Spinel dwarves' aetherial power allows them to craft stone and climb cliffs. They also have the power to navigate storms, manage ships in bad weather, and predict weather. They gain aetherial power from crafting ships of stone and wood, and from sailing in any kind of weather. The pattern aether can overwhelm them, so they often have to have a release for it.

All dwarves are known for their steady feet, their inborn toughness, and their shrewdness.

Spinel dwarves are sailors and shipwrights. They live along the coast and revel in storms and fog. They are master navigators and talented meteorologists. They live in great coastal cities centered on fishing and industry.

Spinel dwarven have large clans made up of many families, though families sometimes opt out and join another clan that better suits them. Clans are led by elders, who choose three members of the clan to attend the city councils. The councils answer to a thane, who comes from a hereditary line of thanes. The family of the thane has blood of every clan and is thus considered neutral. If as thane dies without heirs, a new thane is chosen from one of the clans that has blood from every clan by the city councils.

There are many guilds among spinel dwarf society, and these guilds answer to and fight with the city councils. They are keen on contracts, and if someone breaks a contract with them, they never work with them again. However, they often break their own contracts. The shipwright guild is the most powerful and the only guild that spans multiple cities. Most are locally focused.

Every city has a school system that is run by the city councils and paid for by clan taxes. Every school system teaches children until they reach maturity. Universities are run by clans, guilds, or the religious orders. The religious orders are usually locally focused institutions.