Name: Nido

By-line: Father of the Dwarves

Type: Greater God of the Dwarves

Alignment: Neutral good

Abilities: Beserker Rage, Detect Gold 20' Radius, Detect Gems 50' Radius 50%

Major Spheres: Sun, Divination, Guardian, Protection, Combat, Astral, Elemental, Weather, Time, Wards

Minor Spheres: Healing, Travelers

Weapons: Blunt Weapons, especially Warhammer

Description: Dwarves are very practical, and so is their patron Diety, the Father of the Dwarves, Nido. All temples of Nido are small and carved out of stone. Although cut stone is used in far away places which do not have living rock, the temples hewn from living rock are considered the best place for communing with Nido. In every temple there is a rock carved depiction of the "Face of Nido" at the head of the altar.

Gems are used in many of the ceremonies of Nido, but it is sacrilegious to leave gems untended in one of his temples. A priest who is using a gem in a service must always have the gem on him, or give the gem to another qualified priest for safekeeping. Rumor has it that anyone other than a qualified pries of Nido who takes gems into a temple of Nido will have bad luck.

Furthermore, no temple of Nido has a close-able door or window. The general layout of a church consists of the face, the altar and bare stone floors. Dwarves and other worshipers sit Indian style when worshipping at a service, bodies toward the face. Clerics of Nido live in homes they pay for and run themselves. Donations to the temple are accepted, but not required of any but priests. Nonetheless, often worshippers pay their dues anyway, as the priests are friendly to the neighborhood and always have a good turn for other Dwarves. Two large stone bowls are set by the entrance for accepting donations.

Clerics of Nido, on the other hand, must give to the church regularly in the following fashion. 10% of all gross earnings must be given to the main priest of any temple. However, simple coinage cannot be given. Instead, the cleric must commission a work of art, usually religious, to be crafted out of gold, electrum, copper and/or any other precious metal. Steel may be used as base support, but must appear on the outside or be the main component. The total value of coins to be melted for the work comprise the 10% while the workman's fees are separate, so that while the official tithe is 10%, the actual tithe can work out to be much larger.

So where does all this gold go? Well, believe it or not, most of these object'd'art are melted down for the precious metals, which are then used to strike coins to be distributed amongst the priests as their pay, and the rest goes for social programs, upkeep, etc. At first this whole system might seem wasteful, until you realize that this is one way that Nido helps to employ his Dwarven children. Dwarven goldsmiths and artists get work from adventuring clerics while the coin makers and smelters get work from the temple clerics!

Of course a lot of the art objects never get melted down because they are of such fine quality that their value transcends the value of the metals used to create it. It is OK for the priests to sell these objects, but if they sell them to non-dwarves, they must not sell it for it's full value. Hence many rich homes are decorated with absolutely stunning objects of pure gold devoted to Nido.

A priest of Nido will perform any of the non-critical functions of a priest (Major Spheres, < 4th level) for the prices suggested in the Players Guide, though they start higher and barter down. [Note: since healing is not a major sphere they do not cast healing spells for money] Other spells are cast only on Dwarves of any religion who can prove that they are good and who really need it and who can pay whatever the priest ask (25% greater than PG, since these magic's do not come naturally to Dwarves) Clerics of Nido who need services can get them for slightly less (15% greater than PG) Furthermore, it might be able to be worked out that if some great task for Nido has been undertaken then an allotment of free services may be performed by Nido priests.

At major and minor holidays, not only is attendance required by all priest who can make it, but also participation. There are rights and procedures each priest must know and perform for the non-priests on these days. Donations are not expected on these days. (see above)

Usually holidays last for three days and priest and worshippers come in and out of the church freely. However, the service lasts all three days so despite the fact that the largest known church of Nido in the Brazen mountains can hold only fifty Dwarves, many people file in and out and hence a large number of Dwarves can commune with their gods and observe the holiday despite the small size of the churches.

Although many Dwarves are prejudiced against elves, priests of Nido try not to be, as Dwarves and Elves have a long history of reluctantly helping each other. In fact there are a few elven and half-elven clerics of Nido. Gnomes are rarely associated with Nido, but there is a large contingent of halvling worshippers. Humans, who seem to flock to every religion, make no exception for Nido. Human clerics of Nido are rarer than halvling clerics, but they are a close third.

Often the anger of Nido toward Ikol is emphasized in the rituals, as it was Ikol who sealed off the mouth of the great Dwarven city in which Nido lived during the first age of Dwarves. It is from this righteous anger that the clerics ability to induce on himself a holy rage comes. This holy rage works just like turning undead. First the priest must concentrate and use his holy symbol. If the cleric has 'turned' any of the creatures, then those creatures that get 'turned' can be attacked by the priest with advantages. This rage can be sustained for a certain number of combat rounds, but all the rounds must be continuos. No spells can be cast during the rage, and the rage can be voluntarily turned off at any time (but the remaining rage rounds are not recovered. The same # of creatures can be effected this way once per day as other clerics turning undead. This ability only applies to evil monsters doing evil things. If the undead chart reads "D" (destroy) then the rage can actually act like the spell 'cause fear,' for those creatures. (See PG) A "T" means a priest can automatically feel rage against that level creature.

Main Page