Gaerdal Ironhand
| Gaerdal Ironhand | ||
|---|---|---|
| Iron Band | ||
| Aliases | Shield of the Golden Hills, the Stern | |
| Alignment | Lawful Good | |
| Divine Rank | Lesser God | |
| Pantheon | Gnome | |
| Portfolio | Vigilance, Combat, Martial Defense | |
| Domains | 3E: Gnome, Good, Law, Protection, War 5E: Peace, War |
|
| Home Plane | Great Wheel: Golden Hills (Bytopia) World Tree: Stronghaven (Golden Hills) |
|
| Worshippers | Gnome Administrators, Fighters, Judges, Monks, Paladins, Soldiers, Warriors | |
| Favoured Weapon | Hammersong (Warhammer) | |
Gaerdal Ironhand is the Gnome God of Warriors and Protection in Dungeons & Dragons. Unusually stern and solemn for a gnomish deity, whilst the gnomes are not a war-like people by nature, they still deeply respect him for his dedication to safeguarding their race.
Publication History[edit | edit source]
Gaerdal first debuted in Monster Mythology for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. This marks him as a "third generation" gnome god, as he was part of the third batch of gnome deities to debut in D&D's history.
Jumping the Gender Barrier[edit | edit source]
When the gnomish pantheon was expanded upon for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition in "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes", there was something new about several of the gods. Whereas the gnomish pantheon had originally been an all-male pantheon, the new 5e version was sporting several new goddesses... all made by the quick and easy process of genderbending several of the traditional gods.
Ironically, Gaerdal is pretty much unchanged in terms of personality despite being a woman in the 5e version; she's a stern, grim, humorless woman whose obsesses with ensuring that she - and the gnomish peoples - are safe from harm. This may stem from an incident that maimed her, cutting off one of her hands and forcing Nebelun and Flandal Steelskin to create an artificial prosthetic for her.