Azer resemble idealized dwarves, their forms perfectly sculpted out of pure bronze. Notably, they have three, wide, guantled fingers, not four, and they lack any toes, their feet instead resembling steel-toed boots.

Azer are made, not born. Each is crafted from pure bronze by another azer, their faceplates custom sculpted with unique features and imbued with a portion of the crafter's inner flame and a bound fire spirit. This crafting process severely limits the growth of the azer population, as fire spirits are reluctant to be bound.

As fire spirits, Azer do not age, mature, or grow.

The azers home is an independent kingdom between the Elemental Plane of Fire and Elemental Plane of Earth. This kingdom is a series of mountain ranges and volcanoes which the azer have developed into a series of nearly impenetrable fortresses.    Beneath these mountain peaks and in the forges of volcanic calderas amid rivers of magma, Azers extract gelaming metals and gliterring gems from the earth which they use towards making more of their bretheren for their endless war to reclaim their true home, the City of Brass.

As beings of pure fire, Azer do not require food or drink.

Azer are elemental spirits of pure fire, and do not age. In fact, azer do not even need to sleep, and they regard such periods of dormancy amongst other beings as strange, uncanny, and incredibly inconvenient.

Azer were originally created from fire elementals by Moradin as prototypes of his beloved dwarves, designed to be immune, and in fact thrive, in the scorching heat of his forges and to work tirelessly on his projects. In the eons since Moradin's forges have gone cold, the azer still find themselves constantly at work towards their greater purpose- utterly consumed by rage and paranoia toward the efreeti in a constant war. Azer now exist solely to destroy the efreeti, reclaim the city of Brass, and free its many slaves.    As fire spirits, azer strain at their bindings behind their masks, manifested in their beards and hair. They seek to be released from their bindings, and are impatient and wrathful. However, they are also utterly tireless, and can work endlessly.   Outside of their enmity for the efreeti and their perpetual work in the mines and forges of their kingdom, azer have little interest in anyone or anything else.

Azer are organized into seniority based clans known as "creator clans," organized around the seniormost azer to sculpt the other clan-members.

As eternal, tireless workers with immense technical skill, azer are highly prized by evil beings like fire giants and efreeti as slaves.    While the magic which animates an azer's sculpted form disippates and its body becomes nothing more than brass scrap when it is destroyed, an azer mask is a powerful magical artifact. In fact, even years after an azer is destroyed, an azer mask continues to radiate passive heat and remains warm to the touch.  Such masks can be used to reforge the fallen azer or bind a new fire spirit, making it an especially valuable subject of retrieval for azer and a tempting target for capture by efreeti. Additionally, the masks retain some of their elemental energy, being usable as spell components to cast certain fire related spells and magnifying their effects.

Unlike the rest of the azer's body, free to move naturally, the facial mask of an azer is fixed in the expression carved by its sculptor as part of the binding ritual of their creation. As part of imbuing the new azer with a spark of their own internal flame, the azer sculpts a mask that reflects its own internal flame. Invariably however, since Moradin's forges have gone cold and the azer have forged themselves, such masks come out with angry and hostile looking expressions, reflecting the azer's sense of betrayal and rage. An Azer's mask is fixed and does not move when it speaks- its voice coming from behind the mask. An Azer does not have eyes, but rather sculpted holes in the mask where eyes would be, with open flames crackling through the gaps.

Azer are immortal and reasonably intelligent sapients. They are capable of exceptionally long-term planning, though their strategies are direct and hardly subtle- though they maintain this is their intent.    However, they have an incredibly narrow range of expertise. While azer are brilliant metalworkers and metalsmiths, and have an intuitive sense for mining, magical enchantment, and construction, they have almost no knowledge of other subjects, as they view it as immaterial.

Although azer posess no special sensory capabilities, their burning forms shed bright light in a ten foot radius around them and dim light further beyond, meaning that an azer is never required to see in the dark.    An azer's eternal experience in metalworking, mining, and magical enchantments give them a keen natural sense for these arts, and, much like the dwarve's natural stonecunning, azer have a natural knoweldge of metalsmithing, metalwork, and magical enchantment, and are said to be able to look at a mountain and "see" each individual vein of precious metal and gemstone.

According to the azer, in the early days of creation, azer were created as the personal foremen of Moradin, meant to serve at his side in his forge and in his mines, and as a prototype for the dwarves. However, Moradin's forges eventually went cold and his gaze wandered from the azer to his newer creations, leaving them without a purpose.    The azer struck out upon their own in the elemental plane of fire, forming a partnership with the efreeti in which the azer would use the expertise gained under Moradin to build the City of Brass.   When the azer finished their work, the efreeti betrayed the azer, attempting to enslave them to use their knowledge of Moradin's secrets to build the efreeti an empire and to protect the secrets of the city's constrution from ever leaking beyond its palaces. However, the efreeti failed in their attempt, and the azer escaped and formed their own independent kingdom in between the earth and fire plane.    Since then, the azer and efreeti have been in an ironic "cold war" as each seeks to gain the upper hand against the other while avoiding escalation to open conflict. Azer offer their services to various powers or send squads into the material plane seeking out the precious metals and gemstones used to make more warriors for their cause, while the efreeti seek to disrupt them. These conflicts often result in raids and minor skirmishes, but the azer think themselves unprepared for all-out conflict, while the efreeti fear such conflict would result in the exposure of the City of Brass' secrets