- Pronouns
- He/Him, They/Them
Dwarfolk of Thel
Dwarves persist throughout Thel and beyond, mainly in the hills and mountains, although every city and large town will likely have a small Dwarven community, acting as valuable agents of trade and information between the wider Dwarf race and the peoples of Thel. Loyal, steadfast, stout and distrustful, the Dwarves are masters of crafts both creative and violent, and equally capable of technological feat and wonders of magic.
Physical Characteristics
Dwarves generally stand between 1.3 and 1.5 metres tall although an allegedly to scale statue of the ancient Dwarven leader Skënd Mirëyll exists in the Mountain Dwarf settlement of Kreshtë reaches almost 1.8 metres tall. Dwarves as short as 1.1 metres and as tall as 1.65 metres have been noted by various chroniclers, although some are more reliable than others.
Dwarves are amongst the stoutest of all the known races, their crafts and hard lifestyle leading to bulky body types, with some Dwarfolk recorded to be as wide in the shoulder as 0.75 metres, although most are somewhere between 0.45 and 0.6 metres. Their short height gives some of the wider Dwarves an almost rotund appearance, though beneath the heavy layers of clothing most Dwarfolk wear usually lies a large amount of muscle, trained by life in the mines or workshops of the Dwarven settlements.
It is very rare for a Dwarven adult to go unbearded, even the females, who in some settlements grow larger and more impressive beards than their male counterparts. Depending on the bloodline, Dwarven beards can range from a deep black to entirely blond or even white, through ginger and brown haired. Where possible, the Dwarves of the Udhëtar I Gjerë bloodline dye their beards many different colours, delighting the children of the town and cities when the colourful groups of Dwarfolk arrive to trade.
Language
The bloodlines of the Dwarfolk all share a common language, known to most outsiders as Dwarven, although the Dwarves generally refer to it as Fjalë I Zanat - craft speech - or Fjalë I Guri - stone speech - depending mostly on personal preference. The latter term is older, but both are in wide use.
The Hill Dwarfolk will also speak the common tongue of the area they reside in, which for most is common tongue. The Dwarfclans who previously resided in the Aesyrtes also spoke Aelfish.
Society
The Dwarf clans of Thel generally split between two groups. There are the more numerous Gjinde Kodër, who build out in the open and are the Dwarfolk that most will interact with.
There is also the Gjinde Malor, who reside more privately. Their clans split their time between deep mining and battling against enemies in the depths, and protecting the Dwarfen cities of the highest peaks of mountains. To arouse a clan of the Gjinde Malor to anger is to invite war unceasing, though their numbers have been thinned in some areas due to the success of their enemies.