Yelika and Karnaem

Mythical Mother and Father of the Dwarven Race

These two Deities are a constant companion to their followers, who hold them as dear as they do their own parents. Clerics of Life are common in their service, usually active at temples of healing and retreat. Temples to Yelika and Karnaem are established anywhere; there are no boundaries or limitations or proscriptions. In this way, different temples to the Mother and Father form regional styles and regional modes of prayer and obeisance. Three-hundred miles away, their worship can appear very different.
This lack of uniformity, unlike most other Dwarven traditions, is embraced and encouraged. Many a weary traveler has thanked the Mother and Father deities for their temples and the welcome they he receives.
This portrait was painted by a master artisan in the Great City of Zedjerek:

They are often depicted as a modest but handsome couple that could easily be mistaken as an upstanding Dwarven couple. The urban artisans paint or sculpt then as city nobles, but the more rural temples sometimes render them in a more pastoral and Mountainside pair, among the goatherds and craftworkers of rural Brohd Zellor.

Notes

Yelika: Sometimes appearing in the form of the Great Mother Bear, Yelika is characteristically strong and defensive, but also kind and nurturing. Yelika has two attendants, fae relatives of the Forever Children, who sometimes appear as Bear Cubs, and who enjoy playing tricks on the other gods, and sometimes on naughty mortal dwarven children. Yelika is the daughter of the Eye of the Universe, twin sister and wife to Karnaem.
Karnaem: With his train of Forever Children, Karnaem can often be seen walking through his vast pine forests, greeting and tending to the trees. He wears a crown of pine cones. He rarely speaks, but when he does it is with a booming, thunderous voice, and his words are powerful and wise. When in dire need of advice, dwarves often pray to him. He is the son of the Eye of the Universe, twin brother and husband to Yelika, and brother to Elyssa and Einar.

• Thunderstorms: Thunder is thought to be the voice of Karnaem, and it is custom during thunderstorms for dwarven families and communities to gather during thunderstorms and listen closely to try and hear his wise words. The rain that comes during these thunderstorms, and otherwise, is his gift to the plants and those who tend them.