When most people think of dwarves they think of mountain dwarves. Living in tall mountains or vast hills allows them easier access to useful minerals and superior defenses. The abundance of ore leads many mountain dwarves to become smiths, especially weaponsmiths and armorsmiths. Exporting these goods is frequently the cornerstone of a thriving mountain dwarf economy. Indeed, there are many stout folk that trace their lineage to fallen dwarven kingdoms of old, dreaming of restoring lost glory even if the present is already affluent enough. 

Mountain dwarves are very traditional and follow rigid marriage rituals, with some matrimonies arranged two generations in advance, and they are just as detailed and demanding in the keeping of historical records. There is a saying: “The sky will drop before a mountain dwarf forgets a slight.” While these grudges can be kept for generations, the same is true for favors. If you help a mountain dwarf, you might not live to see the debt repaid—but your descendants surely will. 

Having good weapons and armor is no use if you cannot utilize them. Mountain dwarves are all trained in combat, which allows them to see their work put to use—and to personally understand the importance of quality weapons and sturdy armor. You can trust an armorsmith whose life depends on their work. 

Characters raised in the mountain dwarf culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Dwarven Weapon Training. You have proficiency with the battleaxe, handaxe, light hammer, and warhammer. 

Dwarven Armor Training. You have proficiency with light and medium armor. 

Heart of the Forge. You have resistance to fire damage. In addition, you gain proficiency in Engineering.

Mountain Born. You’re acclimated to high and low altitudes, including elevations above 20,000 feet or depths below 20,000 feet. You’re also naturally adapted to cold climates. 

Stonecunning. Whenever you make a History check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and gain an expertise die to the check. 

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign Common, Dwarvish, and one other language.

Even with the myriad of cultures present to choose from, there will always be those who prefer to march to the beat of their own drum. A lone wanderer shirks all connection to the cultures and communities around them in favor of making their own path. No two lone wanderers are alike, even those that might share a heritage—they all have their own personal goals, superstitions, and traditions. Because of this, lone wanderer culture is the most diverse as well as the most disjointed. You will never find communities that share this culture, but occasionally, when forced together, lone wanderers who can manage to get along can form nomadic groups. 

Choosing this culture does not mean you forego having any personal connections, however. Lone wanderers can have families, former mentors, or old friends which may have influenced their decision to stake it out on their own, or that may make them regret it. 

Characters raised as lone wanderers share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Culture of My Own. You have rejected other cultures in favor of building your own. You gain four skill or tool proficiencies of your choice. 

Heirloom. You carry a family or cultural heirloom. Choose one weapon worth 100 gold or less. You begin play with a masterwork version of that weapon.

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign Common and two additional languages.

In a forgotten corner of the Dreaming lies a territory called the Twilight, a silent world perpetually under the dim light of the setting sun. This place is home to the kithbáin, or the twilight-touched, halflings who’ve lived for generations in half-light, filling up its silence with the voices of ken. There is no sound in the Twilight but one’s own thoughts, and after long enough, the thoughts of others. 

Kithbáin clachan communities aren’t built as separate homes like halfling boroughs—there’s no point. There’s no notion of secrets or privacy in the Twilight, not when the entire community’s inner thoughts are broadcast for all to hear. The kithbáin live in a single communal structure, mentally connected and in constant silent conversation. Life in a clachan can be eerie, but it’s also open and honest. Lies, theft, crimes of passion—they’re all pointless. 

Clachan gates are unassuming things, a pair of trees twisted to an arch, the wicker door in an old forgotten stone wall, a gap in the unworked natural stone. Stepping through a clachan gate takes you to another world, and locks you out of the place you left behind. Each gate leads to a different isolated pocket of the Twilight ringed by a border of terrible dead woods. Clachan gates are always open from the Material Plane, but only open back towards it at celestial convergences. So when an outsider stumbles through they must choose between braving the woods and the Dreaming beyond or staying for months (or even years) and becoming twilight-touched themselves. Those that finally leave their clachan often find the material world harshly bright and empty, severed from the thoughts of their fellows. 

Characters raised in the kithbáin halfling culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Superior Darkvision. The range of your darkvision increases to 120 feet. If you didn’t have darkvision already, you gain darkvision to a range of 60 feet. 

Sunlight Sensitivity. You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Perception checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight. 

The Ken. Once the voices of the ken fill your eyes they never truly leave you. You can cast telepathic bond without the need for material components once per long rest.

Without Secrets. Living with the ken amongst a clachan means living exposed and without secrets, intimately aware of the true meaning of every spoken word and privy to those unsaid. You are proficient in the Insight skill, and you gain an expertise die on checks made with it. 

Languages. You can speak, read, sign, and write Common, Halfling, and Sylvan.

Some wanderers may not have grown up with a single place to call home. Their culture is a mix of many, allowing them to see things from different angles and perspectives. Always outsiders yet able to blend in with ease, such folks benefit from the wisdom of a wide range of peoples, customs, and places.

Characters raised as itinerants share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Blending In. You are used to blending into a new culture. You gain proficiency with the disguise kit.

Conscientious Socializer. The first time you interact with strangers in an unfamiliar land or region, you gain an expertise die to the first Charisma check you make. This trait does not work on groups if at least one person in a group knows you.

I Know Someone. You gain one additional connection, which you can choose from any background other than your own.

Many Cultures. You gain proficiency in Culture. In addition, choose Intelligence or Wisdom. Choose Intelligence or Wisdom. You gain an expertise die on ability checks using the chosen ability score that are made to understand the social customs of, interact with, or recall knowledge about individuals, objects, or environments associated with any culture or society you have been surrounded by for a month or longer. 

Motive and Reason. The reason why you have a home away from home tells a unique life story. Choose one of the following:

Homeland Seeker: Stories of a lost magical homeland are constantly on the minds of your community. Like many others, you have joined the effort to locate this place of legends. You gain proficiency in Arcana and History.

Labor Migrant: You, or your ancestors, came in search of honest work or because your skills were in demand. You are proficient with a set of artisan’s tools and one skill of your choice.

Shadow Exile: You left your country under mysterious circumstances. Are you a wanted criminal, a spy, or a self-exile? Only you know your motivation. You are proficient in Deception or Stealth. If you pick Stealth, once between rests you can make a Stealth check to replace a Perception check. If you pick Deception, once between rests you can make a Deception check to replace an Insight check.

Refugee: By great misfortune, you and many others left your homeland so that you might survive. You are proficient in Survival, and when in an urban environment can roll Survival checks when using Intimidation or Persuasion.

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign Common and three additional languages.

Great civilizations provide shelter and comfort. As empires and kingdoms grow and the corners of the map are filled in, the dangers and threats beyond the ever-expanding borders can seem more distant and irrelevant. Safety is assured, the next meal is never found wanting, and many living these sheltered existences do so confidently knowing that things will go on as normal, and that the days, weeks, and months will pass uneventfully to blur together into a humdrum life. 

Many in the heart of a nation live quite comfortably, and though there are always discrepancies in wealth and power even the near-destitute enjoy comforts and luxuries unheard of in distant colonies. Healing and schooling, relatively safe streets at night, a law and order that generally works for them rather than against them—all are taken for granted as a base living standard. 

In the largest empires where one can travel for weeks without seeing a border, much of what goes on in the outside world fades into myth. Great winged fire-breathing lizards? Such things would surely be too heavy to fly. Undead horrors? Simple fairy tales told to scare children into behaving. 

While humans are some of the most prolific empire builders, countless others hold the titles. There are dwarven holds so deep and vast that generations can live and die without seeing the sun, and elvish kingdoms so isolated from the outside world that even the multitudes of humanity have faded into myth. These pockets of safety and shelter can crop up anywhere there are strong forces and the determination to push danger outward, though those raised within are often woefully underprepared for what lies just outside their walls. 

Characters raised in the imperial culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Conscript. All subjects of the crown must register for the draft, but many go ahead and serve in the guard. You are proficient with light armor, spears, and light crossbows. 

Learned Teachers. Those at the safe center of empires often have privileged access to fine teachers and the opportunity to follow their interests. You know about the past, at least as told by your people. You gain proficiency in History and one other skill of your choice. 

Local Healers. Citizens at the heart of a nation often see more healers and clerics in a year than a remote villager sees in a lifetime, and your medical upkeep has made you resilient. Whenever your hit point maximum or one of your ability scores would be reduced, it is reduced by half as much instead (minimum 1). 

Languages. You can speak, read, sign, and write Common and one other language.

Some dwarves never settle in underground kingdoms. They live in surface communities, trading, learning, and creating. Known as hill dwarves, they are gregarious, friendly, and worldly. 

No dwarves are more social and artistic than hill dwarves; after all, it’s easier to sell your goods if people like you. While they don’t consider art to be creation in the same sense as crafting something from a forge, hill dwarves share a deep love for music, poetry, theater, and literature. Many a song or play about the rise and fall of mountain dwarf empires was actually written by troupes of hill dwarves. Their live-and-let-live attitude makes their caravans loud, flashy, and fun. 

Hill dwarves frequently engage in fist fights to solve minor issues, and would much rather end the day with a black eye than risk making an enemy out of a friend. They don’t harbor grudges and don’t expect that others do so against them; curiously, other dwarves sometimes have trouble trusting hill dwarves because of their willingness to forgive and forget. 

Characters raised in the hill dwarf culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Community Magic. You know the friends cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast charm person once per long rest. At 5th level, you can cast suggestion once per long rest . You don’t need material components for these spells, and when casting them your spellcasting ability is Charisma.

Friendly. You are proficient in either Deception or Persuasion. 

Wagoner. You are either proficient in either Animal Handling or with land vehicles. 

Ways of the Land. You are proficient in Survival and gain an expertise die on checks using it.

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign Common, Dwarvish, and two additional languages. 

From seamless marble towers and brightly lit castles carved into mountainsides to modest cottages made grand with intricate style, high elf culture takes credit (sometimes incorrectly) for the magnificent architecture for which elves are known. Elvish architectural masterworks are remnants of a once vast high elf empire. While many such structures are maintained by high elves and those under their charge, far more lie abandoned, ruined, or claimed by invading forces. High elves live in the twilight of their golden age. 

Their past accomplishments bring high elves great pride that can manifest in arrogance, narcissism, and self-righteousness, but it can also become a drive towards intellectual leadership. Some high elves (and many of their followers) would love nothing more than to see themselves restored as world rulers. Others realize the new era calls for subtler forms of influence, and they entrench themselves in non-elf institutions to train outsiders in the ways of wisdom. For the sake of preserving ancient knowledge and guiding civilization, high elves (and those trained in their ways) often serve other groups as advisors, librarians, military officers, and teachers. Individual high elf adventurers often seek to recover or preserve some ancient treasure, and their tyrannical counterparts might usurp foreign institutions or consolidate power for a war of unification. 

Characters raised in high elf culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Cunning Diplomat. You can always choose to use Intelligence when making a Deception, Insight, Intimidation, or Persuasion check. 

High Elf Education. You are proficient in Culture and one additional skill of your choice. 

High Elf Weapon Training. You have proficiency with rapiers and longswords. 

Magical Versatility. You know a cantrip of your choice, which can be chosen from any spell list. Your spellcasting ability score for this cantrip is Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (whichever is highest).

Language. You can speak, read, write, and sign in Common, Elvish, and one other language.

The godbound were raised among the faithful. Such communities vary from temples and monasteries to massive theocracies that span entire continents, their rulers either divine or the anointed representatives of greater entities. 

The nature of your faith community can vary by theology, structure, and goodwill, and the environment might be egalitarian or hierarchical. Most religious peoples strive towards virtue, but even they pose the risk of abuse, and at the heart of certain communities lies a dark secret or conspiracy the likes of which might shatter the faith of any follower. 

One’s religion of birth need not always be their religious identity. People leave their religious communities for reasons both good and ill—some faiths send trusted envoys on missions, and others are destroyed by stronger forces. Communities also exile or punish members who commit sins, though some are nurturing, caring cultures which emphasize the wellbeing of all. 

Characters raised in the godbound culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Bonus Connection. You have one additional connection, selected from the Acolyte background. 

Detect Faith. You are trained to detect even the most subtle indications of a person’s religious perspective. After you speak with a person for at least 1 minute, you can use an action to make either an Insight or Religion check opposed by their Deception check. On a success, you learn the following information about them:

• Whether they have a lower Wisdom score than yourself.
• Whether they are religious; if so, you also learn their faith.
• Whether they have class levels in the cleric or herald class. 

Devotion. You gain an expertise die on saving throws made to resist being charmed or frightened . 

Arts of Worship. You are proficient with your choice of either Performance, two musical instruments, or two artisan’s tools.

Religious Education. Your community is steeped in scripture, song, and storytelling. You are proficient in the Religion skill and know one cantrip of your choice from the cleric, druid, or herald spell list. Your spellcasting ability score for this cantrip is Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (whichever is highest).

Siblings in Faith. You have advantage on checks made to socially interact with members of your current or former faith, such as when requesting services or gathering information.

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign in Common and one other language.

In world-shaking catastrophes where magic, disasters, and monsters ran rampant, there were those that gritted their teeth and adapted to survive rather than flee their homes. Such cataclysms are now stories of a distant past, and descendants of the survivors continue to channel and embrace the unpredictability of the magical energies surrounding their ruined lands. 

Despite having lost most everything—sometimes more than once—these people remain optimistic. They are not bound by tradition and are the culture least likely to be obsessed with the glory of past kingdoms. 

Forsaken characters are forced to grow up quickly. They often get married after short courtships and form big families—most of them are nonmonogamous. However, they are still relatively suspicious of outsiders. After all, no matter how bright the future might be the bitter sting of grief lasts a lifetime. 

Characters raised in the forsaken culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Fleet of Foot. Your Speed increases by 5 feet. 

Eat Like a Bird. You grew used to eating very little. You can go a number of days equal to half your Constitution modifier without suffering any fatigue from lack of Supply.

Improvised Tools. During a long rest, when you have access to raw materials you can jury-rig an improvised tool kit. If you roll a 1 while making a check using the improvised tools or the next time you take a long rest , they break. 

Pack Rat. You can carry your whole house on your back. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity. 

Roll With the Punches. After you fail an ability check, you have advantage on your next ability check. You can’t use this trait again until after you finish a short or long rest . 

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign Common, and two additional languages.

The forgotten folx are even more secretive than the notoriously reclusive forest gnomes. These communities almost always share a strong, familial bond with each other, even those they aren’t related to. Entire villages raise children communally, provide for each other, and survive primarily by bartering craft goods. These settlements have a lot of love to give and are more than happy to take in wanderers or adventurers who stumble across their homes. Because of their open and caring nature, it is not uncommon for relationships among forgotten folx to include multiple partners—of all genders and heritages. 

Most who leave this culture do so to become merchants and provide their crafts and talents to more people, or out of a desire to see the “real” world. It is common for young adults to be encouraged to go on a sort of sabbatical to experience life outside of the community, bringing back new technologies and goods upon their return. 

Characters raised in the forgotten folx culture share a variety of traits in common with one another. 

Eyes Everywhere. Thanks to your experience supervising children, you have a knack for keeping track of your companions. As long as an ally is within 60 feet of you, you always know their general location even if you cannot see or otherwise sense them. This effect is blocked by 1 foot of lead or iron and magical effects like the nondetection spell. 

It Takes a Village. You can use the Help action as a bonus action. Additionally, when you do so, the range at which you can Help an ally increases to 15 feet. Once per long rest when you Help an ally, in addition to granting advantage you may also choose for your ally to gain an expertise die . 

Languages. You can speak, read, write, and sign Common, Gnomish, and one other language.