Dagda

Dadga is a member of the Tuatha de Danaan, husband to Danu and the father of the other gods of Light. In the tribe the burden of leadership is shared between the members of both genders and actually, although covering a really important role, Dagda is subordinated to Danu.

Summary

Dagda is most commonly pictured as an elderly man, with long curly white hair and a long cared beard. The eyes are chocolate brown and the expression is generally severe. His main role within the tribe is to judge the souls of right people and allow them to leave forever with the gods, the souls of evil people are casted away to live with the fomorn. In the traditional image of the Eternal Juror, Dagda wears a black wool tunic and a pure white chin strap, holding a silver gavel that he uses to silence the court to express his judgement. Beside this image occasionally he appears as a younger man with curly whitening-brown hair wearing a chain mail armor and holding a warhammer.

And then Dagda pronounced the sentence banishing Balor in the eternal darkness. His name would be damned and his offspring castaway!

— Herbert of Alkar, author of the Tuatha de Danaan

Historical Basis

The physical appearance and the personality have been strongly inspired by the historical figure of Rhidgaer I, the wise.

Spread

Dagda is a god commonly worshipped in the human settlements across Phaldorya. His portfolio is lawfulness, justice and order. Therefore he's especially venerated in strongly organized cities, in which often his clergy are in charge of the courts of law. He gets invoked by judges to grant them wisdom and objectivity in their role and prayed upon by people that is subject to a judgement, to receive a fair trial. The main center of worship is in Virkenhall.

Cultural Reception

Beside the already described role of Eternal Juror that weights the souls of the dead to evaluate if fitting to join the tribe for eternity, Dagda is central as well in the celebration of the Dawn of Winter, when he visits the houses of people to bring toys to the well-behaved children, to the naughty ones he brings some dark berries called Kiryam, that can be sweet or extremelly sour.