Dwarves

Dwarves are a race of people who are short and stocky, generally being about three feet tall. They tend to be hairy, having long and bushy beards. Through the ages dwarves have burrowed far into the earth, moving down rather than up when the accommodation becomes cramped.

Although dwarves generally live underground they obtain most of their food from animals and plants on the surface and conduct trade with other peoples. As a result there are many similarities between their culture and mankind’s. They are particularly good at all crafts, including metalwork, stonemasonry and so on. Dwarves live to a greater age than men, many reaching 200 years before passing on to join their ancestors in the great halls of the deep underworld.

“Dwarf, or dwarves, is a word used by humans to describe a race of short stumpy people who live in caves and underground stone dwellings: Many different tribes of ‘dwarves’ dwell in scattered holds (underground towns or fortresses) throughout the northern mountains of the Enchanted Kingdom.”

Quote from Encyclopaedia Imradd Vol. XIIII, page 963

Cornelius Clifford, at the Sign of the Singing Duck