Description

the fi rst time, he offers no significant criticisms about Dorin’s attacks before moving on to the next pair of fi ghters. Dorin smiles, happy that the extra drills he had been doing were obviously improving his axe skills. After drill, the four friends return to the Silveraxe clan hall for the midday meal. The hall is full of tables bearing brown bread, slices of meat, pale soft cheese for spreading, and sliced carrots and turnips, along with dark cool ale and water to drink. As they eat, the friends talk about the practice of the morning. Scara’s nervousness has faded, and Sterin boasts about his first success at disarming his opponent. They eat their fi ll in leisure, enjoying each other’s company until the day shift bell calls them to work. When the chime fi nally peals, Dorin stands and bids his friends farewell, walking toward the hole in the cavern wall roughly 100 feet away, where excavation has begun on a new tunnel. As part of the excavation crew, Fala, Dorin’s sister-in-law, is already hard at work. She gestures for Dorin to start digging at the head of the tunnel, relieving a dwarf who had been there for some time. Dorin works there for the rest of the day, removing earth and stone at Fala’s direction, extending the tunnel in the direction set by the engineers. The work is monotonous, yet it has a pleasing rhythm that Dorin enjoys. After what seems like no time at all, the evening bell rings, and he sees that the excavation team has added another 10 feet to the tunnel, complete with shoring for the walls and paving stones set for the fl oor. Dorin and Fala hand their tools off to the next crew and head for the clan hall, where supper awaits the day workers. There they meet up with Dorin’s parents and Tor, who clears a place for his wife to sit and gives her a bowl of pepper stew. Dorin fetches his own bowl, returning to sit with his parents while he eats. He listens to the clan’s skald sing legends of the clan for an hour or more before his eyelids begin to droop. Eager for the rest he has earned from his labors, Dorin excuses himself and heads off to bed.

Dwarves are naturally dense, compact creatures. They stand no taller than 4-1/2 feet, but they have the breadth and depth of creatures nearly twice their height. Their arms are long for their height, their hands reaching down nearly to their shins. Their torsos are in proportion to their height, though, as are their legs. Both males and females are heavily muscled, with thick, well-rounded limbs and broad shoulders and hips.

CLOTHING

Dwarves believe in simple, functional clothing without a great deal of ornamentation. They tend toward tones of brown and gray, using fabrics derived from the earth itself. Root hairs are harvested and woven into sturdy breeches and overtunics. Spongelike fungi are harvested, soaked, then treated and spun into thread, making a remarkably pliable, silken fabric called earthsilk (see Chapter 7 for more information on earthsilk). The dwarves also trade with nearby surface-dwellers for cloth and crops, giving them access to linen, cotton, and wool. Leathers, skins, and furs are also heavily used, especially moleskin and badger fur. The primary article of clothing for a dwarf is typically a simple, open-front tunic, with large, roomy sleeves that may be worn long or rolled up. This tunic is often made of a light, airy material, such as cotton, linen, or earthsilk, and can be worn either open or closed with fasteners of bone, wood, or metal. Both male and female dwarves wear these tunics, along with a pair of simple breeches or a short, widepleated kilt. Over the tunic, a dwarf often wears a second layer, consisting of a loosely worn vest or jacket. This garment might be constructed out of whole cloth or thread-knotted in a spiral pattern to create a whole garment that looks somewhat like chainmail. Breeches are typically held up by laces or by a belt worn over the loose tunic. Males wear tunics with high necklines and belts at least 4 inches wide. Females often wear low-cut tunics, allowing them to show a bit of cleavage, and they too prefer wide belts, often tailored to show off both waist and hip and fastened in front with laces or multiple small buckles. Because most dwarves spend their lives largely underground, they have no need for multiple layers of heavy clothing to protect them from wind or weather. Tunnels and chambers within the earth hold a steady, if slightly cool, temperature, absolving the dwarves of any need to wear protective clothing as a regular occurrence. When they go aboveground with the other races, they adopt the clothing of surface-dwellers as necessary to keep themselves warm and dry, but they prefer clothing that was built to suit their lifestyle. While dwarves don’t favor bright colors or fripperies on their garments, they do use touches of color, weaves, and metal to decorate their clothes. Dyed leather ties in primary colors are a common touch, used to stitch together breeches or cloaks (for wear aboveground). Woven trims are also used along the tops and fronts of garments, made on small handlooms with geometric patterns of looping or knotting lines, stripes, or even stylized Dwarven script. Cloth with woven patterns is even more common, featuring differing thread widths and textures to create monotone garments of great tactile interest. Geometric patterns are often seen, especially knotwork or repeating patterns of stitches. These patterns often run in clans, making it possible to tell where an individual is from (or to whom he is related) by the nature of his clothes. The third commonly used accessory is metal—belt ends, buckles, tie dags, collars, brooches, and beading. If metal bits can be forged, decorated, and attached, a dwarf somewhere likely sports an example of it. Still, these are intended as accent pieces, not as one’s primary mode of self-expression. If a dwarf can be heard clanking his way down a passage when not wearing armor, he is likely to become an object of quiet ridicule.