Keepers of the Forge
The Keepers of the Forg are the holy temple of Karak and worship the god of fire and stone, they are a essential part of dwarven society and their temples are often located at the very first point to encounter magma in a dwarven city. The clerics are often strongly built and profiecient in craftsmenship and fighting with one of the favored weapons of Karak. They love gold and Firestone, processed obsidian and burn former on a weekly basis to appease their god.
Structure
The Keepers of the Forge are led by the Highsmith, who is at the same time one of the six dwarven kings.
The Highsmith then commands he various Flamekeepers, wich stoke the fires in every temple dedicated to Karak.
Public Agenda
The Keepers of the Forge promise fine craftsmanship, honorable fights and the warmth of a well-kept forge.
Assets
The Keepers have large forgery supplies, coal and almost every kind of stone imaginable. They have masterful craftsmen and a temple in almost every dwarven fortress to exist. They also host various fighting pits.
Military
The paladins of Karak follow the codes of ember and focus on imbueing their weapons with fiery force and using the terrain against their foes.
The armor is often well crafted and the creation of a weapon is often the graduation process of a paladin of Karak.
Mythology & Lore
In the mysterious Era of the Gods Karak, the god of fire and stone was determined to find a suitable priest for his needs. He grumbled over the method he would determine who would be the best candidat. There were no smiths he would deem worthy just from sheer looks and no warriors he deemed suitable craftsmen.
Suddenly the great god of the forge had an idea, he would have a contest and the winnr would be his new priest.
Each candidat would be told to smith their own weapons and fight with them as soon as they were ready. The fights would be straight duels and everyone woul dbe goven the same materials to use.
The candidats came to possibly have a leading position in his temples. Each one hammered and pinched, cooled and heated and after a week of heard work for every striving priest their weapons were at the ready.
Now came their second challenge, there was a series of duels and everyone would carry their own weapons. Amazing craftsmen with no military pracize clashed with gifted fighters with the poorest weapo choices there were. Of course the dwarven god looked carefully and kept everyone in check so noone was killed, by accident or clear malicious intent.
As there was only one gifted, dwarven smith standing Karak was very proud to see the skill in both fighting and craftsmenship this individual produced and gifted the newfound priest with one of his divine weapons and the complete resistance to fire.
There was nothing fancy, just a good and honorable test of strength just as the god of fire and stone was pleased with.
Divine Origins
Karak gifted them with the Iron Pact, his holy scriptures engraved into large iron plates engraved with runnes keeping them from rusting.
The priests began to build their religion about the divine craftsmenship and fighting skills required of their deity.
Tenets of Faith
Honor your opponent
Honor your friends
Honor your family
Honor your kingdom
and honor yourself
Ethics
A faithful follower of Karak:
- Honors Tradition
- Helps his friends and family
- Settles major arguments in a fair battle instead of useless talking
- Avoids useless conflict
- Solves problems instead of ignoring them
Worship
The casual follower of Karak, in common most dwarves ritually burn a small amount of gold each week and daily go down to community areas for the daily mass prayer to the lord of mountains.
More dedicated priests forge jewelry and temple platings for their deity and daily ceremoniously forge a trinket made from gold.
The accumulation of firestoe is also seen as a practice of worship for Karak, since it is seen as his holy material, as it is processed obsidian, hard as steel and infused with the essence of Karaks holy forge.
Some priests also ritually go on a pilgrimage towards the holy city at the side of their holy vulcano to worship the first shrine to Karak.
Priesthood
The priests of Karak, respected craftsmen and warriors are led by the Flamekeepers, sturdy clerics carrying lanterns to ignite the forges blessed by Karak.
And those Flamekeepers are led and kept in check by the Highsmith, a dwarf appointed by a ritual and equipped with a weapon of his choice and the crown of the dwarven king. Blessed with complete resistance to fire and leader of a hole dwarven kingdom.
Granted Divine Powers
Clerics and priests of Karak are reported to be able to:
- Create and imbue their weapons with flames
- Form the stone around them
- Imbue their weapons with flames
- Create items beyond simple metalcraft
- Breath fire
Political Influence & Intrigue
The Keepers are quite influential in dwarven society and are integral to the beliefsystem and daily routine of most dwarves. They are not interested in any kind of intrigue and will settle most conflicts within them with duels and/or contests to ensure the one with Karaks favor is granted victory.
Sects
There are several branches of the Keepers:
The Dragons Kin:
This sect focusses on the worshipping of the six ancient dragons sent by Karak and mourn their demise till this very day. They have erected tempels in the former hordes of these glorious beasts and hope for them to return one day. The Keepers of the Forge often try to ignor ethe Dragons Kin, since they are seen as a quite extreme group wich want to see the giant dragons back in the air, but there are no snctions against them, since they are still worshipping Karak.
The Order of Fire:
This sect is particualry keen on fighting and often is in th nearest vicinity of a fighting pit, since they belief that the strongest fighters are truly worthy of Karaks blessings, besides making largy sums of gold with bets. They are a bit lseezier than normal dwarves, but still haev a strong belief in the god of stone and fire, they are not well accepted in the temples of the Keepers, but tolerated, since their practices are diverse to say the least.
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