Belgret Magnusson

Belgret Magnussson is the a diety of the Dwarven Pantheon, creation and daughter of Magnus Allfather. Dwarves, especially those of the Clans of Magnus, revere her as the first female dwarf, the ideal of dwarven femininity, and a patron of maternal and romantic loves. Her descendants and creations form Clan Belgretsson, one of the Twelve Clans of Magnus, though she has token followers in most other clanholds, married in from Balippasson or compelled to preach her messages of loving acceptance and feminine strength. She is known in part by the epithet Hearthkeeper.

Belgret is a chaotic good diety whose followers are granted access to the Charm, Good, Healing, and Luck domains. Her holy symbol is a turtledove.

History

Belgret Magnusson was created early in the history of the dwarves by Magnus Allfather, who forged her as one of his generals, before re-forging her to be the bride of Erim Magnusson, first high-king of the dwarves. Belgret lived for a time among mortals, setting forth informal and formal dwarven standards in the areas of love and parentage, before she "retired" to Khaz Urheim.

Relationships

Belgret remains the wife of Erim Magnusson and resides in Khaz Urheim with the other deities of the dwarven pantheon. Trusted by Erim, she is one of the more well-travelled dwarven dieties, occasionally trecking across the cosmos to Elysium to treat with her elven counterpart, Immara Hyacinth, or to Heaven to speak with San Hera.

Appearance

Belgret is a gargantuan being alike in proportion and visage to the dwarves he created, albeit on a much grander scale. She has fair freckled skin with a permanent ruddy flush in her round cheeks, and auburn hair which she wears braided around to the back of her head.

Realm

Her divine realm is in Khaz Urheim, a fortified city in the Atlas Mountains which bridges Ahren and the Bardo. While the location of this city is said to be embedded in the soul of every dwarf, as a practical matter only the dead seem to remember it, and the location is lost to both living dwarves and some of the best scholars in all Wisteria. It is possible that the material portion of the stronghold does not have a static position, but appears only as needed.

Providence

Belgret blesses dwarves - followers or not - with the capacity for love. The sudden blossoming of a romance among comrades is thought to be the sign of her intervention. Twins are said to be particularly blessed by her, and she is also associated with good harvest.

Servants

Belgret serves Magnus Allfather in his fortress, and is served by those dwarves who have earned their divine rest with him in Khaz Urheim, along with the Secondborn, dwarf-like stone golems of giant size.

The Dwarven Church

Belgret's church is a supplementary worship alongside that of Belgret Magnusson. She is observed particularly at the occasion of marriage and in the proceedings of divorce, in ceremonies that mark the first planting and the harvest, and at blessings of pregancies and births.

Worshippers

All Atlassian Dwarves worship Magnus Allfather, and some of those (especially in Clan Belgretsson) worship Belgret in addition. Rank within the clergy is highly structured and determined by status and promotion from above, up to and including the primate of her cult, the Ringbearer of Belgret. Every community of any appreciable size within the Clanholds will have at least a small chapel dedicated to Belgret, usually in a well-lit portion of the stronghold, where ceremonies to mark weddings, divorces, consecrations of pregnancies, or blessings of births are conducted.

Clergy

Priests of the Hearthkeeper wear elegant robes with braided piping, usually in green and white. They adopt particular manners of the decoration and braiding of their hair and beards that makes them stand apart from other folk, including other clergy. Most clergy serve as pastors in their community. Unlike many dwarven clerical orders, Belgret's preists and priestesses are encouraged to marry, with some even taking on many partners in apparent contradiction of some dwarven norms. Clerics are also expected to become experts at overland travel, owing to the association of Belgret with harvest and agriculture, so that they can move among the surface dwellings of the dwarves to minister to the faithful farmers who risk their lives above ground to produce the bread of all dwarves.

Temples & Shrines

Like much the rest of dwarven architecture, temples and shrines to the Hearthkeeper are often masterworks of masonry or stonework, which in wealthy communities are often further embellished with precious metals or gem-mosiacs, depicting episodes from the Hearthkeeper's Edda. Such structures are usually subdivided internally, with an area for public ceremony and worship (which is frequent) and an area for the sole use of the clergy and those who serve the clergy in liturgical preparation, and temple complexes almost always include an outbuilding or suite of rooms known as the rectory, where the priests serving a particular temple have residence.

A hearth is always present in the area of primary worship and it is the role of a cleric assigned to the temple, chapel, or shrine to keep this hearth warmed at all times for any who need its comfort.

Holy Texts

The Hearthkeeper's Edda are allegorical morality plays laid out in poetic meter, which deal with matters of identity, love, and lust in elaboration and commentary upon the norms espoused in the Chronicles of Magnus. It is a short volume, and in print on plain vellum comprises a mere seventy pages. However, copies of the edda in this state are rare, and more commonly are translations into the Bastonian tongue or Elven, found in the libraries of those peoples. Among dwarvenkind, the text is often memorized, and written copies exist at each temple or chapel dedicated to his worship, carved into the walls.

Church History

Among the Clans, the church waxes and wanes in power over the centuries, as the focus of dwarven life shifts between isolationism amongst the clans (when worship of the children of the Allfather is more prevelent) to those times of great crisis when the clans stand united and Magnus is more widely pronounced. The church does not lament these shifts in its influence, but stands ever-ready to prove themselves as the true paragons of dwarven love.

Holidays

Belgret's divinity is observed on festivals of harvest, and certain dates of the dwarven calendar (which varies from clanhold to clanhold as the dwarves have lost the knack of unified timekeeping) are considered especially auspicious for marriages based on their mention in her texts, with lavish mass marriages taking place in a festival atmosphere on those dates.