Valut Magnusson

Valut Magnusson is the a deity of the Dwarven Pantheon, creation and son of Magnus Allfather. Dwarves, especially those of the Clans of Magnus, revere him as the Lord of Dragons and the Grandmaster of the Hunt. His descendants and creations form Clan Valutsson, one of the Twelve Clans of Magnus, though he has some scattered followers in most other clanholds, married in from Valutsson or inspired by their work as hunters themselves. Many strongholds boast at least a few of his followers in the form of professional Dwarven Slayers.

Valut is a True Neutral deity whose followers are granted access to the Glory, Magic, Luck, and Scalykind domains. His holy symbol is the head of a red dragon, said to be that of the great worm Mangorathrix, whose slaying is part of Valut's legend and the legend of the foundation of his sanctuary city, Khaz Valaimcral.

History

Valut Magnusson was created early in the history of the dwarves by Magnus Allfather, who forged him to be the prefect of the lands that would become the clanhold of his followers. He personally slew Magnorathrix and several other dragons in the peaks around Khaz Valaimcral prior to organizing the excavation of the city, and ruled over it until Magnus Allfather recalled Valut and his siblings to Khaz Urheim.

Relationships

Valut Magnusson is on good terms with mortal dwarves and lives on in Khaz Urheim with the rest of his pantheon. He serves no major political role in the divine city, but leads mythical Great Hunts of spirits and demons as terrible as the monsters he hunted in the mortal world.

Appearance

Valut is a gargantuan being alike in proportion and visage to the dwarves, albeit on a much grander scale. He is known for having a ruddy complexion and light hair that is said to have been bleached by the sun on his many hunts aboveground.

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

Valut's providence is found in the opportunity for the humble to conquer the mighty.

Servants

Valut 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

Valut's church is a supplementary worship alongside that of Magnus Allfather. His worship is common throughout all the Clans of Magnus, and almost any city that could support it economically will have at least a small chapel in his honour attached to a local guild of slayers.

Worshippers

All Atlassian Dwarves worship Magnus Allfather, and some of those worship Valut 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 Thane of the Hunt. Every guildhall of Dwarven Slayers contains a chapel or shrine to honour Valut, whose example they are said to fulfill.

Clergy

Priests of the Lord of Dragons wear elegant robes of red and gold, said to mirror the skin of the First Prey, sometimes even actually made of dragonskins. 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 - often braiding the fangs or claws of their specialized quarry in as talismanic protection. Many are slayers in their own right - others serve communities of slayers or the community's more work-a-day hunters.

Temples & Shrines

Like much the rest of dwarven architecture, temples and shrines to the Lord of Dragons are often masterworks of masonry or stonework, which in wealthy communities are often further embellished with reliefs, mosiacs, or stonework representing dragons and other monsters. 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, 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.

The few full temples to Valut that exist usually also have large galleries of the trophies of grand hunts of his followers. His principle temple in Khaz Valaimcral is also the guildhall of the Dragonslayers, and is said to house the relics of Magnorathrix.

Holy Texts

A text known as Valut's Song is a poetic edda that forms the central body of his legend. Copies are short, more often than not produced on leather. These copies are dear and expensive to produce according to the dwarves, and are held tightly. Some copies occasionally get purchased by wealthy collectors (or duplicated by travelling human or elven traders) and wind up in the economies of other nations.

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 monster-hunting.