Stronmaus

Stronmaus is a neutral good greater deity of the giant pantheon, known as the Ordning, holding the portfolios of the sun, sky, weather, and seas. His titles are the Storm Lord, the Thunderhead, and the Smiling God.

Description

When Stronmaus manifested an avatar, it was as an incredibly tall and muscular giant, standing up to 80 feet (24 meters) tall. Forever with a smile on his face, he had blue eyes and auburn-red hair that was wavy and flowing. He wore but a simple white robe of silk with golden edges. A statue of Stronmaus standing in a storm giant temple in the undersea fortress of Maelstrom instead depicted him as a bare-chested storm giant with a beard of foam, an imperious expression, and a lower body that was no more than a massive wave, with a trident in his hands.

Personality

Stronmaus is a god full of life and energy—the very power of life itself flows strongly through him. He is joyful and laughing, and always smiling because he simply can't help it and he displays his great energy in dramatic ways. He loves to conjure mighty storms across the Beastlands, rejoicing in the rains and lightning and cheering with the thunder he produces with his hammer. But this can be terrifying for those unready for it and his exuberance, Stronmaus can forget his strength and might. Despite his generally jubilant nature, he is reputed to have times of deep brooding and gray moods. Stronmaus is much like his father, Annam, but younger, more vigorous, good-natured, carefree, and cheerful, which makes the All-Father proud and pleased with his son. However, he shares his fickle lusts also.

Divine Realm

Stronmaus lives in the divine realm of Stormhold, which, in the Great Wheel Cosmology, can be found in the Beastlands in the midnight layer of Karasuthra, though it is believed by some to be attached to Gudheim, Annam's former realm in Ysgard. In the World Tree cosmology, it is in the plane of Jotunheim. He is the most powerful and most influential god residing in the Beastlands. Although Stronmaus wanders the Beastlands as he wills, he keeps his castle in Karasuthra simply because he appreciates the way the light of the moon of the Beastlands, Noctos, reflects off his gold-adorned marble battlements, making them glow. It stands atop a roiling thundercloud that can be flown about the layer, steered by several mortai attendants who rumble and shoot lightning bolts at one another in a form of conversation. There is always at least one mortai here. Sign of One members on the Beastlands debate the ties between Stronmaus and the mortai. They also wonder just how the cloud can even carry the castle, whether it is Stronmaus's power, the mortai's will, or something else that is behind it. In Jotunheim, the cloud is a brilliant white and hardly ever casts rain or storms onto the land below, and though its shadow is vast, the sun shines brightly above it.

Stormhold is a grand cloud palace built of marble the color of a storm cloud's silver lining, which is gilded with pure gold and adorned in gems and platinum. It has soaring towers and spires and is constantly lashed by storms. Within is a magical opal pool, potent with healing magics, that appears only 100 feet (30 meters) or 500 feet (150 meters) long to those outside it, but endless to those swimming in its waters. Any being whom Stronmaus permits to swim in it has all injuries healed, all missing parts regenerated, and all health and conditions restored. Stronmaus likes to swim here with his divine friends Hiatea, Surminare, and Trishina. In the skies above the palace and across the Beastlands, Stronmaus likes to fly with Aerdrie Faenya, Remnis, and Syranita, as well as with his mortai companions.

Communities of those cloud and storm giant petitioners who worshiped Stronmaus in life can be found throughout the cloud. These form camps and congregations of extended families. They spend most of their afterlives in the open air, miles above the ground. They gather cloud-stuff and essence of storms for Stronmaus's dinner.

Stronmaus is one of the most likely of the gods of the Beastlands to issue power keys, which allow the use of certain spells that are otherwise inhibited or prevented, such as magical flight. His are metal tokens resembling lightning bolts, or else are tiny glass pendants containing miniature storm clouds. All who come to Stormhold receive the effects of resist heat and cold. However, getting there is very difficult, as magical flight fails on the Beastlands.

Activities

With Annam's withdrawal into seclusion, Stronmaus takes an ever greater interest in the affairs of giants and his fellow giant gods, and he calls out their misdeeds and destructive feuds and so on. In time, he is managing the affairs of the whole Ordning, yet he has no desire to rule it. He happily yields the role to his father as soon as he comes back.

Being an adventurous god, Stronmaus often sends avatars to Toril and the Prime Material plane for various purposes. He sends them to interfere in the schemes of Memnor, owing to their enmity, or to aid his god friends when their peoples are threatened. He might go in disguise as a typical storm giant traveling between their steadings to meditate with great storm giant shaman-priests, but they always know him for who he is. But he also likes to just go for a walk through forests and remote mountain areas, taking in the clean air and the elements, and sometimes visiting storm and cloud giant communities. He is also known to send avatars simply to court and seduce beautiful giantesses who have attracted his interest. By custom of the giant gods, he never interferes directly or obviously in the affairs of giants, but often acts indirectly if it means having adventures. He also regularly roams the mountains of the Beastlands and flies through all its layers stirring up storms alongside his mortai companions, sentient cloud-like beings.

His omens are storms and lightning, clouds of unusual shape that partially hide the sun, and direct warnings of coming evils.

Worshippers

Stronmaus was the patron deity of good storm giants and cloud giants, particularly those dwelling in the Ice Spires, and he was much loved by them, but he was seen as a god of sea or sky of some sort by giants of all races. Stronmaus was a great fisherman to the hill giants, a bold sailor and explorer to the frost giants, and a thunderous storm god to the cloud giants. Some aarakocra in the North respected Stronmaus. He was also followed as a nature deity by some druids and rangers of the Realms and was venerated by humans in Hartsvale, with priests such as Simon.

Dogma

Stronmaus's faith focused on the cleansing and redeeming effects of rain and that freedom is the greatest gift in life. Cloud giant followers stressed that good-natured merriment was the essence of life. Meanwhile, storm giant followers believed life was a test of will, that one must atone for all sins. Their own god's constant smile was seen as a mockery to them, so he was sometimes depicted with a more imperious expression.

Clergy

Cloud Giants

More of a typical hierarchical priesthood, the cloud giant priests of Stronmaus were proud and well-organized and were commanded to clear the skies of all evil creatures. However, they were also required to be wealthy and well-dressed, and to make and wear fine jewelry. As the quality of one's clothing and jewelry was an indicator of rank in the clergy's hierarchy, junior priests were expected to dress well, but too well. They were also expected to have some skill in an area of the arts or music. There were no shamans among them. The few members of other giant races who venerated Stronmaus had similar priesthoods.

They received special powers to fly for twice as long as normal, conjure a wind wall, and cast major creation.

Cloud giants who worshiped Stronmaus scattered handfuls of incense and spices to the winds every morning. Twice every year or so, they declared a sacred sky hunt (omjag in the Giant language) to battle evil sky creatures such as chimeras, wyverns, and chromatic dragons. The slain beast was then ritually offered to Stronmaus. Storm Giants

In contrast, the storm giant 'shaman-priests' of Stronmaus were shabbily dressed and solitary ascetics, mystics, and visionaries who saw one another as equals, regardless of what magic or other skills they had, with no hierarchy or formal clergy. Only storm giants followed this path. They felt themselves to be born with a gift, but must actualize it with inner journeys and harsh self-denials and suffering. To become one required they undergo a grueling personal initiation rite, such as journeying to a sacred site atop a cold, deserted mountain peak, fasting to the point of starvation, and meditating there for 100 days and nights. They spent much time in meditation and had close affinities with creatures of sea or sky, as befit them, and kept animal companions. Their philosophies were highly advanced and subtle, contrasting with an almost childish or playful aspect in their recounting of mythological stories and their companionship with beasts.

They received special powers to charm natural avian or aquatic animals. After an hour of meditation, they could summon an air elemental or water elemental sometime within the next day for an hour; sea-dwelling giants could only summon water elementals. Finally, they could call for a vision from their god once a week, with greater accuracy and no risk of offending him. They too could cast lightning bolt as a divine spell.

Storm giant worshipers of Stronmaus held grand ceremonies in which they proved their ability to withstand and overcome the challenges of the world, including significant quests, hunts, and journeys of survival. These usually tested them to their limits and put them in significant risk. They also atoned for their sins through mild physically punishing rites.

Temples

A temple of Stronmaus lay within the Maelstrom, a storm giant stronghold at the bottom of the Trackless Sea.

Rituals

In the event of a rainstorm or thunderstorm, all priests of Stronmaus, whatever their race, would always halt what they were doing in order to pray to the god, even if they had summoned the storm themselves. They were also prohibited from building fires, though they could make use of fires started by others.

Relationships

Stronmaus was the son of Annam All-Father, chief of the giant pantheon. While his mother was unknown with many candidates being put forward, he was almost always regarded as Annam's first-born son. Stronmaus's closest relationship was with his sister (or half-sister) Hiatea, with all the sibling love and rivalry, not to mention feuding, that that entailed. The two were commonly seen as a pair, as the oldest and most powerful of Annam's children. His other siblings and half-siblings in the giant pantheon included Diancastra, Grolantor (Stronmaus was not pleased with his activities), Karontor (said to be jealous of Stronmaus), Skoraeus Stonebones, Surtr, and Thrym. He was also uncle to Grond Peaksmasher. Iallanis, Memnor, and Vaprak were also sometimes named as his relatives, possibly even siblings. Although he got one well with his siblings, Stronmaus despised Memnor above all others and sometimes he and Hiatea had to step in to stop to his and Grolantor's troublemaking.

He maintained friendly relations with the good gods of sky and sea, including the asathalfinare. He counted many as friends and he enjoyed spending time with them—particularly the ladies, like Aerdrie Faenya, the elven goddess; Syranita, goddess of aarakocra; Surminare, queen of selkies; and Trishina, goddess of dolphins. He was also a friend of the eagle deity Remnis, who frequently visited and flew with him; of the dwarf god Marthammor Duin; of the Faerûnian goddess Eldath and many gods and goddess of Toril.

His primary proxy is the storm giant cleric Cumulus Longstride.

History

Once Stronmaus came of age, he chose the skies as his domain.

It was said that when Stronmaus learned of the arrival of his sister Hiatea, he was elated and celebrated her with epic storms that flooded worlds and washed away enormous evils.

Very rarely, Stronmaus was credited with destroying the massive, near-mindless, world-eating monster from whose carcass was born the god Memnor, but this honor was more often given to his father, Annam.

When Annam challenged Diancastra to prove her worth by circling the world in an hour or less, she simply went to Stronmaus's library and stole an atlas of worlds. She returned, ripped out the relevant page, and drew a circle around the world map. For her daring, Annam made Diancastra a demi-goddess.

According to legend, Nicias, progenitor of the cloud giants, won his first cloud palace from his half-brother Stronmaus in a bet. Built by Stronmaus himself, this cloud palace was enormous, but it was only a smaller version of Stronmaus' realm of Stormhold. Here, Nicias and his descendants floated over Toril before its fall.

Millennia before the 14th century DR, after Lanaxis united the sons of Annam on Toril, Stronmaus gifted the titan with some of the waters of his opal pool. Lanaxis used this to create his own pond like it at the heart of Voninheim.

After the bitter end of the war between the giants and the dragons, Stronmaus taunted Hiatea, calling her useless in the conflict. In response, Hiatea remade herself as an avenging huntress as well as a nurturer. Though Stronmaus later apologized, Hiatea did not forget it nor did she abandon her new path, and proved herself again and again to embarrass her brother.

In one legend, Stronmaus caught a tarrasque in chains and pulled it down to the bottom of the ocean where it would finally drown. To show Stronmaus where the chain-tunnels lay, Skoraeus Stonebones tapped his hammer on the ocean floor.

Stronmaus

Greater deity

Basic Information

Titles

The Smiling God
The Storm Lord
The Thunderhead

Pantheons

Ordning

Attributes

Alignment

Chaotic Good

Symbol

Forked lightning bolt descending from a cloud partly obscuring the sun

Realm

Wilderness of the Beastlands/Karasuthra/Stormhold

Portfolio

Chaos, Cloud Giants, Good, Joy, Protection, Seas, Sky, Sun, War, Weather

Favored Weapon

Mace or warhammer

Following

Worshippers

Cloud giants, Storm giants

Alignments

NG, CG, CN

Domains

Air (Cloud, Lightning)
Sun (Day, Light)
Protection (-)
War (-)
Water (Oceans)
Weather (Storms)