Overview
Snowfell Dwarves are solid and resilient like the earth. They hail from the Snowfell Mountains. Their capital city, Snowpeak, can be found in the largest mountain in the Snowfell Mountain Range.
Snowfell Dwarves trace their ancestry back to the founding of their most ancient strongholds in the youth of the world. Their patron god is Duros, who upholds the dwarven ideals of industrious labor, skill in battle, and devotion to the forge. Bold and hardy, dwarves are known as skilled warriors, miners, and workers of stone and metal.
When Duros fell during Armageddon, the dwarves experienced an upheaval of their way of life. Snowpeak collapsed in on itself and they were left to rebuild the pieces of their society.
Personality
Dwarves are well known for their work ethic, whether they are a blacksmith, baker, or politician. Stereotypes tend to cast dwarves as being overly fond of both money and alcohol, though in truth most will put family and clan above all else. Their courage and endurance is renown in Ilisara.
Most dwarves are resolute and down-to-earth. They are rational, honest, and believe in what they can see and touch. They tend to form strong internal bonds and have insider jokes and customs.
Appearance
Though they stand under 5 feet tall, dwarves are quite broad and compact and weigh as much as a human. Dwarves are a long-lived race. They reach physical maturity later than humans. A dwarf is traditionally considered an adult once he or she reaches thirty. Dwarven lifespans are about 200 years.
Dwarven skin ranges from deep brown to paler hues. The most common shades are earthy and warm. Their hair, worn long but in simple styles, is usually black, gray, or brown, though paler dwarves often have red hair. Male dwarves value their beards highly and groom them carefully. Hair and beards are braided and elaborately knotted by some.
Common dwarven armor includes chainmail, mithril, and plate. Furs are popular, as are leather. The dwarves are accustomed to cold climates.
Society
Dwarven history is riddled with hardship. As a result, dwarves are a resilient race. Dwarves rely only on themselves. Isolationist sentiment is strong. They are not trusting of outsiders, but greet dwarven strangers as if they were old friends. Dwarves view each other as family.
There are several common threads that unite all dwarves. First, pride in their ancient kingdom and its history. Second, kin. Dwarves are fiercely devoted to their family. Dwarven parents wish for their children to grow up hardy and enduring. Thus, they may treat their children harshly, but they will protect them at all costs.
All dwarves feel at home underground. Outsiders have seldom seen Snowpeak’s great halls and the dwarves keep it that way. In Snowpeak’s outskirts and the above-ground dwarven forts, dwarves live in simple but practical stone huts whose interior space expands underground. Often, bedrooms and private rooms are tunneled beneath surface-dwarves’ homes.
Dwarves who live within Snowpeak are just as well-respected as dwarves who live outside. There is no social stigma against surface-dwarves. However, most dwarves wish they could live in their ancestral home.
Inherently, dwarves are connected to the earth. Their social customs are based on reliability and personal duty — things like being late to a meeting or breaking one’s word are greatly looked down upon. Dwarves prefer to walk rather than ride a horse, as animals tend to be viewed as livestock (and horses are too big to suit dwarves anyway). Dwarves generally live far from the sea. They dislike the ocean’s instability and in turn avoid riding on boats when possible.
Politics and history are very important to dwarves. There are two strong political parties within the dwarven kingdom of Snowpeak -- traditionalists and militarists. Traditionalists believe in the old republic's ways. They glorify the past republic as an example of what they should return to. Militarists believe in the current social order of military leadership. Currently the Militarists outnumber the Traditionalists, and thus the military has been able to retain power.
For hundreds of years dwarves have been overseen by military men and women whose ideals of order, strict dedication, and hard work have permeated dwarven society.
Religion
Though the dwarves have their own patron god, Duros, they are not fanatic religious followers like the sun elves are. Instead, dwarves live by sensible tenets and ideals that are inspired by their god’s teachings. There are clerics and paladins devoted to Duros, and a modest church organized in his name, but the church does not hold any power in the dwarven government.
Notable Dwarves
"I may be small, but I’ll hurt you if you insult me again." -- Tristia Renbran, Queen Regnant of the Dwarves. She led the fight against the orcs during the Battle at the Border. Queen Tristia is the one who recalled all the dwarves to Snowpeak in Year 700.
History
During the Dark Ages, the dwarves were a republic, with power split between a Monarch, a Senate, and a Supreme Court. This republic lasted for hundreds of years while the dwarves lived in a secluded state. Snowfell Dwarves are a very isolationist people, and believe in putting their nation first above all others, even self. This resulted in them being distrusting of outsiders.
In the year 400, King Thorin was assassinated by the Dark Dwarves who stole Mithrus and Ilterendi for themselves. The senate convened to appoint an emergency king, but the entire senate was killed when tunnels from underneath the senate chamber were collapsed by the dark dwarves. This resulted in a power vacuum. General Lokkhan stepped forward to seize control of a nation spiraling to its doom. This incident began the Great War, which fueled a hateful relationship between the Sun Elves and Snowfell Dwarves.
Fifty years after the start of the Great War, the Dwarves managed to bring the dark dwarves responsible for the instigation of the Great War to justice, and returned Ilterendi to the elves. This ended the war, and left the Dwarven nation in ruins, in more ways than one.
The Great War completely destroyed all of the farms north of Snowpeak. The soil had been contaminated and ruined to the point where it would take hundreds of years to grow anything other than weeds. The forest of Thrain was a tempting choice to cultivate, but it belonged to humanity. This drove the dwarves further south with their farming efforts. In the mean time, starvation and economic despair gripped the nation. King Lokkhan established martial law to prevent rioting and looting. Under his rule, the nation barely managed to prevent catastrophe.
In the years following King Lokkhan’s rule, future military generals would take the role of King, and also struggle to keep the Dwarven nation afloat economically. Unwilling to admit their vulnerability to the outside world, they kept the true nature of their poverty a secret. Large public works programs for those unable to get jobs were started, involving large digging efforts in Snowpeak to create reserve housing and storage for a longer, harsher war. These tunnels were massive, and carved over the course of hundreds of years.
In recent history, the Battle at the Border — an all-out defense of Hellan against an orcish incursion — resulted in the dwarves taking severe losses in resources and people.
In short, they have a long history of repeated destabilization and destruction. Queen Tristia Renbran took the dwarves underground and created a new foreign policy that dwarves would not intervene in the outside world, and focus only on themselves.
Recent history involves Armageddon caving Snowpeak in, and the dwarves attempting to rebuild it once more.
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