Justifying Short Surface Dwarves?

What would cause a short fantasy race, like dwarves, hobbits and/or goblins, to maintain their smaller size outside of the environment that produced it? I know that the exact height of these races fluctuates between different examples, but what would cause the average height in a setting to stay roughly the same, or not change at all, if, say, a population of dwarves moved out from their underground home and emigrated somewhere else? How could you justify them remaining small without the environmental factors that provoked that development or any real genetic exchange with the dwarves that remained?

posted almost 7 years ago

The Literary Lord‭

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