Help Index :: Races :: Dwarves Average Statistics for Dwarves Height: male and female about 3'6" - 4'6" Hair: primarily black to dark brown, lighter brown and blond are rare. Gray in old age. ALL DWARVES (male and female) HAVE BEARDS. Eyes: Black, brown, gray, green, and rarely blue iris. White around the iris, though the iris is large. Affiliation: Dwarves are a light race. Appearance: Dwarves are noted primarily for two traits. First, dwarves are shorter than humans and have broad shoulders. Second, all dwarves have beards. While you could possibly shave every day, every other dwarf is encouraged to shun, taunt and torment beardless dwarves at every given opportunity. Dwarves tend to have hearty, strong appearances and are generally adapted to living in the harsh conditions of the northern Cairn mountains. They frequently have dusky, leathery looking skin that protects them from both chill wind, glaring sun and rugged terrain. Optional Advice on Role Playing a Dwarf Dwarves come from a culture that cherishes two things above all others. Family and work. Most dwarves will place family and clan above friends. Sure, a human makes a good aquaintence, but if it came to a choice of friends of family, family will win hands down every time. Since family is rarely threatened, except maybe by orc or goblin raids in the mountains, outsiders more often see the dwarven work ethic come into play. A pride in work done, most often with the hands. In many cases this means well cared for equipment, fine smithing (one of major exports of the main dwarven citadel, Kha-da) and a belief that a job worth doing is worth doing right. Most other races will see dwarves as obstinate and gruff. These are more realisticly just the visual appearance of their ethics. If something falls into a category their ethics already cover, it takes little thought and there is almost no chance of changing a dwarf's mind once its made up on such a basis. Racial Relations: Dwarves prize other dwarves above all else, making for a pretty gruff appearance at best to outsiders they do like, let alone ones they don't. Dwarves have an undying hatred for several races - among them goblins, orcs, trolls and ogres. Of these all, dwarves cannot stand goblins who are, to them, less than worthless thieves who should be buried under the next collapsed tunnel. Vyans are perceived as a particularly sinister threat due to their obvious intelligence and particularly vile brand of evil. Elves are viewed with a measure of skepticism, at times bordering on contempt. Severe differences in dwarven and elven attitude make elves seem capricious and frivolous, something no self-respecting dwarf would find desirable (see notes on dwarven work ethic). Ents are viewed with some of the same skepticism as elves but never with any contempt. While they lack the caprivious and frivolous nature of elves they spend entirely too much time with the elves for the liking of dwarves. Still, ents are generally a good people and trustworthy. If not for the ents' general distrust of dwarves and their preference for axes the ents and dwarves might even get along quite well. Humans, on the whole, are seen as unnecessarily volatile and a race which really hasn't finished its adolesence, grown up, or figured out what it wants to do with itself. Lizardmen are considered somewhat of a boggle for dwarves, sharing no common territories of cultural ideologies that would bring them closer together or further apart. Gnomes are considered to be most agreeable, sensible folks closest to dwarves in attitude and demeaner. Halflings are considered somewhat reliable if a bit too care-free and are viewed somewhere between gnomes and humans. While they can be sensible folk when it comes to settling down and tilling the earth or working, and they don't just rush into things, they are just so darned merry all the time even when there's no good reason to be.