Urniora Magnusson

Urniora Magnusson is the a deity of the Dwarven Pantheon, creation and daughter of Magnus Allfather. Dwarves, especially those of the Clans of Magnus, revere her as the Doom of the Dwarves, whose fair judgement and unyielding sense of justice caused her father to name her the Gate-Maiden of Khaz Urheim. Her descendants and creations form Clan Uransson, one of the Twelve Clans of Magnus, though she has some scattered followers in most other clanholds, married in from her clan or devoted to her worship through their own experiences. Most strongholds have a temple of some kind in her honour, and all dwarves are familiar with her rites and with the appearance of her clerics.

Urniora is a lawful neutral deity whose followers are granted access to the Darkness, Death, Repose, and Sorrow domains. Her holy symbol is an open book, which stands for her authority over the Rolls of Urheim, the mythical document with which she is said to be able to doom dwarves to rebirth or welcome them in perpetuity to the heavenly halls of their creator, Magnus Allfather.

History

Urniora Magnusson was created early in the history of the dwarves by Magnus Allfather, who forged her to be an assistant in the defense of his creations. At one point, she was seen as a goddess of fertility and births, whose role in Khaz Urheim was to judge dwarves as they were turned out of the forges, before they were sent to Ahren to live out their lives. Of this work, it is said that she despaired, and ultimately pleaded with her father to join her sister Balippa Magnusson on Ahren. She did this work for a time, founding Khaz Helofik. She lived there for over two centuries, until the generation of dwarves who had fallen in ill age and war, trapped outside the gates of Khaz Urheim, began to weigh on her mind.

There, she repented, and returned to Khaz Urheim where she now serves as a judge of the souls of dwarves who have died, determining if they are fit for life in the eternal stronghold, or sending them to her father to be reforged and born anew.

Relationships

Urniora's best friend, in their time under the mortal sun and even after in Khaz Urheim, is her sister and rival Balippa. The two form the two halves of the rite of judgement of the souls of the dead, with Balippa arguing passionately for or against the departed, trying to sway her sister's stubborn mind from here to there. She is said to be among the few Dwarven gods friendly with others, through her cordial relationship with Lysanthir Lugalor, whom the elves call Judge of the Ultimate, and who has a similar mission to Urniora's own.

Appearance

Uniora is a gargantuan being alike in proportion and visage to the dwarves, albeit on a much grander scale. He is somewhat pale and has a long mane of white hair, for which she is famous. She dresses in a deep burgundy cloth.

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

Urniora takes little intervention in the affairs of mortal dwarves while alive despite her position in their worship. The surest sign of her providence is the comforting omen in the wake of a death, or the fitting eulogy. She has a special hatred for the undead and is often invoked for (or thanked after) the breaking of infestations of the same.

Servants

Urniora 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

Urniora's church is a supplementary worship alongside that of Magnus Allfather, and a common one, given her involvement in death, the unavoidable fate of all dwarves. There is no distinction in dwarven culture between a mortuary and a temple to Urniora, and the clerics of all orders (save those of Balippa) usually turn to the clerics of the Gate-Maiden for matters of funerary import.

Worshippers

All Atlassian Dwarves worship Magnus Allfather, and some of those worship Urniora in addition, even outside the season of a death in the family or their own approach toward death. Rank within the clergy is highly structured and determined by status and promotion from above, up to and including the primate of his cult, the Barrow-Master. Every settlement in Dwarvendom has some presence of hers, even if it just a small and exposed shrine in their grave halls or barrow.

Clergy

Priests of the Doom of the Dwarves wear fine robes as befit those who carry out important religious ceremony. 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, and those styles are associated socially with those of mourning and somber occasion. In areas where the population of worshippers can support non-pastoral clergy, some of her best clerics serve as the architects and designers of tombs and barrows, safeguarding the interred against robbers or worse.

Such priests of Urniora are married to their work and pursuit of romantic relationships outside of marriage are expressly forbidden, with marriage only possible to those who got married before joining the clergy.

Temples & Shrines

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

Such full temples often house extensive tomb-complexes and even smaller chapels to Urniora often have dedicated rooms for mortuary practices.

Holy Texts

The Litany of Fates is a lengthy and dense text of the secrets of the afterlife and of the art of a good death. It is a large volume, some 150 pages when written on velum. These copies are dear and expensive to produce according to the dwarves, as well as being considered secret knowledge and jealously guarded, therefore found exceptionally rarely outside of the dwarven holds. Duplicating these documents and providing them to non-dwarves is absolutely haraam, as some dwarves believe they can be used to determine the earthly location of Khaz Urheim.

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 steadfastness.