Dwarves

Dwarves are stout and short creatures of the Earth, who prefer to live close to the soil, stone and minerals. While not particularly good spellcasters, they have a strong inner connection to Vaala, manifesting its aspects in their natural, physical form.

As opposed to other mortals, who came about spontaneously from the essence of Protogons after the Second Age, dwarves were made (they say forged) by an unnamed, surviving Protogon during the Age of Mortals. The purpose of their creation is unknown, but they resemble the gnomes that came just before them. Dwarves are sturdy, resilient and nomadic, ready to survive any journey, and easily adaptable to any environment and terrain.

Dwarf breeds are exceedingly variant in their appearance, including height, color and facial features, as their physical form is strongly tied to their natural environment. Thus, dwarves from the Jeweled Desert are upright and majestic, while underground dwarves are hunched and earthy, and Frost Dwarves are tough and dour.

Regardless of their specific appearance and demeanor, dwarves like toil, wandering and hard work. They are clannish by culture, but individualistic by ambition. Their greatest love is arts, crafts and traveling; all dwarf breeds have a bit of a wanderlust, and most of them excel in a form of craft, to which they give themselves with superhuman focus.

Mo’da
Mo’da, or Cave Dwarves, love the earth, life and Source magic. Of all dwarves, the Mo’da are the most similar to the gnomes that predated them; this has led many scholars to assume the Mo’da were the first dwarves, which spawned other breeds when they sought to escape the underground in ages past. Cave dwarves couldn’t care less anyway, as they are mainly concerned with the present - particularly with tending to their vast underground fungal gardens, which are the focus of their existence and daily life.

Cave Dwarves are hunched humanoids, with large glowing eyes, and hair and beards that resemble fuzzy mold patches. Their clothing is simple, homely and practical, intended for long-term use and dirty work.

Most Cave dwarves live in the vast subterranean realm known as the Hollowdepths. There, they organize themselves into industrious underground communities, known as Fungal Gardens, dedicated to producing several strains of fungi, which they then harvest and use as food, building materials and medical reagents.

While they have no inborn magic powers, cave dwarves have a strong affinity to nature and earth magic, which allows them a gifted understanding of life, darkness and growing things, and the tight correlation between them. They can communicate with animal, plant and fungal life at an instinctual level, and often tame and ride mindless giant slugs to travel between Gardens.

Every mo’da clan ‘owns’ and manages a certain number of Fungal Gardens scattered across the Hollowdepths, with the most prosperous and powerful clans owning the largest or more fertile areas. Some caves allow the ownership of two or more Mo’da clans, who rarely come into conflict regarding territory; however, eventually the most hard-working clan overtakes the others, and most co-owned caves end up in the hands of a single clan.

Like other dwarves, however, the Mo’da are nomadic, and they do not settle on these Gardens; instead, they travel constantly between them, trading their surplus with other underground peoples, which makes them well-known and welcome in the subterranean realm.

To tend to their crops, the Mo’da have a symbiotic relationship with Deepdweller tribes, which live and work on the dwarves’ Gardens, enjoying the stability and protection of the Mo’da social structure in exchange for their agricultural work.

Deepdwellers gladly tend to the cave dwarves’ fungal crops in return for food and shelter, and cave dwarves see deepdwellers as a valuable asset, and as such protect them from the depredations of other Hollowdepths denizens, including Z’aari elves and Waada slave cartels.

Common tongue: Wadeep

Nwoda
Sky Dwarves, or Nwoda, are Fai beings, with more access to the Dream aspect of magic than any other dwarven species - and most peoples other than elves. Nwoda are taller than the average dwarf, and tend to be more stout and muscular than humans. Their heads are ringed with gems and crystals instead of hair or beards.

The greatest trait of sky dwarves is their ability to defy gravity, just like the floating gems of their Jeweled Desert. The Nwoda shape these floating gems into weapons, palaces and flying ships, and then use their magic to ride them, making spectacular leaps from ship to ground and from ground to home.

Sky dwarves appeared when the Ellari forests were destroyed during the Dreambleed, leaving behind a desert scattered with Fai-imbued crystals. The Nwoda were originally related to cave dwarves, but they dared escape to the surface after the Dreambleed left the land barren and up for grabs. Those first dwarves became attuned to these crystals through the adaptive Vaala on their bodies and became Fai creatures.

From the beginning, the birth and life of sky dwarves was linked to the great floating stone clusters they knew as Birthstones. These massive jewels spawned the five Nwoda clans: Amasi, Kuti, Yaku, Yuman and Zumari, which could be distinguished by the color of their body gems - diamond white, ruby red, sapphire blue, onyx black and emerald green respectively.

Without a larger sentient civilization to compete against, the Nwoda grew to dominate the Jeweled Desert, and they built a far-ranging society based on flying, trade and exploration, which reached every corner of Valerna thanks to their floating ships.

Two great events reshaped Nwoda civilization: first, their rebellion against the tyranny of Amasi dwarves, which led to the destruction of the Diamond Birthstone and the self-exile of the Emerald dwarves of Zumari; then, the Second Null War, which fused the remaining three Birthstones into one. Today, only two Birthstones remain: the Lesser Birthstone in Tyveria, where the Zumari clan still lives, exiled and independent; and the Greater Birthstone in the Jeweled Desert, from which the three remaining clans uphold the Nwoda values of trade and exploration.

Of the surviving Nwoda Clans, the Kuti are known for their flamboyant style and cutthroat trading, the Yaku are famous for their exploration and discoveries, the Yuman are known as brave leaders, and the Zumari, while reviled by the Greater Clans, are respected in Tyveria as assassins, pirates, and smugglers.

Common tongue: Nwoda

Sjóda
The most grim and ruthless of dwarven races, the Sjóda, or Frost Dwarves, are as cold as their name and as determined as anything. Arrived from the subterranean Hollowdepths to the icy wastes of Northern Valerna aeons ago, frost dwarves were bred and forged by the pitiless winter, and their own dogged will to survive.

While they don’t wield actual innate powers, the pale bodies of Sjóda are infused with Id magic, which translates in great resistance against all aspects of magic, as well as mundane dangers such as weather, poisons or sickness. The hair and beards of frost dwarves are made of icicle-like crystals, and their eyes resemble cut, crystalline gems.

Like other dwarven kinds, Sjóda tribes are nomadic, wandering the ice floes on the back of trained mammoths and guided by arctic foxes; like other frost people, they are warlike, attacking any strangers, even other frost dwarf tribes, on sight. Due to both their nomadic tendencies and the harsh environment of the Frozen Wastes, they constantly migrate south, looking for better places to settle in, remaining where they can and turning back where they can’t.

Sjóda dwarves organize themselves into hordes - large war parties that subsist by raiding other frost peoples. Every horde contains dozens of caravans, which include children and noncombatants, surrounded by the Sjóda warriors mounting warsleds or mammoths. At the darkest hours of the night, the traveling horde sets up gigantic camps, effectively temporary cities, using animal-hide tents. Sjóda camps can be seen at a long distance, for the frost dwarves place ornate lanterns around them, adding to the appearance of an inhabited settlement. As these hordes can deplete an entire region of game and lumber in a single season, many tribes and peoples from the Northerlands are as hostile to the Frost Dwarves as they are to everyone else.

The most important value of Frost Dwarf culture, however, is survival, and they won’t surrender to any danger, enemy, or environment - they will endure.

Common tongue: Sjóda