Codex: Dwarves

In-game description: Short, stocky, stubborn, and reclusive.  Dwarves are shorter than humans and generally not as well socialized due to their sometimes hermetic lifestyles, but their excellent eyesight in the dark makes them well suited to a cave-dwelling lifestyle.

Average male height: 4'6" (136 cm)
Average male weight: ~119 lbs (~54kg)

Notable traits:
A handful of dwarves (less than 1%) are born with white irises.  All Dwarves are able to see in absolute darkness, making them excellent miners.  The down side of this, however, is that some Dwarves have difficulty seeing in brightly lit conditions.  They have hair color mostly the same as humans, although redheads are more common, and a good number also have gray or white hare even at a young age.  All male Dwarves wear some form of beard and mustache if given the chance, with braids and fanciful patterns being common.  Some Dwarves develop tough, leathery skin, and a scant few suffer from a condition that can harden it to an almost stone-like composition.  Their skin tends to keep lighter tones, with the darkest-skinned Dwarves still having little more than a healthy tan.  Dwarven women are rather famously busty for their height, a reputation which they aren't shy about in the least.

Physical traits:
Dwarves tend to be somewhat heavy for their size, with barrel-chests and thick, strong arms.  Despite their height they aren't lacking for strength, and their low center of gravity lets them leverage it extremely well.  Dwarves generally live into their hundreds, with some pressing even to 300 years old.  Unlike some other long-lived races, Dwarves retain their vitality throughout their entire lives, peaking physically around 60 years and then declining slightly until reaching a plateau at 100.

Society:
To outsiders, Dwarven society is at best mad and at worst absolute anarchy.  Dwarves rarely have any kind of formal hierarchy or rulership, with virtually every Dwarf being able to trace their heritage back to some prince or other royal.  If anything, Dwarves operate mostly by communal agreement, and while a single physical city might consist of a great many Dwarves, these will be divided into many 'wards', each bent towards a specific task.  Put simply, like minded Dwarves attract each other, and they tend to be too single-minded on accomplishing their tasks to bother fighting.

Culture:
The largest consequence of being quick to breed and long-lived is that Dwarves are practically suicidal compared to other races.  They have no problems throwing themselves into dangerous situations, whether it's mining without properly supporting their tunnels or getting drunk and trying to kiss a bear.  Beyond this, Dwarven culture tends to revolve around three things: metal, architecture, and madness.  The famed Dwarven ingenuity is largely a product of long lives devoted to a single idea which may or may not be possible in the first place.  If nothing else, it has lead to the greatest triumph of the Dwarves, which is their metallurgical knowledge.  Hundreds of years of experimentation has lead Dwarves to mapping the exact process of refining and combining metals and alloys, measured down to the weight of a grain of sand and the exact construction of the tools, and yet they have not found the finding perfect tin alloy for dinnerware.