OVERVIEW
Kuhban are short, broad humanoids with dense musculature, thick hair, and nails containing enough keratin to accept embedded gemstones. Their average height runs from 4 to 5½ feet, though their frames carry a heft that can surprise people who judge by height alone. All genders can grow facial hair, which Kuhban of Tarim-Shaiel style with care and regional variation — elaborate braids in the high mountain communities of the north, close-cropped patterns in the southern trade cities, woven through with tokens that mark clan and accomplishment.
Kuhban communities are found throughout Tarim-Shaiel wherever mountains, mines, or long-established trade routes exist. They are not a people of expansion; they are a people of depth. Kuhban families in a given location tend to have been there for many generations, and their knowledge of a region's physical geography, underground resources, and historical layers is typically unmatched.
Their longevity — up to 250 years — means that an elder Kuhban may carry direct memory of events others know only from records. This shapes how Kuhban communities handle knowledge: carefully, with citation, and with a strong cultural bias toward writing things down.
Ancestry Features
Kuhban skin and nails contain an unusually high concentration of keratin — dense enough to accept embedded gemstones, and resilient enough to take impacts that would cause more damage to other ancestries. Minor injuries that would slow others down tend not to slow dwarves down.
Kuhban physical constitution includes a capacity for deliberate resistance that goes beyond their frame. A dwarf who decides to absorb something rather than avoid it can reduce the damage through sheer accumulated hardness. Among people who have fought alongside Kuhban, this is considered one of their defining qualities.