Editing Aurom

{{Infobox Deity
|Name = Aurom, The Shattered One
|Symbol = Broken/Unfinished Rune
|Alignment = Unaligned (Neutral, with some Lawful Neutral inclinations)
|Divine Rank = Dead God
|Pantheon = Dawn War
|Portfolio = Cycle of Life
|Domains = Presumably Animal, Bestial, Death, Exorcism, Fate, Ferocity, Healing, Hunger, Hunt, Hunting, Life, Nature, Pestilence, Plant, Renewal (3.5) or Life and Grave (5e)
|Home Plane = [[Astral Sea]]
|Worshippers = Tribal Societies, Druids, Sages
|Favoured Weapon = Spear (Presumed)
}}
'''Aurom''' is a long-deceased deity from the [[Dawn War]] Pantheon, native to [[Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition]] and its [[Nentir Vale]] setting.

Very little is known about this deity, because our only source of information is the article "Dead Divinities" in [[Dragon Magazine]] #390. What we do know is that Aurom was one of the first deities, an elder god - or goddess, or possibly [[dickgirl|both]] - who governed the Cycle of Life, giving him/her dominion over birth, growth, life, death and the dead, and possibly more besides. We don't know the precise details of what "Cycle of Life" fully encompassed, but we do know that Aurom's broad array of portfolios was the subject of envy amongst many of the other gods, and that in terms of popularity, s/he appealed to a far larger base of worshipper than any other.

Aurom is presumed to have been a strict and orderly sort of deity, who cared only that the proper order of things was respected. This ultimately lead to his/her downfall: when [[Nerull]], the first [[necromancer]], presented his findings to the gods and argued that the undead would be the ultimate weapon against the [[Archomental|Primordials]]. Aurom spoke against this, decrying necromancy as a blasphemous upheaval of the cycle that s/he guarded, and refused to accept Nerull's plans. When the other gods chose to defer to Aurom on this matter, Nerull was incensed; after one fierce battle against the Primordials, Nerull ambushed Aurom with a vast undead army and slew him/her.

Rather than avenge their fallen comrade, the other gods allowed themselves to be bought off with Aurom's portfolios, allowing Nerull to ascend to the divine ranks as the new god of death and the dead. Once secure, Nerull set about erasing all references to Aurom's existence, in order to solidify power by perpetuating the lie that he was and always had been the only god responsible for the dead. This was until Nerull himself perished at the hands of [[The Raven Queen]], who sought to undermine his power and solidify her own by revealing the truth of Aurom's existence.

That said... she didn't really release much information beyond the fact that Aurom existed. Even by dead god standards, Aurom is an enigma, and whilst some cults and sects have risen over the centuries trying to revive the Shattered One's faith, most fall apart pretty quickly. Not least because Aurom's vast portfolio allows for a widely divergent range of interpretations as to what the god/dess was actually like or about!

At this point, the most long-lived Auromite sect is a band of dry, bookish, dispassionate sages who call themselves the Enclave of Dust. These morose folk see death as a necessity and renounce the soul's importance, making it really remarkable that they've managed to last the few decades that they have. Of course, being so small and unimportant has also been a shield in its own right. Per their interpretation of Aurom, the Enclave of Dust's religious tenets are fairly simplistic:

* Everything is part of the cycle. We are born. We live. We die. Respect life, and know death to be a part of it.
* We are created from the elements and return to the chaos when it ends. The primordials are our enemies. They seek to undo the cycle, refusing to be part of it.
* Undeath is a punishment and trial. It should be ended for those who do not deserve it, and it should be prolonged or inflicted on those who do.
* Do not fight death. Do not seek to be more than you are. We are all dust.

{{D&D4e-Deities}}