Thard Harr
God Thard Harr
Titles = Lord of the Jungle Deeps, The Disentangler,
Formerly: Lord of the Green Mantle
Favoured animals
Alligators, Bats, Boalisks, Capybra, Crocodiles, Elephants, Giant beetles, Insect swarms, Jaguars, Leopards, Spitting snakes, Tigers, Wolves,Favoured plants
Strangle weeds, Tri-flower fronds,Favoured monsters
Asuras, Bakus, Buraqs, Celestial, wild Dwarves, Dryads, Earth Elementals, Prismatic Dragons, Einheriars, Gripplis, Mist Dragons, Sunflies, Treants, Warden beasts, Water Elementals,Favoured minerals
Diamonds, Emeralds, Gold, Green spinelsFavoured colours
Green, BrownThard Harr is the Dwarves deity of jungle survival and hunting, one that lived with the beasts of the wild as kin. The Disentangler is also the patron protector of the wild Dwarves, watching over them and working to ensure their continued survival against the rampaging beasts within the jungle and the incursions of intruders.
APPEARANCE
Thard appears as a 6 ft (1.8 m) tall Wild Dwarf with dark skin covered by golden tattoos - without a visible gender. When looking upon the potbellied, feral-looking creature, naked except for their long beard and thick, matted tufts of hair covering their torso. Hiding their face is an ornate copper helm fashioned in the shape of a crocodile head and festooned with dangling teeth the Disentangler has supposedly torn from their kills.PERSONALITY
Thard rarely speaks, however has been known to purr, growl, snarl, and roar like a great cat. As an emotional being is prone to vast mood swings and grand gestures, and has zero tolerance for pretentiousness, social restraint, or civilized ways of any kind.POWERS
Once per day, Thard Harr can breathe out a spicy, greenish-blue gas that prevents the unleashing or activation of any spells or magic items for the next nine minutes - though current magic still continues to function, although cannot be altered in behaviour, location, strength, or target.Thard has a special empathy with the beasts of the jungle; they never attack Thard, and so long as an outside force is not controlling them, Thard can mentally command any jungle creatures within 300 ft (91 m), expressing The Disentangler's intent perfectly.
Thard is immune to charms, illusions, and has no sense of fear. The Disentangler cannot be restrained by holding magic, webs, adhesive, shrubbery, vines, or jaws. Also, they can feather fall any distance. They are immune to poisons and unenchanted weapons, and even if struck was oblivious to pain. Is able to reattach severed or torn off limbs as if they was a troll.
Manifestations
Thard Harr's manifestations involve a low, continuous thudding and sounds of snarling, seemingly emanating from the beings they empowered. The sounds cannot be stopped and the entity Thard empowers - a gift they can grant by touch - will glow with a crawling, pulsing nimbus of cherry-red light. While imbued with the Thard's power, which lasts for about ten minutes, the being in question - either a wild dwarf or jungle creature - will gain access to special powers.Empowered wild Dwarves are filled with energy and rapidly recover from injury. The dwarf toss their weapons aside to fight with their hands, which transform into talons known as the "Claws of Thard Harr"
Empowered beasts become immune to entanglement, natural or otherwise, unable to be charmed, tricked by illusions, or otherwise mentally influenced, and become fearless. Often, fighting to the death for the wild Dwarves regardless of fire, magic, the size of opposition or the ferocity demonstrated by their foes.
Thard Harr makes clear his favour when one discovers gems like diamonds, emeralds, gold, or green spinels, and in items like metal weapons, calantra wood carvings and zaiantar wood rods. He demonstrates his displeasure when precious gems shattered - accompanied by the unseen roar of some great beast - when the target of his wrath gets tripped and tangled in vines, or by causing items to degenerate, such as metal rusting, wood rotting, and leather decaying.
POSSESSIONS
Thard Harr wears scaled, adamantine gauntlets ending in jointed, razor-sharp claws strapped to his forearms at the elbow. Though the wild Dwarves sometimes speak of opponents or forces so powerful or dangerous that they may "blunt the claws of Harr himself", they never allude to the claws being broken, for they are supposedly unbreakable.ACTIVITIES
Thard Harr is said to have no permanent home. They love to wander all three layers of the Beastlands - stalking, hunting, running, and otherwise interacting with the many animals there as one of them rather than living apart from them. Given their preference for roaming, they prefer to aid worshipers through manifestation,. rather than direct appearance.Thard protects the Wild Dwarves from beasts and outlanders alike, often manifesting in one dwarf at a time during the same conflict, so that trespassers have to fight one empowered dwarf after another. They usually never help the same dwarf for more than an hour a day, however sometimes grant aid in separate visits - whether appearing before them or through manifestations - to make up the hour total if the threat is persistent.
Relationships
While Thard Harr undoubtedly shares the blood with Moradin, and had always been seen in positive light by all Dwarves, They are emotionally and geographically estranged from the rest of the Dwarvian Deities. They alienates themself from most other Dieities more than anything else, especially as a result of him communicating through strange animal calls and physical gestures.Although Moradin is considered Thard's superior Deity, the Disentangler has a closer relationship with Eldath and Mielikki than other Dwarvian Deities.
While some hunters of all races and philosophies in jungle regions sometimes turn to Thard Harr for guidance, it is their chosen people the wild Dwarves who gain the most from Thard's aid. Nearly all wild Dwarves, regardless of their alignment, beat their drums for the Lord of the Jungle Deeps - viewing them as the patron of their kind, a font of wisdom and a source of greater experience. Worship of Thard Harr has been ingrained so deeply and firmly in wild dwarf culture that no matter their morals or ethics, it is practically impossible for them to conceive of an alternative primary faith - with only The Wild Mother, or her daughters Eldath and Mielikki suitable secondary faiths.
Thard iss far removed from the cultural concerns of Hill and Mountain Dwarf life - and is only venerated by a meager handful of gray, gold, and shield Dwarves, assuming they even knew who Thard is.
The Vuddor
The clerics, druids, and specialty priests of Thard, the latter of which in particular known as the Vuddor - a dwarvish word loosely translated as "those of the jungle" - enjoy a position of reverence, in their sheltered homelands as a result of their kind's religious focus.The wild Dwarves have a strong tradition of divine magic, taking the blessings of Thard as transmitted through a spellcaster for granting and treating them as no more unusual than fighting prowess or survival skills. Many are called upon to serve Thard in a multitude of ways, though most arcane magic made them anxious due to inexperience.
Commonly they are combination druids, clerics, rangers, and barbarians.
Lords and Ladies of the Jungle
Thard's clergy eschew many of the traditional aspects of dwarven religious institutions. Instead of a formal hierarchy of titles, priests are called shamans and High Old Ones are collectively known as the Lords and Ladies of the Jungle.Since the wild Dwarves stopped following dwarven tradition regarding deities and gender long before ago, any gender disparity is far less noticeable than in other clergies.
Lawfulness and/or evil is not allowed, and each individual priest receives a title in a dream on the night of their initiation. Such titles typically including the naming of a great jungle beast the priest is believed to then receive a small amount of supernatural control over.
Thard Harr's priests are meant to be his representatives, protecting the Wild Dwarves with their given powers, leading them on prosperous hunts and cautious expeditions, acting as generals for their loose armies, and speaking for their people and society as a whole. Part of this responsibility is eliminating persistent, non-dwarven intruders that trespass into wild dwarf territory, leading the attacks with the dauntless diligence of Thard themself. If unable to defeat the foe, they try mentally calling Thard Harr, who often responds with either a manifestation, or very rarely an avatar.
The Pack
There are no formal Thardite military orders, with the clergy instead collectively deciding when it is best for the wild Dwarves to go to into battle. The best warriors of the widely scattered hunting bands form "the Pack" - including bloods (weaker warriors) war leaders (more powerful warriors) and priests of demonstrable fighting skills.Like an orcish horde of North Faerun, the Pack is nearly unstoppable when it carves its path, and once their objective is completed, the members will quickly disperse and the survivors will return to their small hunting bands.
Dogma
The Disentangler's dogma is that the jungle is the fullest expression of the rain, the earth, the sun and the wind. The wild Dwarves are to live in harmony with nature, neither against nor apart from it, under the wise benevolence of the Lord of the Jungle Deeps. Thard's clerics and druids spread teachings to wild Dwarves on how to survive in the harsh jungle - such as through the important practice of evading offensive jungle plants.Thard also teaches them to respect and emulate the ways of beasts, a divergence from the traditional teachings of Moradin that no race, including animals, are to be considered superior to Dwarves. This lesson regarding beasts is particularly true regarding great jungle cats, such is their reverence for the felines that most refuse to hunt them. Some instead take Jaguars and other great cats as companions or pets. Like the great tigers of the jungle, the wild Dwarves are to be both strong and wary, skeptical of all creatures, whether they walk on two legs or four, or more.
Outsiders often seek to pillage and destroy, bringing misery with their unnatural ways, but that is not to say that Thard preaches ignorance or isolationism. The wild dwarf ways, Thard's way, is to be honored and is the best for Thard's children. However, the wild Dwarves are not expected to assume that it is the only way. It is important to try and understand that which is not understood - especially since, as Thard's wisdom teaches, one can best defeat a foe that one know well.
Seasoned wild Dwarves will try to capture at least one intruder for questioning, sometimes with intent to sacrifice after, but to may be spared if it seemed likely that their are possible future benefits in doing so.
Wild Dwarves are interested in trade, exchanging pelts, meat, and even live beasts for metal and glass objects and tools. They conduct trade so long as they can pick the location, so as to set up traps and ambushes in case of treachery under the guidance of Thard's priests, and they are wary of bringing unknown gifts into their homes.
Rituals
Thard Harr's priests pray for spells in the morning. Their ceremonies of veneration are held on nights of the twin full and new moons, during which the highest ranking followers in the region formally call together several hunting bands. The drums, chants, and screams of the wild Dwarves that result from this mass congregation echo throughout the jungle, striking such fear in the hearts of wild beasts and other beings alike - that even the most desperate interlope will be scared away.During these ceremonies - often when the moons are both new, but always if both are full - at least one blood sacrifice is offered to the Lord of the Jungle Deeps. Wild Dwarves are not cannibals and normally never consume intelligent beings, however the sacrifices of captured beasts and/or intruders are nearly always eaten (while still-warm) regardless of species, with intent to become closer to Thard. Even so, it is some of the more isolated tribes that occasionally sacrifice Humans in this manner, a practice that Thard disapproves of, but has not acted to dissuade.
Priests of Thard, regardless of gender, never cut their beards, instead having to braid them into ropes and tie them around their waists and shoulders. Only if the priest themselves chose to cut the hair will there be an issue, it being a sign they are turning from Thard and that they no longer expect his assistance. Like normal wild Dwarves they rarely wear clothing, their long hair sufficing for purpose of modesty.
Exceptions to this included a beast helm, the skull of a large jungle animal like a rhinoceros, or giant crocodile, and the pelts or skins of jungle monsters, which are worn as robes for ceremonial purposes.
Clothing
Priests of Thard cover their bodies with tattoos and bare their holy symbol in tattoo form, usually on one shoulder on on their overgrown scalps. In cases where they normally present their holy symbols, they simply cross their forearms at the wrists several inches in front of their chests. Unlike other dwarven priests, their stabilizing focus is not a nearby stone or metal holy symbol, instead contact with the earth or a firmly rooted plant.Their bodies are also often covered in grease to make them difficult to hold onto, and to keep insects away. When going to war they plaster their hair and bodies with much mud that when combined with the grease, becomes a crude but useful form of armour. They favoured metal tools and weapons if possible, but will otherwise use clubs, fists and the Claws.
Temples
Thard Harr encourages no formal temples, and rarely visits the holy sites. Instead, the Disentangler is worshiped in remote sanctuaries of nature, his followers are taught to treat locations of astounding natural beauty and abundant life as gathering places for reverence. Deep in the heart of Chult's jungles are his most common holy sites; soaring cliffs, stunning vistas, deep gorges, natural caverns, volcanic mud flats, hot springs, great waterfalls, and untamed gardens.Divine Domains
Portfolio = Wilderness, hunting
Domains = Nature
Domains = Nature
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Two clawed gauntlets, crossed
Mental characteristics
Personal history
History
Outside of the Kilt region of Malnax, Thard Harr and the wild Dwarves are mostly regarded as little more than legend.Thard is only remembered as a lost god in many ancient dwarven traditions and the ancestral tales of some Dwarves, living in Jeyton City.
Rumors and Legends
High above the Jungles of the Kilt region (between Beton and Jasabell ) is the Verdant Crater - the truncated cone of a shattered volcano completely overgrown with flora and overrun by fauna to a degree not seen even in most of fertile tropics. While only rarely visited, since the wild Dwarves stories teach it is a crime to hunt the life there, Thard himself is to visit the beauteous place on several occasions. Part of the reason for its position in wild dwarven culture - normally such a place will be abandoned after a generation or two - is the presence of one of the Prismatic Dragons.The Prismatic Dragon Emerassiticia is a great Ancient Dragon that lives in the crater, and has done since its formation. The shrewd entity has long been fascinated with wild dwarf customs and history. The Resplendent Queen, as Emerassiticia is known, has long forged a bond of friendship with the Thardite priests. Over the centuries, the priests have overcome the paranoid impression typical for Wild Dwarves of Dragons and Wyverns alike. She also has become to trust that they never plan to steal her treasures. The two parties have come to an agreement where the wild Dwarves come to the Verdant Crater to venerate Thard. Emerassiticia is willing to guard their most sacred runestones and carvings. This draconic protector is firmly woven into the wild dwarf mythos as the Offspring of Thard.
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