Gond

Overview

Gond is the god of artifice, craft, and construction, and is revered by blacksmiths, woodworkers, engineers, and inventors. Anyone engaged in crafting something may say a prayer to Gond to guide their work, but folk know that Gond smiles most brightly upon new inventions that others find useful. Gond transforms ideas into concrete form and inspires mortals to make new things. He cares only for the act of creation, taking little heed of the consequences of releasing his inventions into the world. Most recently, the church of Gond has earned the ire of rulers across Toril for introducing smokepowder and firearms to the realms; items which see much more common use in wildspace.

Description

Gond appears as a burly red-hued smith with a hefty hammer, or as a short, slight man with straw-blond hair, or as a gnome. His sharp, bright, dark eyes typically stare out of a forge scarred face, no matter his form, and he always has an alert and inquiring expression. He usually wears a scorched smith's smock over nondescript leather, but in battle can summon glassteel plate armour which hovers over his body, piece by piece, rather than fully encasing him.

Holy symbol

Gond's symbol is a toothed cog with four spokes, made of ivory, metal, bone or wood.

Favored weapon

Gond wields a warhammer known as Craftmaster. He also loves to use arquebuses and can summon a fully loaded and ready to fire arquebus at will.

Realm

World Tree cosmology

In the World Tree cosmology of Realmspace, Gond resides within Wonderhome, his favourite section of the Library of All Knowledge, which is located on the outer plane known as the House of Knowledge, which he shares with his superior Oghma, and his fellow deities Milil and Deneir.

Contrary to its name, the House of Knowledge is a wilderness of ancient oaks and clear blue pools. At night, constellations of burning stars fill the sky, and the sound of harps echoes through the lonely woods. The Library of All Knowledge itself is housed in various buildings scattered throughout the woods. Together, these buildings house examples of every known spell, magical item, song, and piece of knowledge about the entire universe. Gond favors the section of the Library known as Wonderhome, which is the closest thing to a distinct realm in the House of Knowledge. Wonderhome is a great workshop full of inventions - some known on Toril while others are yet to be discovered.

Great Wheel cosmology

In the Great Wheel cosmology, Gond resides within his planar realm, known as Wonderhome, which is located on the Concordant Domains of the Outlands.

Worship

Most who favor Gond practice time-honored crafting professions, including smiths and engineers, architects and weavers, leatherworkers and jewelers, etc. Even so, Gond's faith has a well-earned reputation as a haven for crackpot inventors and visionaries. Priests of Gond wander the world dressed in saffron vestments, adorned with sashes that contain within their folds gears, locks, hooks, and bits of steel, tin, and wood that might prove useful in a pinch. They also wear belts of large, linked metal medallions and enormous sun hats.

A traveling priest of Gond offers services to distant villages as a tinker, a carpenter, and a civil engineer, all rolled into one, ready to help build a better paddock gate, dig a new well, or mend pots or furniture that might otherwise go to waste. All priests of Gond keep journals in which they record ideas, inventions, and innovations discovered in their travels, and take great delight in meeting fellow priests and sharing their finds. In large cities, they construct temples that serve as great workshops and inventors' labs. Wandering priests turn their journals over to the resident scribes at such temples, who then record the priests' observations for posterity and the benefit of all.

In Spelljammer

Gond is a member of the Faerûnian pantheon and as such is considered native to Realmspace. Priests of Gond are able to power a spelljammers' helm as if they had two additional caster levels, making them among wildspace's most versatile helmsmen. However, priests of Gond lose access to all spells once they leave Realmspace, and only regain their spells once they return to the sphere.

Appendix

External Links

• Gond article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
• Gond article at the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Wiki, a wiki for official Dungeons & Dragons content from 2nd edition AD&D.

References

Connections