Dwarves

Dwarves originate from underneath the great mountains of Laos-midan. They are short, stocky metal workers and ale-brewers.

They are the only intelligent race in Hasternia that is unable to wield magic. Although Dwarves all have the power to enchant items that they create.

Biology and Psychology
Dwarves are shorter than most humans. The men are nearly always bearded as they are a big part of dwarvern culture - the bigger and more elaborately styled - the better. Dwarves genrally live to around 230 (It is hinted by Fred Durgas that they could live longer if they stopped drinking ale but any dwarf who does so is murdered by his companions.) Most Dwares are red-haired but there are some exceptions.

Dwarves are able to interbreed with humans, the result being a short, thick-skulled, red-haired, baby with bulging muscles and natural skill with an axe. Despite this dwarven/human hybrids rarely live past 11 because thier human livers cannot handle the copious amounts of alchohol that the child would be consuming.

Despite thier gruff, often seemingly dim-witted personalites, Dwarves are actually quite intelligent and many great poets have been of dwarvern origin. Dwarves are (supposedly) the inventors of Mazkhan, the primary language of the empire of Mazken.

Culture and Society
Dwarves are most commonly miners or blacksmiths. They have the innate ability to tell when a rare mineral (gold for exsample) is close and with training and a considerable amount of concentration a dwarf may be able to literally pull the mineral towrards them. However the extreme level of concentration required means that this power is rare. Dwarves have an instinctual hatred of dragons due to the fact that dragons often steal dwarvern treasures, killing dozens of dwarves in the process.

Dwarves are led by a Head miner and there is one in every dwarvern city. But all dwarves are ruled by The Low king. When the current Low king dies a new one is chosen out of all the head miners in a competition called Khaz-dadron. This competition is essentially just a drinking contest but to dwarves it is an important tradition. When it is over the winner is declared the new Low-king and all the other head miners swear fealty to him and he is presented with the enchanted golden axe of office and there is rejoicing for a whole week. The Current Low king is Conkers the crusher. J. Townsend revealed that he took inspiration from the dwarves of Terry pratchett's Discworld novels.

Dwarves often make small statues to put in front of thier houses that supposedly bring good luck and gold. They reportedly look like garden gnomes and dwarves compete to see who can collect the most. The record being 10,000 the collector was Warrick the board.

Dwarves have a strange adjective, when translated it becomes the word "Golden" it Is the highest compliement in dwarvern society however it is rarely used due to the fact that it is rare for dwarves to find something worth the description. Despite this there is one Low king with the title: Emeric the Golden.

Cuisine
The main part of a Dwarf's diet usually consists of the meat of a Quob, (a large sub-terrainian species of pig.) and small glowing glowing mushrooms known as, Rugenheibers are also popular among dwarves. However it usually dosen't matter what a dwarf eats as it has a digestive system powerful enough to digest almost anything and is immune to all known toxins

Notable Dwarves
Borron I

The first Low king. He was however the second candidate to be elected after he killed the first choice; Aramord Goarson. To prevent this happening in the future and to avoid being assassinated he started the tradition of Khaz-dadron

Conkers the crusher

The current Low king. He gained his title because he likes to crush his ememies. He has been noted as the inventor of several small, useless objects ,many of which are implied to simply be rocks painted different colours. He sends a battalion of Dwarves to help The empire of Mazken in thier annihilation of the neighbouring country of Blarich, after he was promised 17 kegs of ale.

Emeric the golden

The thirteenth Low king. He was the first dwarf in living memory to single-handedly kill an adult dragon, and over the course of his reign he won three wars (The war of D'tsurin, The war of Samris, and the Bronze war.) as a result he was given the most prestigous title ever awarded to a dwarf.

Roger Quintinson

The only known Dwarf/human hybrid to live past 20