Gond

Wonderbringer, Lord of All Smiths (a.k.a. Zionil (Durpar, Estagund, and Var the Golden))

Gond (GOHND) Wonderbringer is the god of blacksmiths, woodworkers, inventors, and engineers. In religious art, he is most often portrayed as a burly, red-hued smith, with a mighty hammer and a forge and anvil that allow him to craft the stuff that stars are made from.
Gond serves Oghma along with Deneir and Milil. He gives the ideas Oghma holds in his portfolio concrete form and inspires others to make new things. He has grown very independent as his own power waxes, and hi relationship to Oghma is already only dimly remembered at times by mortals. In Durpar, Estagund, and Var the Golden, Gond is worshiped as part of the Adama, the Durparian concept of a world spirit that embraces and enfolds the divine essence that is part of all beings. Here he is known as Zionil, patron of inventors, craftfolk, and creators.
Gond is always making new things. He often presses Oghma for their release into the mortal world without thinking through completely the impact they will have. He is fascinated with making the theoretical real and either does not consider or often does not care about the implications for the use of his inventions and discoveries. He has a constant need for bizarre components as well as raw materials for his work, and so may overlook shady sponsors for specific jobs provided that they pay well in materials, knowledge he can use, or future favors. He can be distracted, businesslike, sarcastic, or patronizing as well as incredibly helpful and brilliant.
He is dedicated to his faithful, and though he sometimes does not immediately respond to them because he is busy, he always ensures that their needs are met.
During the Time of Troubles Gond, in the avatar of a gnome, washed ashore on Lantan. His true nature was quickly discovered, and the deity was revered and worshiped there until the crisis passed. As a result, Gond gave the secret of smoke powder to the Lantanna, and arquebuses, stamped on the butts of their stocks with the symbol of Gond, have been shipped at a steady trickle to western ports since 1358 DR.

Divine Domains

Forge, Knowledge

Divine Symbols & Sigils

A toothed metal, bone, or wood cog with four spokes

Tenets of Faith

The beliefs of the Gondar can be summed up as "Actions count." Intentions and thought are one thing, but in the end it is the result— what remains after the sword is forged, the battle is fought—that is the most important. Talk is for others; those who truly serve Gond do. All Gondar are to strive to make new things that work. All of Gond's clergy should become skilled at forging, casting, or tempering, and practice various means of joining and fastening until they are adept at making things to fit a space or situation with which they are confronted. To venerate Gond is to continually question and challenge the unknown with new devices and items. Elegance and usefulness are the two legs any new making should stand on.
Gondar must practice experimentation and innovation in the making of tools and implementation of processes and encourage these virtues in others through direct aid, sponsorship, and diplomatic support. They should strive to make farmers, hunters, and others think of new tools, improved ways of crafting and using their existing gear, and new ways of doing things.
The Consecrated must keep records of their strivings, ideas, and attempts, so that others can continue where they leave off when gathered at death to the Holy Maker of All Things. Gondar are instructed to observe, acquire, and store safely the makings of others, and show what they have learned to other Consecrated of Gond. They are to discuss ideas and spread the so that all may see the divine light that is Gond.

Holidays

Gondar have only one calendar related festival: the Ippensheir. The Ippensheir is the name given to the 12 days immediately following Greengrass. It is named for Ippen, the first great cleric of Gond, who sometimes appears to clergy in need these days as Gond's First Servant. During the Ippensheir, all clergy members of Gond's faith and his devout worshipers gather at a temple, abbey, or holy site of Gond to share innovations and show inventions and innovations they have made or witnessed with and to their fellow Gondar. (Many cavern networks and remote towers where capable inventors once dwelt are revered by Gondar as holy sites.) It is a time of feasting, drinking, and revelry, and some Gondar make much use of personal teleport magics and the network of gates maintained by the priesthood to link major defensible holy houses to visit as many gatherings of the faithful as they can during this time.
Daily rituals to Gond are simple: muttered prayers upon rising and retiring that are often scheduled as part of dressing or disrobing so that they are not forgotten, a longer prayer of thanks at the main meal of a priest's day, and a special prayer of thanks and dedication of their work before commencing any work of new making (as opposed to repair or maintenance).
If a new tool or machine is seen or made by any Gondar, that Gondar is charged to make two copies of it if possible. One is hidden away against the prying eyes of thieves or vandals for later display to fellow Gondar, and the other is smashed—or preferably, burned—while a prayer of offering to Gond, the Sacred Unmaking, is chanted. This ceremony reinforces Gond's dominion over both constructive and destructive engineering.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Day-to-Day Activities

Gondar keep the formulas for smoke powder and various sealants, cleansers, and lubricants secret. They sell small jars of all of these as they travel Faerun, making a lot of money thereby as well as by selling buckles, small brass bells, mortars and pestles, and various monocles and lenses. The special glass jars they use to store smoke powder and other formulas were formerly made only in Lantan. They have proven so popular that rival makers have sprung up in Calimshan and the Tashalar.
To protect church trade secrets, Gondar priests are charged to work against these rivals by sabotage, diplomacy, and financial influence, whenever they can covertly do so.
As they travel, Gondar clergy establish caches, investments, and alliances and grab samples of any new inventions they come across. It is their duty to assist inventors and innovators and to file regular reports to the nearest Master by means of messenger envoys of the faith as they travel. Settling in one place is frowned upon unless a priest can show his or her superiors that their prospective home is a locale where much innovation occurs that bears need for constant watching such as Waterdeep, Athkatla, Suzail, or—formerly—Zhentil Keep. Making a handsome personal living while one serves Gond is encouraged, however, for who better walks upon Faerun to demonstrate the rewards of following the Way of Gond?
Priests of Gond are much in demand as builders, especially of vaulted and buttressed temples dedicated to other gods. Because of these temple engineering and construction contracts, the faith of Gond is growing in wealth and influence, but also in foes. Who else would know the secret ways of a rival temple than the builder?

Priestly Vestments

Gondar clergy members wear saffron ceremonial vestments with a crimson collar and stole. Over their right or left shoulder they wear a leather sash ending in a large pouch. The sash is dotted with small metal tools, gears, wire, cord, locks, hooks, hasps, buckles, and bits of steel, tin, and wood that might prove interesting or useful in a pinch (including, for Gondsmen, their lockpicks). Their vestments also include belts of large, linked metal medallions and enormous sun hats. They wear Gond's holy symbol as a pendant fashioned of bone, brass, bronze, or ivory.

Adventuring Garb

In dangerous situations, Gondar wear standard armor (along with their leather sash), but generally they prefer the protection of 10 or 12 big fighters. Most often they wear practical clothing hung about with baldrics and pouches crammed with useful supplies. Most priests of Gond wear bulky rings that function as knuckledusters (1d3 points of damage) and can also produce the equivalent of a cosh from their gear (1d4 points of damage) and three or four knives of various sorts. (Removable boot-heel knives are a great favorite among the Gondar.) Few Gondar priests would steal, but most have and can use files and bolt cutters, and Gondsmen are proficient with lockpicks. Increasingly, Gondar priests have also taken to carrying small metal flasks of smoke powder sealed against sparks and damp and appropriate wicks to use with them to make explosive missile weapons when trouble arises.

Symbol: A toothed metal, bone, or wood cog with four spokes
Home Plane: House of Knowledge
Alignment: Neutral (any character can choose Gond as a patron deity)
Portfolio: Artifice, craft, construction, smithwork
Worshipers: Blacksmiths, crafters, engineers, gnomes, inventors, Lantanese, woodworkers
Cleric Alignments: Any
Domains: Forge, Knowledge
Favored Weapon: “Craftmaster” (warhammer)
ALIASES: Zionil (Durpar, Estagund, and Var the Golden)
ALLIES: Lathander, Oghma, Waukeen (missing), Tempus
FOES: Talos

Divine Classification

Power