“Never underestimate the power of steel, Or the one who wields it.”
Symbol: anvil
Alignment: Lawful Good
Portfolio: smithing, dwarves, masonry
Worshippers: dwarves, smiths
Cleric Alignments: LG, CG, LN
Domains: earth, law, fire, war
Favored Weapon: war hammer
Animal Totems: cave bears, badgers
Followers of Galgiran are adamant defenders of dwarven heritage, history, and crafts. They tend to hold stone workers and metal workers in very high regard. They are also strong defenders of the mountains of the world. The church of Galgiran safeguards the dwarven races, and promotes the study and passing of knowledge in regards to the traditional dwarven crafts. When attacked or in danger of being attacked, the church and its followers respond with equal or greater ferocity. Dwarves tend to believe that Galgiran forges the soul the life: its hardships are like hammer blows to hot metal; joys are the quenchings; and battle is the fire that makes souls malleable. Because of this battle-driven philosophy, many dwarves welcome battle, although they rarely seek it. All followers of the Soul Forger are expected to wield weapons and wear armor and be forged into the kind of soul worthy of passing on to Galgiran's afterlife.
To the dwarves, Galgiran is portrayed as a shorter and stockier version of themselves, more resembling a mountain dwarf than any other type. Thick of body, he is also shown as thick of eyebrow and beard, though nearly bald on top. His hair is white with age and wisdom, and his keen brown eyes reflect light like a dark, polished garnet. Galgiran is nearly always shown wearing smithing equipment, such as a thick leather apron and a tooling belt, with tongs hanging off the belt. In hand is always Rikorada, his famed war hammer – Rikorada that, according to legend, hammered out the dwarven race itself.
Long before even the Sister Worlds War, the dwarves lived deep within the mountains of Gaeleth. How they arrived is a mystery lost to the vagaries of time, as they predate the construction of the Gates by several millennia. The dwarves kept to their mountain homes, out of sight and out of mind for the other races. With them came Galgiran and his priests. During the Sister Worlds War, Galgiran had no small part in defending Gaeleth from the Brijanic and Jazedian aggressors. When the Shield went up, all of the non-native gods were locked out. Either due to his wisdom, or his long ties to Gaeleth, some aspect of Galgiran remained, locked off from the rest of the dwarves on all the other worlds. The hardships of the Prism Wars, and the Age of Survival that followed, changed that aspect of the dwarven god that remained. His priests spread the faith, and the simple fact that he was the only original god of the dwarves that survived the Shield, helped to make him one of the only gods the dwarves followed. Galgiran changed over the years, adapting to Gaeleth, and the needs of survival. Knowing that he was something more, and knowing that the other dwarven gods were out there, locked beyond the Shield, Galgiran made tentative alliances with those native gods that represented his interests, and those of the dwarves as a whole. Though a good-aligned god, Galgiran has long believed that there are times to learn things the hard way, and seems more neutral to those outside the faith.
Galgiran's Relic was long ago placed inside an enormous anvil, and entrusted to the Granite Clan of dwarves. The Granite Clan, residing in the Granite Mountains of the super-continent for millennia, were forced to evacuate when Lake Kiriath blossomed into the Sea of Kiriath, destroying the mountains. The clan moved to the Jaeth Mountains, taking Galgiran's Anvil with them to their hidden capital city.
Galgiran has always been a quiet god, demanding little of his followers save honesty and hard work. The dwarves have always revered the Master of the Forge, attempting to emulate his masterful work with metals and stone. Galgiran's Chosen currently is attempting to reforge centuries of broken ties with the various clans that drifted away from the Granite Clan, though in the past he was more concerned with the quiet leadership of worship. The Disciples under the Chosen have taken to wandering the mountains and the caves of Gaeleth in an attempt to find all of the lost sons and daughters of Galgiran, especially in the aftermath of the destruction of the dwarven ancestral home, Myerk Yolakth – Dwarfholme. The various priests of Galgiran see to it that the dwarves stay honest, maintain their faith, and continue their hard work in praise to Galgiran. In return for their industry, Galgiran grants his priests the powers to ensure safety of the dwarven race, up to and including battle. Honesty and hard work pay off just as often in the mines and the forges, as they do on the battle-field, or so the dwarves claim.
Priests of Galgiran tend to wear their beards in a forked pattern, so that holy amulets they might wear can be seen by the faithful and their adversaries. Most all priests of Galgiran are also blacksmiths, at least in some small part.
The elite followers among the dwarves of Galgiran are the Khol Ongst, who serve as guardians of the church and bodyguards for the priests.