And now for something entirely different.
The Forgotten Realms, or Faerûn, is often held in contempt for being a completely unoriginal kitchen-sink setting where anything and everything has a place (races, creatures, et cetera). This not false, since it comes with being the "default" setting for D&D. However, the in the early Realms there were some interesting details which made it stand out. Such as the below:
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting said:
Like the elves the Dwarves are a people whose numbers have been dwindling. In their case the overall population has been declining since the days when the dragons controlled the lands of Cormyr, and the Sunrise Mountains still spouted flames and steam.
The reason for this decline is twofold: For ages lhe Dwarves have engaged in wars bordering on the genocidal, fighting against other races, such as orcs and goblins, who sought out the same caverns and mines the dwarves considered their homes. In those ancient days a live orc was competition both for treasure and for living space, and dwarven armies fought and died to protect and expand their realms. Unlike the goblin races, however, the Dwarves were slow to recover their losses, and in time their numbers have diminished so that in another millennium the Dwarf may join the Duergahydra in extinction in the Realms.
and
FR11 Dwarves Deep said:
The Doom of the
Dwarves
The tragic secret of the dwarves is their low birthrate. Fear of clan extinction sometimes drives dwarves to raid human settlements for mates, or even to deal with slavers. The dwarves are usually in search of human women, because the low dwarven birthrate is thought to be due to low fertility among dwarven women. The offspring of a human and a dwarf is always dwarven enough to pass for a true dwarf (although it may be a foot taller than other dwarves). Any offspring it may in turn have with a dwarven mate will be fully dwarven, reverting to usual dwarven height. The taking of human mates is the secret salvation of the race referred to by some dwarven elders.
When taking those quotes into consideration, and that the typical life span of a Dwarf is about 350 years (as could be seen in, for example, in PHBR6 The Complete book of Dwarves, 1991, page 8) it means that the northern, typical Dwarves which frequent the Baldur's Gate games will join the Dodo in three generations. There's also not a single Dwarven kingdom of note anywhere on the map (where most campaigns or games are likely to take place). It is not only the Dwarves themselves that die out, but their culture, too.
Consider that during your next play-through of the predecessors!
World-building such as this is what makes a true RPG, and should really be the focus of any new Baldurs Gate game - not if it will be possible to fuck an interdimensional alien up the arse.