Church of Dugmaren Brightmantle

The church of Dugmaren Brightmantle () was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the god Dugmaren Brightmantle, the Wandering Tinkerer. They were commonly called Dugmarenites.There is no known proper name for the overall body of clergy dedicated to Dugmaren, nor is there a unified formal organization. Instead, the term "church of Dugmaren Brightmantle" is adopted for discussion and wiki purposes.
==Dogma==
Dugmarenite dogma exhorted its adherents to pursue the life of a scholar, preaching that the secrets of the world were just waiting to be uncovered. They were instructed to travel widely, with one of their highest duties being to seek out lost, mystic lore, which they were then to apply to the modern day. They were also told to broaden their minds at every opportunity, especially regarding scholarly pursuits, and try new ways of doing things just for the joy of experimentation. The doctrine emphasized the quest for knowledge for it's own sake, holding mundane secrets as equally valuable to those with more military applications while encouraging learning a little of everything, since anything could one day be of use. Lastly, followers of the doctrine were to be teachers to all, and to cultivate the spirit of inquiry in the young.
==Activities==
In accordance with their doctrine, Dugmarenites spent their days seeking to learn about, and then spread and advance knowledge of virtually every field even marginally interesting to the dwarves. The clergy sought out new ideas and experiences while also seeking to recover the lost knowledge of the dwarves, although despite the mission being formally unbiased, most full priests strongly favored and preferred information with creative rather than destructive applications. Many full priests directly instructed the young, while others acted as archivists and instead recorded current dwarven practices for future generations.
==Organization==
===Membership===
Dugmaren was followed by non-evil dwarves, but his active worshipers were also non-lawful. The Dugmarenite faith attracted the most creative and free-thinking of dwarves, not just scholars, but also inventors, engineers, tinkers and fiddlers, making it comparable to that of Dugmaren's father, Moradin. But while Moradite religion drew in craftsfolk, Dugmaren's church appealed to those seeking true novelty in creation, those few who had the inspiration to turn ideas completely on their heads. Dugmarenite clerics, but especially the specialty priests, were called xothor (or xothar plural), which could be loosely translated as "those who seek knowledge".
The vast majority of Dugmaren's clergy (96%) was male, and before the Time of Troubles it was entirely so. Dugmarenites were about 53% mountain dwarves and 46% hill dwarves. The hill dwarves of the Great Rift in particular, given their lack of challenges compared to their mountainous counterparts, had more time to spend on creative and philosophical matters, and individuals with the penchant often venerated Dugmaren, spending their days contemplating the mysteries of life and using their findings to create new magic items. The other 1% consisted of a handful of jungle dwarves, underdwarves, and surprisingly, gnomes. The Forgotten Folk were allowed to join Dugmarenite orders on rare occasions, even before the Time of Troubles.
===Titles===
Novice members of Dugmaren's faith were called the Curious, while full priests were Seekers of Truth and Mystery. In ascending order of rank, priests were known by the titles of Questing Wanderer, Avid Fiddler, Philosophical Tinker, Seeking Scholar, Searching Sage, and Errant Philosopher, with High Old Ones of the church having individual titles and being collectively known as the High Savants.
===Classes===
Dugmaren's clergy was dominated by specialty priests, who made up about 85% of the population, followed by about 12% clerics and a minor 3% who trained both as clerics and fighters; clerics also frequently multiclassed as wizards, runecasters, and loremasters. All such folk learned to read Dethek runes in addition to many other languages, and though the clerics were late to learn how to turn undead compared to others of their ilk, they were skilled in combating such creatures. Great clerical power, if not its heights, could be reached through becoming a priest of Dugmaren, which interestingly required more intuition and cunning than raw intellect. The Gleam in the Eye had no shamans.
Xothar specialty priests were primarily found among shield dwarves and gold dwarves, though some members of nearly every dwarf subrace were known to show particular devotion to the Wandering Tinkerer. Only the strictly good and non-lawful could become specialty priests, and it also required at least average intelligence and above average wisdom, as well as engineering skill. Other skills gained through the calling included the ability to use rogue weapons and speak ancient languages.
Xothar combined priestly power with limited wizardry, allowing them to cast various defensive and divining spells through both arcane and divine means. They had the ability to use magical wizard and priest scrolls above their normal capabilities, but due to the incomplete nature of their understanding there was a chance the spell would be read incorrectly and malfunction. The odds increased based on the inexperience of the caster and difficulty of the magic, and the effects were equally likely to be beneficial, neutral, or detrimental.
===Orders===
The Order of the Lost Tome was a loosely structured fellowship of errant dwarven scholars on a mission to recover lost dwarven lore for the benefit of dwarves across the realms. The individual Knights normally worked independently, either by themselves or with unaffiliated adventurers (dwarven or otherwise). They combined investigative ability, a passion for learning, and the martial skill needed to best occupiers of fallen dwarf strongholds in order to obtain the information they sought.
==Rituals==
Dugmaren's clergy had little in the way of formal rituals or ceremonies. Xothar prayed in the morning for spells and whispered a prayer of thankfulness to Dugmaren when they discovered a piece of forgotten lore or made any sort of significant discovery.
===Holy Days===
There were few holidays observed by Dugmarenites, and only two celebrated regularly. On both Greengrass and Highharvestide, the day began with several hours of private, personal meditation, usually spent staring into the heart of a single lit candle's flame. Afterwards the local clergy spent the day in convocation, presenting, discussing, and defending any discoveries, inventions, or other conclusions reached since the last symposium.
==Bases==
===Shrines & Temples===
Main article: :Category:Temples to Dugmaren Brightmantle
Dugmarenite temples could be found both below and above ground, and were usually sprawling complexes filled with the scattered detritus of countless experiments, twice as many open books, and artifacts collected on extended expeditions to distant regions. Altars of Dugmaren consisted of a simple block of hard stone, such as granite, with an ever-burning candle sitting on top, symbolizing the quest for knowledge. At the center of any house of worship was a huge library that housed a large collection of rune stones alongside the books and scrolls of other races.
Temples of the Errant Explorer were not always used to venerate Dugmaren alone. For example there was the Hall of Runestones, a sprawling complex occupying an entire spoked well in Iltkazar that held the city's archives and innumerable relics from the golden age of Shanatar and a temple of Dugmaren where the city's gnomes also venerated Nebelun. There was also the temple of Scholar's Hope in Myth Drannor, one of the first unified temples in Faerun where not just Dugmaren, but also Oghma, Deneir, and Corellon could be worshiped separately at different shrines, and all clergies could share knowledge and learn from each other. Dugmaren's shrine was physically the lowest, located in the building's cellar.
Also listed among the known temples of Dugmaren was the Athenaeum of Philosophy, a center of invention, experimentation, public seminars, philosophical debate, and scholarly discussion in Luruar. Located between Fortune Hall and the Temple of Silver Stars, the Athenaeum once served as a training facility for the Knights of Silver from Alustriel's palace, the halls once used for dining, sleeping and combat repurposed to house sprawling labs and great libraries chocked with obscure trivia. The temple was always lit as the residents experimented and invented without end, but visiting scholars were welcome to stay for days at a time, provided they could sleep amid the ceaseless chaos.
===Others===
The Sage's Inspiration, so called after an old dwarven joke about plentiful mead being a source of scholarly insight, was a cheap but good tavern and favorite watering hole for the Dugmarenite clergy and otherwise scholarly folk of Iltkazar.
==Symbol==
Dugmaren's symbol was an open book, sometimes made of metal. Followers of Dugmaren used a silver locket grafted to look like an open book as their holy symbols, and many kept small bits of lore (such as riddles, puzzles, and command words) inside the locket both in homage to their god and to keep them readily accessible in unexpected situations.
==Possessions==
===Dress===
Dugmaren's faithful generally eschewed formal religious clothing outside of plain, white, homespun outfits with vibrant hand-width sashes, although High Old Ones donned simple silver circlets that displayed their status. They dressed practically when in dangerous or unexplored territory, mostly favoring light armor over the heavier kinds and maneuverability over defense.
===Weapons===
As with their armor, Dugmarenites generally preferred light weapons. Many carried unique weapons, with most also bringing to battle a collection items of widely varying defensive usefulness and reliability, items they had invented and wanted to field-test.
==Magic==
===Spells===
A number of spells were unique to Dugmarenite priests or were closely associated with them:
* Brightmantle
* Guardian mantle
* Mending
==Relationships==
Dugmaren's apostles were well-regarded by their fellow dwarves for their learning and inventiveness, yet most viewed them with a certain degree of distrust and few were willing to spend a great deal of time with them, both for fear of being caught in a failed experiment and out of exhaustion with their idealistic impracticality. Thus, Dugmarenites were likely to be more tolerated outside the company of their kin, by human and non-dwarf demihuman species.
==History==
Dugmaren's faith arose along with most of the younger dwarven gods, during the fall of Shanatar.
In the first few months of 1370 DR, about 40 dwarven scholars from Citadel Adbar, under direction of the Savant of Mysteries Daurant Tomescribe and the support of Harbromm and the Bright Lady, emigrated to Luruar, which was expanding as a preeminent center of learning. There they founded the Athenaeum of Philosophy alongside the city's other colleges, temples, and libraries, which both rulers saw as a way to ensure the dwarves of the emerging nation contributed to and benefited from the scholarly work and intellectual ferment already underway there. Despite the occassional alarming explosions, the insertion of the dwarven scholars was a great success that drew more dwarves from the lands of fallen Delzoun, as well as the scholars of other races near Silverymoon, to join in the intellectual fostering.
==Appendix==
===Notes===
===Appearances===
===References===
===Connections===
Dugmaren Brightmantle
Category:Religious organizations
Category:Organizations on Toril
Category:Organizations in Faerûn