Agharendarr

Born of the earth and stone, the dwarves of Celesia are known as the Agharendarr, the Stout Folk. They are short and stocky, with broad shoulders and full beards, including their women! Along with they Fey'Anthyr, the Agharendarr dsiplaced the dragons at the end of the Age of Wyrms as the dominant races of the world. The Agharendarr live for a very long time, although not as long as elves, with a lifespan of about 500 years. The dwarves are closely tied to the earth, making their homes in mountains or underground. Like the stone their revere, they both patient and stubborn. They view non-dwarves with suspicion, and are slow to make friends, but a friend made is a friend for life. The dwarves of Celesia are extremely skilled in architecture and stone-carving. The Agharendarr are also known as Murodain's Folk, after the legendary dwarven thane-priest Murodain, who was Kaï-den's and Kothar's voice and who brought together the dwarves as a single people.

The Agharendarr organize themselves into family Clans. A small city would organize a clan council, with the dominant clan of each area of expertise having a seat on it. A larger city or a nation would be ruled by a Thane, who is then served by a council. The office of the Thane is usually hereditary. Agharendarr society is very patriarchial. Dwarven men hold most of the important offices mainly due to the unbalanced ratio in gender favoring males. Add the fact that dwarves have a slow birth rate, dwarven women are kept out of most positions that would endanger them. However, although dwarven women hold little political power, they are mostly in charge of internal family affairs. On occasion, dwarven women who possess exceptional skills rise to power equal to dwarven men, and gain much respect for it. For dwarves, family comes first, and their familial bonds are almost unbreakable; blood is stronger than steel. To be expelled from one's family is one of the highest disgrace for a dwarf.

The two major gods worshipped by the Agharendarr are Kaï-den and Tierra. For the Agharendarr, Kaï-den is considered as the father of the dwarven race, courageous, lawful, and full of honor. They call his the Soulforger. Tierra is considered as the mother of the race, caring for them, and giving them a home within the womb of the earth. Kothar is also a popular god among the dwarves for his skill and strength in battle. He is also the only god who is the most widely portrayed as a dwarf. Evil dwarves can be found worshipping Zhao-Kahn for his strength and leadership qualities.

The Agharendarr reached the peak of their power and civilization during the Age of Starlight, allying with the Fey'Anthyr against their common enemies. In this alliance, many great artifacts and relics were created by combining the constructive skills of the dwarves and the magical strength of the elves. Over time, they extended their influence around the world, establishing strongholds underneath the earth and within many mountains. However, with their great power, the Agharendarr became arrogant and greedy.

The increase pursuit of wealth and power led the dwarves to start using slaves from other races, and some dwarven clans worked with the elves to magically alter some races to produce better slave stock. Eventually, the greed of the dwarven kings within their mountains led to harships to the surface-dwelling dwarves, who had established their homes in the hills to produce sufficient food for their mountain-dwelling cousins. This oppression led to the surface dwarves to rebel against the mountain dwarves, leading to what became known as the Great Sundering, the splitting of the dwarven race into the Rochfendarr, the Mountain Dwarves, and the Aurkendarr, the Hill Dwarves. During this time, another group of dwarves split from the Rochfendarr to become the evil Duerghendarr, driven deep underground for their avarice and sadism by their more nobler and compassionate cousins. The Great Sundering was a period of great war amond the dwarves, and the result of this in-fighting was the disintergration of their relationship with the Fey'Anthyr. Differences between both races were driving them apart. The last time the dwarves and the elves worked together was the Darkheart War, in which they fought against the alliance of Nui'Anthyr and Duerghendarr, and drove them underground. Eventually, the other races took advantage of the Agharendarr's weakness and overthrew them.

To this day, the dwarves still remain a strong force in the world, though they are a pale shadow of their former glory. Only a few dwarven kingdoms still remain, while most dwarves are group in individual strongholds. Their is still some disgruntled feelings and rivalry within the dwarves, but they realize that their race could soon be wiped out of existence, so their concentration is on strengthening their power. There are many abandoned dwarven strongholds and citadels, many dwarven treasures hidden within them, and the Agharendarr are angered by the fact that other races, and those who call themselves adventurers, delve into them or take them over. One of the greatest goals of an Agharendarr is to reclaim those lost strongholds, usually becoming its lord or king. One of the most powerful remaining dwarven nations is Morghendarr, located in Northern Rhyn.

Rochfendarr



Society

The Rochfendarr, or Mountain Dwarves, are the most recognized dwarves of Celesia. Although their numbers are more or less equal to their two other dwarven cousins, the Rochfendarr are the original standard of dwarves before the Great Sundering. Compared to the other dwarven subraces, the Rochfendarr are very traditional, valueing the 'old' ways. They have a strong sense of honor, and follow a strict hierarchy within society. They consider themselves the most noble of dwarves, and act like it, holding up the old dwarven traditions and way of life.

Rochfendarr make their homes into the mountains and in the higher levels of the Darkendeep. There they make their living mining ore and gems, and crafting exquisite items, either functional, such as weapons and armor, or artistic, such as building blocks or statues. Rochfendarr art style has few curves, and involves mostly straight lines and emphasizing on efficiency. Like the stone they are so close too, Rochfendarr dwarves are quite stubborn, and when they have made up their minds, are extremely resistant to changing them. They reverently stick to their laws and have a strong lawful nature, moreso than the other dwarven races.

Rochfendarr society is in a decline. Since their glory days back in the Age of Starlight, the ensuing wars, catastrophies, and disputes have rendered the Rochfendarr a broken and scattered people. Because of their low birthrate, the Rochfendarr have seen their people shrink in number, and a general melancholy has fallen over them, and to other races, the Rochfendarr seem dour. Nonetheless, the mountain dwarves strive on, head held high, with the memories of their forebearers, striving for that slim chance to make their race grand once more.

Because they live most of their lives in the mountains or underground, the Rochfendarr have had little direct dealings with other races since the dissolving of the Elf-Dwarf alliance during the Age of Starlight. Since then, and because the only other races that they are forced to deal with are mostly evil, the Rochfendarr view other races with great distrust and suspicion. However, they can recognize honor and strength in others and that usually leads to great respect. The friends they make last a lifetime, and once an enemy is made, it last only until one of them is dead.

Rochfendarr have tense relations with their golden cousins, the Aurkendarr, after millenia of disagreements and insults. Nonetheless, both dwarven races agree that they need each other; the Rochfendarr need the supplies provided by the hill dwarves, and the Aurkendarr need the mountain dwarves for their ore and metalwork. This has led to stable, but tensed relations. However, the Rochfendarr absolutely despise the Duerghendarr, the dark dwarves. They view them as the cause of the Great Sundering of the dwarven race, caused by their great avarice and betrayal to the dwarven people and their alliances to other races. Since forcing them underground into the Darkendeep, both races have warred with each other constantly.

Description

Rochfendarr skin color can be pale pink, earth brown or grainy blue. Their hair can be red, orange, blue or black. Their eye color can be black, blue, yellow or red.

Racial Traits

  • As PHB.

Aurkendarr



Society

The Aurkendarr, or Hill Dwarves, are a race of dwarves that live more closer to the surface, and interact far more with other races than their mountain-dwelling cousins. They are far more open to new ideas and innovations, but being dwarves, they still seem very stubborn to the eyes of other races. Despite living on the surface, the Aurkendarr still have a strong love for the earth, and they have built from the surface to deep within the ground.

Despite the peace between the hill and mountain dwarves, the relations between the two cousin races are tense. Neither have forgotten the pain that they have inflicted to each other for more than a millenia. Although they will initial encounters between the two subraces will be filled with relunctance and perhaps rudeness, both Rochfendarr and Aurkendarr can forge lasting friendships if the circumstances are right. On the other hand, the Duerghendarr will forever be reviled for their manipulation and betrayal of the dwarven people. As mentioned before, the Aurkendarr have better relation with other races than any other dwarven race. They are most favorable to gnomes and halflings, with humans coming in as a close third. They have peaceful relations with the elves, though it is rife with suspicion.

Description

Aurkendarr skin has a slight golden tinge, and can be rosy pink or dark brown. Their hair can be yellow, green, orange or red. Their eye color can be yellow, red, green, blue or bed.

Racial Traits

  • As PHB.

Duerghendarr



Society

Duerghendarr society is very strict and ordered. Corrupted by Zhao-Kahn, their main drive in life is to acquire as much wealth and power that they can, but they will never be satisfied with what they have. Like the rest of the dwarven race, the Grey Dwarves are organized into clans. However, clan position in society, and member positions within a clan, are strictly enforced and rigid. There exists numerous protocols a Duerghendarr must observe in order to rise through the ranks or achieve any sort of power. The Duerghendarr absolutely hate their two dwarven cousins, viewing them weak. They believe they alone may rule over all the dwarven race.

Despite having such a rigid structure full of traditions and difficulty to adapt, the Duerghendarr survive by being tough to kill and too stubborn to quit. They are experts in warfare, using finely honed tactics and strategies, and their dutiful worship of gods such as Zhao-Kahn grant them a powerful complement of clerics.

Description

Duerghendarr skin color can be pale or dark grey, or sickly white. Their hair is usually very frazzled compared to their more well-combed cousins, and its color can be white, grey, or blue. Their eye color can grey, red, or white.

Racial Traits

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Races of Celesia

HumansDwarvesElvesGoblinsGnollsGnomesHalf-elvesHalf-orcsHalflingsKoboldsOrcs

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