Dwarves are one of the humanoid species that live on Verden. They are the empowered species of Morum, the Greater God of Earth, Morum. Unlike humans, they are close to immortal.
Traits
Dwarves are literally made from stone and earth. Although their skin looks as soft as any human's, it is as hard as granite and even more durable. Even when their bodies are destroyed or they are otherwise grievously wounded, they simply must enter the Sunkensleep to re-incorporate and heal. What's more, when awake, they are able to use their power of Earthspeak to control the land itself.
Despite this formidable capacity, most dwarves have no designs on power or control. Instead, they tend to stay deep below the surface in their caverns, mining for precious metals and communing with Verden.
Being immortal and often asleep for long periods, dwarves reproduce extremely slowly - historical texts seem to indicate that even at their height there were no more than 10,000 dwarves across the entirety of Verden.
History
Originally, the dwarves inhabited the areas below ground in Taelmoor, while the Elves lived above. They had a positive and symbiotic relationship with each other and the land, and mostly kept it free of the humans who lived to the south in Rodash.
But, 3000 years ago, the humans did something horrible on Rodash that tore the very fabric of reality asunder. This caused such intense pain in the dwarves that they were forced to enter the Sunkensleep, and they remained there for more than 2000 years while they waited for Verden to heal itself.
In the 1000 years since, dwarves have been trickling out of the Sunkensleep. The world is still damaged such that they are weakened and unable to perform as much Earthspeak as they once could, but they are doing their best to rejoin the earth and help restore it.
