Metallurgical craftsmanship
A power, one of the traits figures share. All traits.
Utility
6 figures
However, their true nature is more complex, as they are also celebrated as master craftsmen, particularly in the art of metallurgy.
He is listed among the craftsmen associated with the making of the most famous dwarf-work, and he is named in the verses that distribute the runes among the orders of beings — the runes going to the dwarves by way of Dvalin, as they go to the gods by way of Odin.
As smiths they mine and work metal underground and are said, in the wider dwarf tradition they belong to, to produce objects of unusual quality; as hazards to travelers they mislead people crossing the moors at night, luring them off safe paths with false lights or voices until they are lost, injured, or stranded till dawn.
Dwarves in this tradition are smiths and craftsmen who work underground, and Brock's role within that craft is specific: he works the bellows while his brother, the master smith, does the actual forging.
He is also credited in Basque tradition with teaching humans the arts of agriculture and ironworking, including the secrets of the saw and other tools, making him a culture-bringer as much as a guardian spirit.
Below that mythic ceiling runs the folklore: short but powerfully built beings who look old from birth — the males wear long grey beards, and the species is said to reach maturity at three years — living underground by preference, where they mine gold and precious stones and practice the crafts for which their name became a byword.