Balippa Magnusson

Balippa 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 protector of Dwarven memory and as the founder of the traditional Dwarven Holy Grudge. Her descendants and creations form Clan Balippasson, one of the Twelve Clans of Magnus, though he has some scattered followers in many other clanholds, especially among those who have reason to maintain their greivances. Many above-ground dwarven settlements honour her memory regardless of their alliances. She plays a minor role in the traditions of judgement-after-death among the dwarves and is sometimes petitioned by those who lost loved ones. Her name is also frequently taken up by those who fear they are soon to die but feel they have unfinished business.

Balippa is a lawful neutral deity whose followers are granted access to the Madness, Rune, Strength, and War domains. Her holy symbol is a round shield banded with iron and blazoned in its center with the first-rune "Bal", meaning anger or wrath, which is the first syllable of her name. (The characters of Balippa's name, in the First Runes, can be read as "Promise of Wrath".

History

Balippa Magnusson was created early in the history of the dwarves by Magnus Allfather, who forged him to be a bane to all who would harm the dwarves upon the slopes of the Atlas Mountains. She originally fulfilled this mission by settling her people in what is now the Atarlie Frontier, but was eventually driven out of that region by a then-expansionist Xarthekei, after which she settled Khaz Elarnzak in Southreach. These actions brought her into conflict with humanity in general and the city of Xarthekei specifically and lead to the eventual creation of the Dwarven Grudge traditions.

She eventually withdrew from mortal life in Ahren to attend to her father and followers in Khaz Urheim.

Relationships

Balippa is on good terms with mortal dwarves and lives on in Khaz Urheim with the rest of his pantheon. Her role is to evaluate and record the unfinished business of the mortals who arrive in Khaz Urheim and, on her own judgement, determine a means by which such scores can be settled. She is both an advocate and a judge, recalling the the achievements, triumphs, failures, and slights against the newly departed before her sister, Urniora Magnusson, as part of the rites by which it is decided that the dead dwell amongst them or return to the land of the living.

Appearance

Balippa is a gargantuan being alike in proportion and visage to the dwarves, albeit on a much grander scale. She is hale and ruddy, and has along mane of firey red hair, braided in the fashions adopted by her descendant clan. She usually wears a coat of gilded adamantium scales and is known to favour a battleaxe when at war.

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

Balippa's providence is the occasion to repay a slight or settle a grudge, especially when hope of doing so had begun to dim. Some also credit her with the unlooked for appearance of an heir or champion to take up the cause beyond one's own means.

Servants

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

The Dwarven Church

Balippa's church is a supplementary worship alongside that of Magnus Allfather. She is commonly honoured by warriors and those with frequent contact with intelligent beings who are not aligned with dwarven interests, such as some of the races of the Deep, or those on slopes raided often by the Carcolie, Orcish Nation, Atarlie Empire, or the city-states in the Shimmering Shore. Dwarves also often war with one another and the name of the Daughter of Memory is often invoked by all sides in such conflicts.

Worshippers

All Atlassian Dwarves worship Magnus Allfather, and some of those (especially in Clan Balippasson) worship Balippa 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 Grudgemaster. Most paramilitary orders will honour her in some way or other, as do quite a number of individual dwarves.

Clergy

Priests of the Daughter wear plain attire, often suitable to be worn under armour, as they are often called to do. 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. Her clergy have both pastoral and judicial responsibilities, settling minor affairs for those without access to aristocratic courts and the judges to go with them.

Many of Balippa's more militant clergy serve as officers or chaplains to military levees or assist local authorities in the capacity of jailors or marshals of fugitives.

Temples & Shrines

Like much the rest of dwarven architecture, temples and shrines to the Daughter of Memory are often masterworks of masonry or stonework, which in wealthy communities are often further embellished with precious metals or gem-mosiacs, depicting solemn defeats or glorious victories from her saga. Such structures are usually subdivided internally, with an area for public ceremony and worship and an area for the sole use of the clergy and those who serve the clergy in liturgical preparation.

Such full temples often house archives for records of grudges per the traditions of the Holy Dwarven Grudge, and send copies of their records to the Great Archive of All Slights in Khaz Aleranzak which is maintained by the chief temple of her order.

Holy Texts

The Balippasaga is a poetic edda, which deals with history, and codes of honour through allegorical recollection of the exploits of Balippa while she walked Ahren. It is a small volume by almost any standard, some 90 pages when written on velum. Some specialize in the memorization of part or all of the song as books are notoriously expensive to produce for the dwarves.

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 loyalty.