Church of the Powderqueen

The Official Church of Aurgelmir, The Powderqueen

Disbandment

Although the church of the Powderqueen, much like its Goddess, enjoyed a meteoric rise to popularity, they were excuted to the very last person and destroyed alongside their Goddess by Aslauge Daenic - who destroyed their faith and their goddess in a sudden decapitation strike that has left the church effectively defunct.

Mythology & Lore

Though it is a fresh and recent church, the Church of the Powderqueen teaches a rich mythology that tells of the Great Divine War, a war between the Gods that was kicked off when Freyja, The Grand Trampler herself, furious with the misdeeds committed against her and her followers in The Jotunhunts...and in a horrific act that her followers believe was justified, attacked The Dwarven Pantheon and executed Thrym, The Powderlord in a brutal display of power. Furious at the death of a god, the Major Gods rallied and went to war against her and The Giant Pantheon for the first Divine War in eons.
As the war escalated, Freyja continued to grow and grow in power as her followers the Dai-Yukai expanded, conquered the entire Dwarven Gordrix Empire...and from there, Freyja's faith only began to rocket in influence, reach, and power. With the entire underground empire of the Dwarves now in Giant Hands, Freyja's followers had access to trade routes that led across The Shattered Corridor and into The Eastern Imperium...now to mention trade routes that led to the north into The Wild Lands and south into The Sultanate of Malthri...and with these routes, the faith of Freyja spread far and wide and underwent such a fantastic renaissance that as The Divine War raged in the Outer Planes, Freyja's might grew so superior to normal Minor Gods that she was simply unable to be destroyed by the Major Gods who warred against her. The Grand Trampler was so mighty that it was all that Ruthger and the other Major Gods could do was to hold her and her allies at bay, as each day her followers renewed her power and vigor with sacrifices and overwhelming faith.
And in time, as the war raged on Freyja's cause only strengthened as new Gods and Goddesses rose and appeared at her side...as Aurgelmir, The Powderqueen rose from the corpse of Thrym, The Powderlord and the burgeoning faith in her as the Giants now began to forge and smelt with the stolen Dwarven techniques captured from the former Gordrix Emprie, as Hela, The Soulthirster rose beside her as the ruler of the Giant underworld who now threatened every living and dead Dwarven soul in existence, threatening to steal them away into her clutches and torment them for an eternity unless they were protected after death. And once Brokkr, The Lord of Labor rose from a grievous near-fatal injury dealt to Isla Rhona, The Deepdiver by Aurgelmir, The Powderqueen, Freyja's power reached it's tremendous Zenith as The Eastern Imperium, happy with Freyja's faith and seeing promise in it, ratified it as an approved national religion just as her following exploded in the brutal Deserts of The Sultanate of Malthri.
Her power restored, Freyja was so mighty that she ascended to become a Major God...as a Goddess of not only Battle but also Survival, she was unstoppable. And once the former Divine Realm of the Giant Gods, Asgard, returned to life in response to her power and Freyja became the new divine font for the True Lightning which Thor, The Stormson was once so feared, her ascension was all but unavoidable.

Divine Origins

The Church of the Powderqueen can trace its origins back to the early days of The Kingdom of Aslaga, where after the Dai-Yukai had fully conquered the former Dwarven Empire they began to slowly kill off all the Dwarven Craftsmen, stealing their techniques with dark magic and old fashioned torture...and over the span of mere months, thanks to having access to a time-altered demiplane set up by Aslauge Daenic's court mage, spent years honing their stolen Dwarven techniques inside this plane, slavering and sweating and bleeding over forges until they had truly mastered the techniques once attributed to only the greatest of the Dwarven Grandmasters.
With these techniques stolen and successfully made into their own, the Dai-Yukai fully mastered their own array of legendary craftsmanship techniques, and became the new masters of stonework, masonry, metalsmithing, and more in the entire world...and in doing so, applied their own brutal and barbaric lens to these techniques, watering their creations in the blood of the weak and developing a burgeoning religion around these beliefs.
Believing in earning one's place through strength, that Justice should be earned and never owed no matter the creature, and that perfection in one's creations should be paramount, it is no surprise that these Dai-Yukai and other Giant craftsman, now wielding the stolen Dwarven Techniques that were now their alone, developed the faith of Aurgelmir, The Powderqueen, as a great All-Mother to embody these brutal but fair beliefs. To this new faith, slavery was not evil, it was simply the result of the weak not being able to earn their rights as a creature...so to them, any creature could earn their place in the faith, even the Dwarven slaves of the country, so long as they proved strong enough to claim their own justice...to those too weak to claim that justice, they are turned into less than cattle to be used by those who have earned that justice as they see fit, even if that use is killing them to let their blood water their creations.

Tenets of Faith

Be skilled with your hands and with craftsmanship, and accept nothing less than perfection in your works. Build bigger and grander things than any other.

Innovate and invent, so that you may understand the 'why' of everything. Make everything and invent everything, at any cost.

Justice is earned, and never owed. Ensure it is given to any strong enough to claim it, and ensure those who cannot are cast down and shackled as livestock.

One's worth is determined by the quantity and quality of the creations they leave behind. Ensure all you make is built to stand the test of time.

Sacrifice and blood fuels the creation of truly powerful things. Let the blood of others and yourself water your creations to make them truly mighty.

Ethics

Unlike many other Giant churches, The Church of the Powderqueen teaches a harsh but equal truth: That all creatures are born equally unworthy, and only by proving themselves as worthy can they truly earn their freedom and justice. Though there is often much debate and interpretations as to what exactly and how exactly any given creature might prove themselves "Worthy" and earn acceptance into the church, generally this involves a complex and multi-dimensional definition that rarely includes simply brute strength.
To this end, the priests of Aurgelmir, though they are often brutal, sadistic, and slavers to the core, consider it sacrilege to deny a creature the chance to earn its justice, and to prove itself worthy...however, once they have failed such a test, it is likewise sinful to not break them, strip them of their rights, and render them into cattle. To do so is to deny the natural order of things, it is seen, and a denial of one's very faith.
Though there is much debate as to the quality and quantity a craftsman should strive for, craftsmanship is nonetheless incredibly important to the priesthood of Aurgelmir...forging and crafting is at the core of their beliefs, and they believe that the pursuit of perfection in one's craft is a natural thing, and the only way in which to live. To live complacently and accept the quality of one's work without it being perfect is sinful, and thus many priests are perfectionists who both labor endlessly on one perfect work while simultaneously striving to produce many works at the same time.
It is also considered pious and holy to water one's creations and crafts with the blood of the unworthy...for in doing so, they believe, each craft is infused with the life essence and power of those killed to water it, giving each item a life of its own and increasing their power, beauty, or intended function in some way. They see practical use in such brutality, as the weak are given a purpose in death and allowed to foster the creation of a more perfect thing...though the specific technique, amounts of blood, and other things are the subject of debate within the priesthood, the general fact that blood fosters the birth of truly powerful items is accepted as fact.

Worship

Worship to Aurgelmir is given primarily in one of two ways: Craftsmanship and Slavery. Prayers are commonly given both slavering over a burning, blood-covered forge or while creating some item just as easily as they are while breaking an unworthy creature and rendering them into the cattle they are.
Prayers are given in practice rather than at rest, often in tune with hammer blows or crafting motions or sometimes strikes to break a slave, preferably in an area surrounded and/or immersed in extreme heat or blood taken from unworthy creatures.

Priesthood

The faithful of The Church of the Powderqueen, though it may be predominately female in its home location thanks to the matriarchal society of The Kingdom of Aslaga, is at its' core a merit-based organization where any can earn justice and rights both for themselves and enter the ranks of the faithful so long as they prove themselves worthy of it...the simple fact remains, however, that more powerful races such as the Dai-Yukai are simply more capable of claiming this justice, due to more innate racial power, and thus have an easier time entering the ranks of the faithful.
In practice, however, the faithful are a highly organized and well-ranked organization based heavily in one's own personal merit. Both male and female priests tend to wear broken binders around their wrists and around their neck to symbolize the earning of one's justice and rights, and while they do tend to decorate themselves with armor, the outfits of the priesthood tend to place an emphasis on both variety and practicality. They tend to wear headbands both as practical things to keep sweat from their eyes, but as a display of rank...the more chain links painted onto the headband, the higher one's rank is...the number of these links matches up to the number of links in the chains that dangle from the broken binders around the necks and wrists of the faithful, which serve as a visual representation of one's length of service and station within the church.
The means to gain entry to the church can vary, but all must prove their worth in some way, generally at the discretion of the highest ranking priest in the area.
Being a highly structured organization, the Church is organized into several ranks, listed below:

1. Grand Hammer - The highest rank, and leader of the entire faith. Unlike the rest of the normally merit based church, this leader is always a female, and holds the title for life. They are required to tend Aurgelmir's grand temple in the city of Ariagarðr but also regularly travel to attend various ceremonies and to sort out disputes between clergy members. The position is highly respected in both Aurgelmir's Church and all of Giant Society, and in addition to their authority over religious matters they also hold a seat on the ruling council of the same city the church is located in.


2. Bloodsmith - The second highest rank of the church, these are the priests who lead the cathedrals in the biggest cities across the world. They are the greatest craftsman the church has to offer, and are of such legendary talent and prowess they are the stuff of legend. Each has created a personal artifact or legendary item that represents their legacy as a craftsman, and each has mastered the church's secret art of using blood in the forging process to strengthen the items and things they create. Each is a grandmaster craftsman, and their tutelage and expertise is sought out by all members of the faith.


3. Hammerlord - The middle rank of the church. These are the priests who lead most of the churches and cathedrals around the world, and are considered masters in their respective crafts.


4. Forgelord - The second lowest rank of the church, reserved for those who have proven their skills and have been given access to some of the church's sacred forging techniques. Each Forgelord has broken and enslaved other creatures, and knows how to use their blood to improve their works. They also run the churches in small outlying towns, if need be, and serve as adjutants to the Hammerlords.


5. Unchained - The base rank of the church, where normal members are inducted once they have earned entry.


6. Cattle - The lowest rank in the church, reserved for the slaves and cattle kept by the church to use as they see fit.

Tools, chains, and materials all decorate the outfits of the faithful no matter their rank, and each priest places different such tools or materials around them depending on the craft they practice...their outfits tend to be mixups of armor and functional craftsman's gear, typically either sleeveless or with non-restrictive armguards to allow them to work freely. Each priest also carries a myriad of tools for both slavery and torture, to prepare themselves to break a slave in the field or to chain another creature to bring them back in chains to the church. Additionally, their is no true set uniform of the faithful, just a simple style as described above that each individual priest decorates with items, sections of plate, and other garb that symbolizes and means something special to them...which can and does lead to varied and incredibly colorful or exotic looking uniforms, where rank is only truly distinguishable by the broken binders around the neck and wrists and each priest's outfit tells a story all its own.
Finally, it is also common for the priesthood to decorate their outfits with actual iron or metal cages, both as a practical use to contain creatures they come across deserving of slavery and to store items on themselves...these cages are typically bolted or welded onto the metal sections of their armor, and on smaller creatures they are typically enchanted to shrink those placed inside, as they lack the personal size to stick medium creatures inside like bigger priests like Dai-Yukai might.

Granted Divine Powers

Typically, Aurgelmir's love is given in the form of an unnatural resistance to flame and heat, self-repairing tools and heightened crafting abilities, as well as a myriad of other small blessings that often take the form of an innate ability to discern truth, sudden sparks of innovation and ideas, and the breaking of otherwise strong-willed creatures into slaves.

Political Influence & Intrigue

Typically, the faithful of Aurgelmir is uncaring about the world of politics, and while The Grand Hammer holds a seat on the ruling council of the city of Ariagarðr in The Kingdom of Aslaga, the faithful themselves respect such law and order but prefer to pursue their own crafts and goals free of the burden of politics, which many faithful often fail to see the worth in. Though politicians can prove their worth to the faithful, the act of politics themselves is not commonly seen as a good or viable way to earn one's worth, and thus most churches tend to stay absent from politics and intrigue as much as is viable.

DISBANDED/DISSOLVED

One's worth is determined upon the anvil.

Founding Date

2042 AF

Type

Religious, Organised Religion

Alternative Names

The Bloodsmiths, The Merit Hammers, The Chainknights

Demonym

Gelmiran

Divines

• Aurgelmir, The Powderqueen

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