Baradun Dwarves

Baradun dwarves are the main dwarven family in Kaldenvold. Their name means "Godblood", as it is believed by all that when Morodin, the dwarven God of Creation, created the lands and sculpted the mountains, the cuts left on His hands dropped blood out onto the land, and this blood fertilised the plains and created the Baradun. Male Baradun dwarves generally live to the age of about 160, and females live to around 180. They are between four to four-and-a-half feet tall, and are generally obese although this is not due to health issues or overeating, but is infact a normal part of Baradun growth. Their hair does not stop growing until their death, and they are rarely seen bald, although their hair does become grey at the age of around 140 years. Baradun males rarely shave their beards, and also rarely style it and so they are often seen with a free-flowing beard.

Morodin is regarded as the dwarven God of Creation, and He is believed to have sculpted the lands, fertilised the plains, spread saplings across the land and filled the oceans with water and life. He designed and created all the species on Earth using different parts of his body, such as His hair or skin, but the Baradun dwarves were the only species created from His blood (the plains of Kaldenvold were fertilised by his blood). Little is known about Morodin's physical appearance as it is regarded as insulting for dwarves to try and portray him as they cannot show His true brilliance. However He is generally described as being very tall - His palms can cup the largest mountains. There were sculptures called the "Scenes of Morodin", and these were used to portray events caused by Morodin, although these always omitted Him from them to avoid being insulting. The creator of the Scenes is unknown, although they are believed to have been sculpted by a group of dwarves, and designed by Yurna Oakfist. The only remaining Scene is a sculpture in which a starving dwarf child is in the sea fishing when a large amount of fish are falling from the sky. This was carved from granite and shows the belief that Morodin was a merciful God.

Ten years ago, the main dwarven town in the land of Kaldenvold was a town called Aedver. Half of the town was situated in a ravine, and on the ground above there were wheat farms. The town housed the tomb of Dolseg and Vomna Firmheart, the first king and queen of the Baradun dwarves. The town had thrived for about 2,000 years and had expanded greatly during that time, and before its destruction it was home to around 60,000 Baradun dwarves as well as some other dwarves from foreign lands. The town generally tried to keep peace with everyone and as such it took no part in any wars, and was poorly defended. For this reason, it refused to let the Imperial army station a platoon of soldiers inside the city walls in order to ambush the Necromancers. This angered the Imperial government, who marched a 15-thousand man strong army to the walls of Aedver immediately. They were met by Nalgus Muladun, the city's governer at the time. He presumed that there had been a mistake and that the army had not received the message, and so he walked down to the city gates to meet the army. As soon as the gates were opened, the army charged into the city and killed him. Most of the city's population was slaughtered, and the ravine was left to collapse due to the low maintenance. Aedver can no longer be found by the naked eye, although its' extensive mine shaft network can still be seen in most ravines, and the chests in the mineshafts often contain gold, diamond and other treasures. In the Aedver attacks, a recipe for preparing Creeper meat was lost.

Baradun dwarves are rarely seen practicing in general magic, although they will gladly use items with magical enchantments and, if taught how, will also be glad to enchant the weapons. Most dwarves participate in mining and are uncomfortable living above ground, often feeling insecure. Baradun dwarves are generally adept at redstone engineering and will employ it in their everyday business, some using redstone-powered mining tools.

Baradun dwarves are now hard to find in Kaldenvold due to the fear imparted after the Aedver attack, which most dwarves believed to be a deliberate, unreasoned attack on the dwarven population. Because of this, they often find large cities and take badly-paid, low-class jobs in them, such as sewer cleaning, chef, or miner, so that they avoid social contact with humans. However, most humans do not have a problem with dwarves. They will not refuse to talk to humans, and will help them in need.