Glautru
| Glautru | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Aliases | The Seer | |
| Alignment | True Neutral | |
| Divine Rank | Demigod | |
| Pantheon | Illumian | |
| Portfolio | Prophecy, Fate, Life, Death | |
| Domains | Death, Destiny, Fire, Healing | |
| Home Plane | Elemental Plane of Fire | |
| Worshippers | Illumians, Seers, Diviners | |
| Favoured Weapon | Longsword | |
Glautru was the third of the illumian deities to ascend in Dungeons & Dragons, doing so centuries after the rise of Tarmuid and Aulasha - ironically, he himself had been a cleric devoted to Boccob, the Oerthian God of Magic in life. He still visits him from time to time, but he takes his responsibilities as the god of illumian fate very seriously and now regards Boccob as a wise colleague, no longer worthy of worship.
Illumian clerics say that Glautru’s vision is so keen that he can read an illumian’s entire destiny—from birth to death and beyond—simply by looking at his or her aura for a moment. When Glautru meets someone new, he takes a moment to study the individual’s aura, makes a cryptic comment, then opens his book to write down his findings. No one other than Glautru has ever tried to read the book and lived.
Glautru usually appears as a purple-robed man with a white goatee, carrying a massive, ironbound book in one hand. Where his legs would be is a column of fire that levitates him a few inches above the ground and propels him forward.
Glautru ponders the infinities of fate and destiny from a labyrinthine fortress of flame on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Occasionally a visitor accidentally stumbles into the fiery maze (such as when a plane shift or similar spell goes awry), and is confronted with Glautru, annoyed that his contemplations have been interrupted.
Glautru’s clerics spend a great deal of time in meditation, staring into a flickering fire for hours on end and trying to discern prophecy in the dancing of the flames. They also receive training in the healing arts, working in an enclave’s sick ward or an outside hospital. Glautru’s clerics rebuke undead rather than turn them and cast inflict spells spontaneously.
When issues of fate and prophecy are concerned, Glautru’s worshipers place themselves in the thick of matters. Like Aulasha, Glautru sends his high-level followers to attend to matters of life and death, including resurrections and efforts to recover illumian souls that have been stolen or imprisoned in some way.
Prayers to Glautru are elliptical and hard for others to understand because they refer to dreams and omens that only the worshiper has experienced. They’re usually voiced in the future tense: “Glautru will bless this place, as he will blow the leaves from the trees . . . the leaves of fiery red and burnt orange. Yet Glautru will never leave me...” begins a common prayer to bless a new house of worship, for example.
Glautru’s priests keep a golden brazier burning at the center of the Seer’s shrines. Additional adornment is rare. By tradition, only rough-hewn furniture and no art of any kind is welcome in Glautru’s houses of worship. Items of a divinatory nature such as dice, fonts of water, and crystals feature prominently, however.
Glautru’s rites are divinatory, seeking guidance from “Glautru’s connection to the fiery cosmos.” Because Glautru knows the fate of each illumian, his clerics traditionally perform illumian funerals, somber affairs in which a cleric recites the dead illumian’s lineage, briefly notes a lesson to be learned from the fate of the deceased, and then cremates the body. This is an area that they have begun to lose out on, however, as ever since Aulasha took on the role of illumian god of grief, her clergy have become increasingly involved in performing funerals instead, and in all honesty they are usually regarded as the more comforting priests to involve.
Glautru’s herald is a black dragon wyrm. He sends Medium, Large, and Huge fire elementals as planar allies.