Baella Stonehall and Siggy Ironforge, the first Dwarves.

As a pair of fraternal twins, Baella and Siggy shared an oddity unique to multiple births; a conjoined soul. They were separated at birth by the custom of the human culture they were born in, and as is not uncommon in such cases, they gravitated to one another in adult life. Less commonly, they became lovers, knowing full well they were sisters, to say nothing of partners in all other matters.

Bother sisters shared a diverse portfolio of skills; Baella a brewer, stonemason, architect, siege engineer, tavern keeper; Siggy a huntress, warrior, metalsmith, leatherworker, adventuress. Both were notoriously short, but said to have heart for a woman ten foot tall, being fond of drink, industry, and fucking.

It was their unceasing confidence in their own appearances, ignoring their detractors and openly, ardently presenting themselves as sexually desirable and available, that attracted Beryl's interest. She put them to trials to test their ability to ignore slights and insults, to create and lead, and eventually appeared to them in the guise of a mortal elf, to see how they responded to someone far more traditionally beautiful than them.

Their response, which was to buy her a skein of strong mead and bed her together, made up her mind, and she granted them the authority to make a new race.

With some consideration given, the two decided to use Dwerves as a basis. None ever accused them of being blessed with an abundance of invention, but at innovation they excelled. Baella and Siggy began from Dwerven and Human stock, and the result is a short, squat but upright humanoid, with the powerful, muscular build of the Dwerves, with human articulation and speech, with a love for creation.

Dwarves were the result, stout, sturdy creatures, fond of drink, industrious and passionate, long-lived and gregarious. Dwarves despise the deplorable, primitive state of their Dwerven cousins, often trying (usually with mixed success at best,) to integrate them into Dwarven society, or alternately to wipe them out. They happily build in places others refrain from touching, under mountains and hills, under the earth if need be. And no, the women do not have beards.

Baella and Siggy are now one deity, sharing their goddesshood as they sharing soul, two personalities, two minds, two bodies; more than one, less than two. They remain lovers and staunch allies of Beryl DiNamic, lesser racial deities in close alignment to the Mother of Races. They often appear in properly Dwarven form, but just as often in the short Human form they were born with, and occasionally take the form of other small races. Aside from Dwarven worship, they are also venerated (usually with much swearing and vigor,) by tavernkeepers and blacksmiths.