Dwarves

"'From the caves of Tyria, from the depths of the Southern Shiverpeaks, the Dwarves emerged as the mighties civilization to have ever lived in the beautiful mountain chains. Their underground and surface kingdom was vastly more wealthy and established than other monarchies. Few to none ever dared to oppose Deldrimor and its inhabitants.' - Description of the Dwarven kingdom."The Dwarves were one of Dwayna's earliest creation shortly before the Exodus, before they were born into the mountains of the Shiverpeaks. They are a proud, sturdy and stubborn folk, who puts emphasis into craftsmanship and materialistic growth.

Physiologie
Dwarves are a short race, as their name implied, standing from 1.3 -1.45m on average. What Dwarves lacked in height they make up for in bulk. They're, on average, about as heavy as Humans. A Dwarf could weigh anywhere from about 73–100 kg. Dwarven males are a bit taller and heavier than their female counterparts. Like Humans, Dwarves have a wide variety of skin, eye, and hair colors, typically pale among Deldrimor Dwarves and slightly tanned amongst Stone Summit Dwarves. Hazel eyes are common throughout the race, with blue and green eyes more common amongst Deldrimor and brown or amber eyes found amongst the Stone Summit. Their age could go up to around 100-120 years for healthy Dwarves.

History
Like their sibling race, the Humans, the Dwarves first were spawned onto Tyria shortly before the Exodus. While the Humans settled on Cantha, the Dwarves were chosen to inhabit the Shiverpeaks, close to the Dragonborn.

Dwayna sought to create a more introverted but creative race, who were fine handworkers and could craft beautiful and efficient societies to populate the vast Shiverpeaks, which Jormag left behind in his birth.

First splitting into several small monarchies and underground towns, they expanded their territory all the way underground. Establishing a great tunnel network and a few minor surface settlements, the Dwarves however mostly remained beneath the ground, where they would dig for ressources and study and perfect their own craft.

Many of the Dwarven monarchies, or the Dwarven Alliance, didn't spark any conflict amongst each other, and harmony was greatly maintained throughout the Southern Shiverpeaks.

After decades, this near perfect unity motivated the Dwarves to finally declare all their split factions under one banner.

Deldrimor Kingdom & Droknar's Forge
Thus, the Deldrimor Dwarven kingdom was established under Droknar Ironrock, the wisest and most influencial individual who was a great spokesman and leader. He then determined, that all Dwarven monarchs needed a seat within the great Forge Thronehall, to turn the kingdom into a monarchy itself. That he only served as a symbol, but the esthetic soul of the kingdom needs to be more democratic.

So, the Dwarves started constructing a great city around the Forge Thronehall, which shall be used as a beacon of prosperity and centre for all of their kin to share their goods, knowledge and adventures. As the last of stone bricks for its mighty wall was placed in 69 AE, Droknar's Forge was built.

Droknar was filled with pride and has accomplished much, though his spirit and body was tired and he died an earlier death at 84 AE.

Sacking of Droknar's Forge
With Droknar's demise, the Dwarves then elected his son, Rogdan Ironstone as the new king of Deldrimor. Young, brave, fair, and generous. Rogdan had lots of traits that determine a good leader without experience. However, he also qualified as being a bit naiive. The pride of his father, the city and stronghold of the Forge, Rogdan deemed as impenetrable.

On 86 AE, Dwarven scouts discovered Orc raiders that were preparing for the attack on their city. Rogdan took little notice, as he ignorantly proclaimed that the warband would require a thousand years before they could break down the Duril, the great gates of the capital.

Launching the great siege on Droknar's Forge, the Orcs managed to take down the gates with their combined physical strength and improvised, but powerful ram. Rogdan was completely overwhelmed by this and belatedly ordered his troops to fend off the invaders. Though, the lack of preperation and the sheer numbers of Orcs were simply outmaneuvering the defending Dwarven soldiers.

Due to Grimrar's smart move, the Dwarves were trapped inside their own caverns, as the Orcs barricaded the exits and armory, to prevent more Dwarves to stand in their way. The city was mostly plundered and pillaged in a matter of hours, before the warband of the Warsong finally trotted out of Droknar's Forge in triumph.

Utterly ashamed, to have failed the city, his father and most importantly his own people of his foolishness, promised in a public speech that his incompetence will never be repeated and he will personally make amends to his failure.

Rogdan started rebuilding the gates of Duril on his own, but many Dwarves out of compassion and faith later helped him, until the capital regained its glory and even amplified its defenses. The Deldrimor Dwarves, even after Rogdan's naiive actions, still regarded him as a respectable and honorable leader.

Jormag Breeze & the Dragonborn Migration
During the cold period of the Jormag Breezefrom 90-97 AE, the Dwarves had move most their population underground to protect themselves from the hypothermic conditions.

This attracted the attention of the far northeners, the Dragonborn, who have for many decades been rather passive and absent from interactions with the Deldrimor kingdom. Catching wind from the construction of Hoelbrak, the Dwarves weren't exactly impressed by this and even suspected a territorial invasion at some point, since they knew little to nothing about their soon to be neighbours.

The leader of the Dragonborn Clan Prrmrrdss and King Rogdan Ironrock made and appointment to discuss the matters. Rogdan invited them into the halls of the Throneroom, where they debated over the future outcome. King Rogdan wasn't exactly pleased with the Dragonborn simply building settlements within Dwarven land, in which the Clan Leader disputet that they didn't know about the Dwarven borders at all, since they mostly live underground.

Both lacking intel about the other faction, thought it was best to not start a war over a rather trivial matter. And thus, Rogdan summoned his mapmaker to their meeting.

Together with the Dragonborn, the Deldrimor established the borders between the Northern and Southern Shiverpeaks, dividing the mountains. Both agree to these terms and due to their rather fluent diplomatic solution, they even signed a non-aggression pact. Yet, never went beyond that until quite a bit later on.

Pact of Nations
Humans called forth their fellow races into the great Ebonhawke Castle.

Aereni, Dragonborn, Humans and also Deldrimor answered. The meeting and mutual intentions to keep peace was in everyone's favor, and thus the defensive alliance, the Pact of Nations treaty was signed in 767 AE. Neither faction is to act aggressively against the others without discussing it in the Pact's conventions.

Due to different cultures and morals, the Pact of Nations was however disbanded 1450 AE.

Dwarven Civil War
Through the Pact of Nations, the Deldrimor kingdom opened its gates for other races and travellers to visit their might hold. Although, quite a few of the Dwarves were rather opposed to the idea of Humans, Elves and Dragonborn to enter their great mines, cities and strongholds.

The debate spread all across the kingdom, dividing the Deldrimor into two factions. The Deldrimor and one of the largest monarchies that originally swore allegiance towards the kingdom, the Stone Summit, in the northern parts of the Dwarven kingdom.

Xenophobia and greediness drove the Stone Summit to rebel against King Permur Titanfist and the Deldrimor Dwarves, sparking the first Dwarven Civil War in 921 AE, which lasted an entire year, before the Stone Summit was struck into submission in their own Fortress of the city Stone Summit.

Second Dwarven Civil War
Due to the massive migration of Humans towards the east, many sought refuge within Dwarven settlements from the Charr Invasion. Most of the Dwarven monarchies accepted them, but one again, appeared non-cooperative, even taking Human captives.

This caused a huge outrage within the Deldrimor kingdom and yet again, war was declared on this one monarchy, the Stone Summit.

Though, this time the Summit was prepared. They have politically invaded the Deldrimor seats within the Forge Thronehall, to greatly decrease the supporters of the current King Jalis Onyxheart. Grand Monarch Dagnar Granitplate and the other opposing monarchies founded the Stone Summit Empire to stand up against the Deldrimor kingdom.

This time it was split not between one monarchy and several, but between two roughly equal numbers of monarchies. This was the bloodiest war in Dwarven history and one of the longest wars in the history of Tyria itself. Several cities were razed, many monarchies were completely destroyed and massacred.

The Stone Summit Empire even called Goblins to aid them in their conquest, while the Deldrimor kingdom asked the Human refugees and broken Ascalon kingdom to answer this brutal aggression.

The Battle of Lornar's Pass was the last, decisive victoy the Deldrimor achieved which finally resulted in Jalis slaying Dagnar in one-on-one combat in 1999 AE, thus settling the Second Civil War. But at a tremendous cost and followed by a major controversial decision which later had dire consequences, the execution of all Stone Summit Dwarves and their allies.

Fall of the Deldrimor Kingdom
After the last Dwarf of the Stone Summit Empire was killed, another outrage over such a cruel measure was spoken. Resulting in the split of all monarchies to become independent to decide for themselves like they did in the old times. The Deldrimor Monarchy remains in Droknar's Forge to this day.

Culture
Dwarves highly valued the ties between family members and friends. Dwarves particularly respected elders, from whom they expected sound leadership and the wisdom of experience, especially the monarchy leaders or the King of Deldrimor. This idea carried on to relations with other races and dwarves were deferential even to the elders of another, non-Dwarven race.

Likewise, Dwarves, perhaps moreso than most other races, turned to Dwayna for guidance and protection. Individual Dwarves might be faithless, but the race as a whole, had a strong inclination for the Six Gods and built small shrines all over their cities to worship them subtly.

Most Dwarven societies were divided into monarchies, and later a kingdom built, along family ties and political allegiances. These monarchies were usually led by a descendant from the founder of the monarchy. Dwarves strongly valued loyalty to these rulers and to the clan as a whole and even objective Dwarves tended to side primarily with their kin over other races or communities.

These monarchy structures promoted a tradition of inbreeding. This was so excessive that it was considered one of the reasons for the Dwarves' low birth rate.

Most Dwarven monarchies focused on one or two kinds of crafting, such as blacksmithing, jewelry, engineering, or masonry. Dwarves strove to avoid overspecialization by sending some of their youths to other clans to serve as apprentices, which also helped to foster racial unity. Because of their longevity, these apprenticeships might last decades. Most dwarves preferred living in underground cities near the surface in the Shiverpeaks, built around mines that provided much of their livelihood. Carved into stone, these cities might take decades to complete but were practically ageless once finished. Though dwarves were typically a martial race by nature, these cities had civilian populations that made up about one fourth of the total population and which were made up primarily of the young, the elderly, or a few regular adults. Females typically composed as large a portion of the military as male dwarves did.