Dwarven Peoples
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2.
Age. Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans, but they're considered young until they reach the age of 50. On average, they live about 350 years.
Size. Dwarves stand between 4 and 5 feet tall and average about 150 pounds. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.
Darkvision. Accustomed to life underground, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Dwarven Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance against poison damage.
Dwarven Combat Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer.
Tool Proficiency. You gain proficiency with the artisan's tools of your choice: smith's tools, brewer's supplies, or mason's tools.
Stonecunning. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dwarvish. Dwarvish is full of hard consonants and guttural sounds, and those characteristics spill over into whatever other language a dwarf might speak.
Cultural Trivia
Historically, most dwarven societies have lived in mountainous regions, in stonework cities built into the mountains themselves. Many generations hence, however, a fraction of Destrea's dwarven population opted instead to join broader migration waves to regions such as the Great Wide and the Caravan Delta. As such, these dwarven sub-populations are called 'Dwellers', as in 'surface-dwellers', by their mountain cave counterparts.
It should be noted however, to add to this confusion, that those same dwarves, in turn, have dubbed their counterparts in the Stön Trillium with that same moniker- 'Dweller', as in 'they who dwell underground'. The term is, evidently, intended as a pejorative.
Editor's Note: The cultural debate to settle which is which has raged on for decades, with no end in sight, hence the confused title of this section of the Guide. -M.G.
Origin Theories
According to Elementist theology, dwarves of all kinds are said to have been moulded from clay found in the mountains of the Torrhen Shield, many millennia ago, during the Founding Era.
Dwarven Variants & Ethnicities
Trillian
For the dwarves of the Stön Trillium, generations of living underground in their mountain strongholds have rendered their skin pale, to the point of being nearly translucent, and hindered their eyesight when on the surface. Their beards and wild tangles of hair are now smooth and silky from bathing in the cave dew pools for which their region is known.
Superior Darkvision. Your darkvision has a range of 120 feet, instead of 60.
Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of the attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
Equipment: 1d6 triva in a coin purse.
Descended from one of many waves of settlers to the Great Wide over the centuries, their ancestors helped to establish the Commonwealth Federation of City-States.
Commoner culture, much like that of the Caravan Coast, is the product of waves of settlers each bringing customs, traditions, and values that end up influencing their new country to varying degrees. What sets commoners apart, however, is their peculiar tendency towards orderliness, institutional trust, and fervent nationalism.
Militia Training. You are proficient with firearms.
Equipment: Commonwealth runecoin, two food rations, 1d4 gold in a coin purse.
Settlers, dissidents, exiles, and drifters from all corners of the realm, who've made homes of the independent City-States dotting the Caravan Coast, and the seas over which they extend dominion. No matter which of the Independent republics, petty kingdoms, or havens of sin a caravanian hails from, they must share shade with one another; each holding an upturned nail beneath the ever-looming boots of major Destrean nations. While the city-states' disdain for one another may run deep, it is a mere thimble's worth when measured against the ocean of antipathy they reserve for outsiders.
Menacing. You gain proficiency in the Intimidation skill.
Equipment: Utility knife, 1d6 gold in a coin purse.