Mountain Dwarfs

Mountain Dwarfs are those who live in traditional, conservative mountain communities. They rigidly maintain the structure of ancient Dwarf society: Hearth, house, hall, hold and clan.   The hearth is the immediate family, two-to-five elders and up to three generations of descendents. A house is a collection of up to five related hearths, a hall up to five houses and a hold as many as twenty halls, encompassing both the entire resident population of a dwarf city and the city itself. The clan is an overarching kinship group, encompassing all of the holds of a kingdom.   Membership in any level of Mountain Dwarf society is a right of birth and is utterly inflexible. While a dwarf may travel, they always belong to the hearth, house, hall, hold and clan of their birth. They may change this membership when they marry, as one partner joins the other's hearth, wherever that may be established. It is also possible, on very rare occasions, for one of those groupings to grow large enough to divide into two, and half of all within it to join the new group.