Dwarves

Dwarves

Dwarves on Yent
Generally Dwarves and the Yentish get along pretty well; the Yentish admire Dwarven craftsmanship and both groups respect the other's love of combat and contempt for wizardry. There are a handful of Dwarf settlements throughout the island, most of them mines. But most Dwarves on Yent live in small communities in human towns, where they make a living plying their trades.

Most disputes between Dwarves and Humans are economic. Dwarves have aggressive haggling customs, and often feel like it's their natural right to out-compete humans in their chosen crafts. A dwarf might move to a small town with one smith, buy an anvil off him, and set up shop next door, never acknowledging that this is a hostile thing to do. Dwarves are often run out of human towns by force.

Canonical facts about Dwarves
Dwarves have a very slow digestive system, four times slower than a human's.

Dwarf Society
Almost all Dwarves, even those living far abroad, are nominally subjects of the High King and are considered subject to his laws wherever they may be in the world. In practice, Dwarves outside Dwarven lands are totally independent, but will leverage their well-known loyalty to their high king to get out of things they don't want to do (claiming they can't do military service because it would conflict with their oaths, etc).

The Dwarvish Language
Written Dwarvish is stark, elegant, and relatively easy to learn; fluency in spoken Dwarvish is almost impossible. In addition to its baffling tone system and complex throat-vowels, it's extremely contextual - Dwarves'll drop 4/5ths of the words in a sentence and expect you to know what they mean.

Dwarf Creation Myth
Dwarves believe that they were created by Bosht as his imitation of and improvement of humans.

It's said that Humans were created without Bosht's knowing. At first, Bosht was angry to see these chaotic little freaks wandering around his creation, and vowed to exterminate the beasts, but he changed his mind when he encountered Grerry, a short, sturdy, bearded man fond of drink and industry; something in this cheerful little nerd reminded Bosht of himself. So charmed was Bosht by Grerry's plain and humble ways that he used him as the model for a race of his own, the Dwarves, who were to be like humans but better in every way - longer lived, less chaotic, etc.

Dwarves believe that when they die, Grerry will be waiting for them. Grerry is not considered a god per se, but the Dwarves believe he is the only being close enough to the enigmatic Bosht to convince him to do certain things. They believe it is only by Grerry's merciful pleading that Bosht does not drown this world. It's said that Dwarves were sent to live in the harsh land of Brena because humans had already settled everywhere else, and Grerry was too soft-hearted

This legend is little known outside dwarf lands, and human scholars have dismissed it. Meniard historians claim that Dwarves were originally creatures that lived deep underground and, several thousand years ago, came to the surface for reasons forgotten, whereas Dwarf tales claim that the dwarves were originally a surface-dwelling people who only dug into the earth out of necessity.

All Dwarves go to Heaven
Because Bosht likes Dwarves, he made a special plane for them to go when they die, filled with things that dwarves enjoy. Instead of facing the underworld, every single dwarf just goes straight to this wonderful place when they die. Grerry rules over this afterlife, cheerfully drinking ale and playing games with millions of his little clones for eternity.

Again, this is purely according to Dwarf folklore, but the difficulty in magically contacting Dwarves after death compared to other mortal humanoids suggests they go somewhere, at least.