Earth Dwarves (Ghost Rider Agency)

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Name: Dwarves. Khazâd, Dwarrows
Scientific Name: N/A
Origin: Milky Way, Sol System
Home World: Earth
Morphology:
The dwarves are short, standing at their tallest around five feet. Despite their stature, they typical weigh considerably more than a human, and have well built musculature, dense skin and resistant skeletons, contributing to their overall hardiness.
They also tend to grown large beards, which can vary in colors similarly to humans, such as blonde, brown, or red.

Culture:
Dwarves have two remaining population centers known. They are a very secretive and secluded race, rarely interacting with other peoples and civilizations. They keep their crafts guarded tightly, from their advanced smith work and magitech engineering, to even their language and runes. They typical speak with the languages indigenous to the peoples they most interact with locally. Dwarves in Ireland, for example, speak Irish and English when interacting with the world.
They are miners and smiths by their very nature, due to their love and reverence of the Earth itself, those materials which compose it. They call Gaea, the elder god of Earth's life, Aulë, and they revere her, to them a him, above all else.
They are also fascinated with knowledge of all kind, and due to their resistant and hardy nature, they interacted and came to somewhat revere Khazad-dûm, the outer god of madness, named after their ancient capital city.
Each dwarf mansion has a lord who is completely autonomous, and they have been know to go to war with each other at times. Despite this, their king rules all the lords, and should he make the call, the various lords must answer.

-Khazad-dûm
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The ancient dwarf realm of Dwarrowdelf. Nobody knows exactly where it is located, but some theorize it is in the Alps. It is massive, going from the depths of the Earth into the top of a great misty mountain peak. It is where the first king of the dwarves lived. Nobody is sure if it was named after the Outer God, or if the Outer God was named after it. It was abandoned after the encroachment of humans cut the dwarves off entirely from the rest of the fair folk, collapsing the realm. Supposedly, a few dozen dwarves still inhabited the ancient kingdom, maintaining it.

-Bethmora
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The ancient golden city of Bethmora, it was built underground in the middle of a foggy lake somewhere in north Ireland, by refuges of the Dwarrowdelf. It was also the ancient dwelling of the outer god of knowledge. Thanks to that, the dwarves were able to gain great magitech knowledge, creating a city rivaling Tirion upon Túna. It was here that the Golden Army was forged, and then later stored. When the Outer God was banished, the city was left ruined from the battle, and the dwarves left once more, leaving behind a single caretaker. After the army was destroyed, it was abandoned entirely.

-Azsâlul-abad
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The most well known dwarf kingdom, located on Carrauntoohil, the highest peak of the Irish island, located in the south. It is also called the dwarven kingdom of Corrán Tuathail, and Erebor, the lonely mountain, by the elves. A great citadel built deep into the mountain and guarded fiercely by ancient dwarf runes and spells, it is also the center of magitech engineering on the planet, due to being founded by the dwarves of Bethmora. The king of the dwarves resides here.

-Auñamendiak
The old Basque languages name for the Pyrenees mountain range, it was adopted by the dwarves as the name of the kingdom due to their early contact with that people. It actually houses two citadels. Tumunzahar and Gabilgathol. Tumunzahar is the main city, located closer to the Basque county, while Gabilgathol is a nearby armored citadel that serves as a protective outpost from attacks from the North.

Abilities:
Dwarves are extremely resilient and durable, able to withstand punishing other races can not. They are especially resistant to heat and fire. Despite their short stature, they are much stronger than a human, and their body's musculature is far more developed.
All dwarves have a natural affinity and talent for crafts related to minerals and metals, such as masonry, mining and blacksmithing. The dwarves of Carrauntoohil are also exceptionally skilled in magitech engineering

Weaknesses:
They are stubborn to a fault, secretive and reclusive, meaning there is usually much difficulty in diplomacy with any of their realms, or even individuals. They also possess a shared fear of water, and as such will rarely do well at sea.

Technology:
They possess ancient magical knowledge of weapon crafting and armor smithing, able to imbue these items with powerful protections and augmentations. They also are able to craft a secret metal alloy, called silver steel, that can be molded easily, is extremely light, but also exceptionally resilient.
They are also great magitech engineers, and their cities are usually vast underground complexes that run on powerful mystical engines that can produce infinite power for a variety of uses, from weaponry to simple powering of forges

History:
The dwarves, known as khazâd in their native tongue, and dwarrows in numerous folklores, were born in the elder days, thousands of years ago, along with the other species of mystical origin on the planet. Their legends say they were born from stone and rock given life by the gods. Long before humans or even elves were the dominant race, in the time of dragons, the inhabited all great mountain ranges in the world, delving deep into the Earth, their hardy constitution allowing them to survive in the lands of dragons.

Once the great kingdoms of the dragons were destroyed in their last great war, the humans began to spread, and the dwarves retreated into their mountain halls and slowly began to die out, due to lack of females born amongst their kin. Eventually, only the dwarves in the European lands were left, in their great kingdom in the Alps, Khazâd-dum the Dwarrowdelf, and the mountain ranges of the Pyrenees. However, even their great capital fell in time, and they were forced to retreat to the British isles, residing in an underground complex constructed beneath a lake, the hidden city of Bethmora. Here, they encountered an Outer God, and using his knowledge, constructed a great army. Seventy Times Seventy Soldiers, the most powerful magitech construction known to Earth, the Golden Army. The dwarf king offered the army to the Noldor High King, who at the time held rulership of all the fae folk.

However, on the counsel of the Silver Witch, the army was not used, but rather locked away, and the Outer God was banished. The dwarves were forced to abandon Bethmora, and journeyed south, building their last great capital, Azsâlul-abad, the kingdom of Corrán Tuathail. Here they dwelt since, into the modern age, undisturbed by humans due to their powerful runic protections set upon the domain.