Among humans and aelvar alike, we call them dverger (singular dverg), but the oldest inscriptions from Ithkathzi render the word as dovargr: a compound of dova (“foothills, piedmont”) and argr (“kin, people”). Over the millennia, dovargr in trade-tongues eroded to dverger: quite literally “hills-people,” an apt description for a people who build their great walled cities at the very feet of their mountains and then burrow inward for ore, gems, and the perfect stone for more walls and fuel for their crafts that they perfect through their entire life. Their clan-bonds are so tight-knit that even the wood-aelvar look loose by comparison.
Every young dverg is expected to leave Ithkathzi upon reaching adulthood, to practice a chosen craft abroad for several decades and bring back new methods and ideas. Those who remain in human lands, most often as mercenaries or weapon-smiths, are quietly regarded as having failed some unspoken duty, pitied by their people, more than hated. Their race refuse the use of magic entirely, banning those born with an aptitude from practicing and judging the risk of soul-fragmentation of a mage intolerable for a people who commonly live for four centuries. For the hills-people, it seems, even magic is unacceptable, despite its benefits.
— from the research notes of Zyr’Magi Tes’Lothen, “Magi the Blade”, high-aelv scholar, mage, and swordsman
