The Stone

"Drink deep of the ale while it's still cold. Marvel at the breadth of the hall. Once you couldn't move for the host. The Stone now embraces them all."

- Shaper Tole

The dwarves believe that they are the Children of the Stone, born of the earth itself. According to Shaper Czibor, this veneration of the Stone has been practiced for two thousand years by the dwarves. They refer to the Stone as "she." Being practical, the dwarves venerate her, but do not worship her as a god. The Stone is believed to be a living and a shifting entity with a will that surrounds and guides the dwarves. She supports them, shelters them, and offers them the most priceless gifts of the earth, such as ore, gems, and Lyrium. But she is not pure, for she bears a corruption as old as balance. For the dwarves to prosper the gangue—the waste and unstable rock—must be cut away from the raw Stone, as must the dwarves carve the worst of themselves away.

The Stone's Influence
Dwarves experience an unique and all-encompassing relationship to their progenitor, the Stone. They are born of it, they serve it in their deeds, and they feel its impact upon their lives in many ways. The Orzammar Shapers who maintain written records in lyrium are said to document the Stone. Dwarves from the mining caste who are able to find lyrium veins by ear claim that they hear the Stone sing. Before the darkspawn, the Stone once held an empire—dozens of thaigs—and according to the dwarves, Dumat was sleeping deep in the very Stone itself. The dwarves who fight the darkspawn, including the Legion of the Dead, are believed to fight for her and to protect her from the darkness.

Returning to the Stone
Dwarves entomb their dead to return them to the Stone. Nobles and Paragons are entombed in vast and elaborate crypts and great and doughty warriors are more commonly entombed in stone cairns. Dwarves of lesser means are buried in mausoleums in which the dead from many Houses are interred together.

The spirits of the worthy who were not blind to the Stone's influence and lived by her are believed to return to and to rest in the Stone after the words of the last ritual are said. In death they become The Ancestors and make the Stone stronger. They are deemed to speak to future generations with the voice of the Provings. The most worthy, the Paragons who are the greatest examples of lives spent in service to fellow dwarves, are believed to join with the Stone in life and to become the living Ancestors.

The unworthy are said to be rejected by the Stone so that their failings may not weaken her. These include surface dwarves who lose their connection to the Stone and the favor of the Ancestors. Dwarves believe that they are unable to rest, and after their death they become rock wraiths or other restless spirits.

Trivia

 * The dwarven notion of the Stone doesn't contradict the idea that a creator might have created the Stone itself. Dwarves just don't believe that.
 * Tug's axe in Leliana's Song has "The Stone lives beneath Orlais" engraved on it. The same phrase is repeated by the Nexus Golem in Dragon Age II.