Skoraeus Stonebones

Skoraeus Stonebones is the giant god of craftsmanship and that which is buried, and is the primary patron of the stone giants. The Great Creator, as he is called by the stone giants, has chosen them as his people, the underground as his home, and artistic achievement as his domain. Introverted but intelligent, the King of the Rock is the wisest member of the giant pantheon.

Description

Skoraeus's avatar appeared as a stone giant of great size (in some instances 24 ft (7.3 m) and in others 30 ft (9.1 m) tall) with granite skin and thick, muscled forearms covered in corded veins. Stone giant art depicted him either as a pair of hands, a chisel in one and a hammer in the other, or with the largest statue or relief carving of a stone giant in a tribe's domain. Typically he was depicted as twice as tall as any other stone giant, with some depictions known to go as high as 150 ft (46 m), and he might have additional features such as protruding spikes. Manifestations
Skoraeus was known to communicate through subtle changes in natural beauty, such as the coloration of rocks, the growth or pattern of stalactites, sparkling fountains, and the development of underground mosses and lichen.

Personality

Skoraeus is a withdrawn deity, generally a very dour and expressionless loner. Unlike most of his siblings he is generally disinterested in the affairs of giantkind and indeed doesn't really care for any race of beings, the sole exception to this rule being his obsession with the stone giants. Though he has his reasons for his seclusion, they are more self-centered and based on introversion than those of Annam All-Father.

Skoraeus is often considered the wisest of the giant gods, as well as the most knowledgeable (and he is deeply knowledgeable) regarding magics, wards, banes, hidden treasures, deeply buried wonders, and the secrets of the earth. By listening to the vibrations carried to him in areas touching rock, he can know everything that occurs there. Unfortunately for those who would want such information, Skoraeus keeps his knowledge strictly to himself.

Divine Realm

Skoraeus has no known residence in any given cosmology, though he is sometimes purported to lie at the heart of the world on the Prime Material Plane. In the Great Wheel, World Tree, and World Axis cosmologies he simply wanders, though in the second he specifically roams the mountains of Jotunheim, preferably the roots of those mountains, and the caves that lurk within them. In the third, he wanders across the vast, ever-changing mountainous regions of the Elemental Chaos.

Activities

Skoraeus often intervenes in the affairs of the stone giants to guide their development, but only sparingly dispatches an avatar to Toril. In the rare cases he does, it is to protect them, lead them to new homes, or even more rarely to lead them to (or away from) a secret magical cavern or treasure or rich veins of stones or minerals, the latter kinds of interference being legend among the stone giants. Rather than these direct manifestations, Skoraeus more often uses his preferred form of influence, his understated natural omens, signs only stone giants can discern, and his priests are capable of interpreting.

Skoraeus never ventures above ground, and cannot even be summoned there.

Worshippers

Skoraeus was typically revered by stone giants, who worshiped him as the Great Creator. In their minds only Annam was superior in skill, and in his absence Skoraeus (as opposed to Stronmaus, the more commonly considered de-facto leader) was the head of the giant pantheon.
Skoraeus had both priests and shamans, and to become the former required a certain level of fortitude. Priests of Skoraeus were known to be gifted spells related to elemental earth, such as stone shape, stoneskin, passwall, flesh to stone, and stone tell. Other powers granted due to their close connection to the earth were spike stones and wall of stone, though the cost of these expanded powers was the ability to cast spells associated with other elements, such as resist fire or water walk. For priests of Skoraeus, the raw caverns of the Underdark were practically alive, with every geographical feature a trove of information regarding location, direction, and distance.
Skoraeus was a popular deity in the wilds of the Galenas and the Earthspurs, and travelers of those mountains would often find huge stone cairns built in honor of the King of the Rock. His followers believed stone giants to be the true rulers of the mountain passes, and included not only giants but also goblinoids (the term in this case including creatures like ogres), though since goblinoid of tribes that worshiped him had a longer life expectancy than those who didn't, it was debatable how much of that piety was sincere and how much was pragmatism. Medusae (and their male counterparts the maedar) did not worship Skoraeus, though they did respect the Living Rock.

Dogma

To followers of Skoraeus beauty was truth and knowledge was power, with secrets the ultimate power and the Underdark a large treasure trove of secrets. Stone giants believed that drawing shapes out of raw stone would reveal meaning inspired by Skoraeus. The greatest stone carvers of a tribe were appointed and honored as leaders, shamans, and prophets, their holy hands said to literally become those of their god as they worked.
Priests of Skoraeus spent most of their time either meditating or creating intricate sculptures or friezes. They generally isolated themselves from the rest of their tribe, but believed it was their duty to oversee societal affairs and ensure that the stone giants were constantly making greater artistic strides and intellectual discoveries. As per the teachings of Skoraeus, they believed the most certain way of guaranteeing this was to isolate stone giants from all other races, even the other giant races, urging tribesmen to shun interaction with outsiders on the grounds that it might distract from their artistic pursuits.
Exceptions to this general rule of isolation did exist; priests of Skoraeus would tolerate other giants and individuals who could add to a tribe's mastery of craftsmanship and lore. Even so, the grave and serious priests especially avoided other giants and ultimately sought to create a stifling orthodoxy that looked inward and repulsed outside influence. Around the time of the coming of the Twilight Spirit and renewed calls for Jotunbrud unity and rebuilding Ostoria, the priests of Skoraeus had to work harder than ever to achieve their goals, with many stone giants finding it difficult to ignore the outside world.
Like priests, stone giant shamans cultivated aloof and indifferent behavior. They believed that the happenings of lesser mortals were to have little influence on stone giant affairs and regarded both law and chaos with suspicion, possessing an inclination to reject the overtures of either force.
An ancient tradition among the people of Hartsvale said that Skoraeus would swallow those who took ore from an unconsecrated vein.

Clergy

The traditional dress of Skoraeus's clergy were skins, with the head kept bare.

Temples

One stone giant grotto in the Ice Spires had two enormous braziers flanking the main entrance which burned with blue, otherworldly smoke, and which were kept burning every day in tribute to Skoraeus. According to their legends, the braziers dying out was a sure sign of an omen for Skoraeus, the two most recent (though still incredibly rare) examples being the poisoning of Othea and the death of Hartkiller and the storm giant paramount who fought him. Deeper in the grotto, was a secret sanctuary used by the high priest of Skoraeus for vigils and prayers.
The xenophobic stone giants of the Greypeak Mountains believed Deadstone Cleft was sacred as it contained an ancient temple of Skoraeus and a magical stalactite known as the Steinfang. The stone giants carved questions into the stalactite believing that the responses that came from it were from Skoraeus himself, though in truth the replies were from an evil earth primordial, Draunn, trapped under the Greypeak Mountains since the dawn of time.

Rituals

Where they were in power, clerics of Skoraeus required any giant who violated their god's teaching, even those pledged to another deity, to atone through meditation. Normally this was required for somewhere between one to five hours, though the varied with the seriousness of the offense, and most giants, even those of other faiths, tended to follow this custom when in a Skoraeus stronghold just to humor the clergy, as not doing so often resulted from loud, annoying, and repeated rebukes.
Once every three months or so, the priests of Skoraeus ventured down into the Underdark alone, without any provisions, on a sort of vision quest. During this time they were believed to be gifted messages and instructions by Skoraeus in the form of omens and dreams, always returning fairly unharmed within four days.
Shamans of Skoraeus were not required to make sacrifices or undergo trials to increase in strength, generally living as they pleased, though they could not attain the same heights of power as his priests. On occasion, however, an extremely devoted shaman sacrificed all their possessions to him, keeping not a single coin or potion. When such a shaman reached the height of their power as such, Skoraeus might decide to grant them the power to cast earthquake (a spell far beyond their regular capabilities) once per month, which aside from taking ten minutes to cast and affecting a 60 ft (18 m) diameter behaved as a regular earthquake spell. Only 1 out of 20 of the most powerful shamans had this ability.

Relationships

Skoraeus was one of the many children of Annam All-Father by way of an unnamed sky goddess. In many giant legends he was said to have sat on the sidelines while his other siblings schemed or fought. He acted as an observer and a confidant to all parties, keeping their secrets unless forced or tricked into divulging them, though in the past he was also known to use his knowledge to help them in one way or another.
Skoraeus was known to occasionally consort with the dwarven pantheon as well as the gods of the svirfneblin, though these were dealings done out of necessity rather than desire. In particular he was allied with the deep-dwelling dwarf god Dumathoin, as well as the earth god Grumbar.