Gruumsh

He Who Never Sleeps, He Who Watches, The One-Eyed God

Gruumsh, also referred to as Gruumsh One-Eye was an orc god and a greater deity. He was envisioned with one eye by all who named him a god and was a deity mainly worshiped by orcs and orogs.

History

Gruumsh's enmity with the other gods started with a lottery. The gods of the dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, humans, and orcs met to draw lots to determine which parts of the world were to be inhabited by their respective worshipers. The non-orcish gods rigged the lot. Elves got the forests, dwarves the mountains, humans the right to live wherever they wanted, and so on, but there was no lot prepared for the orcs. Gruumsh was mocked and insulted by the others for this and was enraged over the others cheating the orcs into destitution as part of a joke. He lifted his spear to strike caves and holes into world and claimed these for his worshipers and vowed that they will grow stronger there to ultimately kill every one of the cheaters and take everything from them. In a past time, Gruumsh had two eyes but he lost one in a fight with the chief elven god Corellon Larethian. Gruumsh meant to paralyze Corellon with his magical spear; this attack failed and initiated an epic battle. During the course of this battle, Gruumsh injured Corellon and, according to legend, from the blood shed the elven people were created. Corellon ended the fight by putting out Gruumsh's left eye, which is how Gruumsh earned his moniker "One-Eye". Some orcish clerics denied this tale, dismissing it as elven propaganda while claiming that Gruumsh always had one eye. In the year −1071 DR, Gruumsh battled and killed Re, the leader of the Mulhorandi pantheon, during the height of the Orcgate Wars. This was the first recorded instance of deicide. Gruumsh's influence flourished in recent decades with the growth of the orc population on Skortenias surface, and as other humanoids came under his sway. His recent triumphs in that area included putting the orc pantheon and other minor deities of the savage races under his thumb.

Divine Domains

Tempest, War

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Furrowed, open green eye

Social

Contacts & Relations

Gruumsh once had an alliance with the conniving drow goddess Araushnee to bring down the gods of the elves once and for all. His plan failed, despite a divine force brought against the elven gods consisting of the Seldarine's enemies in all the goblinoid and elf-hating pantheons and Araushnee was transformed into Lolth. The two deities were great foes ever since, though Gruumsh's alliance with another assisting deity, Malar, was not so badly corrupted.

Divine Classification

Deity