Ninkash

The Golden Daughter, Goddess of Brewing, Mother Ninkash

Ninkash has a private face and a public face; few non-dwarves ever learn anything of her private side. The public face of Ninkash is a golden-glowing, oversized plain tankard with a simple handle, unadorned and lidless. It is said to be fashioned all of never-rusting, never-staining steel that floats upright in midair except when pouring out beer or a golden mist, “the favor of the goddess.” This tankard foams with beer as it refills itself, and its metal flows into a broad smile, until something is said or done—such as bloodshed—to displease Ninkash.   Her private aspect is that of a jovial, buxom, chubby dwarf woman clad in flowing robes that constantly shift color: one moment nut-brown, the next gold. Her garments are simple as a tavern maid’s: the goddess appears barefoot, her clothes unbelted and low-cut. Ninkash always smiles. When displeased, her smile is slight and she shakes her head, and when pleased, she beams and extends her arms as if to sweep the observer to her bosom.   The holy symbol of Ninkash resembles a roughly drawn golden “Y” to the uninitiated. Priests insist the unity of two streams of beer flowing together to fall as one reminds the faithful of the goddess’s bosom felt by every dwarf wrapped in her embrace. This holy symbol is known as the “baerra” (or munificence).   As the matron goddess of beer, Ninkash represents morale and pleasing self and family in small, daily things by kindnesses and shared fellowship, dining and drinking (including hospitality to guests). She is also “the Inner Way,” the cleaving to inward desires and the demands of flesh and kinship, expressing one’s emotions and questioning or testing the laws and authority and clan rules other dwarven deities uphold. Priests of the goddess, quoting a now-forgotten predecessor, claim “Ninkash is not the vote; she is what you bring to the vote. She is not vengeance; she is the fire behind vengeance. She is not clan loyalty; she is the way by which a loyal dwarf can yet see the needs and wants of a foe and understand the thinking of non-dwarves.”

Divine Domains

Life

Divine Symbols & Sigils

Overfilled Golden Tankard

Tenets of Faith

A dwarf is not a true dwarf unless that dwarf feels needed. A dwarf is not a true dwarf unless that dwarf faces his fears, wants, and delights. The ales of Ninkash help worshippers set aside the armors of civility, reserve, and secrecy for a time, to let a dwarf see more clearly.   Through the call to the matron goddess and her responses in visions of dream and of altar, Ninkash guides dwarves to survive, to grow stronger, to do what is needful to become greater, to balance their inner calling against the outer hardness every dwarf must build.   While ordinary ale is a road to truth, the holy ale of Ninkash is the road to the Truth.   The Vaer of Ninkash nurture the needs of a dwarf that other deities do not. And like a stool with one leg missing, a dwarf un-nurtured by Ninkash cannot stand, nor support another dwarf.

Holidays

In most dwarven settlements and cantons, similar rituals are performed at the end of every mining shift and may be combined with hot baths for weary miners. For non-miners or in dwarf gatherings or communities not dominated by mining, these rituals are customarily performed in mid-morning (a shortened, “gentle” ritual), at the middle of the working day (also a shortened ritual, but often emphasizing guidance or an exhortation), and at the end of the working day or late evening (a full ritual, often turning into a feast or long drinking-bout).   Travelling priests perform prayer rituals to the matron goddess on the eve of every canton vote, during preparation for war, at the outset of a migration or merchant expedition or journey and when creating a magical item, building a large mechanism or starting diplomacy with lowlanders.   The Vaer hold their own rituals to recognize and confirm new members, to mark the deaths of priests, and to signal the passage of specific clergy from one rank or office to another. The annual great ritual of Moonfall marks the end of the alpine growing season. In recent years, Moonfall has grown in most cantons into a two- or three-day-long debauch of drinking, frolicking, and games for both the young and the old.

Divine Goals & Aspirations

Day-to-Day Activities

The Vaer’s primary duties to the laity all help in the furtherance of morale. This is sometimes misunderstood; Ninkash does not expect her clergy to force dwarves to be “hap-hap-happy” (as one human once put it) all the time, or drunk, or engaged in loud and frivolous revelry or flirtation. Often, quiet talks and a helping hand in the tasks of the day, or just a smile and shoulder-clasp to make a dwarf feel recognized, appreciated and welcome as a member of the community do far more to boost morale than dispensing ale and carousing. Vaer often advise lay dwarves on all matters large and small, and are known for two things: absolute secrecy and far more informality than any other dwarven clergy. Their secrecy is complete; one can confess murder and worse crimes to a Vaer, and unless the crime is against the temple itself, the priest will say nothing at all about what was confessed to anyone else, except to the goddess or—only with the permission of the confessing dwarf—to seek advice from a more senior priest. As a result, one speaks to a Vaer of Ninkash as a kindly friend or wiser older colleague, never as a supplicant to a superior.
The clergy of Ninkash see it as their collective duty to advise the dwarves of a community, calming and soothing when necessary but also warning or balancing against other influences —even the clergies of other gods— when needed.

Priestly Vestments

Vaer wear loose tabards or surcoats over their robes when leading high rituals. The tabard has a large oval hole for the wearer’s head, hanging from the shoulders unbelted with a plain back panel, and it displays the holy symbol of Ninkash on the front panel in brown dye for drin, in a band of stitched red fabric for vaerren, and in a band of cloth-of-gold for kalath.
 

Adventuring Garb

Nothing in the daily garb of the Vaer distinguishes a drina from a vaera or a kala; all tend to wear plain brown robes and always carry two tankards. One is a miniature pendant “taster” on a neck chain, while the other is an everyday tankard on a chain or knotted cord at their belts.   Every vaera and kala of Ninkash will try to procure or make a personal tankard to use for prayer to the goddess. In this, they offer her their tears and the beer they have brewed for lone prayers of confession and requests for guidance.   Most clergy of Ninkash maintain an altar to the goddess: a table or a flat slab of rock shrouded in the tunics of dead Vaer and set with “the Kiss,” a massive tankard at least 2 ft. tall, and smaller tankards. By custom, these smaller tankards number one for each Vaer taking part in a ritual at the altar plus one additional tankard that represents the laity.   Necessary accoutrements for most rituals include a tapped keg of ale; the teira, a hollow mace pierced with holes for the sprinkling of beer; a deep-toned hollow wooden “churn” chime (so-named for its resemblance to a butter-churn, it hangs via a chain from the ceiling or a moveable stand). Most nighttime rituals also involve any number of beer-dipped candles, which foam as they burn.

Symbol: Overfilled Golden Tankard
Home Plane: Dwarfhome
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Portfolio: Beer, brewing, companionship, festhalls
Worshipers: Dwarves, brewers, taverners, innkeepers
Cleric Alignments: NG, CG, CN
Domains: Life
Favored Weapon: Tiera (Mace)   SUPERIOR: Moradin
ALLIES: the Morndinsamman, Milil, Chauntea

Divine Classification

Demipower