Haela Brightaxe

Haela Brightaxe: Lady of the Fray, Luckmaiden, the Hard

Symbol: An unsheathed sword encircled by a flaming bolt (a two-ended spiral of flame)
Home Plane: Brux/Findar Endar
Alignment: CG
Portfolio: Luck in battle, joy of battle, dwarven fighters
Domains: Chaos Good Luck War
Worshipers: Barbarians, fighters, dwarves
Aliases: N/A
Cleric Alignments: CG, CN, NG
Favored Weapon: Greatsword - "Flamebolt"

History/Relationships: Haela Brightaxe (HUH-ae-la BRITE-ax) is the patron of dwarves who love the fray, who wander the surface lands (especially in the North), who face unknown dangers, and who battle monsters. Although dwarves of all alignments venerate the Lady of the Fray, those Stout Folk of chaotic or neutral good alignment who love battle or exhibit berserker tendencies tend to actively embrace the worship of the Luckmaiden.

Haela dwells in a simple cave in the Beastlands, but she bothers none of the animals that dwell there, keeping to herself, hidden by everpresent mists in the depths of a forest. Findar Endar, as the grotto is known, is protected by her Guardians. Rarely at home, the Luckmaiden is usually to be found in wildspace or on a world such as Toril, wherever dwarves are enjoying battle but in need of aid.

Haela is well known among dwarves for her ready laugh, her booming voice, and her ever-cheerful nature. The Luckmaiden is charming, resourceful, and delivers gallows witticisms with a broad grin. Although she recognizes no superior save Moradin, Haela is the only widely recognized dwarven demipower active in the Realms today, and as such, the Luckmaiden is ever-mindful of the wishes of the more established and more powerful members of the Morndinsamman. As a goddess of dwarven warriors, particularly those who travel far afield, Haela's portfolio overlaps with that of the Marthammor Duin, and she works closely with the Finder-of-Trails. Likewise, the Lady of the Fray maintains good relations with Clangeddin Silverbeard, the Father of Battles, into whose sphere of influence she also crosses.

Dogma: Through battle there is validation, liberation, and exultation. Trust in Haela to see you through the fray, and the monsters of the world shall fall to the sharp blades of your axes, regardless of their apparent strength and numbers. The Luckmaiden blesses those dwarves who believe in her beneficence, and she, through her faithful, will always be there for the beleaguered and the besieged. Rejoice the power of your swing in battle, the sound of your weapon smiting a worthy foe, and the challenge of the fray. If asked, show mercy on a noble foe who abides by a code of honor, but hold not your hand against the treacherous, the liars, and the honorless.

Avatar/Manifestations: Haela manifests only rarely, preferring to appear directly instead. When she does manifest, it is either in cases where she will not be otherwise needed or to help dwarves hold on until she can arrive later to help.

Haela's manifestations always involve an aura of silvery flames, shot through with blue-white and amber sparks. These are images only, not true flames or sparks, and cannot ignite anything. If Haela's aura surrounds a dwarf, her power heals the dwarf of all injuries and allows the dwarf to strike at a +4 bonus to attack for 1d4+1 rounds. This imbues the dwarf with power enough to consider any weapons wielded to be silver and equivalent to +4 magical weapons, for purposes of what can be hit by the empowered dwarf.

If Haela's aura surrounds a weapon, it is rendered supreme for 1d4+1 rounds: Any attacks made with it during this time cannot miss, and do full normal damage. If a weapon empowered by Haela is already magical, its magical properties are suspended by Haela's magic and cannot operate (or be harmed or drained): The weapon does only physical damage until Haela's power fades.

Agents/Petitioners: Haela is served primarily by the spirits of fallen dwarven warriors who become her Guardians (einheriar), but on occasion other creatures of the Upper Planes, including aasimon (particularly agathinon), asuras, bariaurs, courage incarnates, hollyphants, quesar, and warden beasts act on her behalf. She manifests her pleasure with the discovery of bloodstones, carnelians, jacinths, jargoons, red-hued jaspers, red-hued orls, red tears, crimson-hued rubies, red spinels, and red-hued ziose stones. She manifests her displeasure when such gems dissolve into tiny puddles of blood when touched.

The Church of Haela: Haela is well regarded by shield dwarves, particularly wanderers, and her cult is slowly growing among the younger gold dwarves of the South. The Luckmaiden is well known and well regarded among nondwarven adventurers of the North through the near-legendary deeds of her followers, but she is commonly seen as nothing more than a dwarven god of berserkers-akin to bloodthirsty Garagos-by the more sedentary inhabitants of human and elven cities.

Temples of Haela are caves or underground rooms, sometimes in old abandoned holds or the cellars of human ruins. They are typically storehouses of food, small smithies, and armories crammed with odd weapons and armor, and are never guarded by less than a dozen priests (more often, 16 to 20 are in residence). There is always a highly destructive trap set somewhere in such a temple: If the dwarves are slain or forced out, no enemy of the dwarves will get the store of weapons without taking heavy losses. One famous temple of Haela, overrun by ores near Amphail, proved to have a trap of six separate blade barriers that came into being one after another and used the cached weapons of the temple as the whirling weapons.

Novices of Haela, like novices of Clangeddin, are known as the Unblooded. Full priests are known as Blades of the Brightaxe. In ascending order of rank, the titles used by Haelan priests are First Blood, Deadly Dirk, Stout Spear, Sharp Axe, Shining Sword, Flamebolt, and Brightaxe. High Old Ones have individual titles but are collectively known as the Hallowed Crimson. Specialty priests are known as luckmaidens.

Day-to-Day Activities: Priests of Haela wander throughout the Realms, aiding dwarves in battle. They wander because no priest knows where or when she or he will be needed-each relies upon Haela's guiding hand to position him or her as necessary. Blades of the Brightaxe aid beleaguered dwarves (and known allies and companions of dwarves) against creatures of all sorts by healing, casting spells, and fighting alongside them. Their objectives are to achieve victory for the dwarven side and to allow the maximum possible number of dwarves to survive. The priests wish also to make all dwarves comfortable with their own skills in combat-to Haela's worshipers, battle-skills are needed to guide the hands of all dwarves if the Stout Folk are to survive.

Priests of Haela are always heavily armed and are often skilled at weapon and armor repair. They freely give away the weapons they carry to dwarves in need but always keep at least one weapon for themselves, although it may be well hidden.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: The followers of the Luck maiden celebrate three holy days of note. The first such day of the year, celebrated annually on Greengrass, is known as the Time of the Spawning. On this day Haela's clergy prepare for the next wave of ores and other monsters to pour forth from the occupied holds of long-fallen dwarves to threaten the remaining Stout Folk once again. The Time of Spawning is marked by grim ceremonies of preparation for the coming onslaught and includes endless choruses of battle hymns, rhythmic chanting to the beat of endless drumming, and the ritual shattering of weapons and armor seized from previous opponents.

The second major holy day of the Haelan faith is known as the Axe Held High, a day that glorifies the valor of the Lady of the Fray and her role in defending the Stout Folk against their ancient foes. On this day of joyous celebration, ceremonies are held at midday, outdoors in the full embrace of the sun. The followers of the Luckmaiden hold that an unsheathed sword appears momentarily in the center of the solar orb at high noon.

Major Centers of Worship: Endar Aglandtor, the Sword Grotto, is an abbey of the Luckmaiden hidden in a series of dwarf-dug caverns hewn from the base of a granite uprising known as the Tor of Swords. Located north-northwest of the Hill of Lost Souls, the Tor of Swords stands just east of the most northerly of the easternmost loops that the ever-twisting Winding Water makes. The hill once marked the northernmost border of the Helbryn, the great hunting preserve of the longfallen dwarven kingdom of Oghrann. Today the Tor of Swords serves as the chapter house of Haela's Host (see below) under the able leadership of Blade of the Crimson Axe Aglaya Rockfist, daul of Rorrina, blood of Helmma. From their isolated redoubt, the priests of the militant order keep watch over the Hill of Lost Souls, the Battle of Bones, and other unnamed battlefields in the region where dwarven warriors fell long ago. The clerics, crusaders, and specialty priests of Haela's Host clash frequently with the monsters of the Serpent Hills, the Marsh of Chelimber, and the Forest of Wyrms, and they are very effective in keeping monstrous population of the region in check.

The Tor of Swords is named for the quintet of sentient magical swords said to have been entombed within the hill before the erection of the Standing Stone. Since most tales confuse the Tor of Swords with the nearby Dungeon of Swords, located to the northwest in the Serpent Hills, few adventuring bands have ever explored the isolated knoll, and none have found the legendary blades. Assuming the sentient swords are more than myth, it is likely they are now wielded by the ablest swordswomen of Haela's Host.

Torstultok, the Hall of Grand Hunts, is a temple-fortress of Haela well known among the Stout Folk of the North for the numerous all-dwarven and mixed-race adventuring companies it sponsors to reclaim long-lost dwarven relics from ore-held halls. Torstultok is located in the Forlorn Hills, a region best known for its two most famous ruins: the Crumbling Stair and the House of Stone. The temple is located in a sprawling complex of tunnels and grand halls beneath the eastern end of the Watchers of the North, the line of hills that mark the northern edge of the Forlorn Hills. Torstultok was known as Firehammer Hold before the Fallen Kingdom fell, and much treasure is still ascribed to the latter name in the tales of the North. Although those same tales claim that the dwarves of Firehammer Hold perished in a plague that ravaged the hold shortly after the founding of the Kingdom of Man, in truth, the dwarves' numbers dwindled over time, and the leaders of the hold staged the evidence of a deadly plague in order to increase the security of those dwarves who remained.

An unexpected consequence of this action was the arrival in subsequent centuries of treasure-hungry adventurers seeking long-lost dwarven hordes of gold. To assuage the anger of such would-be-plunderers, the dwarves began a practice of hiring such wanderers to seek out other dwarven holds that they knew to be occupied by ores. From this tradition evolved the hold's current role as a clearinghouse for battle-loving dwarves and adventurers of other races seeking glory amidst the ruins of long-fallen dwarven kingdoms. Haela's clergy have even begun to lure adventurers to the temple by means of ancientlooking, incomplete maps and other enticing lures. One such example may be found on the walls of a not-so-secret hidden room in the Singing Sprite, a slate-shingled, many-gabled stone inn located in the bowl between the three hills that the village of Secomber is built upon.

Affiliated Orders: Numerous religious and military orders have been founded by the followers of the Luckmaiden in past centuries, but few ever survive longer than a generation or two. Some of the most famous orders in existence today include Haela's Host (see above), the Dauls of the Luckmaiden, the Shining Host of the Underdeeps, the Dancing Damsels of the Brightaxe, and the hippogriff-mounted Skyriders of Aglandar (as the Great Rift is known in dwarvish). Most orders are known for the valor and daring of their members, and such bands typically focus their efforts on reducing the population of evil monsters in the region in which they are based.

Priestly Vestments: Haela's clergy favor either armor or plain steel-gray rotes, with an overcloak of scarlet and crimson footwear, as ceremonial vestments. An open-faced helm is always worn. The holy symbol of the faith is a steel medallion embossed with Haela's symbol.

Adventuring Garb: When adventuring, the Luckmaiden's clergy garb themselves in the best armor available-chain mail is preferred-and always seek to wield weapons of the finest quality. Helms are always worn, but they need not be open-faced. In honor of an ancient custom, priests of Haela are forever toting large sacks of caltrops around, hoping to get a chance to use them. (About 35 to 75 caltrops can fit in a large sack, depending on the size of the caltrops and the sack. Caltrops are covered in the Arms and Equipment Guide.) As Ardeep crumbled and the Fallen Kingdom splintered centuries ago, Haela's priests, along with many others, fought valiantly, if ultimately futilely, to preserve what remained of the Realm of Three Crowns along the banks of the River Delimbiyr.

At that time, numerous halfling farmers made their homes in the verdant farmland surrounding Secomber under the protective aegis of the allied priests of Haela based in the nearby Firehammer Hold. In thanks for the vigilant axes of the Luckmaiden's clergy and the ready supply of weapons they shared, the Little Folk continually repaid Haela's valiant priests with bags of caltrops-typically three at a time. This practice is now both a joke and an affectionate tradition for both groups.