Dwarves

These dwarves are about 4.5 feet tall and weigh about the same as humans do. They are about 25% stronger and tougher than humans, but are only about 50% as fast and 75% dexterous. Dwarves mature at the same rate as humans do, though because of their natural toughness they live about twice as long as humans. Dwarves are naturally brave, stoic, and hard working. When under the effects of alcohol, dwarves only have 50% of human agility but are completely immune to fear, even if its magically induced.

Dwarves are the most technologically advanced race available. They have Renaissance level technology including arquebuses and primitive cannons. They also have full plate armor that they can equip a fair number of their soldiers with. Dwarves can build underground complexes, but still must subsist on agriculture to survive.

Dwarven smiths can create a metal called adamantite. This metal is as heavy as steel but 50% stronger. Not every dwarf has access to this expensive metal, but officers, nobles, and elite units typically do - a total of 5% of your nation may arm themselves with adamantite weapons and armor instead of steel.

A few dwarves are born different from their brethren, weaker physically than other dwarves but having supernatural powers related to the earth. These dwarves are called gnomes. Gnomes are stand about a head shorter than dwarves and have only 75% of the strength or toughness of a human, though they are just as dextrous as humans. They can control the forces of the earth, stone and rock. They can lift and throw stone as if it were 1/100 the weight, meaning that they could toss a 1000 lb boulder as if it were a 10 pound stone. They can shape stone and earth like soft clay. Once a day they can cause earthquakes that will level weak buildings, this affects a 250 foot radius around the gnome. They can tunnel through the earth, creating a 3 foot diameter tunnel, at a speed of about 1 foot per minute. They can make their skin as hard as stone, reducing their dexterity and running speed by half but doubling their strength and making them highly resistant to injury.

5% of the dwarves in your nation will have a single rune upon either a weapon, armor, or on their bodies. Choose one such rune from the list below:

Iron Cutter - any weapon which bears this rune can ignore any armor which is made of iron or steel, the weapon merely cuts through ferrous armor as if it were aluminum foil. The weapon itself must be made of adamantite. Other armor, such as thick skin, leather, bronze, or armor of a magical nature will not be affected.

Earth Cutter - this rune is usually reserved for a weapon that can also be used as a digging tool, such as a pick. When struck by a weapon bearing this rune, earth simply gives way as though it had no strength at all. This allows the dwarf to dig or tunnel at ten times the normal speed. It is also effective against stone, causing 10 times the damage to stone that a blow from such a weapon would normally cause.

Shield Rune - this rune causes a shield, usually a large scutum style shield made of metal, to become completely immune to harm - both physical and magical. While the force of a blow may knock down or even kill the shield's user, the shield itself will be undamaged. The shield can also block spells or other magical effects as long as they can be physically blocked to the shield.

Demon Cutter - this rune causes the weapon it is etched upon to cause double damage to creatures of evil such as vampires or demons. It also can ignore the magical defenses of such creatures and damage from this weapon takes twice as long for such beings to regenerate.

Fire Ward - this rune is etched upon armor, causing the wearer to become immune to fire and heat of all kinds - though hell fire has half of the normal effect as it doesn't damage from heat alone.

Frost Ward - this armor rune protects the wearer from cold, making him completely immune to environmental cold and from attacks which utilize it.

Spell Ward - this armor ward gives the wearer a 50% chance to resist any spell cast upon him unless the spell or magical effect bypasses armor - like the death gaze of a necromancer.

Iron Mind - this rune is tattooed onto the head of the dwarf, it makes him totally immune to fear, pain, mind control, illusions, or any other mind affecting power or spell.

Arquebus Rune - this is a rune placed upon an arquebus' barrel. The rune causes the arquebus to never misfire and for the ball to fly 25% more accurately and with a 25% greater velocity.

Rune of Sustenance - this rune is placed into the flesh of a dwarf with a tattoo or branding. It causes the dwarf to have no need of food, water, or sleep and to be able to hold his breath for up to an hour.

Rune of Power - this rune is branded or tattooed onto a dwarf's flesh. It doubles his strength.

Rune of Health - the dwarf with this tattoo rune never gets sick, nor is he affected by any form of poison, disease, or such ailments. He heals at 5 times the normal rate and never gets infections or complications from an injury. Furthermore, the dwarf with this rune only suffers 10% of the effect of any necromantic power used against him - meaning it would take 10 necromancer death rays to kill him. Dwarves with this rune live twice as long as other dwarves.

Rifle Rune - this is a rune inscribed upon a rifle's barrel. This rune allows the rifle to be loaded as quickly and easily as an arquebus and causes it to never misfire.

The elite soldiers of the dwarven race are the rune warriors. Rune warriors have the ability to inscribe runes upon their armor and weapons, giving those items special magical powers. A rune warrior's plate armor is is made of adamantite and its runes make it resistant to all magical magic - spells, supernatural attacks, and even magical weapons have half of their normal effect on the rune warrior. A rune warrior's melee weapons are supernaturally sharp and can cut through any non-magical earthen material (including stone and metal of all kinds) as if it were a hot knife through butter. Physically, rune warriors have peak fighting skills and physical prowess for dwarf. The rune warrior also gets to select one of the above runes as well.

As king of the dwarves, there are several different specialties to choose from.

You can be a rune master. A rune master the most powerful rune warrior in kingdom. He has all of the powers of a run warrior plus several additional ones. The rune master has double the peak strength and toughness of any dwarf. His armor is three times as strong as steel and his blade can cut through any substance as easily as the air. With one month of work, he can forge a rune blade like those of a rune warrior - so given enough time he can supply numerous normal dwarves with runic blades that ignore non-magical armor. With 3 months of work, the rune master can scribe runes around a city's or a castle's wall which prevents teleportation past that wall or that wall from being affected by magic. With one week of work, the rune master can scribe a rune on any dwarf's armor making that dwarf only take half of the effect of any magic directed against him. In addition, a rune master has access to 3 special runes from the list above.

There is also the earth elemental. Given enough time, a gnome can eventually evolve into an earth elemental, a powerful creature made of stone and dirt. The earth elemental have vary its physical shape and size as long as it is touching the ground, from the size of a gnome to up to 10 feet tall and weighing 5 thousand pounds. It has the strength of 10 men, the same dexterity as a human, and has skin as tough as stone. They are also immune to pain, poison, thirst, hunger, and do not need to breathe. The earth elemental can heal its wounds by drawing strength from the earth, recovering all wounds within 10 minutes of such exposure. To destroy the earth elemental it must be smashed to pieces. Earth elementals can move effortlessly through the ground as if swimming in water. The earth elemental has all of the powers of a gnome as well. If an earth elemental is separated from the ground - by wood, metal, a living creature, or something similar - then it becomes merely a normal gnome and can be killed as such.

The last option for a dwarven king is the engineer. A dwarven engineer is only physically equal to the average dwarf, his abilities are the wondrous things he can design. A dwarven engineer can design a steam tank. The steam tank takes a great deal of time to build and resources, but is quite powerful as well. It takes five years to build a steam tank and only 1 can be under construction at a time for ever 10,000 dwarves in the kingdom. A steam tank has thick steel armor, 4 times as strong as steel dwarven plate armor, making it virtually immune to melee blows from humans or similar beings. It has a single cannon mounted in the front which is typical of cannon technology from about 1500. It runs best on coal but can also run on wood, it can travel about 1 mile per 5 pounds of coal or 10 pounds of wood and can hold 500 pounds of fuel at a time. While the trends of the steam tank allow it to go up relatively steep inclines or over rough terrain, it has a maximum speed of 10 mph on easy terrain and 5 mph on rough terrain and cannot cross rivers, through swamps, or breach thick walls. The engineer can also design rifles, a technology that allows a gun to be fired with much greater range and accuracy. One rifle can be constructed per month for every 10,000 dwarves in the nation. Another great invention that the engineer makes possible is a railroad. Trains can be made in place of steam tanks and allow for faster travel through the dwarven kingdom and greater economic prosperity as well as ability to move goods.

You begin with 50,000 normal dwarves. 50 gnomes, 500 rune warriors, and 2500 dwarves with a single rune. There can never be more gnomes than 1 per 1000 normal dwarves, more rune warriors than 1 per 100 normal dwarves, or more dwarves with one rune than 1 per 20 normal dwarves. If the king is an engineer, you also start with 500 riflemen and 1 steam tank.