Dream Dwarf
Dream Dwarves feel the hills slumber beneath them. They see the world as a resting giant of great power, and they are caught in the dreaming. While other dwarves shape metal and stone, dream dwarves ponder and meditate. Wise and cautious, they understand nature in a way similar to druids and shamans or other races.
Dream dwarves share a sort of collective subconscious with the world around them, a phenomenon they call earth dream. The earth dream shapes many aspects of a dream dwarf’s life, and no discussion of dream dwarves can be complete without at least some understanding of the earth dream. The earth dream is a powerful force, and members of other races can occasionally feel its pull and become earth dreamers.
Personality
Dream dwarves have little of the natural craftsmanship of other dwarves, and they instead spend many hours in somber observation of the earth dream. They are inquisitive, and they seek to supplement the information and wisdom they gain from the earth dream with personal experience. To those who don’t know them well, dream dwarves can seem shy or distrustful, both in truths they are merely reserved; they are more likely to otter one carefully chosen phrase than engage in a lengthy discussion.Physical
Description
Dream dwarves are normally less than 4 ft. tall and weigh about 160 lbs. Their skin color ranges from dark gray to a deep brown, and their hair is dark brown or black. They have pale light eyes, usually green or blue in color, on very rare instances they have lavender or pale red eye color. They usually decorate their clothing with abstract symbols that represent important personal experiences within the earth dream.
Relations
Dream dwarves get along well with their kin, many dwarves look up to them as shamans and prophets. They also get along well with gnomes that share their love of the earth, and they even enjoy the company of halflings and elves. They are friendly with druids of any race, sharing the class’s love of nature and natural power. Their silent and mystical demeanor can cause humans, half-elves and half-orcs to think dream dwarves a little strange, but rarely causes significant problems in relationships with members of these races.
Alignment
Dream dwarves are mostly neutral good. They share a bond with the earth and the earth dream, and this bond helps them see the power and energy essential for a peaceful life. As a result, most dream dwarves remain kind and good-hearted even through hardship, and they value a balance between law and chaos.
Dream Dwarf Lands
Dream dwarves almost always build their homes in the hills or mountains of Tellene as close as they can to other dwarves, and many other races don’t even realize that dream dwarves are a separate sub-race. Their homes are often underground, embodying their love of the earth. Occasionally, dream dwarves form small, sheltered monasteries high up on a mountainside in an effort to become closer to the earth dream.
Religion
Although dream dwarves pay homage to many deities, their primary deity is the earth itself, as expressed by the collective experience that dream dwarves call the earth dream.
Languages
Dream dwarves speak Dwarven. They are very intelligent and many know many languages, but they tend not to use other languages unless necessary, this is due to the fact they fell that Dwarven is the closest language to the earth.
Adventures
Adventurers
Dream dwarves seek wisdom that comes from personal experience. Some driven by the earth dream’s urgings to find more of what they’ve seen in the dream. Others seek to escape the dream and their people’s involvement in it. Most however adventure to better understand the parts of the earth dream that they can sense, and experience the dream in other places, and broaden their understanding of the world.
Source Notes: Races of Stone 3.5, D20