Tyr

Tyr, also known as Anachtyr, is the lawful good greater god of law and justice in the Astroran pantheon and leader of the coalition of deities known as the Triad. The titles of The God of Justice allegorizes his nature to his followers. He bears his title of the Maimed God for his missing right hand, lost in an act of bravery and self-sacrifice and his title of the Even-Handed refers to his position as the god of justice, though it is also seen as dark humor. The wounded eyes of the Blind Overlord meanwhile are seen as symbolic of "blind justice" and the cost that sometimes comes with living a lawful life. His symbol however, balanced scales upon a warhammer, truly symbolize his nature; justice upheld with armed vigilance and benevolent might.

An interloper deity, Tyr came into the realms with the Asgardian pantheon before earning a place within the Astoran pantheon.

Description

Tyr was portrayed as blind or with a bloody bandage over his eyes and missing his right hand, and he did not try to hide or bandage his stump. He usually was shown as a burly, noble warrior with a powerful build and a bearded face.

When an avatar of Tyr appeared to his followers, his eyes (or eye) were at first the color of bright steel, but they faded away to empty sockets before the avatar vanished. His brow always shone with a white radiance or halo, leaving no doubt as to his divine nature.

Tyr was often shown wielding a powerful magic sword or warhammer and dressed in light armor or chainmail.

Personality

Tyr is strong-spirited and noble. He is considered the bravest and the most honorable of all the Aesir of the Norse pantheon. He is primarily concerned with the punishment of wrong-doers and the general furthering of law and good in the world. Tyr hates duplicity, trickery, rule-breaking, and wanton destruction. He likewise hates lies and the breaking of oaths and is disgusted by persons who earn from such things. For his own part, he never breaks a promise.

Tyr urges the establishment of moral and ethical codes for sentient beings in all lands.

Tyr is a fair judge, but he is hard to understand to those outside his faith, as they more readily perceive him as a stern and rigid punisher. On the other hand, he is seen as a brave father-figure to his followers. In truth, he is well aware that a lawful utopia would never be possible in the imperfect Material Plane, yet this does not stop him from trying to make the world a better place for his mortal followers. He wants his followers to see themselves as a \"perfect family\", not made of perfect individuals but rather of members who try and want to be perfect, who act out of trust, courage, and love toward each other. His knowledge that such a dream will never be achieved among the mortal realm fills him with genuine sadness.

Tyr is at first more willing than many other gods to manifest in some form or other to his followers, because of his fierce feelings of fatherly protection toward them. By the late 14th century DR, however, Tyr has tired of appearing in the Realms and begins limiting his appearances to cases with important repercussions that are not obvious to mortals.

Besides his avatar, Tyr might send an intelligent war dog as a representative, or he might use a resounding gong, a choir of male voices, or a floating warhammer to express his will. The colors blue, white, and purple are considered sacred to his followers.

Divine Realm

Within the Great Wheel cosmology, Tyr has his divine realm called the Court on Lunia, the first of the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia. He also still considers Asgard on the first layer of Ysgard his home, the joint realm of most of the Norse pantheon. In the World Tree cosmology, the Court is located on a mountain surrounding Mount Celestia, one of three mountains each held by each member of the Triad. In that cosmology, all four mountains are considered the House of the Triad.

Activities

In the divine realm of Asgard, Tyr is responsible for ensuring that only the most valiant of warriors are permitted access to the great hall of Valhalla.

Worshippers

Among Tyr's worshipers were judges, lawyers, magistrates, the oppressed, paladins, and police.

Tyr was particularly popular in the lands of Calimshan, Cormyr, the Dalelands, the Moonsea, Sembia, Tethyr, and the Vilhon Reach.

The highly organized church of Tyr was strong in the more civilized lands of the Realms. They were known for never refusing service or aid to the faithful when they were in distress. The blind god ruled over law and justice, encouraging valiant acts from his followers and relentlessly pursuing oathbreakers. Followers of Tyr were expected to show fairness, wisdom, and kindness to the innocent. Tyrrans never enforced an unjust law.

After the Time of Troubles, an entire decade passed where Tyr forbid specialty priests within his church. The clergy believed that he wished to ensure that no members of the faith were treated with greater favor than others. After other churches mocked them for this, Tyr established special orders of priests beginning after the Feast of the Moon in 1369 DR. Chosen of Tyr

Ingrar Welven, also known as the Voice of Tyr, was a pirate from the Utter East, who became possessed by the Maimed God after himself being maimed by a fiend. With powers granted by Tyr, Ingrar was tasked with destroying the Fallen Temple and bring long-lost reverence of his god back to the Five Kingdoms in the late-14th century DR.

Dogma

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Church_of_Tyr

Relationships

Tyr was said to be the son of the god Odin and his wife Frigga.

Tyr was the head of the group of deities known as the Triad. The two other gods who made up the Triad were Ilmater and Torm. Torm served as Tyr's war commander and was known as the "good right hand of Tyr."

Among the greater deities of Faerûn, Tyr was the only one of lawful good alignment. Along with the Triad, Tyr was close to Lathander. He opposed the deities Bane, Bhaal, Cyric, Mask, Talona, and Talos.

Tyr gave great respect to Zaphkiel and the archons of Mount Celestia, but it was not believed that he had authority over them.

History

Early History

As the only lawful member of the Norse pantheon, Tyr faded largely from prominence. For this reason, he sought a means of strengthening his power by obtaining worshipers from other worlds. He chose the crystal sphere of Realmspace and submitted himself to the authority of the overgod Ao.

The first recorded instance of Tyr on Toril was in the Lake of Steam region, circa −2600 DR. A warrior known as Belaros and a group of priests were said to have met with Tyr in person in the mountains near the northern border of Turmish. In response, Belaros crafted the mighty artifact, the Balance of Belaros.

For at least 5,000 years of Faerûnian history, Tyr also seemed to appear under other names—Achanatyr, Iltyr the Blind but All-Seeing Eye, Arrtyr Judge of All, and Anachtyr, among others. Under one of these names, he was a member of Jhaamdathan pantheon before that empire's fall.

In Calimshan, Anachtyr had been worshiped for far longer than Tyr had been in other parts of Faerûn. For example, Anachtyr's followers were known to have slain the great wyrm Rivenaurlgoth the Darkly Pious in the Marching Mountains in −284 DR. Among the Calishites, religious legends suggested that the god who was Tyr passed on his portfolio to another at the end of each millennium, and that Anachtyr was actually an earlier Tyr who passed his portfolio on to the Norse newcomer. Rise to Prominence

Tyr, in his most recent form, first made a major historical impact on the world of Toril in a campaign to pacify the remnants of the fallen empire of Jhaamdath in the Year of the Striking Lance, −247 DR. This was known as the Procession of Justice, in which the god himself appeared on Toril by portal near future Alaghôn in Turmish to lead a host of ten scores of archons against the chaotic and evil forces arrayed in the Vilhon Reach, in the remains of the fallen empire.

Ilmater aligned himself with Tyr in −243 DR, being impressed by the sacrifices made by Tyr, and the conflict continued until −238 DR. At the end of the great Procession, most of Tyr's archon warriors had been slain or banished, but he was successful in destroying Valigan, a god of anarchy, and by this time, Tyr was committed to inspiring justice on Toril as a whole. Torm joined them to complete the Triad some years later.

However, the faith of Tyr did not become a dominant one in Faerûn until shortly before the establishment of the Standing Stone, when most of the other members of the pantheon were already well-established in their roles, but after some 1,600 years since the Procession of Justice, Tyr successfully had become known over all of Faerûn.

Tyr lost his right hand to Kezef the Chaos Hound, in a test of his honor and strength of will. The Circle of Greater Powers had previously banned all mortals and powers from any contact with Kezef, but he was still free to consume souls, and a coalition of gods joined together to stop the Chaos Hound once and for all. This alliance included Tyr. They pursued the primordial beast to the Barrens of Doom and Despair, where they offered him a deal. They would lift the ban on him if he could escape from chains forged for him by Gond. Kezef insisted that if this were truly a fair challenge then Tyr must be willing to place his right hand into the elder evil's mouth. Tyr agreed. Kezef was enchained, the chain was anchored deep in Cocytus in Pandemonium, and Mystra placed an enchantment to prevent the chain from ever being severed. Furious, Kezef bit off Tyr's hand. It was said that he feasted on the god's hand, drawing power from it, for centuries. (Among the Asgardians, the story of the loss of Tyr's hand was similar but involved the members of the Aesir and the entity Fenris Wolf instead.[note 3])

At some point, the conman Conner made a deal with Tyr: he promised to bring the god the Claw of Malar, (which was then in the possession of the tyrannical crime-lord Pasha Abon Duum,) in exchange for some unknown service, debt, or crime. Finally, in the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, emboldened by Conner's apparent death, Abon Duum used the power of the Catlord to travel to Tyr's realm in Gladsheim to confront Tyr with the Claw of Malar, apparently seeking to seize the power of the gods. However, "Tyr" was revealed to be Conner in a cloak, having faked his death and been spirited to Gladsheim. The Catlord stole the Claw of Malar and passed it to Conner, before the real Tyr appeared and took the artifact. With a warning that he would keep an eye on Conner and the scales of justice, he sent the heroes home, while Duum was left to face Justice himself. Time of Troubles

At the onset of the Time of Troubles, Tyr's eyes were put out by Lord Ao for failing to notice the theft of the Tablets of Fate and for questioning the justice of Ao's response. Ilmater, true to his ethos, worked to teach Tyr to live with his blindness and to rely upon his feelings instead, though in truth they were not a great hindrance in view of his power as a greater god. The Spellplague

In the Year of Three Streams Blooded, 1384 DR, shortly before the catastrophic events of the Spellplague, Tyr and Siamorphe, who then dwelt in the House of the Triad, had a great disagreement over a battle between Tethyrian and Calishite forces. The argument was so severe that Siamorphe left the House of the Triad to make her realm with Sune in Brightwater. Tyr sent Helm as a messenger to Sune to explain his position, and Sune tried to act as a peacemaker. As the goddess of love, she proposed a marriage between Tyr and Tymora as a way to restore balance to the Celestial Planes. Tyr agreed and began a formal courtship with the goddess of good fortune.

It was suspected that Cyric plotted to corrupt the arrangement, for rumors came to Tyr that Helm, who had been delivering messages from the House of the Triad to Brightwater for Tyr, had been having a secret affair with Tymora and that she loved the god of guardians instead of the god of justice. Tyr believed that the only way to reach the truth of the matter was to challenge Helm to a duel, and Helm felt that it was the honorable act to accept the challenge.

In the duel that followed, Helm was slain, leading to more chaos in the Celestial realms. Heartbroken, Tymora left Brightwater to be with Tyr out of duty, but Ilmater left the Triad and accepted Sune's invitation to Brightwater.

More tragedy among the gods shortly followed. In the next year, 1385 DR, Cyric teamed with Shar to bring about the death of Mystra and the resulting Spellplague. At least this event brought Sune and Tyr onto the same side again, and the two of them, with Lanthander's aid, pursued and captured Cyric, imprisoning him for a sentence of one thousand years.

After imprisoning Cyric, Tyr abdicated his godhood and granted Torm all his deific power, because the Even-Handed had lost faith in himself and in his ability to lead and judge. Tyr counseled all of his followers to offer their allegiance to Torm. Tyr's portfolio of justice was subsequently absorbed by Bahamut, who later became a subservient deity of Torm.

At some point, Tyr sent the deva Ayrx into Undermountain to try and talk sense into Fazrian. Unfortunately, Halaster was able to capture Aryx, and trapped her in a shield in his Lair. Death

At some point between 1385 DR and 1479 DR, Tyr died fighting off a demonic invasion of the upper realms in an act of heroic sacrifice. Tyr's absence reinforced the role of Torm as the new master of Celestia. Resurrection

Tyr managed to return to life during the event known as the Second Sundering, in the 1480s DR.

Tyr

Greater deity

Basic Information

Titles

God of Justice
The Even-Handed
Grimjaws
The Maimed God
The Evenhanded
God of Justice
Blind, Blind Tyr
Wounded Tyr
The Lord of Justice
The Just God
The Blind Overlord
The Wounded One
The One-Handed
Blind One
The Eyeless One
No-Eyes (derogatory)

Adjectives

Tyrran

Pantheons

Astoran
Asgardian

Served By

Ilmater, Torm

Attributes

Alignment

Lawful Good

Symbol

Balanced scales resting on upright warhammer

Realm

Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia/Lunia/The Court

Portfolio

Justice

Favored Weapon

Justicar (longsword)

Following

Worshippers

Judges
Lawyers
Magistrates
The oppressed
Paladins
Police

Alignments

LG, NG, LN

Domains

Good (-)
Knowledge (-)
Law (Judgement, Legislation)
Nobility (Martyr)
Strength (Resolve)

Favored Aspects

Animals/Plants

War dogs

Colors

Blue
Purple
White

Manifest- ations

Resounding gong

Chord song by male choir

Glowing warhammer