Dugmaren Brightmantle (DUHG-mah-ren)
Dugmaren Brightmantle was a lesser dwarven deity of learning and innovation, and patron of dwarven scholars and free thinkers. His domain was the gathering of knowledge regardless of its utility and the creation of novel inventions using the various findings. The Errant Explorer embodied the progressive side of the conservative Stout Folk, and the exploratory spirit that led to acts of creativity.
Dugmaren was benign, cheerful, and optimistic, but his behaviour could cause problems. He had a tendency to drift away from what he was doing to investigate something else that caught his notoriously capricious attention, often abandoning projects before he was done and usually before he found a use for his gathered knowledge. He was an experimenter and meddler whose fiddling had ruined things he was not supposed to touch an inestimable number of times. Despite this attitude, Dugmaren was not in any way to be placed alongside inventors like the tinker gnomes of Krynn, being jolly rather than chirpy to the point of being frightening.
Dugmaren's clerics, especially his specialty priests, were known as xothor (singular xothar), a dwarvish word loosely translated to mean "those who seek knowledge". The vast majority of his clergy (96%), whether dwarf or gnome, was male, and before the Time of Troubles they were entirely so. Novice Dugmarenites were known as the Curious, while full members were known as Seekers of Truth and Mystery. In ascending order of rank, priests were known by the titles of Questing Wanderer, Avid Fiddler, Philosophical Tinker, Seeking Scholar, Searching Sage, and Errant Philosopher, with high old ones of the church having individual titles and being collectively known as High Savants.
Most members of the clergy were either mountain dwarves (53%) or hill dwarves (46%). The hill dwarves of the Great Rift, given their lack of challenges compared to mountain dwarves, had more time to spend on creative and philosophical matters, and individuals with the penchant often venerated Dugmaren, spending their days contemplating the mysteries of life and using their findings to create new magic items. A handful of duergar and wild dwarves, along with the gnomes, made up a small minority of the faith. His clergy was dominated (85%) by specialty priests, the other 15% being regular clerics, and of those around a fifth trained as fighters. Clerics frequently trained loremasters, runecasters, or wizards.
All Dugmaren's followers were non-evil, but his clerics were also non-lawful, and his specialty priests strictly good. Becoming a specialty priest also required at least average intelligence and above average wisdom, as well as engineering skill. Most were mountain or hill dwarves, but all subraces could become one. Xothor combined priestly power with limited wizardry, allowing them to cast various defensive and divining spells through both arcane and divine means. They had the ability to use magical wizard and priest scrolls above their normal capabilities, but due to the incomplete nature of their understanding there was a chance the spell would be read incorrectly and malfunction. The odds increased based on the inexperience of the caster and difficulty of the magic, and the effects were equally likely to be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental.
One knightly order of Dugmaren was known as the Order of the Lost Tome. It was a loosely structured fellowship of errant dwarven scholars on a mission to recover lost dwarven lore for the benefit of dwarves across the realms. The Knights of the Lost Time normally worked independently, either by themselves or with unaffiliated adventurers (dwarven or otherwise). They combined investigative ability, a passion for learning, and the martial skill needed to best occupiers of fallen dwarf strongholds in order to obtain the information they sought.
Personality
Of all the dwarvish gods, Dugmaren was certainly the most given to chaos, a divine manifestation of the most chaotic principles of dwarven character. He was instinctually creative and adventurous in spirit, with a natural desire to explore. He was also the most open-minded member of his pantheon, and the inquisitive deity was primarily concerned with the discovery of the unknown. Whether or not the knowledge he was searching for had any practical application was irrelevant; he compulsively accumulated trivia and "useless" information, favouring knowledge for knowledge's sake.Dugmaren was benign, cheerful, and optimistic, but his behaviour could cause problems. He had a tendency to drift away from what he was doing to investigate something else that caught his notoriously capricious attention, often abandoning projects before he was done and usually before he found a use for his gathered knowledge. He was an experimenter and meddler whose fiddling had ruined things he was not supposed to touch an inestimable number of times. Despite this attitude, Dugmaren was not in any way to be placed alongside inventors like the tinker gnomes of Krynn, being jolly rather than chirpy to the point of being frightening.
Worshipers
Whereas Moradin drew his followers from various craftsfolk, Dugmaren attracted the most creative of tinkers and free-thinkers of a race that, for its traditional leanings, still prided itself on its infrequent innovation. Any dwarf could create a hammer, but Dugmaren's followers wanted to create something entirely new rather than a variation on an old classic. Only a few had the inspiration to turn ideas on their head and invent things like the "Wondrous Spinning Axehead". Gnomes were also allowed to join his orders on rare occasions. Although well-regarded for their inventiveness, his worshipers were partially estranged from common dwarves due to their fear of being caught in one of their spectacular failures and the tiring nature of their exceeding idealism, but humans and other demihumans were often more tolerant of this behaviour.Dugmaren's clerics, especially his specialty priests, were known as xothor (singular xothar), a dwarvish word loosely translated to mean "those who seek knowledge". The vast majority of his clergy (96%), whether dwarf or gnome, was male, and before the Time of Troubles they were entirely so. Novice Dugmarenites were known as the Curious, while full members were known as Seekers of Truth and Mystery. In ascending order of rank, priests were known by the titles of Questing Wanderer, Avid Fiddler, Philosophical Tinker, Seeking Scholar, Searching Sage, and Errant Philosopher, with high old ones of the church having individual titles and being collectively known as High Savants.
Most members of the clergy were either mountain dwarves (53%) or hill dwarves (46%). The hill dwarves of the Great Rift, given their lack of challenges compared to mountain dwarves, had more time to spend on creative and philosophical matters, and individuals with the penchant often venerated Dugmaren, spending their days contemplating the mysteries of life and using their findings to create new magic items. A handful of duergar and wild dwarves, along with the gnomes, made up a small minority of the faith. His clergy was dominated (85%) by specialty priests, the other 15% being regular clerics, and of those around a fifth trained as fighters. Clerics frequently trained loremasters, runecasters, or wizards.
All Dugmaren's followers were non-evil, but his clerics were also non-lawful, and his specialty priests strictly good. Becoming a specialty priest also required at least average intelligence and above average wisdom, as well as engineering skill. Most were mountain or hill dwarves, but all subraces could become one. Xothor combined priestly power with limited wizardry, allowing them to cast various defensive and divining spells through both arcane and divine means. They had the ability to use magical wizard and priest scrolls above their normal capabilities, but due to the incomplete nature of their understanding there was a chance the spell would be read incorrectly and malfunction. The odds increased based on the inexperience of the caster and difficulty of the magic, and the effects were equally likely to be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental.
One knightly order of Dugmaren was known as the Order of the Lost Tome. It was a loosely structured fellowship of errant dwarven scholars on a mission to recover lost dwarven lore for the benefit of dwarves across the realms. The Knights of the Lost Time normally worked independently, either by themselves or with unaffiliated adventurers (dwarven or otherwise). They combined investigative ability, a passion for learning, and the martial skill needed to best occupiers of fallen dwarf strongholds in order to obtain the information they sought.
Divine Domains
Knowledge
Divine Symbols & Sigils
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Dugmaren's faith arose along with most of the younger dwarven gods, during the fall of Shanatar.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Dugmaren was normally believed to be one of the younger children of Moradin and Berronar, a chaotic divergence from his sternly lawful father and nurtured by his mother's favor. Berronar was somewhat cool towards him, patiently humouring his "antics" while waiting for the day she foresaw when he and his followers would set into traditional dwarven life. This wasn't to say that Moradin disliked his son, for in truth he admired his adventurousness and could relate well to his creativity. However, Moradin despaired at his fickle attention and found no end of irritation in his habit of walking away from incomplete projects. It was rumored that Dugmaren did indeed promise his father he would someday settle down and find a use for the knowledge he had accumulated over the eons, but such a day was likely far off.
Dugmaren was unique among his pantheon for his focus on the mystical and arcane. Most of the Morndinsamman were very practical deities, focused on matters of martial prowess, craftsmanship, tradition, and earth, whereas he desired knowledge regardless of its practical purpose. Still, Dugmaren was tolerated by the lawful members of his pantheon (even the duergar deities Laduguer and Duerra) because his inventions and innovations were undoubtedly creative and had provably beneficial uses. None among his pantheon were his enemies, though Vergadain had forged a particularly close, personal friendship with him, for both shared an interest in mischief.
Dugmaren's various pursuits ensured that he was always getting himself in the middle of some exploit, and he had a group of loose, regular associates in these plans. These included the similarly young dwarven deities Haela Brightaxe, demigoddess of luck and battle and Marthammor Duin, god of travellers and guides. Both Marthammor and Dugmaren shared the theme of traveling to gain knowledge and the two were on good terms, with Marthammor always welcome in Dugmaren's Soot Hall. Shaundakul and Gond, human god of travel and innovative craft respectively, and two demihuman deities of rogues, the halfling god of adventure Brandobaris and the elven god mischief Erevan, were also among his accomplices.
Other friends of Dugmaren were various human gods of knowledge, including Deneir, Oghma, and Thoth, the halfling gods Cyrrollalee, Tymora, and Urogalan, the nearly forgotten elven goddess of runic magic Alathrien Druanna, and the leader of the gnome pantheon Garl Glittergold.
Dugmaren's proxies were typically scholarly and frighteningly canny dwarves who were coincidentally good at multiple tasks.
Dugmaren was unique among his pantheon for his focus on the mystical and arcane. Most of the Morndinsamman were very practical deities, focused on matters of martial prowess, craftsmanship, tradition, and earth, whereas he desired knowledge regardless of its practical purpose. Still, Dugmaren was tolerated by the lawful members of his pantheon (even the duergar deities Laduguer and Duerra) because his inventions and innovations were undoubtedly creative and had provably beneficial uses. None among his pantheon were his enemies, though Vergadain had forged a particularly close, personal friendship with him, for both shared an interest in mischief.
Dugmaren's various pursuits ensured that he was always getting himself in the middle of some exploit, and he had a group of loose, regular associates in these plans. These included the similarly young dwarven deities Haela Brightaxe, demigoddess of luck and battle and Marthammor Duin, god of travellers and guides. Both Marthammor and Dugmaren shared the theme of traveling to gain knowledge and the two were on good terms, with Marthammor always welcome in Dugmaren's Soot Hall. Shaundakul and Gond, human god of travel and innovative craft respectively, and two demihuman deities of rogues, the halfling god of adventure Brandobaris and the elven god mischief Erevan, were also among his accomplices.
Other friends of Dugmaren were various human gods of knowledge, including Deneir, Oghma, and Thoth, the halfling gods Cyrrollalee, Tymora, and Urogalan, the nearly forgotten elven goddess of runic magic Alathrien Druanna, and the leader of the gnome pantheon Garl Glittergold.
Dugmaren's proxies were typically scholarly and frighteningly canny dwarves who were coincidentally good at multiple tasks.
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