Racial equipment
Race variants
Weapons can have various race variants: Dwarven, Elven, Orcish, or Demonic.
Dwarven weapons are more resistant to corrosion than normal weapons. Dwarves do slightly more damage with dwarven weapons. Randomly generated dwarven weapons have 50% chance of being +1 to-hit, and 50% chance of being +1 to-damage, so dwarven weapons generally have better +x,+y bonuses.
Elven weapons give to hit bonuses to elves who wield them. They also have a chance of getting up to +2 to-hit bonus.
Orcish weapons give damage bonuses to orcs who wield them, followers of Beogh get even higher damage bonuses as their piety rises. And they have a 50% chance of getting -1 to hit, and a 50% chance of getting +1 to damage.
Demonic weapons have very strong base types. They are not variants, but a different type of weapon. Demonspawn get a bonus using demonic weapons.
Of course, all weapons have a chance of being enchanted. However, the race weapons have a chance of getting a little bit more.
History
Race variants were removed in 0.14.