I discovered a facinating article on a website called TVtropes regarding our beardy ale-bags. What I have discovered is disturbing, but I suggest you read it for yourself:
Our Dwarves Are All The SameTypical DwarfYou know them. Gruff, gold-loving, blunt-speaking, Scottish-accented, Viking-helmed, alcohol-swilling, Elf-hating, ax-swinging, long-bearded, stolid and unimaginative, boastful of their battle prowess and their vast echoing underground halls and mainly just the fact that they are Dwarves.
Ever since Tolkien did his thing with some modified Norse myths, the Dwarves (not dwarfs, who are just short humans) have been rolling off the assembly line as the same basic model. And since The Film Of The Book(s), they now even all talk the same. An entire race of miners and blacksmiths, with names like Dwarfaxe Dwarfbeard and Grimli Stonesack, overly sensitive about any percieved slight, always spoiling for a fight, and unable to speak two sentences in a row without calling someone "lad" or "lass" (and in some cases, only the dwarves themselves can distinguish between their own lads and lasses, based on one in-joke from Tolkien's wastepaper basket). In the last couple of decades, they will often be depicted as more technologically minded than other fantasy races, verging on (and sometimes overtaking) Steam Punk, but this is in keeping with their engineering and crafting skills both from the classic Fantasy depictions and from actual mythology.
Despite his 'small' stature, the dwarf will often serve as The Big Guy of a fantasy Five Man Band, especially since his Weapon Of Choice tends to be either an axe or a hammer.
From:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame-----------------------------------------------------------------
My issue with this summary is thus: Dwarf Fortress has built a reputation around breaking expectations of the fantasy world; to wit:
-Totally new Kobolds
-Cannibal Elves
-Evil Humans
-No Magic
-Dwarves only
-Final DetrnsnfbMy point is, as it stands Dwarf Fortress'
Dwarves remain the most derivitive of all the races.
Of course, they remain leages ahead of the photocopy fest that is WoW or Everquest (though that may be like accusing Casablanca as being "full of cliches") but the fact still stands that Dwarf Fortresses are chock-full of Axebeards. Urist Libashdurad, to be precise. Please, prove me wrong, people!
Oh Snap! I need to read more...