This was the axe age, right? Which suggests to me that we're talking about people capable of clearing forests, which means some kind of agriculture no matter how primitive--probably just "horticulture" as still practiced in a lot of third-world countries: intensive intercropping on small plots of land while the majority of the ecosystem remains untouched.
Though, of course, the "current" age is called the sword age, even though swords must have been around for quite a while before Connacht, so who knows?
Assuming we are talking about humans running around and hacking each other slowly to bits with crude axes, and that the dwarves were into high-D&D fetish drag (plate armor means steel and therefore the whole gamut of sharp, sharp edged weapons), I'd be willing to bet that the first era's conflict would have been between our diminutive friends and the ghols. No matter how primitive the ghols might have been at the time they would still have been advanced enough to carve the Godhead out of solid rock--which means steel implements as well, perhaps just stolen from the dwarves.
Here's my little story:
It was in the time Man calls the Axe Age, that Thufir Son of Sleipnir Son of Muggin came forth with his sword of blue shining steel and did slay the false god of the Gholish brute, yea, verily did he smite the twisty little deity, for his blade was sharper, his technology higher, and his people more organized. And the Gholish foe's horde did rise up in a prolonged and incoherent grunt, for truly, they were bummed totally out. And one by one they came forward and took each unto his breast a single piece of the Ghol false god, who had possessed the ability to throw metal objects that did damage actual; the ability he possessed no longer, for, verily wast he in small bloody chunks now, see, since the dwarf guy hacked him up.... well, uh, anyway, the gholish horde did gather in the pieces of their false god and held them close, and, when their new dwarven masters did taunt them mercilessly by either juggling bottles or jumping up and down and waving their arms, the gholish despondent horde didst cast the body parts at their conquerors, which wast truly gross; and verily, to this day, their descendants and their descendants' descendants' descendants do doest the same, which explaineth now why they will passeth by a perfectly good pus packet, yea verily, and instead throweth a pig's head at any passing zerk, for truly, the gholish brute is dumb, dumb, dumb, and canst not knoweth the differenceth.
And they all lived happily ever after, except they fought really nasty wars all the time and lived short miserable lives.
