Atonement, Vengeance, and the Hounds' Pursuit

Before I start with today’s exploration into a god I’d like to talk about two things. First all of the holy symbols (baring our use of the Kofusachi one for the plaque) were hand made by my art director. One of the things I love about creativity is that you can be creative so many different ways. I tell her what they look like and she does an amazing job with these. Hopefully other people will get use out of them.

Secondarily I love analytics. I like to look at the numbers and see all the people visiting my blog, see where they came from and where they poke around. But it also tells me what you guys like. The most clicked on tag on my blog is “Dwarf” and so today we bring you one of the dwarf gods.

Every Saturday we take a look at a god from among the vast number of divine beings in Golarion. We ask ourselves if we had to make a character with the caveat that he or she must be a devout worshiper of this god what character would we make. This character must strive for the goals of the chosen god, although she does not need to be a divine caster.

Today’s god was already mentioned in one of the two dwarven random character write-ups.

Dranngvit, The Debt Miner – LN Goddess of Debt, Pursuit and Vengeance

Dranngvit Pathfinder wiki Page 

Dranngvit Archives of Nehtys Page

One of the things that caught me the first time I read what little there is to read about Dranngvit was that she’s Lawful Neutral but the dwarves still only see her as a “necessary evil.” She’s not a bad deity and she is very strict about law, but they see her as representative of something they should not need but do. In the character write-up we explored the idea of a hound of Dranngvit and we expand upon that here.

So we decided on a three tiered system of organizations this time. Represented by her holy animal, her holy symbol and her holy colors. The Gold Picks, The Red Picks and The Hounds of Dranngvit.

The Gold Picks

These are Dranngvit’s clergy, her clerics and the whole open face of her religion lies here. They have a twofold duty. When a dwarf commits a serious crime instead of banishment or death she may beseech The Debt Miner for atonement. A cleric of Dranngvit is on hand in all Dwarven court facilities in case they are needed. The gold pick themselves don’t give forgiveness or choose penalties for those who beseech their mistress, they just determine whether their goddess believe the criminal can atone. Many times the atonement is service among the Hounds of Dranngvit.

Their secondary role is as confessors. Dwarves being a very proactive lot will often attempt to atone on their own for crimes they believe they’ve committed. This can range from speaking badly about a family elder, to stealing, to murder. Dwarves who have attempted to atone on their own will come to the Gold Picks and petition to see if Dranngvit believes their atonement was enough. The priests of the Debt Miner care little for the man, they only judge the penance, was it enough.

The Hounds

The Hounds are basically Dranngvits bounty hunters. When a Dwarf flees his crime and has not been brought to justice a Hound is sent in pursuit. A Hound’s duty is to bring the accused back to face justice it is not her job to bring summary judgement on her own. To this end a Hound will do everything within her power to bring back her quarry alive.

The Red Picks

The Red Picks are little talked about they are actually considered somewhat of a myth and are a scary story told to young Dwarves to make them stay the straight and narrows. Even Dwarven law is fallible, and sometimes a guilty Dwarf goes free. If the victim of a freed Dwarf’s crime feels justice was not done, he can attempt to find a Red Pick.

Once found the wronged dwarf can petition the Red Pick for vengeance. But the Red Picks do not suffer petitioners who bring false petitions. The Red Pick will commune with her Goddess and if Dranngvit sees the truth of the matter the Red Pick will accept the plea and exact vengeance, it whatever manner her goddess demands, the petitioning Dwarf has no say.

If Dranngvit does not believe vengeance is required and the petitioning Dwarf’s heart is true she may leave freely. If the Debt Miner feels the petition was frivolous then the Red Pick may enact a small vengeance of her own upon the petitioner. To this end most Dwarves are very careful before they petition a Red Pick.

Does Dranngvit and her clergy interest you? Tell us how would you make a worshiper of the Debt Miner?