Whurroric Magnusson

Whurroric Magnussson is the a diety of the Dwarven Pantheon, creation and son of Magnus Allfather. Dwarves, especially those of the Clans of Magnus, revere him as the Lawgiver and Father of Oathes, founder of Khaz Theryurjak. His descendants and creations form Clan Whuroricsson, one of the Twelve Clans of Magnus, though he has many followers in most other clanholds, married in from Whuroricsson or inspired by his chronicle.

Erim is a lawful good diety whose followers are granted access to the Good, Law, Nobility, and Rune domains. His holy symbol is a gavel.

History

Whurroric Magnusson was created relatively late in the history of the dwarves by Magnus Allfather, who forged him to be the First Judge and the Lawgiver, presenting the dwarves with the concept of codified law about half way through the Age of Tutelage. He and Magnus worked together on the location and construction of Khaz Theryurjak. He went the way of all dwarves and now serves in Khaz Urheim as the penultimate keeper of records.

Relationships

In spite of his history, Whurroric is on good terms with mortal dwarves and lives on in Khaz Urheim in service of Magnus Allfather. His role in the city is as its understeward and chief beureaucrat, under his older brother, Erim Magnusson. As such he leaves the city only when absolutely necessary and therefore rarely has contact with gods outside his pantheon.

Appearance

Whurroric is a gargantuan being alike in proportion and visage to the dwarves, albeit on a much grander scale. He has dour ruddy skin and a stony expression with a silver beard and hair.

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

Whurroric takes little intervention in the affairs of mortal dwarves despite his prominent position in their worship. The surest sign of his providence is in an unexpected court ruling.

Servants

Whurroric 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

Whurroric's church is a supplementary worship alongside that of Magnus Allfather. He is observed particularly in ceremonies opening days of court proceedings, at the foundation of pacts and oaths, and on the investiture of public officials.

Worshippers

All Atlassian Dwarves worship Magnus Allfather, and some of those (especially in Clan Whurroicsson) worship Erim 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 Grandmaster Oathsmith. His temples and chapels are usually only found in Strongholds.

Clergy

Priests of the Law-bringer wear elegant robes with braided piping, usually in black 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.

Many priests of the order are judicial figures in their own right; some even rise to offices of political or civil authority.

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 gem-mosiacs, depicting episodes from the mortal life of Whurroric. 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.

Commonly these temples are also either part of or near offices of courts of law. Further, they usually serve as a sort of seminary for legal professionals (in addition to clerics who are to be specially invested in the law), and house classrooms and extensive libraries.

Dwarves in legal trouble - especially criminal legal trouble - who are unable to contract professional lawyering guilds can often make contact at such temples for a free defender.

Holy Texts

The Mountainseed of Law is a lengthy and poetic text describing principles of good governance and legal equity, which forms the most basic body of law in the Clans of Magnus. It is not on its own a burdensome volume, and in print on plain vellum comprises a mere seventy pages. However, copies 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 usually hammered into sheets of relatively base metals, or embossed onto leather.

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 nobility.

Holidays

The principle holiday of his church is the remembrance of the occasion of his death, a somber ceremony marked with sermons and toasts.