Dwarf

Overview

Dwarves are descendants of refugees who remade themselves in the mountain ranges of ELDRA. Their culture is built around clan, craft, memory, debt, and a mountain faith older than the present religious settlement. Dwarves do not define continuity only through a lost homeland. They define it through the ability to make something that endures after the maker is gone.

Historical note: By the reconstruction age, nearly all dwarves are descendants of the first refugee generations rather than original survivors. Their inherited memory is practical: lost techniques, lost materials, and works that have not yet been equaled.

Appearance

Dwarves are short, broad, and powerfully built, with dense muscle and heavy bone. Their bodies often show the marks of craft, training, and labor: scarred hands, thickened skin, stone dust in old cuts, and callouses that function almost like armor. Facial hair is culturally significant in many clans and is often braided with metal rings, ledger beads, or clan marks.

Age and Lifespan

Dwarves reach physical maturity at roughly the same pace as humans, but most clans do not consider a dwarf fully adult until they have completed a first oath of craft, service, or household duty. A healthy dwarf usually lives 220–350 years. The oldest dwarves are not merely respected for surviving; they are respected because they have had time to test promises, refine techniques, and remember which innovations endured.

Culture and Religion

Dwarven culture is built on discipline, labor, and mastery. Dwarves believe that worth is proven through consistent effort rather than sudden brilliance. Skill, once earned, is refined endlessly until it becomes instinct. Shortcuts are distrusted, improvisation is discouraged, and preparation is seen as the highest form of respect.

Tradition plays a central role in dwarven society, but it is not stagnant. Techniques, tools, and philosophies are preserved only if they endure hardship. Knowledge is passed through apprenticeship, repetition, and lived example. A dwarf’s reputation is defined by the quality of their work and the reliability of their word.

Social bonds among dwarves are pragmatic but unbreakable. Loyalty is earned slowly and repaid absolutely. Insults are remembered, favors are recorded, and debts (whether of honor or craftsmanship) are always settled. To a dwarf, abandoning responsibility is a greater failure than defeat.

The Mountain Faith. The religious tradition of the dwarves is the Mountain Faith. It venerates the Mountain itself, not any specific mountain but the Mountain as a category, the geological permanence of the world. The Mountain is divine because it endures. The Mountain remembers. The Mountain does not move when it is pushed against.

The Mountain has three aspects, each emphasised by one of the three dwarven Paths. The Foundation is the aspect of permanence and stable endurance, venerated most heavily by Stonebound Dwarves. The Forge is the aspect of creation and transformation, venerated most heavily by Ironwright Dwarves. The Ledger is the aspect of memory and just accounting, venerated most heavily by Grimward Dwarves. The three aspects are not separate gods but three faces of the same reality. A dwarf who masters all three is called a Three-Faced Master and recognised as one of the highest religious figures of the faith.

The Mountain Faith does not have a centralised authority. Each clan has its own clan priest, called a Stonespeaker, who manages local religious affairs. Regional councils of clans handle matters of broader concern, and the most senior religious figures are dwarves who have mastered all three aspects of the Mountain.

Stonebound Craftsmanship. When you contribute Crafting Points to the creation of weapons, armor, shields, or tools made primarily of metal or stone, you contribute an additional amount of Crafting Points equal to half your Craft skill (rounded down).

Unyielding Construction. Items crafted or significantly modified by you gain increased structural integrity. Such items:

• Are immune to incidental breakage, rust, or environmental wear, and

• Require deliberate effort or specialized tools to be damaged or destroyed.

Masterwork Assurance. When you roll to determine whether an item becomes a Masterwork, you may roll twice and take the better result.

Dwarven Reinforcement. During resting, you may reinforce an existing weapon, armor, or shield you crafted. Reinforcing an item requires one day of work and Crafting Points equal to 25% of the item’s original workload. Once reinforced, choose one:

• Increase Damage by +1 (melee/ranged weapon)

• Increase Physical Defense by +1 (armor), or

• Increase durability, granting Advantage on any checks to resist being damaged, sundered, or destroyed.

An item may only be reinforced once.

Dwarven Paths

Every Dwarf commits to a single Path early in life. This Path is not a temporary stance or technique, but a lifelong philosophy that shapes how the Dwarf fights, works, worships, and endures hardship. Once chosen, a Dwarven Path cannot be changed.

• A Dwarf chooses one Dwarven Path at character creation.

• This choice is permanent.

• All traits listed under the Path are always available unless stated otherwise.

• Any effect that previously required an Aspect to be active is considered always in effect.

Stonebound Dwarf

Stonebound Dwarves embody permanence, endurance, and refusal to be moved by panic or force. They are often guards, shield-bearers, builders of defensive works, judges in clan disputes, and the people trusted to stand where everyone else must pass through.

Stonebound Path: Mountain Stance

• You gain +1 to Might and Fortitude.

• You cannot be pushed, pulled, knocked prone, or forcibly repositioned by enemy effects.

• Your movement speed is permanently reduced by 2 meters.

Stonebound Traits

• Heavy Frame – You gain +1 Physical Defense but suffer Disadvantage on Stealth rolls.

• Crushing Commitment – Once per scene, when you hit with a melee attack, you may add +2 damage.

• Stand the Line – Allies adjacent to you gain +1 Physical Defense as long as they remain adjacent.

• Unmoving Will – You gain Advantage on Resolve rolls made to resist fear, charm, or taunt effects.

• Stone Does Not Yield – Once per long rest, if you would be Taken Out, you instead remain conscious with 1 unfilled Consequence slot remaining.

Ironwright Dwarf

Ironwright Dwarves embody creation, transformation, precision, and the religious seriousness of good work. They are engineers, alchemists, artificers, siege planners, trapwrights, and the craftspeople most likely to turn a battlefield into a workshop with consequences.

Ironwright Path: Prepared Arsenal

• You ignore Reload penalties on firearms.

• When you deal damage with a firearm or alchemical item, you deal +1 damage of the same type.

Ironwright Traits

• Master Tinkerer – You gain Advantage on Crafts rolls involving mechanical devices, firearms, or explosives.

• Field Alchemy – During a short rest, you may prepare one basic potion by paying its material cost.

• Controlled Detonation – Once per scene, when an alchemical effect would affect allies, you may exclude up to two creatures of your choice from the effect.

• Overengineered – Your equipment cannot critically fail. Once per short rest, when you roll a negative value on an attack roll with a firearm, you may reroll and take the new result.

• Emergency Measures – Once per scene, you may use an alchemical item that normally costs an action for 1 AP instead.

Ironwright Trapcraft

An Ironwright may have a number of active deployed traps equal to their Craft skill at any time. Only Ironwright Dwarves may create the traps listed in this section.

Building Traps

• Building a trap requires a Crafts roll.

• Traps may be built during long rests.

• A trap occupies a 1–2 meter area unless stated otherwise.

• A creature may attempt to detect a trap with a Perception vs Crafts contest.

• Disarming a trap requires a successful Crafts vs Crafts contest.

• Unless stated otherwise, a trap can only be triggered once.

Rapid Deployment. Once per scene, you may deploy one Ironwright trap as a 2 AP action instead of requiring a long rest.

Pressure Snare

• Cost: 5 gold worth of materials.

• Trigger: A creature enters the trapped space.

• Contest: Your Crafts vs target’s Reflex.

• Effect: Target is Restrained and takes Physical Stress points equal to your Crafts skill.

• Escape: Might vs your Crafts, spending 1 AP.

Shrapnel Mine

• Cost: 10 gold worth of materials.

• Trigger: Proximity, 2 meters.

• Contest: Your Crafts vs targets’ Reflex.

• Effect: On failure, all creatures within 4 meters take physical damage equal to your Crafts skill + 1d4.

• Special: Counts as an alchemical item for Prepared Arsenal bonuses.

Shock Glyph Plate

• Cost: 15 gold worth of materials.

• Trigger: Physical contact.

• Contest: Your Crafts vs target’s Reflex.

• Effect: On failure, the target takes Lightning damage equal to your Crafts + Magic skill.

Smoke Choke Trap

• Cost: 20 gold worth of materials.

• Trigger: Manual or proximity.

• Effect: Creates a 4-meter radius smoke cloud for 2 rounds.

• Inside the Cloud: Heavy Obscurement; non-Ironwright creatures suffer -2 on attack rolls.

Anchor Spike

• Cost: 20 gold worth of materials.

• Trigger: Movement past the anchor point.

• Contest: Your Crafts vs target’s Reflex.

• Effect: Target is knocked Prone and receives piercing damage equal to your Crafts skill.

• Special: Creatures wearing heavy armor suffer Disadvantage.

Grimward Dwarf

Grimward Dwarves embody memory, debt, restraint, and proper accounting. They do not answer pain immediately. They record it, measure it, and decide when repayment has become necessary.

Grimward Path: Grudge Guard

• Whenever you take stress points from an enemy attack, you may mark that attacker as your Grudge Target.

• You may only have one Grudge Target at a time; marking a new one replaces the old.

• You gain +1 to all attack rolls made against your current Grudge Target.

Grimward Traits

• Bitter Endurance – The first time each scene you take stress points from your Grudge Target, reduce that stress by 2, minimum 1.

• Measured Retribution – Once per scene, when you successfully hit your Grudge Target, you may convert 1 Physical Stress point dealt into a Mild Consequence instead.

• Focused Hatred – You gain Advantage on Resolve rolls made to resist fear, taunt, or charm effects originating from your Grudge Target.

• Relentless Pursuit – You ignore difficult terrain, movement penalties, and environmental hindrances when moving toward your Grudge Target.

• Settling the Score – Once per long rest, when you reduce your Grudge Target’s Physical Stress Pool to 0, you immediately regain 4d4 stress points.