Dwarf

+2 Constitution, -2 Charisma

Medium-size

Base land speed 20 feet. Dwarves can move at this speed even when wearing medium or heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load.

Weapon Familiarity: Dwarves may treat dwarven waraxes and dwarven urgoshes as martial weapons, rather than as exotic weapons.

Favored Region: Kaladrun Mountains.

Darkvision 60 feet.

Resilient: +2 natural armor bonus and +2 racial bonus on saves against poison.

Spell Resistant: +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, but those with spell energy have two fewer points of spell energy than they otherwise would.

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs.

+1 racial bonus on attack rolls when fighting with axes and hammers.

+2 racial bonus on Appraise and Craft checks related to stone or metal items

Clan Kurgun Cultural Traits

Weapon Familiarity: Kurgun dwarves may treat urutuk hatchets as martial weapons, rather than as exotic weapons. Additionally, when wielding two urutuk hatchets, Kurgun dwarves suffer only half the normal penalties for wielding a second weapon in their off hand. This benefit stacks with that granted by Two-Weapon Fighting and similar feats.

Favored Region: Surface Kaladruns. Kurgun dwarves favored region bonuses for the Kaladrun Mountains increase by +2 when they are aboveground.

Natural Mountaineers: +2 racial bonus on Climb checks, and may ignore difficult mountainous terrain that hampers movement, such as rubble or uneven cave flooring (but not thick undergrowth).

Automatic Languages: Clan Dialect, Old Dwarven. Bonus Languages: Orcish, other Clan Dialect, Trader's Tongue.

Favored Class: Barbarian

Additional Info

War- Dwarves have been at war for nearly a millennium. Their entire culture is geared towards supporting their warriors. Children run food and ammunition to the walls and deliver messages. Every dwarf is required to learn how to fight, and how to heal. Dwarves males mark the passage to adulthood as the moment they kill their first ork in melee combat. Typically this happens around age 14.

Death Rituals- Dwarves weight their dead down under huge stone slabs. Those that rise again after death wake to find themselves trapped beneath the stone and will eventually simply rot away. In the first few days after rising, when the newly undead dwarves are still in command of their senses, they can be sources of wisdom. Soothsayers often go to the halls of the dead to ask questions of the fallen. After their minds are lost, the undead still serve a purpose. Warriors will sometimes go down to the Halls of the Dead to listen to the insane wailings of their fallen brethren in order to focus their mind, harden their hearts and meditate on their anger and pain.

Stoicism- Dwarves understand that life is not fair. They long ago accepted their defeat, they understand that the battle is already lost and that every last one of their kind is going to die by the Shadow's hand. They will also never give up their fight. Stoicism is not emotionlessness, it is acceptance of what is, without the periods of shock, disbelief, sadness or anger that are so common to other races. They feel everything deeply, they just understand that everything they love, and everything they have is already gone. Because of this, they take greater joy in the creation of something than in the having of it once it is done. The moment a task is complete, the craft complete, it has already been destroyed. It's only a matter of time, and because of that, every single moment counts. Their cultural stoicism is the reason for their efficiency, their drive for excellence, their love of art and satisfaction in their work, their deep kinship with each other and also their commitment to making their enemies pay in blood for every dwarf lost and every inch of ground taken.

Masks- Dwarves never show their grief. They believe that to give into any weakening emotion is the ultimate betrayal of their ancestors. When dwarves grieve they wear metal masks made in the faces of fierce, grim warriors. When a dwarf dawns a mask, it is customary that their close friends and family also don masks so that others will not know which individual is having a moment of personal weakness. Sometimes this can spread to whole communities. What begins as the tragedy of one is felt by all. In this age, masks are worn on surprisingly few occasions. Dwarves have been so hardened by their circumstances that it takes truly monumental events to cause the masks to be necessary. Despite this, most dwarves cary their masks with them at all times, not only in case they need to don them in a show of solidarity, but also as a simple reminder of the hopeless truth of their lives.

Women- Dwarves believe firmly in honoring your role in society. Women are far, far more valuable than men, because women can give birth. Therefor women should never be warriors. A woman's place is planning and preparing. Supporting the war (sometimes as archers or siege engineers, but almost never within range of actual fighting). The men do the dying. Because of this mentality, and the fact that the dwarves have been losing a war for nearly a millennia, there are more dwarven women than men. Also, the covenant of marriage has been completely dissolved. It is not uncommon for a dwarf male to have more than one mate, and father children with all of them. In the event of death, a dwarf's mates and children will join the household of their next-of-kin until they find a new mate (often the next of kin simply becomes the new mate). If there are no kin, they become the wards of the Thane, who has the authority to award them to brave or exceptional warriors. Dwarven women consider this to be an honor. Many outsiders come to the false conclusion that dwarven unions must be loveless affairs. The truth is quite to the contrary, because dwarves truly do live each day like it will be their last, they tend fall for each other quickly and to love whole-heartedly with energy and spontaneity. Jealousy is a horrid taboo in dwarven culture. Ultimately, the woman decides who her lover (or lovers) will be, and she is never questioned. If a union might produce a child, it is always blessed.