Hephaestus

Hephaestus is an interloper deity of artisans, craftsmen, and smiths who originates from another plane of existence and is considered rather obscure outside of Alternia.

Description

He was considered by some to be the only unattractive deity within his pantheon, due to having a club foot and hunchback. He bore a resemblance to hill giants and had a full beard. He stood roughly 20 ft (6.1 m) tall.

Hephaestus's avatar usually took the form of a muscular human male with shaggy, dark hair and untrimmed beards, with some kind of physical deformity.

This deity typically wielded a 9 feet (2.7 meters) warhammer that had a +5 flaming burst enchantment.

Personality

Hephaestus is a very peaceful and generally benevolent deity, but this could be confounded by his sensitivity towards his deformity.

He highly values and teaches the virtues of hard labor, honesty and dependability. He emphasizes loyalty to family and whomever else it is due — such as superiors, just rulers, and most of all elders. He encourages his followers to tackle their problems with vigor and persistence.

Divine Realm

Hephaestus lives and works within a volcanic section of Mount Olympus, in the divine realm known as Olympus. This volcano is situated in an area where volcanic activity is quite common. His workshop has animated chairs and tables.

Activities

Hephaestus spends much of his time crafting armor, structures, tools, and weaponry for the other deities within his pantheon. This includes forging the thunderbolts that Zeus hurls at his enemies. His most preferred metal to work with is adamantine, as he works best with extremely hard metals.

His avatars are often sent to observe volcanic eruptions and witness or assist in epic feats of smithing.

Worshippers

Hephaestus had very few followers, some of which included dwarves.[note 2] His followers were typically artisans, craftsmen, and smiths. Because he had so few worshipers he sought to treat them very well, often crafting them gifts in the form of adamantine armor, shields, and weapons with a +5 enchantment.

The priests of his faith typically wielded hammers as weapons and wore a leather apron as part of their priestly vestments. They were often skilled in creating and repairing magical armor and weapons. In their temple smithies they worked alongside the worshipers of Hephaestus, encouraging finer production, offering or receiving training, and developing new forging techniques. When not working at their forges his priests were charged with maintaining civic life, performing a wide range of public ceremonies.

Before anyone was accepted into his clergy, Hephaestus would send his avatar to see how they reacted to a deformed individual. Those who did not show kindness would be rejected. For one of the duties of his clergy was to help the crippled and disabled of society.

On Toril, the dwarves of Faerûn occasionally showed reverence for Hephaestus, due to him representing powers of smith-work and the earth, but this was only a rare occurrence.[note 2]

Temples

Temples and shrines to Hephaestus typically had a fire that was kept perpetually lit. Most also included a smithy or other workshop. His temples tended to resemble gigantic smithies as well.

Relationships

Hephaestus had many cyclopes that lived inside his volcanic mountain home with him, assisting in his craftsmen activities. They were a gift to him from his mother and were far more intelligent than the standard cyclopes. Other creatures that lived with him as helpers included efreeti and fire elementals. In addition, the tunnel entrance to his lair was guarded by a red dragon.

He was one of the closest allies of the dwarven deity Dumathoin and was supplied by him with adamantine ore.[note 2] The gnomish deity Nebelun occasionally visited him, offering advice and help, and at times they created incredible items together. Some claimed that Hephaestus had an ongoing rivalry with other deities who had the forge in their portfolios, but little was known about it. And Goibhniu, the Celtic deity of blacksmithing, often compared notes and skills with Hephaestus.

Although he was married to Aphrodite, Hephaestus had affection for Athena, but she either didn't notice or chose to show ignorance.

History

After she had discovered that Zeus was having multiple affairs, his wife Hera created Hephaestus wholly from her body. When Zeus discovered this, the god was so furious at her insolence that he hurled Hephaestus down on to the Prime Material plane, where he impacted so terribly that his body was injured, giving him a clubfoot and hunchback. Some time later he reconciled with Zeus and became a welcomed member of their pantheon.

Hephaestus went on to marry the Olympian goddess Aphrodite under the order of their fellow gods, who reasoned that the two of them needed divine consorts. When Hephaestus later discovered that she was vying for the Olympian known as Ares, he fashioned and entrapped them within a net. Then he invited their fellow Olympian gods over to mock them.

Hephaestus

Intermediate deity

Basic Information

Titles

God of Smithing and Crafting
The Lamed

Pantheons

Olympian

Attributes

Alignment

Neutral Good

Symbol

Hammer and anvil

Realm

Olympian Glades of Arborea/Olympus/Mount Olympus/Hephaestus' Forge

Portfolio

Crafts, Smithing

Favored Weapon

Warhammer

Following

Worshippers

Artisans
Blacksmiths
Craftsmen
Carpenters
Goldsmiths
Mechanics
Smiths

Alignments

LG, NG, CG, LN, N, CN

Domains

Artifice (Construct, Industry, Toil)
Good (-)
Earth (Metal)
Strength (Resolve)

Favored Aspects

Animals/Plants

Bulls

Colors

Bronze