(Note: I use the name "dwarf" -- and the plurarl "dwarves," borrowing from Tolkien again to avoid the lame "dwarfs" -- with some reluctance; shortness is by no means the primary characteristic of these people, and they do not resemble the one-dimensional comic-relief "dwarves" of modern fantasy stories any more closely than real roman legions resembled the caricatures in "Asterix the Gaul." Nevertheless, this short, stocky, commonly bearded people will be called "dwarves" inevitably, so I may as well accept the name and move on.)
Very little is known about the dwarven peoples or their society, except as it bears on their interaction with humankind. Even in Korv, where dwarves are regular and numerous visitors to human cities and play an important role in both government and trade, the dwarves appear to simply participate in human society and do not offer demonstrations of their own. Even Dargon and Quix, who visited a dwarven outpost in the far north, shared meals with them, and slept under their vaulted subterranean roof on two nights, never saw a single dwarven woman or child. The extent of dwarven caves beneath the earth is unknown; the number and types of languages they speak among themselves is unknown -- among humans, they usually speak the local human language by courtesy, or a few words in some language of their own mostly in case of emergency. Their religious bents, if any, are unknown; their numbers worldwide are unknown; their relationship with shadow elves is largely unknown, though they seem not on the whole to be friends; since both dwell in darkness beneath the earth, it might be imagined that they would interact closely, in war or peace -- more closely at least than either interacts with surface dwellers -- but no evidence of their relationship or its nature has been found to date, and the few dwarves who say anything about it typically deny any contact with the shadow elves -- as one dwarf reportedly put it, "We keep to ourselves in my home, and they do not trouble us there." While dwarven lifespans are known to be significantly longer than humans', their full extent is likewise unknown.
The relationship between dwarven people and the world's sorcerous forces is steeped in uncertainty. These forces seem to bend in upon or around dwarves in such a way as to thwart both spells and sorcerous vision, more so than with any other known species. Some wizards theorize that dwarves use a powerful form of sorcery unique to themselves, either intentionally or biologically (like the elves, who rely on sorcery for their long lifespans, and the giants who do so to maintain their massive size) to support their long lives and typically tremendous strength for their size, bending the fabric of the magical forces around them so completely as to prevent other sorcerous power from interfering. Others argue that the dwarves have actually developed resistance or immunity to magical forces, and are completely incapable of using sorceries of ther own. Whatever the truth of the matter, rumors persist that dwarves are capable of imparting their unique relationship with sorcerous forces upon objects they fashion by hand -- such as weapons, armor, and shields with unique properties including resistance to magical spells. Whether it resembles human magic or not however, Dwarves do appear to possess supernatural powers of some kind: They are known in Korv, for instance, to fashion books in large numbers, with letters and pictures exactly identical from copy to copy, faster and more precisely than any team of copyists could be imagined to work; and to build weapons that launch metal balls at incredible speeds by igniting an obviously magical -- but to a wizard's eyes, not apparently sorcerous -- powder.
Like woodland elves, dwarves have had enough commerce with humankind to develop a reputation based more on actual interactions than mythological archetypes. They are known for mainly honest dealings, but also for stubbornness about their terms, and suspicion of human promises. In Thorm Casati's assessment, a reputation as misers was likely established around dwarves because of their /lack/ of greed; he has found that dwarves on the whole seem to be difficult to trick or entrap simply because there seems to be little or nothing with which to lure them into a position of jeopardy -- especially since their patience, perhaps arising from their long-lived nature, allows for careful investigation of claims before agreeing to anything; a typical Dwarven response to "hard sell" tactics is to take his business elsewhere. And of course all these notes represent the average, typical, or reputed ways of dwarves; as with woodland elves, the idea of "mavericks" or "renegades" who defy typical dwarven stereotypes is well understood among humankind, though of course by definition, the nature of such mavericks or renegades can hardly be guessed in advance.
