Dwarves in Polesia

Dwarves are a shorter race of hominid that can be found throughout Polesia but prefer their underground cites and fortresses found across Antanides. Dwarves are typically between four and five feet in height, but weight about as much as a typical human. The men have long beards, often braided or decorated in some fashion, and the women often wear their hair in a similar manner. Of all the races, dwarves seem to get along best with humans and gnomes, and there have been many incidents of dwarf/human or dwarf/gnome breeding that results in healthy live children (half-dwarves, and dwarrow). Many have trouble relating to elves and halflings, and they have an especially bad history with orcs and goblins. However, their true ire is saved for the aberrations of the deep world and many dwarves will train for years before joining great expeditions to wipe out aberrant life wherever they find it.

Dwarven Characteristics

Dwarves are a stubborn but considerate people who often think carefully and long on the potential outcome of their actions. However, there are many topics or situations in which a dwarf's ire can be raised quickly, and in such a state it is hard to get them to calm down again. This is especially prevalent in dwarven children who for the first tweny to twenty-five years of their lives seem wild, uncouth, and energetic compared to their older kin. It is however rare that this "raging" (as the dwarves refer to it) lasts much longer than thirty if the child in question is properly reared.

The dwarven ideals of honor and family (which must be noted are a bit different than most humans' ideas on both subjects) are so deeply ingrained into their culture that many almost assume that dwarves are simply born that way. This is not the least bit true. A dwarf raised by elves or humans or some other race is no more predisposed to be lawful and honorable than an orc (though it is wise never to make such a comparison to a dwarf's face). Dwarves therefore can be found almost anywhere in Polesia doing all sorts of jobs from the noble to the villainous and while the dwarves of Radezhka and the rest of the remnants of the Kadazhem empire are held as the "standard" dwarf, those borne on the surface or in holds that no longer swear fealty to the empire are as varied as humans and can be found doing just about anything.

Dwarven History

The following are excerpts from Nikalse Ptolio's Brief Histories of the Non-Humans in Antanides a well used guide book for explorers and travelors:

Before Their Empire

When a splinter group of the Dawn People first descended into the earth to find their own territory, they faced a variety of challenges. Archaeological sites that are believed to be their first settlements reveal that the average lifespan for these mountain dwelling ape-men was usually no longer than thirty years at most. Disease, starvation and various accidents were common for thousands of years as the proto-dwarves vision was little better than the elves at the time and their bodies had not yet adjusted to their somewhat limited nutritional options. However, they continued to breed and bear young and managed to hold on tenuously.

Then somewhere back in the earliest eras of dwarven oral history,a remarkable change began. The proto-dwarves began to develop extra sensitive eyes, and their other senses began to develop as well so that they could navigate the dark almost better than humans could navigate a shaded forest. Because of their cramped and often cold environment, they also started favoring shorter compact builds.

There were several hypotheses on why this might be but one seems to have come to the forefront in recent years. Up to this point it has been noticed that dwarves were not very widespread, mostly still living in the Bar-Narmûl mountain range, a place where archaeologists have discovered unusually large veins of rose colored mana crystals. The dwarves were bathed in the energies of these crystals for thousands of years and while much of it was still underground (and therefore the effects were minimalized) it still had a profound effect on their developing physiology. It is today believed that the dwarves close proximity in those early years is what gave them such excellent resistance to magic and their incredible longevity. Numerous digs in settlements have unearthed crystals amongst their possessions (often in places that could possibly indicate a certain reverence) around the time that certain clues in the fossil record indicated that dwarves who had previously only lived lifespans average to early humans in that time period suddenly were living hundreds of years longer, thriving well past their second century.

When the world began to cool and entered what scholars have come to call the Frozen Epoch, and the races had finally driven the Serpent-folk from their remaining territories, the dwarves spread throughout several mountain ranges and had little to no contact with each other or elves and humans for thousands of years, save in the occasional feud over resources. After their devastating losses during the conflict there were few enough that multiple family groups ranged far underground and evolved into the modern dwarven races.

Kadazh Rule

Puzzlingly, while the dwarves appear to have thrived and had prominent civilizations that easily rivaled even the early Elven nations, it wasn’t until around -6,000 C.A. that they developed their first and only true empire that united them as a single dwarven nation. Kadazh the Great, according to dwarven myths, was visited by now the established Dwarven Ancestors who told him to unite his people under a single banner, and then led him on a somewhat bloody campaign. While most of his violence was centered on the ancient underground horrors that had been plaguing his people since time immemorial, there were more than a few times that he slew a dwarven zarokh who defied him. Whether or not he was really divinely inspired Kadazh did in two centuries what no dwarf has done before or since, and redefined how the dwarves viewed themselves as a people.

It was a time of tremendous cultural advancement. Dwarven oral traditions go back almost to -30,000 C.A. but it was the newly growing Kadazhem Empire that began the dwarves’ meticulous record keeping that they’re known for today. Scribing became almost as important as smithing, both being seen as their own unique form of art and a scribe took meticulous care to perfectly copy their script, sometimes taking days to write a single page. Stone shaping also took off around this time, as the different craftsmen were able to gather and share what they knew and what they theorized, and the dwarves built some of their most impressive cities such as Radezhka, Feldamu, and the Holy City Dor-K’hevek.

The Kadazhem Empire grew slowly but surely, inch by carefully planned inch. Kadazh’s heirs proved as strong and capable as their forebear, and while the line of succession was much debated (often with violence) the dwarven outlook was that the family feud got rid of bad blood, and prevented weak rulers from ascending the throne. The Empire was still around three thousand years later, when humans established their third great empire in Eshtorah (in fact by this time it was almost three times its original size, going far north and east) and it was at this time that the two races reacquainted themselves in a somewhat diplomatic manner (off and on).

Dwarves also perfected the art of golem crafting, using the automatons to augment their armies and safeguard the Underway that connected their territories. At first rudely animated from clay, the art evolved at a pace that the Empire’s neighbors found alarming. Soon the dwarves managed stone and later iron golems that made them one of the most imposing forces in the world. The sacrifice however was high, for the creation the golems required the blood and often the life of the crafters who were jealous with their secrets causing many to become lost. There was for example one golem of unimaginable power crafted from adamantine with which the dwarves managed to expel a host of drow and their demon overlord from what became the dwarven stronghold of Hizat-Ethil, which was later hidden and forgotten. On pain of death the Amazhek Lag demanded its maker (who was already on his deathbed because of the cost to create the weapon) to divulge the secrets of its construction that he might rule the world, but he refused, horrified at the thought of more than one of them in existence. Even though his name was stricken from history, he held his tongue and died in anonymity.

The art has been lost somewhat since then, and though there are a goodly number who still have access to the secrets, it is rare for one to risk their lives creating one. Currently there are only a fraction of golems remaining compared to their numbers at their height.

Summery of Modern events

Around -1,200 CA the Kadazhem Empire began to decline. Centuries of plots and political intrigue started coming to a head, and the direct line of succession failed, leaving room for multiple claimants on the throne. With this instability many of the outlying settlements found themselves alone against the hostile races dwelling deeper in the Skydark. Drow and yallith began to prey upon them, tentatively at first and then in full force, invading and destroying the outermost strongholds and settlements. The successors of the Amazhekem Lag during this time reacted slowly, costing the lives of thousands of dwarves and depleting their armies so that they were spread too thin to offer resistance. Many golems were also lost or destroyed, weakening the dwarves further still.

In the midst of all this turmoil the dwarves were also beset upon from an insidious threat within Radezhka itself in -1,130 CA. Certain dwarves had been converted to the blasphemous teaching of one Anzur HéNazhrek who brought the worship of the Old Ones. He was unusually charismatic for one of his people and gained a sizable following both amongst the common folk and the nobility. It was later found that Anzur was in fact an illithid, one who had gained the service of his race’s degenerate yallith offspring which he used to launch a coupe and actually succeeded in assassinating the Amazhek Lag at the time, nearly ending Kadazh’s line entirely. For nearly five years he ruled Radezhka and the dwarves were in turmoil, divided and leaderless. Then in -1,059 CA a distant descendant of Kadazh (Korzhek HéBorukh) was discovered, and under his leadership Radezhka was retaken, Anzur dispatched, and his yallith cult scattered and driven off. Despite this spectacular beginning to his reign, Korzhek was never able to do more than secure what little territory his people had maintained, the Kadazhem Empire was gone.

In the millennia since, the dwarves have remained both stagnant and at the same time vibrant, never claiming more than a third of their land, but always pressing against their enemies and at times managing to retake and hold their lost territory for a time before again losing it again when their enemies amass anew. It is a source of great frustration to many dwarves who long for the glory days of the Kadazhem rule. Currently, however, the rulers of the remaining territory have in majority become content with their station, even relinquishing the title of Amazhek Lag for the simple title of Amazhek (kings, no longer emperors). During the height of the Lataneran Empire, they managed to keep their independence but did come into the fold as a client state. With the decline of the Lataneran Empire the dwarves more or less resumed business as usual and little has changed from that time to this.