Phosphorous

## Description

### Domains

Phosphorus created the dwarves, and he is associated with the forge, the restless earth and the fire. He created the planes and as such the chaos of any natural disasters is attributed to reflect his temperament. He rules the creative force of heat and energy in the souls of sentient beings: this energy is chaotic, something that needs to be harnessed and shaped by labor and passion. For this reason, Phosphorus is also the god of artisans, of obsession, and of the cycle of creation and destruction. It is said that his forge burns in the heart of a great volcano, attracting dragons with its blistering heat.

### Personality

The mere presence of Phosphorus is inspiring. He forges the most ornate and delicate items, only to dash them into flame and start again. Phosphorus once loved Senescence, the goddess of the hunt. His passion inspired his most astounding works of art. The divine blacksmith is reasonable yet unrestrained, following no rules save his own creative and destructive impulses. Sometimes, this means covering a whole area with lava to make way for something new. Phosphorus' main flaw is that he feels himself easily frustrated, limited and constrained. For this reason, he's always pushing against the barriers of mortal imagination, sensing that there is much more to express. This can cause him to plummet into despondency and then lash out at the world with raw destruction.

### Worship

Followers of Phosphorus brought the secret of metallurgy to Terrestria, forging stronger objects and armaments than any created previously, and the most sanctified shamans of Phosphorus also possess small quantities of a metal said to come directly from the god's forge, adamantine and mithral. Not only smiths worship him. Artists, humans and the dwarves especially, worship Phosphorus on altars built on volcanic slopes. Warriors give him homage when lighting a bonfire. Potters inscribe their works with markings meant to honor him.

## Myths

The myths about Phosphorus revolve around one of two themes: his wonderful creations or his explosive anger.

### The Gift of Bronze

Long ago, mortals on Terrestria fought and hunted using weapons made of stone and wood. According to legend, it was a dwarven smith named Tecton who discovered how to refine copper ore and work it into tools and weapons. Phosphorus, delighted, saw this as the mortals' first tentative steps toward true craft. Some smiths, hastily copying Tecton's methods, devised a way to blend copper and arsenic into a crude form of bronze, but the forging method was dangerous and often yielded defective results.

To reward the smith who took the first steps, Phosphorus appeared to Tecton and granted the satyr the secret of smelting copper and tin into true bronze. The manufacture and use of bronze weapons spread across Terrestria, launching an age in which heroes conquered the wilds and founded great civilizations. Years after, bronze was upgraded to iron, and remained so until Phosphorus decided that mortals were ready for the secrets of steel.

### The Stone Winter

In Terrestria's earliest days, the people vociferously honored Zenith and Senescence for the comforts of nature. Gradually, Phosphorus grew bitter that mortals never acknowledged his flames, which kept the earth warm and fertile. So, Phosphorus quenched the world's core. For a year, a lifeless winter gripped the world, with neither the sun nor the seasons warming the corpse-chill earth. Ultimately, it was the mortal engineer Prome who brought about the winter's end. Instead of cursing the situation. Prome sought a solution, creating a hypocaust system to bring warmth to her community. Delighted with the innovation, Phosphorus waited until Prome completed and lit her substructure furnace. When she did, the god returned warmth to the entire world. Today, an autumnal festival called the Kindling or the Forge-Lighting. During this festival, worshipers keep a bonfire burning from sundown to sunrise, acknowledging that Phosphorus warms the earth and makes the harvest possible.