Molten Dwarves

• Short, powerfully built bipeds.
• Dense bones and muscles specially adapted to handle extreme temperatures — blood has a faint iron glow in bright light.
• Heat pores on their skin open to vent excess temperature, giving them a faint shimmering aura in hot environments.

• Slight sexual dimorphism — males have heavier brow ridges and beards that sometimes grow tiny embedded gems or metal flakes, while females often have broader chests and shoulders.
• Both can channel inner heat through skin, making them painful to grapple when enraged.

• Live births after ~9 months gestation, twins are common.
• Children are born with dark skin that brightens over decades with their inner he

• Prefer deep volcanic tunnels and fortress-halls carved near magma rivers, where they maintain delicate channels to regulate flow.
• Their cities often glow with molten streams, basalt pillars, and floating metal walkways.

• Omnivorous but deeply favor rich fungal stews, charred meats, and mineral broths.
• Drink concoctions laced with ground gemstones and metals — believed to strengthen bones and deepen the glow of their life-flame.

• Body temperatures rise during spring when ley lines surge; community rituals involve venting excess heat into ritual braziers.
• In older age, skin becomes harder and more stone-like, with their “inner flame” visibly dimming in their final decades.

• Intensely communal, value loyalty and craft above all else. Quick to challenge perceived slights but equally quick to bind wounds afterward.
• Celebrate duels of skill — either with hammer and anvil or with axe and shield.

Organized into Forgeclans, each tied to a specific volcanic forge or ancestral hall. Led by a Forge Lord or Matron, supported by rune-smith councils.

Heavy jaws, wide noses, bushy brows, eyes that often glow faint orange or red. Beard braids often woven with copper or obsidian beads.

Dominant race across the volcanic networks of Embergarde. Rare traders or adventurers found in major cities across Mythralune.

Very clever, especially in geology, enchantment, and metalworking. Their memory for oral contracts and old feuds is legendary.

• Sensitive to vibrations in stone, can feel distant cave-ins or footsteps.
• See heat gradients vividly, giving them an almost thermal sense. Some master ley-sight, reading faint magical flows in rock.

Short, weighty names paired with clan names tied to their forge or patron magma spirit. Examples:

• M: Durnek Coalbraid, Korgrim Emberhold, Rurik Basaltshield
• F: Helga Moltenhelm, Bruni Hearthspark, Thora Lavaheart

Partnerships treated like a lifelong forging — slow, deliberate, but unbreakable. Couples often craft shared rune-plates to display above their hearth.

• Advanced metallurgy and rune smithing, seamlessly blend metal with primal magics.
• Less reliant on mechanical contraptions, favoring elemental channeling.

Speak Stone Draconic, a slow, resonant dialect heavy with grinding consonants. Often accompanied by hand-gestures tracing runes in the air.

A respectful greeting is a clasp on the shoulder, followed by a small pulse of inner heat — a sign they trust you enough to show their “flame.”

Practical leather aprons, rune-etched scale shirts, heavy boots. Formal gatherings see them don elaborate molten metal cloaks.

Believe each dwarf carries a “Heart Forge” — the place in their chest where their life-flame dwells. To betray family or craft is to crack this forge irreparably.

• Ignition Ceremonies: at adulthood, dwarves stand before clan braziers to have their first rune seared into their skin.
• Ash Feasts: held after volcanic eruptions, celebrating the renewal of the land.

• Dragonborn & salamanders: Complex, sometimes competitive, but bound by deep trade pacts and shared love of the forge.
• Elves & forest folk: Viewed as soft and fragile, though admired for artistic works.
• Humans: Find them hasty and impatient, but value their trade.
• True dragons: Treat them with cautious deference; molten dwarves have legends of even Emberdrakes seeking their best smiths.