Dwarves

Far underground the Dwarves of Kalakmar live, work, and produce some of the finest metal and weapons known to the Sphere. They are a dour but soft hearted people, they have no animosity towards elves and the surface world, nor the Iltyr, but they do regard them as secretive and worthy of keeping an eye on. Most Dwarves are expert with stone and metal smithing, they have a strong black beer they brew called Vlach, which means black in the Dwarf tongue of old. Most speak common and will learn other languages. They hate, loathe and despise any undead that they find, it would take a miracle to convince one that good undead do exist, but as we know, they do. Finally they live around two times longer than a human, so they often retire around two hundred or so. Usually they stand around 3-4 ft in height.

They are a stout and hardy race of people who take great delight in metal-smithing, but also a simple pleasure in music and sculpture. They often have hair colours that range from a dark black to a copper red, most have beards, long and braided but a fair few shave theirs close and cultivated. They are not rude, crass or vulgar. Most are gruff but posessed of a fairly polite manner.

Their brew, Vlach is a thick, heady, alchoholic beverage that smells slightly malty, and looks like molasses/treacle. It's usually reserved for special occasions or when they're away from their cavernous cities, known as Holds, they don't tend to call them Dwarf Holds however, they tend to name them as <name of place>Hold...such as. Dvach-Hold, or Herak-Hold.

They wear a variety of leather made items and usually leather or chainmail armour, when in great battles they often favour heavy stout armours like half-plate and full-plate. Usually most Dwarves use a Great Axe or a Warhammer to make their point but it's not unfeasible to see one cavorting around with a shortsword or even a pair of scimitars.

Their culture supports the arts and learning, some of their libraries and information stores are the center of learning for a lot of the other races. They bury their secrets far under the living earth in stone vaults. They can see perfectly well in pitch black and have highly developed senses of touch and hearing. Though some say their taste sense has degraded from all the liquer they tend to drink. This is of course usually a blatant attempt to get under their skin, often, it just doesn't work.

They mostly make fighters and priests, but a few of them will branch out to the study of the arts arcane and learn the glories of Wizardry. Their music is usually something to be only understood by other Dwarves since it happens to be very earthy and based on rolling drums and horns. But a lot of Dwarven Vocalists are known to have some of the deepest and most moving voices on the Broken Sphere.