The dwarves built this universe from the coal and the bone and the mountains. From grit and hard dirt and the ores of the flaming fields. From the foundations they helped craft the pillars that gird and undergird this world, shaping all its deep caverns, finding and keeping holy its rich resources. They are great and deep powers beneath the soil, stone-solid, rock-dependable, unmovable when they take a stand, being stocky stubbornness in creation and defense of deep, bottomline structure undergirding goodness in the world. Immediately discerning intent in the deed, they see the soul in its gritty, grounded reality of sin or virtue, and various intermixes between. Not what is wished for, but what is, they see, and through long, hard work of the ages, with geological time on their side, they craft great, real, lasting magicks.
The dwarves are not fooled easily. For this reason they may come off as cynics, or deep, grumpy philosophers of the spade and bone, root and rockwall. Because they lay foundations, they can bestow lasting peace, peace based on reality and stability. Deceit and ill-intent, no matter how packaged in lofty ideals or good wishes, does not please them. They do not deal with denial. They are hard-consequence hardliners, and therefore drive a hard bargain. It is difficult to even get them to come to the table if one hasn't proven one's seriousness and straightforwardness. They do not make deals with nonsense, and in fact quite deliberately ignore it. People who say one thing and do another earn their contempt. They pay attention only to true worth, that which has already been proven through action and hard-testing. They are Sons of Mimir, the Great Binder and Tester who demands freista for anything to show forth its truth. (Even Odin must do so!) Many fear such a crucible. However, if one can establish one's good faith and credit with them through long right, good will, they are actually very generous and the staunchest of allies.
They do not give away for free, but once at the bargaining table, they will give a generous and fair bargain, giving not only treasure but nuggets of hard-won and valuable wisdom as well, of which they have much to spare. However, like in the Grail tests of legend, those who come with an impure heart for ill designs of greed or desecration are never allowed to approach, let alone touch, their heartlands, and they well know the magicks to lead people into their own wicked illusions wherein they are trapped and many do not escape. They do this not from ill will but because they are charged with caretake and guard of the world's sacred, to which they give full value and against which they evaluate the worth of others.
They do not disrespect selfishness per se, so long as it is straightforward, honest, and proceeding out of one's own nature and is capable of good satiety. Such groundedness is necessary to come to the table. But greed which oversteps good selfishness or disguises itself in deceit? They give short shrift to such imperialism, however masked. They will look at stated ideals and compare to actual treatment of those who make possible an enterprise --- its miners, its workers, its custodians, and so forth, and will ever place deed above word. Those who prove their mendaciousness whether intended or no through claiming virtue while doing vice and cheat and ill bargain to the miners and crafters of raw material, or who in other words prove themselves beneficiaries of exploitation, doing anything to achieve their gain, putting aside true self-reliance and good trade based on honest deals and fair bargain, grounded in genuine respect for what is sacred in the world, will seldom receive a second audience with them, however harsh that may seem. Sometimes we are judged as nations and not individuals, and that means we must take care in what kind of people our leaders are, and what they are doing in our name, for the dwarves care little whether we as individuals are actually the initiators in the exploitation of other nations or no ; all that matters is whether we were involved, and participate in exploitation or deceit, which earns their contempt.
The elves have faith in potential and woo it out ; dwarves trust reality and authentic history. If you rise in actual worth, they will pay attention and possibly give heed if you make good on where you previously slacked in your duty to the world, but they give little heed, unlike elves, to what remains unexplored promise. They are capable of seeing right through you to your genuine resume. they have had to deal with Loki, and are wise to him, so no amount of dressing or rhetoric will spellbind them. Dwarves are extremely pragmatic. They only pay attention to what you have actually done, and what your real intents are. Unmined potential with no serious intent to refine is given no seriousness by them whatsoever. They can be quite severe with sin, because it is real, and they are cognizant of the reality of consequences upon the planet. There is no beating their no-nonsense nature of stone. Yet one could not find, if one can, firmer friends, and for this, their alliance has often been sought.
