Enchanted Realms Rulebook
Skabronrhirs
Skabronrhirs is pantheon of the terrac races. This primarily encompasses dwarves. While often seen as a brotherhood of gods, the individual deities work very independently of one another. Dwarves worship and pray in appropriate places, not just the churches and shrines built for the god. However, those structures are very specific to the worship and work of a specific deity, and as such are not viewed as a common holy place for all believers.
Personalities of the Skabronrhirs gods are so separate that some of the deities have been expelled from the brotherhood, Rahdji, for example. While banishment plays a political role in the pantheon and among the dwarven churches, it does not remove the cosmic entity from the seat of power. What holds a deity in the state of godhood has more to do with collective worship, fear and respect.
As for the worshippers of the Skabronrhirs, most of the granted incantations come from the a common group known as Terrac Incantations, which are granted to any priest of the pantheon. These are useful for dwarves and other terrac races; however, even if humans or nhoblits were to become ordained to one of the Skabronrhirs, then the non-terrac priest would also cast from this list. The individual gods grant minor spells within the province of their control; however, only incantations that cost 4 or fewer priestly points can be manifested. Moreover, each deity grants special abilities and skills based on the god's sphere of control. Such details are listed below in each of the descriptions.
| Deity | Morality and Ethics | Influence | Province |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ekktjemyrkk Ekktjemyrkk | Good, Order | Home, Safety, Truth | Community, Nature |
| Gaforbrukk Gaforbrukk | Individualism | Alcohol, Carousing, Travel | Deception, War |
| Gimhæd Gimhæd | Neutral | Gemstones, Hills, Mountains | Earth/Fire |
| Grafinnenkk Grafinnenkk | Neutral | Mining, Underground Exploration | Death, Earth/Fire, Knowledge |
| Guddjen Guddjen | Good | Invention, Scholarship | Community, Knowledge |
| Horlok Horlok | Individualism | Luck, Wealth | Deception, Knowledge |
| Hoyhiferndonct Hoyhiferndonct | Neutral | Protection, Travel | Knowledge, Life, Nature |
| Rahdji Rahdji | Evil | Greed | Calamity, Deception |
| Skarfurag Skarfurag | Good | Dwarves, Leadership | Community, Earth/Fire, Life |
| Slagsagrheir Slagsagrheir | Good, Order | Battle | Life, War |
As with most of the Skabronrhirs, Ekktjemyrkk has a distinct personified form. This goddess is a female dwarf with a light beard braided into four short rows, wearing chain mail and a silver helm. She is the wife of Skarfurag but despite this, she is not seen as a ruling queen. Ekktjemyrkk has a more humble attitude than drawing attention to herself. She is often viewed as doing good and legitimate works behind the seat of power and supporting those in charge. Likewise, her priest play a similar role in dwarven communities, practicing the idea of servant leadership. Due to her calm and attention to need, traditionalists have claimed that the Skabronrhirs and perhaps even the entire dwarven race might not have survived.
Her station as wife of Skarfurag reinforces the importance of traditional marriage and family among dwarves. Love is a factor of family but duty is an equal responsibility, and Ekktjemyrkk, sometimes called the Mother of Safety, is an important symbol of this cultural norm. Her priests are known as distavhejemyrkk, which translated roughly as "those of the home".
Distavhejemyrkk serve as the guardians and protectors of dwarven clans. They archive the lore, traditions, and family histories of the dwarves. By acting as teachers and healers, they aim to further the good health and good character of the dwarven race. Serving as the moral compass of the dwarves, they are very conservative and they do not tolerate foolhardiness and controversial ideas in young dwarves. In the rigid church structure, every cleric knew his or her place, and every clan's church is built to look alike. This has been done so visitors from other clans knew exactly where they fit in. Ekktjemyrkk runs her church like a strict, but loving mother.
When a follower of Ekktjemyrkk has gained 5 points of Faith, the incantations glorify and weapon return are added to the list of available spells if they were not before. After acquiring 10 Faith points, regenerate and restore will be added to the list of incantations a priest can cast.
Gaforbrukk is a dwarven deity of carousing, alcohol and travel. Known as the Bearded One, as artistic representations of him show this god to have thick hair that obscures most of his face. He represents the festive side of dwarven culture. Brewers hold him in high regard, as does any dwarf who charges headlong into battle heedless of the odds. Gaforbrukk and his followers believe in high risk leads to high reward. However, as Gaforbrukk is not a regularly worshiped being, his status remains that of a minor deity, and as such, he does not grant incantations over 5 points of cost. This means commune with earth, meld with rock, renew deposit, spike stones, and stone talk never become available to his priests. However, upon acquiring divine accord, basically when one becomes officially ordained, whatever that means for this deity, the priest is granted a free skill of brewing. When one of his priests gains 5 points of Faith, that follower gains the free skill of poison resistance, which conveys a +4 to any preservation saves involving poison. Further, if damage occurs as a result, whether to body, mind or spirit, then that damage is halved per incident, rounding down, just as any other form of damage resistance. Don't forget that most dwarves are already rolling saves against poison with advantage.
Gimhæd is the goddess of hills, mountains, and gemstones. Her holy symbol is a mountain with a ruby heart; she places rubies in the earth as gifts to miners. She is personified as a dwarven woman; however, she is also depicted as having an exaggeratedly long nose with which she is able to smell out precious veins of gems. This preternatural sense of smell makes up for the depiction that Gimhæd is also blind.
The followers of Gimhæd believed that the spark of magic lies within all gems, and they worked relentlessly to summon forth the dormant magic in stones and gems, commonly using rune magic in conjunction with their incantations. Another common practice of her followers is craftsmanship of various types, whether lapidary, weaponsmith or even artifcing gems to enhanced socketed weapons. This flock seek to enhance things from the weapons wielded by dwarven warriors to the mighty walls of a dwarven citadel.
When obtaining the 5th Faith point, Gimhæd graciously grants animate dirt and detect metals and minerals the possibility to be cast for free. To cast, the priest must still have 1 remaining Spirit point for use; however, if rolling a Faith feat (Comp:10) successfully, the incantation does not cost any points. When reaching 10 Faith points, she grants the ability to construct a stone golem once every ten years.
Grafinnenkk is the patron of mountain dwarves, and the dwarf deity of mining and underground exploration. He is also the protector of the dwarven dead. Grafinnenkk is one of the few Skabronrhirs who do not have a bipedal personification. Instead the mountain god is imagined as the deep rocks themselves in the underneath, intelligent, sentient but unspeaking. This god is sometimes referenced as the Keeper of Secrets.
Grafinnenkk's clerics, known as the jemmendrál ("hidden gifts"), protect mines from disrespectful profiteers as well as seek out new veins and gem deposits. They also supervise all mining activities to ensure that the proper respect was paid to the mountain and produce new stratagem and combat techniques for fighting the many underneath creatures exhumed during excavation. Their activity and service to the dwarven society are primarily outside the community proper.
Upon acquiring one's 4th Faith point, the jemmendrál is blessed by Grafinnenkk with an underground sense skill which grants +2 to all underground navigation spirit feats. Moreover, this skill grants one to navigate back to a known passageway when making a successful spirit feat against a Comp 7. One can knows the types of edible fungi to live for a week in unfamiliar caverns by a body feat against a Comp 5; for each 3 points above that (8, 11, 14, 17) an additional person can be fed as well. This special skill also permits the jemmendrál act like a tracker for the underneath, relying on sense of smell, heat and subtle dust changes. The base for tracking is a mind feat against a Comp 14, which can be modified by the GM. Conditions for modification can be found in the tracker skill. Following those signs of passage can be performed for half an hour, at which point a new feat is required.
At 8 Faith, Grafinnenkk allows his followers to select two specific creature types, e.g., minotaur and trolls, for which the priest will always be at advantage against. This includes combat and any incantations that can apply advantage. Further, this advantage will permit the dice to exceed 5d20. However, the selected enemies must be of the atavistoid, giantkin, humanish or mutant kingdoms.
Scholarship, discovery, and invention are the domains of dwarven god Guddjen. The artistic renderings of him are that of an elderly dwarf with sparkling blue eyes, typically hunched over and wearuing the bright blue cloak that is his namesake. Religious texts of his involvement with mortals tells of his distraction and forgetfulness, as in the tales his is known for wandering away from his projects before completing them or before he finds a use for the knowledge he has collected. The moral is that knowledge for its pure sake is most important. Application is nice when it happens, but knowledge has value even without such a thing.
In addition to dwarven worship, Guddjen is a patron of many gnomes. Clockwork engineering was an invention from the gnomish culture and discovered in the churches of Guddjen. Regardless of race, most of the clergy of Guddjen draw from the most creative tinkers and free thinkers. They follow a doctrine of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, seeing equal value in learning a once-lost recipe for toasted zygom stalk and discovering the crucial flaw in an enemy's defensive fortifications. In fact, since the clergy strongly favor creation over destruction, there's a good chance many of them would have preferred the recipe. His temples can be found both above and below the surface; however, the orderliness is less than desired by those outside the sect. The inner clutter of these edifices hold scattered detritus and many open books, as this is a common sight within the holy ground.
When one of Guddjen's order reaches 3 points of Faith, which is likely at the start, that priest is granted the free skill of phrenology. However, upon a Faith score of 8, the priest gains the special share your talent ability. When working on a project such as crafting armor, constructing a building, creating runes or even artificing, the priest can gain up to three assistants, who may or may not be skilled in the project. The priest radiates his knowledge and skill onto these assistants, so long as they are working on the same project, are within half-a-mile and are of terrac origin. As with the rules of project work, the total number of labor hours increases 10% per additional laborer; however, under this ability, those three only add 5%. Further, unskilled persons act as 1.2 persons towards the project, while skilled ones count 1.5 times their normal rate. Therefore, with three unskilled assistants and a 100-labor-hour project, the total labor hours would increase to 115 hours, but then be divided by 4.6 persons, allowing the project to be complete in only 25 hours.
Horlok is the dwarven deity of luck and wealth; however, his influences blend into other fields such as trade, negotiation, trickery, and chance. Many a parable speak of his dedication to the mercantile art of bargaining, but also share nuances of an aspect that is on the less-honorable side of dwarven culture. As such, Horlok also watches over those dwarves who use less-than-legal means to gain wealth. His flock often discuss the ends of acquisition justifying the means of obtaining it, so long as no physical harm is done along the way. Those who are swindled merely should have known better or been smarter negotiators.
Few openly admit to following Horlok in knowledgeable society, but those who do are identified as the bronrhipti, or "those who trade". The bronrhipti are dedicated to furthering dwarven commerce and are willing travel great distances to establish it. To those outside terrac societies, a whole migrant church might easily be mistaken for a caravan of merchants. However, the bigger point here is the bronrhipti build very few structures dedicated to Horlok and their brotherhood work like traveling merchants, perhaps with a reputation similar to that of gypsies; however, this is often not known until after a swindle. Due to the nature of mission of this brethren, members of the bronrhipti will be required to acquire the bartering skill.
Upon reaching one's 4th Faith point, that member of the bronrhipti gains an additional +3 to all rolls when using bartering, including roles to gain a better price as well as competitions. Further, if the better price is established by the spirit feat, the improvement is by 12% rather than just 10%. Once the priest obtains the 9-Faith mark, he or she freely gains two skills without the need of their prerequisites: Tell-Tale and Silver Tongue.
Hoyhiferndonct is the dwarven deity of travel and protection. He is also known as the Finder of Trails, the Watcher over Wanderers, the Watchful Eye, and the Wanderer. He is the patron of dwarves who have left the clanholds to explore the world. As such, there are few formal structures built to Hoyhiferndonct; although, his disciples often construct rock markers as expedient shrines when they stop during their explorations. These temporary builds are used for prayer and meditation by those dedicated to Hoyhiferndonct. It is not uncommon for the dwarven priests to leave way-caches of food and supplies along their trails, sometimes as self-serving strategy for a retreat point but also as a sacrifice for other travelers to discover, trusting that Hoyhiferndonct would have such things be delivered to the ones who needed it. These nomads might find great adventure; however, many others were satisfied to patrol trade routes and game trails between human and dwarven enclaves, where they would heal the injured and clear the areas of dangerous predators.
The the point of obtaining the score of 5 Faith, the adventuring priest gains his or her choice of one free skill from the following: alertness, communication, foul-play, marathon or stealth. When acquiring a Faith of 9 points, the priest can perform a special wildshape ability that allows him or her to transform into any form of land, flight or water. Moreover the form chosen is not limited by matching body points but rather the selected animal cannot have more body points than the priest's Spirit attribute score. This ability also has the restriction of requiring a short rest before performing this ability again.
Rahdji is the dwarven deity of greed. He is often symbolized in art as a very large dwarf, fat and piggy-eyed, holding a jeweled dagger. He is the only evil power in the dwarven pantheon of Skabronrhirs and has been repeatedly banished over long and short periods. However, others of the Skabronrhirs find it valuable to keep him around as a fearful example of the consequences of greed. Rahdji obviously does not adhere to this type of thinking as he constantly argues the importance of greed as a driving force and motivation. Some of the pantheon, like Gimhæd and Horlok, have even agreed with his arguments but often point out that the extremism of Rahdji is what leads some to sloth and obsession.
This methods are all about personal accumulation at any cost, making him and his followers envious of others' riches. This selfishness makes good organization difficult in his churches, which again are constructed as monuments of warning by good-intentioned dwarves. Because of this, donations to Rahdji given as a personal sacrifice to avoid becoming greedy; however, the clergy of these shrines plot to steal the offerings, even from one another in plots to take the funds. The lawful dwarves of the community consider this as a way to appease and identify the greedy worshipers of the god, keeping them busy fighting among themselves rather than stealing honestly earned property.
However, the petty crimes of shrine thievery are mainly for the less experienced priests. Eventually, those aligned with Rahdji overcome the short game of theft and become practiced at conning, deception and other methods less identifiable as larceny. Many stronger priests travel alone and do not operate with the poor organization of the church. However, a visit to a shrine once in a while to demonstrate prowess does still occur.
Once achieving 6 Faith points, a follower of Rahdji is granted a special form of appropriation similar to the sorcery axiom. It can be performed up to one hour per day and costs no priestly points. However, in addition to speaking patterns, gestures and body language, the priest can alter his or her form to appear as another person or race within one foot height difference. Like the original spell, this does not grant speaking or understanding an unknown language; however, this ability is virtually undetectable unless someone explicitly examines the priest under suspicion, by which fault may be detected by a mind feat (Comp:18). Once acquiring the 8th Faith point, a priest of Rahdji can polymorph twice per day into any atavistoid or humanish being. Additionally at Faith 8, priests of Rahdji gain access to the ritual-skill known as greed sacrifice.
Sometimes called the Dwarffather, Skarfurag is the chief deity in the dwarven pantheon. His domains are dwarves and leadership; however, many also see as the Creator and influencing earth, law, and protection. Skarfurag is seen as a strongly personified form of a large dwarf, who also is married to Ekktjemyrkk, the goddess of the Home. This god is seen as king of the pantheon, a harsh but fair judge, and the embodiment of strength and force.
Those who enter the priesthood of Skarfurag are typically chosen from family lines. Family and clan are important to dwarves and the ideology of Skarfurag reinforces that value wherever possible. Those in this church have a quiet commission of destroying the kingdoms of orcs. The church of Skarfurag has an active role in guiding the morals of dwarven communities; they emphasized his hand in everyday dwarven activities such as mining, smithing, and engineering, and invoke his blessing when these tasks began. They lead the push to found new dwarven kingdoms and increase their status among surface communities.
The center of the shrines and temples of Skarfurag is always a great ever-burning hearth and forge. When petitioning for the god's intervention, followers bring sacrifices, some sort of common or precious metal, which are melted down at the forge and reformed into shapes usable by the clergy of Skarfurag.
After his or her obtaining a 4 Faith score, a cleric of Skarfurag is granted a special skill based on the chosen province. Those following Community gain animal breeding for two creatures of choice so long as those animals have benefit for the society in which the priest lives. Priests of the Earth/Fire province gain free armoring and weaponsmith skills. If those are already acquired, then no extra skills are gained. Lastly, those serving Life gain the skill of field medicine.
Once a priest obtains his or her 10th Faith point, Skarfurag gives the earthen hand ability. Twice per day, the cleric can manifest a great hand of earth and stone to emerge from any earthen surface, floor, wall, or ceiling. Once created, the hand performs the bidding of the caster for a duration of two minutes (12 rounds) or until it is dismissed by the priest. The base of the hand is rooted to the spot chosen by the summoner, and cannot move from that spot. The hand does, however, have a reach of 10 feet (2 hexes) in any direction. The hand possesses 10 body points. The hand could be used to uproot a small tree, lift a boulder, or help support a structure threatening to collapse. The hand is too slow and awkward to grab any object that can move faster than 40 feet of movement, but if the hand grasps a living creature (grapple rules), it inflicts effectively starts asphyxiating a medium or smaller target. The hand can also punch (3d20) an opponent, attacking on a 2 initiative, because it is so slow. It can also hurl stones (2d20) to a range of 60 feet. The hand has a total PP score of 16.
Nearly every dwarf prays to Slagsagrheir when preparing for battle. However, only a few actually come dedicated priests of the god. Slagsagrheir is the god of battle and honor in warfare. He was known as the Father of Battle. The morals of this god are a delight and yearning for battle; however, Slagsagrheir despises treachery or deceit, and he expects his followers to do the same. Further, the deity holds a hated for giants and bestowed blessings upon the devoted when engaging them in combat.
In many ways the dwarven military is the church of Slagsagrheir. Not every soldier is a priest, but those who are placed as commanders, whether it be a platoon or brigade, will have a divine accordance with Slagsagrheir. The word for military officer is "slagrheir" which is synonymous with "priest of Slagsagrheir." Perhaps, more accurately, the officers are not viewed as priests but more like dwarven paladins. This is because the slagrheir often act as police and agents of justice for any legal matters as well.
The one of the slagrheir obtains 5 Faith points, that member gains a free combat skill of choice up to a 200-point cost. However, any prerequisites must exist to select the skill. When obtaining the 10th Faith point, the slagrheir gains a +2 bonus to the Faith feat saves involved in the Return to Life Ritual. This is an explicit exception to the "no other magical or divine bonuses" clause in the description of that ritual. However, this +2 bonus can only be added once, regardless of the number of priests involved with the ceremony who have this ability.