Dugmaren Brightmantle

Dugmaren Brightmantle: The Gleam in the Eye, the Wandering Tinker, the Errant Explorer

Symbol: Open book
Home Plane: Outlands/Dwarvish Mountain (Soot Hall)
Alignment: CG
Portfolio: Scholarship, invention, discovery
Domains: Chaos, Craft, Dwarf, Good, Knowledge, Rune
Worshipers: Dwarves
Aliases: N/A
Cleric Alignments: CG, CN, NG
Favored Weapon: "Sharptack" (shortsword)

History/Relationships: Dugmaren Brightmantle (DUHG-mah-ren BRITE-man-tuhl) is the patron of dwarven scholars and the embodiment of the chaotic and exploratory spirit that consumes some of the Stout Folk. He is venerated by dwarves and a few gnomes, all of whom are scholars, inventors, engineers, tinkers, and fiddlers. His worshipers are consumed with the acquiring of knowledge simply for its own sake rather than for any practical purpose. Whereas Moradin draws smiths and other craftsfolk to his forge, Dugmaren attracts those free-thinkers who want to create something truly new, not a variation on an old theme.

Dugmaren is thought to be a child of Moradin - a chaotic element split off from his father's stern lawfulness and nurtured by the favor of his mother Berronar. In fact the All-Father relates well to Dugmaren's creative and explorative instincts, but the Wandering Tinker often drifts away from projects before they are completed and usually before he has found a use for the knowledge he has gathered - a trait that irritates Moradin to no end. Dugmaren is always getting himself enmeshed in one exploit or another, and his regular accomplices include Haela or Marthammor of the Morndinsamman and Brandobaris, Erevan Ilesere, Nebelun/Gond, or Shaundakul from the other human or demihuman pantheons.

Aside from Gargauth, who embodies everything corruptive and malevolent in the discovery of lost or undiscovered knowledge, the gods of the illithids, who seek to hoard knowledge for themselves, and Urdlen, who hates everyone and everything, the Wandering Tinker has no true foes. However, Dugmaren finds the company of Abbathor, Deep Duerra, Laduguer, and the goblin and evil giant gods trying at best. The Wandering Tinker is tolerated by the lawful members of the dwarven pantheon because his inventions and innovations have proven to have had beneficial aspects.

Dogma: The secrets of the world are waiting to be revealed. Travel widely, broaden your mind at every opportunity, and pursue the life of a scholar. Cultivate the spirit of inquiry among the young and be a teacher to all. Seek to recover the lost and/or arcane knowledge of ages past and apply it in the world of today. Try new methods of doing things just for the joy of experimenting. Learn a little of everything, for you never know what might be of use down the road.

Avatar/Manifestations: Dugmaren is a benign, inquisitive, cheerful, and optimistic deity concerned with discovering the unknown. He is an inveterate acquirer of trivia and little-used knowledge, an experimenter and a fiddler. Although he dwells within the Dwarvish Mountain in the Outlands, he often ventures into the planes of Arborea, Elysium, and Bytopia. The Wandering Tinker sometimes dispatches an avatar to act as an unseen guide for dwarven scholars and travelers, protecting them in their searches and providing hints on where to look for knowledge.

Dugmaren rarely manifests in an obvious or direct fashion. Instead, the Wandering Tinker prefers to guide his followers to new discoveries as subtly as possible. For example, he might manifest by causing a book to open to a page of particular interest or by causing a secret door to shift slightly, revealing its existence to a determined searcher. When he does find it necessary to manifest his presence directly,

Dugmaren typically envelops a worshiper or object in a bright nimbus of bluetinted light. The effect of such an aura varies according to the situation. Dugmaren typically manifests through the actions of sentient creatures by giving them the ability to use a single divination spell, such as detect magic, ESP, identify, legend lore, or true seeing, or a single defensive spell, such as anti-magic shell, ironguard, magical vestment, minor globe of invulnerability, protection/rom evil, or shield. The Wandering Tinker sometimes manifests by transforming a follower's mental picture into a physical object in a fashion similar to the effects of the spell major creation.

Agents/Petitioners: Dugmaren is served by archons, aasimon, einheriar, electrum dragons, feystags, and gynosphinxes. He demonstrates his favor through the discovery of king's tears, pearls, unlooked-for scraps of lore of any sort, and faint, long-forgotten melodies with no apparent source. The Wandering Tinker indicates his displeasure by temporarily preventing a tome from opening, by causing a device to seize up and stop working, or by blocking one or more forms of sensory input (usually hearing) for a time. He also provides cryptic omens in the form of riddles, puzzles, and impossible objects.

The Church of Dugmaren : The followers of Dugmaren are viewed with a certain measure of distrust and suspicion by most dwarves. While Dugmaren's apostles are well regarded for their learning and inventiveness, few dwarves are willing to spend a great deal of time in the company of the Wandering Tinker's faithful. There are two reasons for such reticence: the fear of getting caught up in the spectacular failure of yet another experiment, and the fact that the quixotic behavior of Dugmaren's followers is tiring to the orderly mindset common to the children of Moradin. Other human and demihuman races tend to be more tolerant of Dugmaren's followers than their fellow dwarves are. Temples of Dugmaren are found both above ground and below.

They are usually sprawling complexes crammed full of the detritus of countless experiments as well as artifacts collected on extended sojourns to distant locales. At the center of each such house of worship is a huge library housing a large collection of rune stones plus the tomes and scrolls of other races. Altars of Dugmaren consist of a simple block of granite (or some other hard stone) upon which sits a single ever-burning candle symbolizing the quest for knowledge. Novices of Dugmaren are known as the Curious. Full priests of the Wandering Tinker are known as Seekers of Truth and Mystery. In ascending order of rank, the titles used by Dugmarenite priests are Questing Wanderer, Avid Fiddler, Philosophical Tinker, Seeking Scholar, Searching Sage, and Errant Philosopher. High Old Ones have unique individual titles but are collectively known as the High Savants. Specialty priests are known as xothor, a dwarvish word that can be loosely translated as those who seek knowledge.

Day-to-Day Activities: Priests of the Wandering Tinker spend their days in scholarly pursuits, seeking to learn, teach, and advance nearly every field of knowledge even marginally interesting to the dwarven race. Many Seekers of Truth and Mystery serve as instructors to the young, while others record and archive current dwarven practices for future generations. Dugmaren's clergy members travel widely, seeking new experiences, new ideas, and the recovery of lost dwarven lore.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: The church of Dugmaren has little in the way of formal ritual or ceremony. Priests of the Wandering Tinker whisper a prayer of thankfulness to Dugmaren when they discover a piece of forgotten lore or whenever they make a significant discovery of any sort. Greengrass and Higharvestide are the only holy days regularly celebrated by Dugmaren's faithful. Such days begin with several hours of private early-morning introspection, usually spent staring into the heart of a single lit candle. These personal meditations are followed by a day-long convocation of scholars in which the results of scholarly investigations since the last such symposium are presented, defended, and discussed.

Major Centers of Worship: With the founding of Luruar in the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR) and the elevation of Alustriel to rule it, Silverymoon's role as the preeminent center of learning within the Moonlands of the North has continued to expand. With the blessing and encouragement of King Harbromm and the Bright Lady, 40 dwarven scholars from Citadel Adbar, under the direction of Savant of Mysteries Daurant Tomescribe, emigrated to Silverymoon in the first few months of the Year of the Tankard (1370 DR). There they founded a temple of Dugmaren alongside the other colleges, temples, and libraries of the Gem of the North. Both rulers saw this development as a way to ensure that the dwarves of the emerging nation of Luruar contributed to and benefited from the scholarly work and intellectual ferment already underway in the capitol city.

Since its inception, the Athenaeum of Philosophy, located east of the Market and northwest of Alustriel's Palace, between Fortune Hall and the Temple of Silver Stars, has been the home of invention, experimentation, philosophical and scholarly debate, and seminars on a wide range of topics - these last being open to the general public. Although the worshipers of Tymora and Selune have uttered more than a few fervent prayers to their goddesses after alarming explosions emanating from the experimental laboratories beneath Dugmaren's house of worship, the introduction of two score dwarven inventors and sages to Silverymoon's scholarly circles has been a great success and is starting to draw more dwarves from the lands of fallen Delzoun, as well as scholars of other races based in Silverymoon, to share in the intellectual ferment.

The Athenaeum itself once served as a training facility for the Knights of Silver based in the nearby palace, and halls that were once employed for dining, sleeping, and weapons training are now occupied by sprawling laboratories and great libraries filled with obscure knowledge of questionable usefulness. The temple is always ablaze with light as its residents experiment, tinker, and invent night and day. Visiting scholars of any race are welcome to reside in the temple for a night or even a tenday, but few find the ever-present chaos conducive to a good night's sleep.

Affiliated Orders: The Order of the Lost Tome is a loosely structured fellowship of errant dwarven scholars dedicated to the recovery of lost dwarven lore for the benefit of kingdoms and clan holds throughout the Realms. Individual Knights of the Lost Tome usually work alone or in the company of dwarven and nondwarven adventurers unaffiliated with the order. They combine their passion for knowledge and investigative abilities with the martial skills necessary to defeat the current occupants of fallen dwarven strongholds thought to contain examples of and treatises on lost dwarven lore.

Priestly Vestments: Dugmaren's priests tend to eschew formal religious garb aside from plain, homespun white garments with vibrant sashes the width of a hand. High Old Ones of the faith wear simple silver circlets to denote their status. The holy symbol of the faith is a silver locket Grafted to resemble an open book. Many of Dugmaren's followers keep small bits of lore - riddles, puzzles, command words, etc. - inside such lockets in homage to the god - and also to keep them readily available in unexpected situations.

Adventuring Garb: Members of Dugmaren's clergy dress practically when exploring dangerous or unknown territories. Most favor light armor and weapons, preferring maneuverability over defense. Many carry unique weapons; most also have items with defensive capabilities of widely varying usefulness and reliability, which they have invented and wish to field-test.