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[PTTG??]

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 Same

Typical Dwarf
You 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
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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 Detrnsnfb

My 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...}

[Pilsu]

DF's Dwarves don't actually like fighting, even slaying slugmen is traumatic to them. Combine that with their manic depressive tendencies and they're quite unique

It's really the player that makes them use hammers and hate elves, they're in pretty decent relations with the zelves most of the time. Would be more so if the damn animals in cages were fixed so a slight breeze wouldn't kill them. Cold region summers apparently cause brain damage too

[Aqizzar]

Indeed, Dwarf Fortress breaks a lot of those traditions.  For instance-

-Dwarves are absolutely terrified by any non-civilized or wild creature, no matter how harmless it is, or how impossible it might be to reach the dwarf.
-Conversely, drafted dwarves will charge to their doom against foes they could not possibly defeat.
-Dwarves are traumatized by any 'unexpected' death, even if it's a creature they're fighting.
-Conversely again, dwarves have no problem chopping of heads for food, and can build an entire economy around the industrial scale slaughter of animals, especially fast-breeders like cats.
-Dwarves are fantastic, yet idiotic wrestlers.  Quite capable of taking down any living foe given enough time, but likely to waste it breaking fingers and toes.
-Dwarves have absolutely no sense of priorities.  If a stone needs moving, then by Armok it will be moved, no matter how much booze needs brewing.
-Ironically, they also have no sense of work ethic, immediately leaving any task, no matter how vital or long, if they think a break is in order or they feel the slightest pang of hunger (including giving up on butchering an animal to hunt down vermin).
-Likewise, as battle-ready as military dwarves are, they'll abandon post in an instant if they need a drink or a nap, and won't give it up unless the melee spills onto their own bed.
-Dwarves that stay underground too long become violently allergic to sunlight.  No other fantasy milieu has that.
-Dwarves don't drink booze because they like it, they drink it because lack of alcohol makes them slowly ill and lethargic.  Again, original.

[Spoggerific]

DF's Dwarves don't actually like fighting, even slaying slugmen is traumatic to them. Combine that with their manic depressive tendencies and they're quite unique

I disagree with this. Dwarves have the [liKES_FIGHTING] tag last I checked, which gives them the "Took joy in slaughter recently" though when they kill someone.

[Tormy]

Indeed, Dwarf Fortress breaks a lot of those traditions.  For instance-

-Dwarves are absolutely terrified by any non-civilized or wild creature, no matter how harmless it is, or how impossible it might be to reach the dwarf.

Wait what? Dwarves are civilized?! Depends what we call "civilized". Dwarven mothers and fathers are ecsatic even if they loose all of their kids, just let them eat in legendary dining rooms...or what about the hammerer who tends to beat the crap out of everything because of nothing basically? 

[TakiJap]

Usually dwarves are depicted having high moral values, strict laws and much respect for ancestors and traditions.

In DF:
- Dwarven justice = beating/hammering
- Dwarves are quick to anger and when they do, they forget everything they know of right and wrong and kill attempt to slaughter everything in sight.
- No respect for life, not even for their own.
- Nobles are over the law.
- It's not uncommon for dwarves to accidentally kill their sparring partners.