So I got to thinking the other day, and I don’t actually remember the first time I encountered a dwarf in literature or media. Maybe it was Snow White? Or something else? I honestly have no damned clue. But whatever it was, something about them immediately called to me. Funny, stubborn little guys who liked to mine? Yeah, that seemed pretty cool.
The more I picked up on them, the more I liked. Master craftsman, solid beards, hairy, stout, enjoy their beards? Arrogant, but not trying to convert or change others to it? Yeah, that definitely seemed cool. Long-lasting friendships and grudges? These guys definitely seemed pretty chill to hang with. Natural skeptics of magic and things they couldn’t prove, while standing firmly behind the idea of their own hard work.
Naturally, I played a dwarf in anything I could, at least for my first character. Any game I roll into, I pick the stout, stubborn, bulky character option, usually a Warrior or Fighter or similar melee class, and name it Bane Falcon. Hells, it was even to the point that any time I went into my old comic and gaming shop, the owner would sneer at me and grunt out “No Dwarves allowed!!”
To go along with my affinities with the race, I also picked up the natural dislike for elves. Not that I’m any sort of mindless barbarian, but the sheer slender beauty, the too-delicate approach, the high and mighty aristocracies, and almost blinding focus on the finer arts just doesn’t do it for me. Dwarves can have their own beauty… a more earthy, rugged, solid one. I prefer to take the blunt approach whenever I can, straight and to the point. And Dwarven artwork is just as beautiful as Elvish, with the added bonus of being effective, or able to drop down a mountain.
I’m now to the point where I’m basically stylizing myself after a dwarf. A fan of the ale, and the craftings thereof, a good burly beard, and surrounding myself with fellow merry dwarves (and maybe a token elf and tiefling). But give me the choice to live in a fantasy world, and my first question is what their mountain clans are like, and how well do they craft with stone, or fight with hammer and axe.
-Bane Falcon
“You can kill a dwarf, but you can never vanquish one.”
The Driveling Dwarf 
For the longest time, Dwarf was my race of choice too. That’s all I played in EverQuest and I played two for a bit in EverQuest II. I’ve just always liked their attitudes, as I never really identify with elves anyway.
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