On the right hand side of the screen, you'll find your dwarf overview. If not, please click on this little arrow:



Otherwise, the character bar shows you all dwarves available:


Your dwarves might be busy though and not available for any missions, for example, when they're "cured" by the doctor, busy with training or too exhausted.

P = Pause, Mission Cooldown
Z = Health Time
T = Training Time

You can also see why your dwarf can't be selected in the mouse over, of course, which also informs you about the time, when he'll be available again. As long as they're busy or exhausted. the character will be grayed out if you want to start any adventures in the meantime:

Click on a dwarf you'd like to equip and the character menu will be opened:



For Dimrond, I've already selected some equipment. The character menu will tell you everything you need to know about your dwarf and hence makes red tape with all its mountains of files superfluent. (As a first class leader, you don't need that anyway!)



On the left side, you have the character's stats:


On the right side, you can see the skills available (in my case - none). Hence they're grayed out and locked. Go to the trainer to unlock the special skills of a dwarf and foster his hidden talents. As usual, you can use the mouse over:

Of course, your troops will soon also include real heroes!

These can be distinguished from the others easily, as they're names are golden:



You can find some heroes on the map, and others come as a bonus (including armor) when purchasing crystals! The special thing about heroes is that each of them has a unique skill, no other dwarf has. By levelling them, they can become a really powerful help for your team!