Kelnor

The children of the hills are a proud and strong people who have never known the ravages of imperfection. Kelnor possess a great boon, no natural, magical, or manufactured disease can harm them. Their children are always born healthy, whole, and well formed. They never grow ill throughout their long lives. Another strange effect of this boon is that kelnor do not scar as much as other peoples. Even the most heinous wound seems to leave little evidence given enough time. The children of the hills call this boon the Uten. This has made the kelnor the most populous and widespread of the dwarven people.   Despite these traits, kelnor do not typically see themselves as better than their neighbors. They regularly interact on all levels with those of other lands, cultures, and ancestries. In a like vein, the children of the hills travel and aid their neighbors more so than their insular cousins. Kelnor find a purpose in their toil and travel that brings a balance to their nature. Some of their people feel that to remain isolated is to reject the gifts of the Urth that gave them such strength of body. However, the Empire of Koth recognized long ago the kelnor resilience to diseases and made use of the power of their blood by assigning them to harvest rare materials throughout the lands it controlled.   Kelnor are much more likely to use whatever materials are at hand to craft and as such their craftsmyn are among the most versatile in the known realms. It is said that some of the children of the hills can sense the imperfection of materials that they handle with preternatural skill. Others claim that the crafters of the kelnor can leverage the Uten to create flawless works. Regardless of the reason, their craftsmyn are known far and wide as perfectionists accepting nothing less in their work.   The crafting of weapons is a special source of pride among the kelnor people. It is said that the mark of a kelnor master smith is seen as a testament to the perfection of the item and that such a gift is without measure.   Since the Bladeban, the children of the hills turned to the use of the axe as a favored weapon of war.