Homebrew Bauraean Dwarf Species Details

Dwarf, from the arch. Dwalf, are the Dyad of earth containing fire, they honor Terra-Queen and Sun-King, and their resources are stone and metal, the roots and fungi within Terra’s earth and the trees that contain the fire of Sun-king. They are connected to mammals and reptiles.

This is a description of the dwarves native to Acera, their primary home. Cypra did have smaller communities of dwarves, but those that migrated to Acera are known as Dross and have some differences especially since their migration. See the Dross Variant race.

Dwarves are as a rule shorter than men, usually standing just to the shoulders of a man, and are stocky and muscular with rounded and pitted features. Their coloring is dusky and earthy with tones of black, brown, and gray with ruddy skin and hair of any of the earthen colors which may show streaks of gray as they age but as a rule does not turn white. Their eyes are often brown or gray, often so dark either color appears black. A few dwarves have hair and eyes that betray their fiery spirit with hair of red or yellow that whitens as they age, slowly looking like coals until it ends up being pure white like ash and may even turns a bluish-white like a white-hot flame, with eyes of coal: often black or gray with the rare amber, that glow red or blue-white like coals when their spirit is roused. These may be the source of the folklore of white-haired dwarves as a fiery natured dwarf is more likely to be out and about and seen by men and thus the source of their familiarity. Once a year, only once, male dwarves trim their facial hair, leaving it to grow the remainder of the year, ‘trimming’ can be a snip here or there to shape or down to a few inches to start over. In between they shape their beards in braids, tails, and other unique treatments. 

Dwarves are known for two common items of clothing that nearly all dwarves of the world wear regardless of their region: aprons and caps. They have a tradition of wearing some type of headcovering - a scarf for females, a hat or simple cap for males when out in public. The origin is unclear, but the meaning is certain: when at in a stone building, a home, a house of worship or even civic building, a dwarf considers themselves under the protection of Terra-Queen, and do not cover their heads, but when they leave a consecrated dwarven structure they put on a cap to protect them from the open sky where any and all malign energies can come at them. Male dwarves wear a variety of hats depending on where they come from and their occupation: with or without brims, tall or short, flat or pointed or round, but most dwarves keep a simple skullcap with them to don for protection, even worn underneath other hats, for many this is the only cap they wear. Knocking the cap off a dwarf is seen as a serious offense, and may arouse the famous dwarven battle rage. The headcoverings regardless of style will be decorated with sacred colors, symbols, and patterns. Dwarven aprons, worn for protection in their crafts, are items of pride to them and they frequently decorate them as others would decorate formal attire. The aprons are usually leather, but can be wool or other materials, when reinforced with bands of metal they are the basis of dwarven armor. As a race unmatched in metalwork, they show off their most prized talents in an excessive amount of jewelry that can often rival or exceed that of a vain elf. The patterns of decoration on their attire is usually geometric and repeating and/or symmetric though still often based on natural forms. 

Dwarves are skilled hunters, and subsist on a diet mostly from what they can hunt near their homes. They eat few fruits or vegetables but they do grow roots, tubers, and bulbs as well as fungi which thrive within the earth. Their staple meat is pork from the wild boars they hunt - bacon, ham, pork loin, and various sausages are nearly synonymous with dwarves. They also partake of game meats like deer and rabbit, as well as game birds. Except for their pack goats, dwarves are not ones to keep animals as livestock as they believe they deserve free reign and the competition of dwarf versus beast in the hunt. Their stews of meat with onions and garlic, potatoes, and carrots and other root vegetables are hearty meals but nothing is as good as what they make with mushrooms. They are masters at distilling alcohol and make a clean, clear potato-based alcohol they call firewater. Another staple is tree nuts which they eat raw, roasted, and even ground up as meal as others use grain. Their spiced nuts are claimed to actually warm you up when eaten in winter.

They keep only goats as livestock, riding them as mounts, which provide them with milk and wool, and they have a fondness for rodents keeping rabbits as pets and feeding squirrels as men do birds. As previously noted, they do not eat goat, only using them for their milk, and seem to revere them, honoring their passing with almost as much ceremony as their own kin.

The Dwarves are skilled at working metal and stone and are renowned builders and smiths. They have a natural, even supernatural, understanding of architectural design and are able to design and construct structures that men can barely dream of. The style of their stonework in architecture and carving is functional, they are adherents of the philosophy that form follows function, but elegant and stylized with geometric and symmetrical structure. Their more opulent, lavish works are expressed in fractionated, crystalline, faceted forms of decorative art and they make bold use of stepped forms and sweeping curves. When possibly they live only in earthen homes, preferably in the earth, or at minimum with a large portion of their homes in the ground. They dig into dirt and rock alike, making their homes part of their mines just as a farmer’s house is among the fields. If they must live above ground, their buildings are made of stone or brick, and preferably do not even have wooden frames. They use metal often as additional protection and decoration, in the form of metal roofs and wall spikes, as well adornment in elaborate and decorative hinges, knobs, hooks, sconces, and window frames. Due to their connection with wood they were skilled at working with it and though do not build with it, they do make furnishings with it. Their skill in carpentry is as good if not often better even than their work with stone and metal. 

 

In battle they used their stone cutting skills to fashion superior weapons and dwarves are counted among the greatest warriors, stubborn and resilient fighters able to withstand the elements, fatigue, and injury. Their favored weapons are spears and other polearms which give them the reach their short stature lacks compared to men, and stone-headed maces and hammers over bladed close weapons such as swords. They could make and use metal weapons, and when they craft them they are peerless, but their fighting style which evolved from cramped quarters is better suited for bashing and hacking versus the sweeping movements of swords. Dwarven armies are renowned for their squads of mace-wielding warriors as adroit as the best human swordsman. There is a religious martial art that a small sect of Dwarven practice using the forms of their runes as fighting poses. They raise special goats separately from their draft ones as battle mounts.

Bauraean Dwarf Traits

Your dwarf character has an assortment of inborn abilities, part and parcel of dwarven nature.

Fan the Flames

The blood of Sun-King flows in your veins, you can recover from injury quickly. You gain the Durable Feat.

Ability Score Increase

Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your Wisdom by 1.

Size

Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.

Darkvision

Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Earth's Mettle

Earth-Queen's hand in your creation gives you resistance and advantage on saves against acid, cold, fire, lightning, and thunder. (explained in the “Combat” section).

Dwarven Martial Prowess

Dwarves are proficient with hammers which they use in many different crafts. and the spear is their preferred weapon for hunting or in battle (paired with a shield). You have proficiency with the light hammer, warhammer, and spear.

Tool Proficiency

You gain proficiency with the artisan’s tools of your choice: smith’s tools, brewer’s supplies, or mason’s tools.

Stonecunning

Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.