Dwarves are a race of stocky, robust builders who live in underground communities called thaigs. Their once strong numbers have been diminished by ages of war with the darkspawn. Most thaigs are now empty, and the vast network of tunnels known as the Deep Roads that connected the thaigs are mostly sealed and overrun with the darkspawn, even in the absence of a Blight. The dwarves now primarily inhabit two thaigs: Orzammar and Kal-Sharok. Others live in exile on the surface.
The Children of the Stone are a stout race both shorter and broader than most humans. They also tend to have a stronger constitution; sickness is almost unknown among the dwarves. However, their proximity to the darkspawn takes its toll on the population. Those who survive encounters on the Deep Roads often suffer from corruption-caused infertility. The result is an ever-dwindling dwarven population that is small by surface standards.
Living underground, the dwarves have superior vision in the dark. Their rocky surroundings also give the dwarves another unique quality: the walls of many caves are laced with lyrium, a mineral source of magic in Thedas. Living in close proximity to lyrium for so long, the dwarves have developed a natural immunity to magic. The downside is that this exposure also makes it impossible for dwarves to wield magic. Dwarves who live on the surface will lose their protective immunity over time. Despite this, no known dwarf, surface or therwise, has managed to weild magic.
Before the Blights, there were dozens of thaigs, each with a healthy number of inhabitants. Though each thaig enjoyed autonomy, the race was largely united and kept a proper capital, first in Kal-Sharok, and latter in Orzammar. Their world beneath the world was all but destroyed by the First Blight. The darkspawn attacked the dwarves first, using the Deep Roads to systematically sack dozens of thaigs. As the thaigs fell, the darkspawn spread underneath Thedas and eventually reached all ends of the continent. Several dwarven kingdoms were destroyed completely. However the four largest- Orzammar, Kal-Sharok, Hormak, and Gundaar- survived by working together and sealing off key roads. After more than a hundred years, the Grey Wardens slayed the Archdemon that spurred the Blight and drove the remaining darkspawn back underground. For surfacers, the generations-long battle was over, but the Blight continued for the dwarves. In - 15 Ancient, the dwarves of Orzammar sealed the last of the Deep Roads leading into their kingdom. The old capital of Kal-Sharok was assumed lost, along with Hormak and Gundaar.
To discuss the culture of today's dwarf is to look at the dwarves of Orzammar, as there is no other place where dwarves exist in such significant numbers. The other major center, the recently rediscovered Kal-Sharok, evolved in isolation, and the cultural effect of so many ages apart from their brethren is still largely unknown.
Among Orzammar dwarves, single-mindedness is both a signature strength and weakness. Their ability to dedicate themselves to a cause has allowed them to survive in conditions that would kill any other race and has given rise to a level of technology that far surpasses anything else in Thedas. Examples of thin ingenuity include dwarven clockwork, mechanical weaponry and steam power.
Orzammar society is divided into ridged casts of nobles, warriors, smiths, artisans, miners, merchants, servants, and surfacers. A dwarf is born into societal role. Only those born to Smith Caste parents may become blacksmiths, and a male servant who marries an noblewomen will never be a noble himself. His daughters will be nobles, and his sons servants, for daughters inherit the caste of their mother, while the sons inherit the caste of their father. The caste system in Orzammar includes many groups of privilege, nobility and warriors are above all others.
Merchants, smiths, artisans, and miners are of slightly less nobility, but are still considered upper class. The Servant Caste is lower and there is the also the underclass of casteless. These descendants of criminals and other undesirables have their faces branded to mark their rock bottom status in dwarven society. Casteless dwarves are denied the right to work any honest job. Instead, they are forced to eke out meager living as beggars or worse, simply to survive. The dwarves on the surface are also considered casteless once they leave Orzammar, although this is only relevant to those who return-if they are allowed to return at all. Many surface dwarves become members of the Merchants Guild, a powerful union that trades dwarven goods with the surfacers, dwarven crafted armor and weapons are considered the finest in Thedas.
The order of the Shaperate is dedicated to preserving the history and knowledge of the dwarves. There are three kinds of Shapers. The most prominent is the Shaperate of Memory. Based in the noble quarter of Orzammar, it's main purpose is to record and keep the essential records known as Memories.
There is also the Shaperate of Stone, which keeps mundane records of work and marriage, and the Shaperate Golems, which is largely defunct.
Shapers are encouraged to travel the Deep Roads and seek out long buried historical truths, making the job far more dangerous than that of the average librarian or bookkeeper.
Numerous thaigs once existed, built under every major mountain range and connected by the Deep Roads. Only Orzammar and Kal-Sharok survived the ages of Blights.
Orzammar
Orzammar rests in the Frostback Mountains, which created a natural border between Orlais and the western outreaches of Ferelden. It is a huge underground metropolis of more than one hundred thousand dwarves.
The thaig's layout is determined by its strict caste system. The king's palace and Assembly halls sit highest, in a tier known as the Diamond Quarter. which is also home to the Shaperate. A complicated system of stairs and passages cut down from the Dimond Quarter, through the noble areas, to the Commons, and finally to the casteless slums of Dust Town.
The dwarven Merchant Caste has the most influence in the Commons, where the many works of Ozammar's craftsmen are bought and sold. Connected are the Proving Grounds, ancient venue for the public settling of dwarven disputes. The Commons is also where visitors to Orzammar spend most of their time, it being the thaig's center for trade.
Bellow the Proving Grounds is the broken down Dust Town. It is a haven for crime, organized and otherwise. Orzammar guards cannot be bothered to patrol its streets, many in Dust Town turn to drink, specifically the toxin lichen ale so common in the quarter.
Kal-Sharok
Nestled beneath the Hunterhorn Mountains, the kingdom of Kal-Sharok was once the capital of the dwarven empire. Its close proximity to the Tevinter capital of Minrathous led to a strong bond with the Imperium, contributing to the military and infrastructure of the burgeoning human nation.
As humanity's influence spread and the Imperium weakened, the dwarven capital was moved to the southern thaig of Orzammar. This was the first of many blows to the dwarves of Kal-Sharok. When the Blight stuck, they were among the hardest hit. A robust people, they survived only to be eventually abandoned by Orzammar, whose leaders saw it in their best interst to abandon Kal-Sharok, in the interest of self-preservation.
Early in the Dragon Age, Kal-Sharok was rediscovered. Residents of the former capital had subsisted for ages in complete isolation. King Endrin Aeducan, then respected king of Orzammar, was the one credited with restoring contact. Relations between the two thaigs have since been tense at best, with Kal-Sharok's leadership yet publicly forgive Orzammar for its actions.
Generations of isolation mean that dwarves from Kal-Sharok don't share the relatively recent cultural influences of Orzammar's extended interactions with the surface. The two thaigs share the same base language, but Kal-Sharok has a regional dialect that draws more on an older manner of speech, less influenced by the surface. Kal-Sharok does not place the same emphasis on castes, and members of it's Assembly can come from any family.
Kal-Sharok dwarves still honor ancestors called Paragons, but they do not recognize the Paragons of Orzammar, just as Orzammar does not recognize theirs.
The dwarves of Kal-Sharok have been slow to let outsiders in. Scholars are only now beginning to understand what they had to do to survive so many ages in isolation.
Forgotten Thaigs
Dozens of thaigs were destroyed during the Blights. In the ages since, much of the history that survived in other thaigs has been lost. Some thaigs, like Kal'Barosh and Varen, are barely remembered-even their locations are unknown. Others, like Ortan and Cadash, have been uncovered and explored.
The roots of many dwarves in Orzammer can be traced back to houses in lost thaigs. For these houses, and the Shaperate that struggles to keep their records, it is considered a great discovery to learn the names and fate of a lost thaigs's people.