While not a full language, Dwarves speak and write something they refer to as the 'Earth Tongue'. For every day use they speak Common, but they will often imbed messages in Earth Tongue in their artwork, or speak to each other in it when they don't want non-Dwarves to understand. It's rather crude, mostly just a code with words pertaining to war, art, Dioism, and other thing important in the course of Dwarven life.
Society: Dwarven society is fairly simple. There is no empire or anything of the like, instead each city is governed as a separate entity. The Thane is the head of each city, each serving a fifty year term, and the duty rotating between usually four or five noble families in the city. Then there are the craftsmen, artisans, and nobles, all looked up to very highly. At the bottom are the traders and, though by no means the least respected, the farmers who cultivate large underground plantations with the help of Sun Rocks. Sun Rocks are left out in the sun for a day, and absorb a month's worth of sunlight, which nourishes the plants they grow. Although it takes only a day to charge, they'll often leave large amounts out at a time to rotate in when the current ones run out of light.
In The World: Dwarves are a rather reclusive race, spending lots of time in their cities perfecting their artwork or such. The ones who most often lave the cities are the traders who bring beautiful Dwarven art to the outside world. Although, it is customary for a Dwarf of about 300 years or so to take a trip to the outside world for several years to experience what they can before settling down to have a family and continue life in an underground city. There are the rare exceptions, aside from exiles, who live in other cities, setting up lucrative businesses around their craft skills. Those are most common in large cities with an army of sorts, selling very well crafted weapons at a low price to the army ensure continued business, though the prices the public would have to pay are by no means low.
