Ekliazeh

Ekliazeh

God of Stone and Strength
  Craft, Community, Earth, Law, Strength, Protection. The Warhammer. Lawful Weapons.
  Ekliazeh, the patron diety of the dwarves, is a resolute and stubborn being who has endured unchanging for millenia. Devoted to preserving the dwarven race and heritage, Ekliazeh is often seen as a harsh and unfeeling god. Defensive to the point of being xenophobic, the dogma of Ekliazeh demands that the dwarven people endure whatever hardships the world throws at them -- Ekliazeh is a firm believer in growth through ordeal. Ekliazeh is prayed to by members of all the goodly races who want strength and endurance (mental or physical) in a coming trial, but his favour is won only by those who have lived truly in accord with the ways of their people and honoured all who have come before them. Ekliazeh is not a bigoted god, and has shown his favour to humans, halflings, gnomes and even rare elves in the past, but the standards he holds people to are exacting and unforgiving.
  In dwarven mythology, it is Ekliazeh who hammers the soul of every newborn child from the primal energies of creation at his great forge beneath the earth, tempering it to endure whatever hardships the world will throw at it, and it is the chosen warriors of Ekliazeh who hold the line against the primordial forces of chaos that dwell deep below even the citadels of the dwarves, striving to tear their way up to the surface world. Unsurprisingly, clerics of Ekliazeh tend to have something of a martyr complex, and hold surface peoples in a degree of contempt -- they are fighting an ageless war against the darkness below so that the 'soft' surface folk could live in decadance, after all!
  Ekliazeh takes obligations to family very seriously -- a son is expected to obey his father in all things, and to follow the same career path as his father did before him; individuality is not a virtue that Ekliazeh rates highly. Ekliazeh is also highly patriarchal; while he has a very healthty respect for the physical and spiritual strength that women may possess, he does expect them to defer to men wherever there is not a good reason to do otherwise. Ekliazeh is prayed to by all who must delve beneath the earth, and miners, spelunkers and demihuman underdwellers all propitiate him, regardless of their patron diety. There is a distinct mystical branch to Ekliazeh's priesthood that focuses on mystical kinship to stone, dealing frequently with pech and learning to sing the great Earthsong. Clerics of this tradition tend to be more liberal than most Ekliazites, and many become geomancers at some point in their career.
  Ekliazeh's holy symbol is a tiny adamant anvil, and he offers his clerics the domains of Craft, Community, Earth, Law, Strength and Protection. His chosen weapon is the warhammer. Ekliazeh accepts the sacrifice of rare gemstones gladly, and also favours the blood of evil creatures of the deep Underdark -- both the monstrous aberrations and more recognizable races like drow, goblins and mind flayers. He is Lawful Neutral in alignment, and his priests may be of any non-Chaotic alignment.
   Worship: All dwarves have the option to worship Ekliazeh, even if they do not follow a normally religious path. Ekliazeh delights in the sacrifce of drow, goblinoids and giants -- the traditional enemies of the dwarven people -- but also accepts the sacrifce of any evil creatures (other than dwarves). He is angered when his followers commit unlawful acts or attack non-hostile creatures that are not traditional enemies of the dwarves. He is also gravely angered when a follower kills a dwarf or a member of their family, for any reason. Any character (other than goblinoids, elves, drow or lizardfolk) can worship Ekliazeh, but dwarves receive the greatest favour in his eyes.
   Blessings: Ekliazeh will heal his followers, purify their bodies, cure blindness or maiming quite casually and lift curses or smite enemies with only a little more devotion. For more deeply favoured followers, he can identify weapons, armour and shields. It requires a great deal of both personal accomplishment and favour with Ekliazeh for him to raise a fallen hero.
   His more permanent blessings bring a follower closer to the earth: increased health and endurance, skill with craftwork and even a kind of natural resistance to harm wrought by hardening of the skin.

Domains: Craft (Domain), Community, Earth, Law, Strength, Protection