Gruumsh

Ruiner

Gruumsh, the Ruiner is the chaotic evil god who commands hordes of barbaric marauders across Exandria to destroy, pillage, and slaughter.

Worship

Appearance

The Ruiner's primitive, usually clay, representations can be found in his worshipers' communities. They depict him as a hulking behemoth of an orc with his missing eye, lacking a pair since the Calamity, has shifted and now central to the face, bearing close resemblance to a cyclops. Some zealous hill giants ritualistically tear out one eye in worship to Gruumsh others simply wear an eyepatch.

Influence

Gruumsh's blood did grant orcs endurance and strength, but didn't convey his evil. However, those who actually serve the Ruiner, including many orcs, are sometimes hypnotized by their god's gaze from beyond the Divine Gate and fall into a strange bloodlust.The Commandments of the Ruiner instruct his followers to conquer and destroy, and to feel nothing but fury or joy.

Tal'Dorei

His most devout servants in Tal'Dorei are the Ravagers, a roving death cult who slaughter innocents across the Dividing Plains. Through Gruumsh's blessings, the Ravager Slaughter Lords can cast several spells.
Gruumsh is also worshiped by some in the Stormcrest Mountains, including the Shivergut tribe living in the Frostweald. Their annual coming-of-age ritual involves a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Ruiner in the Dreamseep Marshlands.
As of 812 PD, a small number of orcs worshiped Gruumsh at the "Empty Socket", the smallest temple in Westruun's Temple Ward.

Wildemount

In the Iothia Moorland of Xhorhas, the Koshtask clan of orcs and other folk of the wastes worships Gruumsh.
The Jez-Araz are a Gruumsh-worshiping set of nomadic orcs who roam the Rime Plains and the base of the Flotket Alps.

History

In one famous battle of the Calamity, said to occur on the hill that would be named the Throne of the Archeart, Corellon battled Gruumsh, stabbing out his eye. One creation myth holds that when Corellon stabbed Gruumsh, the fallen blood of Gruumsh mutated a number of elves (and possibly humans as well) into orc-like beings, that sometimes are mistakenly seen as the first of their kind. The orcs still call this hill the Fist of the Ruiner.
When the orcs' creator Gruumsh was finally banished, many of his now-leaderless armies scattered and fled.
Centuries after the Calamity, a feud between the Gruumsh-worshiping goblinkin and Ki'Nau people of the Lushgut Forest led to the desecration of a shrine to Melora.
A few centuries later, as of 836 PD, many still believe that orcs and half-orcs inherit a supernatural "curse of ruin" (or hgar'Gruum in the Orc language) with the influence of Gruumsh driving them to acts of rage and violence. This is a common but mistaken belief. Gruumsh himself encourages his worshipers to not only spread the idea that his blood influences the orcs, but that the entirety of this race is his creation.

Divine Domains

Blood, Death, Tempest, War.

Artifacts

Ruin's Wake is a spear and one of the Arms of the Betrayers created by Gruumsh from the soul of a balor.

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Tenets of Faith

Ruin. Ravage. Kill.
The weak exist to be crushed by the strong. Be the strong.
There are no emotions but fury and joy. The rest are weakness.

Divine Classification

Betrayer God

Pronouns

He/him/his

Gender

Male