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Garl Glittergold

Garl Glittergold

The Joker, The Watchful Protector, The Priceless Gem, The Sparkling Wit

The deity of gnomes, Garl Glittergold (garl gliht-er-gold), appears as a handsome, golden-skinned gnome with glittering gemstones for eyes. He is well dressed, usually in a silk jacket with long tails and silk hose. He always wears lots of gold jewelry and accoutrements.

Garl Glittergold discovered the gnomes and led them into the world. Since then, he has been their protector. He governs humor, wit, gemcutting, and jewelrymaking. He is renowned for the jokes and pranks he pulls on other deities, though not all his victims laugh off his jests. Garl once collapsed the cavern of Kurtulmak, the chief deity of the kobolds. Since then, the two deities have been sworn enemies.

Dogma

Garl promotes a doctrine of practicality tempered with humor. Ignorance and complacency are dangerous, warns Garl, and he urges his people to explore not only the world around them but new ways of doing things. Garl also emphasizes brains over brawn, and he teaches that befuddling or embarrassing a foe can be just as complete a victory as slaying or capturing that foe.

Clergy and Temples

Garl’s clerics serve as guardians and teachers in gnome communities. They maintain careful vigilance against hostile folk (particularly kobolds), and they instruct the young using a mixture of earthy practicality spiced with humor. This approach, they say, keeps the young entertained and makes their learning all the better.

Garl’s clerics also keep extensive archives of illusion spells (usually in the form of spellbooks and scrolls), practical jokes, trap designs, and stories. The longer and more outlandish the tale, the better, say the clerics, though not everyone agrees. Like their patron, Garl’s clerics favor gold jewelry.

Garl’s clerics build few temples, preferring instead to place modest shrines and chapels wherever gnome dwell or congregate. These sanctuaries are always built so they are easy to secure against hostile forces, and the clerics fill them with beautiful things. The shrines also usually include at least one trap designed to plague unwelcome visitors. These devices are seldom fatal and often whimsical.

Avatars

Garl sends his avatars to wander the lands where gnome dwell, keeping an eye out for trouble and aiding with crafts and jokes. He occasionally sends his avatars elsewhere, just to see what the rest of the word is up to and to play jokes on pretentious mortals. Garl’s avatars usually look like gnomes, though they can be of any subtype or gender.