Whuroric Magnussun

Whuroric Magnusson is a deity of the Dwarven Pantheon, creation and son of Magnus Allfather. Dwarves, especially those of the Clans of Magnus, revere him as the Law-Bringer, who set into stone the laws of dwarvenkind as an extension of the teachings of his father. His descendants and creations form Clan Whuroricsson, one of the Twelve Clans of Magnus, though he has some scattered followers in most other clanholds, married in from his clan or inspired by their work in the trade he created. Many strongholds boast modest gatherings of his followers, and the city he founded, Khaz Theryurjak, is strongly associated with law and order in the eyes of the Clans, even serving as a place for the settlement of disputes between rival clanholds.

Whuroric is a lawful good deity whose followers are granted access to the Good, Law, Nobility, and Rune domains. His holy symbol is that of an anvil bearing the rune "Toff", which is associated with "Law", particularly in the sense of "Laws of Nature".

History

Whuroric Magnusson was created early in the history of the dwarves by Magnus Allfather, who forged him to be an assistant in the defense of his creations. He served directly under Magnus for a time in Khaz Urheim before he took a collection of his own followers and apprentices to found the city of Khaz Theryurjak. There he founded his first court, known by some as Whuroric's Crucible, and began setting about the process of recording and codifying Dwarven law and the ways in which those laws should be enforced.

Whuroric is noted as having not participated in several key aspects of Dwarven History, due in part to having been summoned back to Khaz Urheim earliest among the dwarves. As such he does not have a tomb on Wisteria in any stronghold (unusual, for his kind). He also has the unusual distinction of being personally credited with the founding of two important dwarven guilds - the Hall of the Lawkeepers and the Hall of the Counters - underpinning the legal and financial professions, respectively.

He did, however, serve as thane to Erim Magnusson while the god was High King of the Dwarves, and returned to Urheim on his death rather than assuming the title, as it was judged no longer necessary.

Relationships

Whuroric Magnusson is on good terms with mortal dwarves and lives on in Khaz Urheim with the rest of his pantheon. His role in the city is as a recorder of history and judgements, albeit not the judgement of souls. He is a trusted advisor to Magnus Allfather and is commonly sent on the business of the Allfather to other divine realms as a form of plenipotentiary.

As Urheim is technically in the Bardo he has free access to many realms of the Bardo and has been known to periodically find and pester the Awakened One, each moralizing the other until they tire of each other's qualities.

Appearance

Whuroric is a gargantuan being alike in proportion and visage to the dwarves, albeit on a much grander scale. He is considered hale, hearty, and of imperious stature, gnown for his beard and mane of brassy fair hair, both of which he keeps meticulously braided. He is often seen in the regalia of a dwarven thane.

Realm

His 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

Whuroric takes little intervention in the affairs of mortal dwarves despite his position in their worship. Good outcomes in court are said to be a sign of his favour, but he himself would take issue with that characterization.

Servants

Whuroric 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 Thirdborn, dwarf-like stone golems of giant size.

The Dwarven Church

Whuroric's church is a supplementary worship alongside that of Magnus Allfather, and a common one, given his association with law across all of the Clans of Magnus. In particular, bankers and lawyers worship him directly, and their guildhalls often contain chapels in his honour.

Worshippers

All Atlassian Dwarves worship Magnus Allfather, and some of those worship Whyroric in addition. 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 Thane-Oathbinder. Every guild that practices the professions of law or finance, as well as many courthouses, will have at least a corner chapel to him.

Clergy

Priests of the Lawbringer wear plain robes similar to those worn in court, and many are judges. 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. His clergy have specialized roles, administering his ceremonies to the small communities that follow him and mediating disputes or overseeing countinghouses.

This clergy does not practice celibacy, which is not that uncommon for dwarves. In point of fact marriage is encouraged, and some of his teachings can even be interpreted to suggest that it is important to disengage from your work.

Temples & Shrines

Like much the rest of dwarven architecture, temples and shrines to the Law-Bringer are often masterworks of masonry or stonework, which in wealthy communities are often further embellished with precious metals or engravings litanizing the most important laws of the land. Such structures are usually subdivided internally, with an area for public ceremony and worship (which is rare) 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 houses schools and libraries for legal instruction; in some small communities, they may serve a double duty as acting as the community's courthouse.

Holy Texts

The Law of Stone is a lengthy and dense text which makes plain the legal code of the dwarves, acting as a form of constitutional law, though it is further supplemented over the years with the Codices of the Words of the Judges, a collection of common law judgements and expanded law introduced by various figures throughout dwarven history. 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.

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 ingenuity.