The Dwarves of Kor

In the new game I’m running, Dwarves are weird.

Before the refugees settled in Kor, they had no idea how weird.

First off, the dwarves who headed to the surface were all young. Dwarves in Kor will live nearly a thousand years. Typically, dwarves spend their young adulthood either in the military, in an apprenticeship, or as an entrepreneur. Adventurers fall into this last category.

Second, at about 300 years (give or take a century), dwarves begin growing two fleshy appendages on their cheeks to either side of their nose. These limply hang down into a dwarf’s beard. Covered with hair, they could easily be missed from a distance. Dwarves say these organs allow them to “taste” metal and minerals from a distance. When already-skilled smiths grow their whiskers, they can become nearly legendary in their abilities. (As a side note, these “whiskers” are erogenous zones. Some scandalous dwarves shave them. Calling someone a “metal-taster” is a comment on their sexual promiscuity.)

Third, despite the famous dwarven work ethic, many older dwarves don’t seem to actually do anything. Rumour has it that the pillars are filled with chambers in which 800 year old dwarves sit, staring at walls. This might be an exaggeration, but older dwarves often move and react slowly, and it is not unknown for one to sit down at a table in a tavern and stay there, unmoving, for days. Other dwarves don’t seem to bat an eye at this (and the tavern keeper will happily close up the tavern around his immobile guest) – indeed, they seem to show deference to such dwarves. Either not all older dwarves have this tendency, or it might come and go. Possibly both.