Dwarves

Summary: These short, stocky humanoids live in the mountains of the fae realm and constantly clash with orcs. They aren’t pushovers by any means, as these fae creatures are naturally strong in Earth Magic. They can force the earth to swallow up their enemies if their foes are not careful. While they live deeper into the mountains than orcs, dwarves still war with them due to constant resource struggle. 

Diet: Dwarves enjoy devouring the gigantic insects that crawl within the tunnels of their mountains. To put things into perspective, some of these bugs are the size of horses. As expected, dwarves have long canines to support biting through the hard shells. Otherwise, their dentition is similar to that of a human’s, as the other thing they eat are a whole lot of glowing mushrooms. 

Their caverns are full of said mushrooms, which don’t have much of an effect on the dwarf aside from providing them nutrition. Sometimes they’ll cook up some orc flesh since orcs have a nasty habit of eating them.  

They can actually process human food and enjoy it, should a group of dwarves wander out of their mountains and onto Earth. In those cases, they prefer root vegetables and the flesh of birds from that realm.

Immune System & Aging: Dwarves have a short lifespan for a fae creature at roughly 200 years. As stated with other creatures, they artificially extend it via magic. Sometimes dwarves fall into and are consumed by the lava at the center of their mountains, since they are not immune to that damaging effect.

Like most other fae creatures, the illnesses of the fae realm affect dwarves, though there are not as many as there are Earth illnesses. Earth illnesses have no effect on dwarves. 

Notable Features: Dwarves are short at four feet or below. Their skin tends to be from ashen to pale, depending on how deeply into the mountain the reside. Male dwarves tend to have very long beards that some braid or tie up. It’s considered blasphemy for a male dwarf to shave his beard. Both genders of dwarves tend to have a lot of body hair, of which neither remove. It’s not culturally acceptable to shave said body hair. 

Dwarves have rounded ears quite like humans, which makes them rather unique from most fae creatures (which have pointed ears, generally). Their bodies are stocky and thick with muscle from working in the mountains. They often extract minerals and metals to build their cities within the mountains, hence why they are often seen mining and always expanding. 

Magical Proficiency: Dwarves have an extremely potent variant of nature magic, of which is to manipulate the rock and land around them. An individual dwarf can cause minor earthquakes and cause the land to swallow up their enemy if they so please. This does require years of practice, however, but is naturally powerful for this species. 

Otherwise, dwarves can practice in other areas of fae magic, again with mastery after years. 

Wandering Dwarves: Some brave dwarves wander away from their mountains in order to seek adventure in other realms. The wars on Earth and the reemergence of magic has caused quite the stir in all realms, and some groups of dwarves have left their mountains in order to investigate. They are strong traders of precious metals and gemstones, in exchange they tend to seek knowledge and material from other realms to bring back to their mountain cities. 

Common misconceptions: 

1. Ok, so this one isn’t a misconception, dwarves really do love to drink. Humans got that right. They can party hard. 

2. Just because a dwarf is small doesn’t mean he’s dangerous. Beware the raging dwarf just like any fae creature. 

3. There are plenty of female dwarves, and most male dwarves find them far more attractive than any female from other species.

4. Dwarves do not in fact have an obsession with rings and often wonder why they’re constantly asked that. 

5. What’s a ‘hobbit’?