Laduguer

Laduguer: The Exile, the Gray Protector, Master of Crate, the Slave Driver, the Taskmaster, the Harsh

Symbol: Broken crossbow bolt on a shield
Home Plane: Hammergrim
Alignment: LE
Portfolio: Magic weapon creation, artisans, magic, gray dwarves
Domains: Evil Magic Protection Craft, Dwarf, Law, Metal
Worshipers: Duergar, fighters, loremasters, soldiers
Aliases: N/A
Cleric Alignments: LE, LN, NE
Favored Weapon: Warhammer - "Grimhammer"

History/Relationships: Laduguer (LAA-duh-gwur) is the patron of the duergar, or gray dwarves, a malevolent breed of dwarves who dwell in the dark reaches of the Underdark and who withdrew from the rest of dwarven society long ago along with their god. The Exile is venerated by most gray dwarves as the protector of the race who defends them from the countless other creatures of the Underdark who wish to enslave them and seize their tunnels, mines, and crafts. Duergar craftsmen, particularly those who seek to create magical weapons, pay particular homage to Laduguer.

Laduguer has long been estranged from the other members of the Morndinsamman, and he regards them as lazy, indolent, and feckless. The reasons behind the Gray Protector's exile vary according to the perspective of the speaker: The Morndinsamman, as well as most gold and shield dwarves, hold that Laduguer was banished by Moradin for his crimes, while Laduguer, as well as most gray dwarves, asserts that he took a stand on principle against the other dwarven gods, and that his exile is self-imposed. The Exile particularly loathes Moradin, his nominal superior, and the personal animosity between the two accounts for much of Laduguer's enmity against the rest of the dwarven pantheon. In fact, Laduguer's only ally is Deep Duerra, a once-mortal demipower he elevated to the rank of divinity.

The withdrawal of Laduguer's followers to the Underdark and their subsequent territorial conflicts with races such as aboleth, beholders, derro, drow, illithids, ixzan, kuo-toa, myconids, svirfneblin, and troglodytes has created a great deal of strife and enmity between the Exile and other powers with an interest in the Night Below. Although he once managed to win hegemony over the giant tarantulas known as steeders during a brief alliance with Lolth, the Spider Queen and the Gray Protector have long feuded as their followers battled.

Likewise Ilsensine, the Great Brain of the illithid race, has long sought revenge against Laduguer for some ancient slight. The Abyssal Lord once known as Orcus is also a target of Laduguer's wrath, for the Prince of the Undead once subverted the worship of the duergar of the Galenas beneath the Mines of Bloodstone. Laduguer is habitually grim, gloomy, and joyless. The Exile's nature is certainly evilly inclined, but much of this is the evil of a being turned in on itself and bitter at what he sees as being unvalued and rejected by the other dwarven powers. Laduguer is supremely lawful, unbending and harsh, and he demands constant toil under harsh conditions from the duergar. He does reward hard work by teaching the Grafting of magical items (especially weapons) and by extending his protection. The Exile sends an avatar to defend a hardworking and oppressed duergar community by use of protective and warding magic, rarely entering into open battle.

According to duergar legend, the time before time was chill nothingness that hungered for creation. That hunger took the form of a gray-skinned dwarf: it became Laduguer the Creator, who forged the world. Duergar theologians say that Laduguer created himself, forging his flesh from the raw desire to create. Then Laduguer populated the world with the first race, the duergar. The duergar dwelled in peace, creating beautiful things to please their god. One prideful dwarf, however, sought to elevate himself above his fellows. Known as the Lone Craftsman, he worked in secret to create life, with the result being ugly, gangling things. These, in fact, were all the other races of the world: elves, giants, humans, kobolds, orcs, and more.

The Lone Craftsman threw them from his forge in disgust, for try as he might he could not equal Laduguer's original creation. Finally, after years of effort, he succeeded in creating a being like a duergar, but with skin of bronze and eyes like precious gems, the ancestor of the hill and mountain dwarves. Laduguer discovered this blasphemous attempt at improving on his own creation and, in punishment, afflicted the Lone Craftsman with madness so that he could never create again. Thus, the Lone Craftsman became the first of the derro.

Dogma: The children of Laduguer have rejected the indolent and feeble gods of their forefathers and withdrawn from their lazy once-kin so as not to be tainted by their weaknesses. Strict obedience to superiors, dedication to one's craft, and endless toil are necessary to achieve wealth, security, and power. The hands of a craftsman are his tools, and a master craftsman always uses the most appropriate tools available. Nothing is ever easy, nor should it be. Suffer pain stoically and remain aloof, for to show or even feel emotion is to demonstrate weakness. Those who are weak are undeserving and will suffer an appropriate fate. Adversity is Laduguer's forge, and the harsh trials through which the duergar must pass are his hammer blowsendure all and become stronger than adamantite.

Avatar/Manifestations: Laduguer's power is usually seen as a flickering dark radiance enveloping an area, weapon, or person that is temporarily imbued with the god's power.

Agents/Petitioners: Laduguer is served by ash mephits, azer, baatezu, Baku, Dark Ones, banelar, bone nagas, brain moles, cerebral parasites, chaggrin, dark nagas, demaraxes, earth elementals, earth elemental vermin (crawlers), earth mephits, earth weirds, fhorges, gray oozes with psionic ability, hammer golems, helmed horrors, hook spiders, intellect devourers, ironmaws, imps, incarnates of anger and pride, living steel, maelephants, meenlocks, mineral mephits, observers, razorvine, reaves, rust dragons, rust monsters, sandmen, shadowdrakes, steeders, stone wolves, sword spirits, su-monsters, tso, werebadgers, xavers, and yugoloths. He demonstrates his favor through the discovery of adamant, black sapphires, bloodstones, diamonds, hizagkuur, mithral, and silver, but does not otherwise send omens to his priests.

The Church of Laduguer: Within gray dwarven communities, Laduguer and his clergy are considered strict taskmasters whose strengths and mandates ensure the very survival of the duergar. Few gray dwarves resent the Exile's mercilessly high standards, and most duergar respect him for his principled stand against the lazy and weak Morndinsamman and their shield and gold dwarven followers. Shield dwarves, gold dwarves, and svirfneblin regard Laduguer and his followers as embittered fools deserving of their fates who have done much to undermine the strength of the dwarven race in both their absence and their assaults on nonduergar dwarven holds. Other races in the Underdark have little sympathy for the gray dwarves or their embittered god and seek only to destroy or subjugate them. Temples of Laduguer are grim, smoke-filled halls hewn from solid rock and bereft of adornment, aside from weapons and armor demonstrating the skilled craftsmanship of the Exile's priests. Laduguer's houses of worship are filled with armories, barracks, smithies, storerooms, and Steeder stables. Many are built directly atop mine shafts from which the raw materials are extracted. Great coal-burning forges provide the only warmth, and their ashen exhaust covers ever surface in dark soot. Clerical guards, many of them mounted on steeders, are everywhere, overseeing the skilled smithwork that proceeds without pause.

Novices of Laduguer are known as the Untempered. Full priests of the Exile are known as Grimcloaks. In ascending order of rank, the titles used by Ladugueran priests are Deep Adept, Dark Craftsman, Invisible Artisan, Rune Weaver, Grim Guardian, and Doom Knight. High Old Ones have individual titles but are collectively known as the Ardukes of the Gray Gloom. Specialty priests are known as thuldor, a dwarvish word that can be loosely translated as those who endure.

Day-to-Day Activities: Laduguer's priests serve as the leaders, defenders, and elite artisans of gray dwarven society. As reflected in the title given to High Old Ones-arduke being a dwarven title for clan leader - Laduguer's clergy derive their spiritual and temporal authority from the role the Exile's early priests played in leading the ancestors of the gray dwarves away from the rest of dwarven society. Unlike gold and shield dwarven cultures where religious and clan leadership are usually distinct, the duergar make no distinction between the two roles. As the protectors of duergar enclaves, members of Laduguer's clergy command and serve in the military and are ultimately responsible for the care, feeding, and training of steeders. They are responsible for the brewing of poisons, the infliction of torture, and the exploitation of slaves. To ensure the safety of the gray dwarves as a whole, Laduguer's priests forcefully repel contacts from other races, permitting trade only under very controlled circumstances far removed from duergar strongholds. The Exile's clergy are also expected to be skilled craftsmen, particularly of magical weapons, and the older and more frail priests are typically the elite artisans of any gray dwarven community.

Holy Days/Important Ceremonies: As befits their grim lives, gray dwarves are a race almost without joy who reserve their celebrations for victories over enemies and for the grim pleasure of inflicting pain on those unlucky enough to fall into their clutches. The only regular holy day is celebrated annually at Midwinter and is known as Grimtidings. On this day only, the duergar lay down their hammers and gather to hear their priests recount the trials the duergar have suffered since their voluntary exile and the weaknesses of the other dwarven subraces and their gods. Laduguer is extolled for his artistry and craftsmanship, and a litany of those who have given insult to the god and the gray dwarves and against whom a promised, deadly revenge is recited.

The Ardukes of the Gray Gloom also declare holy days, known as Guerdon Revels, after major victories and when prisonersparticularly gold and shield dwarves-are captured. While the work does not stop during such festivals, most gray dwarves are given a few moments off from their labors to observe the recounting of heroics by duergar warriors, to examine plundered loot, and to participate in the torture and painful deaths of any prisoners.

Major Centers of Worship: Dunglorrin Torune, Overtake Hold, is located far beneath the surface in Gracklstugh, the largest city of gray dwarves in the Northdark. Deeper even then Menzoberranzan and Blingdinstone, Gracklstugh is a teeming city on the shore of the Darklake, renowned for the steel blades crafted in its forges. The temple itself is carved into the heart of a massive stalagmite formed from the exodus of a nearly vertical stream that winds downward tor miles from the surface lands of the North to rain down on the subterranean tor and drain into the adjoining Darklake. Dunglorrin Torune bristles with chimneys from which billows forth the smoke of the temple's forges and ledges from which balls of burning pitch can be hurled from stone catapults at any invaders attempting a waterborne invasion of the surrounding city. Priest-guards mounted on steeders patrol the stalagmite's steep, slick slopes, and they ferry the raw materials from the mines to the temple's foundries and finished goods to the merchants in the city below.

The high priest of Overlake Hold is Morndin Gloomstorm, son of Kildor, blood of Balgor, of Shimmergloom's Run. Morndin is one of the few surviving duergar of Clan Bukbukken, a clan that once occupied the undercity of Mithral Hall and served the great shadow wyrm Shimmergloom, the Drake of Darkness, before the shield dwarves of Clan Battlehammer reclaimed their ancestral home and drove the gray dwarves back to Gracklstugh.

Affiliated Orders: The Gray Lances of the Snarling Steeder are a mounted order of duergar crusaders and fighter/priests. The Gray Lances serve as the elite cavalry of gray dwarven armies, and their most common opponents are drow mounted on riding lizards. Individual duergar knights and their steeder mounts are well schooled in subterranean warfare techniques for battles that unfold across cave floors, walls, and ceilings.

Priestly Vestments: The clerical vestments of Laduguer's priests consist of utilitarian metal armor and the gray, hooded mantles for which the Grimcloaks are named. The holy symbol of the faith is a gem of any type, split nearly in twain by a large crack, one half of which is deeply flawed and the other half of which is perfect. For the duergar, such gems symbolize their split from the rest of the dwarven race and their superiority over those they have forsaken.

Adventuring Garb: Laduguer's priests favor weapons commonly employed by gray dwarves including heavy and light crossbows, picks, short swords, spears, and war hammers. When stealth is required, Grimcloaks prefer leather and studded leather armor. In situations requiring direct melee combat, the Exile's priests favor the heaviest armor available, usually a medium shield and chain mail or dwarven plate mail.