The Dwarves are an ancient race who have lived in the North for thousands of years. According
to their own legends they were here before the first tribes of Men moved North and before the foundation of the
Pelorean Empire. During the
Great Darkness they tell that their chief city
Ironhold was entombed by glaciers and they had to carve
a tunnel through the ice to reach the outside world. Their other great city
Mountain Hall was founded during the Great Darkness, so
they say, as a secure hold from which they could trade with the
Giants of the Northern Plains.
The tallest Dwarves are still a good head shorter than an average human but are well-muscled and stoutly built
so there is little difference in weight. They
tend to wear long beards of which they are extremely proud. They value order, clan and family and
make good friends and bad enemies. It is said a Dwarf never forgets a grudge and if a whole
clan has a grudge it can be borne for hundreds of years as the dragon Angrax found out.
Dwarves delight in making things and their skill with metal and stone has rarely been emulated
by other races. Their cities also tend to be mines and they have an uncanny knack of finding
valuable ore.
Although it is said that the Dwarven cities can be self-sufficient in times of need, Dwarves love
good food as much as anyone and as they are not keen farmers they are always looking to trade
with other races. They also need to trade for wood and other raw materials that they can not mine
directly from the earth. They were said to be very pleased at the founding of
Cambria which gave them a friendly neighbour and trading partner to the
south. As part of the treaty they signed with
Saint James all Dwarven mines in Cambria are treated as
sovereign Dwarven territory. In return the Dwarves pay a 25% tax on their output which has been a
major contributor to the Cambrian Treasury. The Treaty also commits both sides to come to each other's
aid if one party is attacked; a clause that has been invoked on numerous occasions.
This mutually benefitting arrangement has stood the test of time for over a thousand years but
recently some of the Lords of the realm have questioned whether the Treaty gives more benefits
to the Dwarves rather than Cambria. The King was also known to be very unhappy that both
the Dwarven mines in the Northern Marches discovered major new veins of ore shortly after he
turned the right to tax the mines over to Lord Fairchild. The King refuses to believe this was
a coincidence and there is much idle talk at Court of conspiracies between the Marcher Lords and 'other races'.