how strange are dwarves?

the earliest records of the dwarves have them being slaves to an ancient evil, as
were the elves. as slaves, dwarves primarily worked in engineering. mining, massive
stone work, heavy labour and hard work all around. this made them very hardy.
reaching their freedom when the ancient evil fell, dwarves escaped underground.
Their culture developed almost completely underground. Their cities and towns have
since been built within the mountain mines where they work. Hunting, farming, etc.
were conducted within a very short distance of the entrances to their underground.
This created the first sub-race, or breed of dwarf. THe halfling or hobbit. These
are descendants of the dwarves who spent hundreds of generations tending the farms
and livestock outside of the deep underground of the dwarf cities. Eventually these
became a separate sort of folk than the standard dwarf. Another subrace came about
as some factions of dwarf were prospecting and mining for different resources,
mostly in heavily forested areas, digging in softer soil of hills. These eventually
became gnomes.

dwarves of all stripe are proud, Most are able to recite their lineage to at least
20 generations and some can recite to 100 generations and further. Their records
are meticulous. Their lineages, histories, metalurgy, alloy formulae, temperatures,
fuels, etc. They write down and memorize every detail, down to the number of rivets
used in all the armour of an entire year of production, or the exact number of
rings in each of a dozen variant maille coats.

they are a meritocracy. regardless age, gender, or any other factor, the one in
charge of a given discipline, is the one who is best at that particular discipline.
the classic dwarf and their gnome cousins wear long beards. for gnomes this is just
a traditional fashion, which has no reason to change. for the classic, this is a
mark of their honor. So long as a dwarf holds to their chosen craft and never takes
a short cut, or chooses the easy path over the path of best quality, nor ever
breaks an oath of any kind, they will never cut their beard or hair. The longer the
beard and hair, the more trusted a dwarf is among their own kind.

hobbits live almost as humans do, though living in cave houses dug into hills and
without needing a king or leader. they are a meritocracy. they farm the land and
raise animals, other than occasional fishing and trapping small game, hobbits do
very little hunting, prefering the meat of their farm raised livestock. a side
note, hobbits invented and hold the secret of soap. it's their monopoly and
EVERYONE has to pay for it if they want it. it's a secret they'll never part with.
refusing to pay for soap leaves other cultures with the options of sand scrubbing,
water scrubbing, or laundering and washing in urine or wine vinegar to get stains
out, and kill the stink of sweat and shit. (the most basic soap is wood ash and
suet or tallow, stirred together as a thick liquid, then left to harden and cut
into bars)

Gnomes are generally more alchemists than classic dwarves. They dig in the softer
ground for various chemical substances and harvest from the mosses, trees and
plants of the woodlands and swamps where they live. they harvest beetles called
cochineal, to produce vibrant red dyes, which they sell among their other wares,
like remedies, potions, glues, laquers and liquors. They are geneal and peaceable,
keeping their small homes usually dug into the hills beneath the roots of the
largest tree they can find. THey hunt, trap and fish only as necessary, often
trading their wares for whatever food they can't simply harvest from the
surrounding woods. They'd give anything to learn how to make soap, but they haven't
gained the secret yet.

religion among all three dwarf peoples is essentially ancestor worship, though the
hobbits and gnomes are far less serious in such endeavour.

Daufrlopt:
There was once another dwarf kingdom, on the eastern continent. a little over 100
years ago, the miners deep beneath the mountain hit a huge open pocket that stank
of rot and death. The skinking wind rushed up through all the tunnels and many
dwarves died coughing and wheezing as only a tenth of the population managed to
escape. when the rotting wind reached open flames, the air itself burned for a day
and a night as the survivors blocked up the entrance to the home they had just
lost. A few years later some survivors returned to this place and dug their
entrance open again. The stinking wind still lingers, and those who try to travel
deep within the old mountain, never return. The name of the lost kingdom is never
spoken now, and it's only called Daufrlopt(dead air) if anyone can find a way to
survive the poison gasses, and not set the whole tunnel system on fire again,
there's all the plunder of an entire dwarf kingdom, there for the taking.