Hemngar

Hemngar are dwarves that live above ground and interact often with the rest of the world. They are craftsmen of great renown and counted as doughty fighters by those who can judge such things. Good friends, and bad enemies, all know that a Hemngar’s word is his bond.

Physical Description
Hemngar stand perhaps four and a half feet tall, and are stocky; wide of shoulder and hip. Their muscles are very densely packed onto their dense bones and their arms are just slightly longer than is proportionate for their bodies, lending a slightly apish appearance to their stature. A Hemngar’s ears are as round as any humans, though pulled closer against their wide, blunt skull than most. The eyes are what alienates human’s most, being slightly too large for their faces, with too large a pupil.

Dwarves are proud of their hair, often engaging in elaborate hairstyles and fanciful sculpting of their beards. Note that only male dwarves have beards, despite whatever malicious rumormongers may say.

Skin tones vary from a slight pallor to sun-drenched bronze and hair runs the gamut from blonde to ginger to brunette (but not black). A Hemngar’s Irises vary from blue, to green to brown and various shades in-between.

Alignment
Hemngar are almost always lawful, with a smattering of neutral alignments. Only rarely will chaotic Hemngar be found. Such creatures are usually outcasts, shaven clean and chased into the wilderness.

Society
Hemngar are organized into sprawling clan-septs under a family head and then under a clan chief. These clans appear to humans (the few that understand them) almost as guild organizations, with the experience and education of an individual being as important as bloodline. Clan chiefs adjudicate civil matters and act as company-grade officers for the local Hemngar war-companies. On a larger scale, the clan chiefs choose Tor-Kings to rule all the dwarves in a particular stretch of hills or mountains, and the Tor Kings choose the High King. The High King acts as commander-in-chief, and is chief justice of the high court. Tor-Kings act as field-grade and flag-grade officers of the armies and enact low justice.

Relations
Hemngar relations with humans are complex and varied, due mostly to what the dwarves see as the barbarism of humans. Most of the human tribes are seen as imbalanced barbarians because of their need to enslave each other, and the difficulty that human governments have with keeping their word. Only amongst the Isle of Mists and the Republic of Irtamis do the dwarves have truly good relations with humans, elsewhere relations could best be described as “strained”. Individual humans may be found acceptable, but most human polities are not.

Elves are felt to be good allies and their shared dislike for the barbarism of humans lends itself to a long if not terribly involved alliance. The only problem Hemngar have with elves is their perceived frailty and their preference for wine over beer.

Hemngar and Gnomes get on like a house on fire. Although sometimes exasperated by the gnomish penchant for innovation, dwarves typically find their slighter cousins to be easy going and gregarious. The impeccable gnomish craftwork complements dwarvish perfectly, further strengthening the relationship. And of course, Neblin riflery saves countless dwarvish lives when the war drums sound.

Hemngar have no relations with Plains Halflings and only enmity exists between Mountain Halflings and dwarves.

Religion
Dwarves have their own deities, the Worldsmith (God of Craftsmen, Creator Deity), the Warcheif (God of Battle) and the Brewmistress (Goddess of Healing). Hemngar worship is divided roughly between the three gods, with the Worldsmith receiving slightly more attention than the others.

Backgrounds
Hemngar backgrounds fall into three categories: Expert (01 – 70%), Warrior (71 – 90%) and Adept (91 – 100%). Hemngar do not have nobles as humans do, nor do they have commoners, except as experts.

Names
Better (and more) names for Dwarves can be found here, than I can list. Check it out.

Racial Traits

Attribute Bonus: +2 Strength, -2 Charisma

Body Density (Ex): A Hemngar’s body is so dense that he will not float in freshwater. While swimming in lake, river or stream, Hemngar suffer a -4 penalty to swim checks. This penalty is reduced to -2 while swimming in the sea or ocean. Not that it matters, all dwarves have a pathological dread of open water, and will not willingly enter it.

Crafty (Ex): Hemngar gain a +2 racial bonus to all craft checks.

Defensive Training (Ex): Hemngar gain a +4 dodge bonus to AC against creatures with the Giant subtype.

Hardy (Ex): Hemngar receive a +2 racial bonus to saves versus poison, spells, and spell like abilities.

Hatred (Ex): Hemngar receive a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls against creatures of the Uruk’ subtype.

Heightened Sense (Ex): Hemngar can see in the dark, giving them the racial feature; Darkvision 60’.

Languages: Hemngar begin play speaking Dwarven and one human language. Those characters with a high Intelligence score can choose from the following as bonus languages; Any Giant, Neblin, Uruk’hob, Uruk'kii, Tradesign, and any human language.

Medium Size (Ex): Hemngar are medium creatures and suffer no penalties due to their size.

Slow, but Steady (Ex): Hemngar have a base speed of 20’ per round, but do not reduce their speed or agility due to encumbrance or armor type.

Stable (Ex): Hemngar receive a +4 racial bonus to their CMB when resisting a bull rush or trip maneuver while standing on the ground.

Thrifty (Ex): Hemngar receive a +2 racial bonus to appraise checks made to determine the price of non-magical goods.

Weapon Familiarity (Ex): Hemngar are proficient with all axes, picks and hammers. They also treat any weapon with the word “Dwarven” in the title as a martial weapon.