Editing Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy) (section)

==Religion==
Dwarfs worship a trinity of gods. Valaya, Grungni, and Grimnir. They are referred to as the Ancestor-Gods, as they are believed to be the deities who created the dwarfs and taught them all they needed to know. They're fairly vanilla in concept, really.
Ancestor gods also include the demigod children of the trinity, and any Dwarf of considerable enough importance to revere is added to the pantheon.

Old lore stated that after death all souls are consumed by Chaos or remain as hateful ghosts on the material plane other than a handful that benevolent gods save as their favored servants. Dwarfs believed ancestors reside in the stone of the earth. End Times retconned the former and seemingly supports the latter as in the final battle Nagash resurrected every Empire soldier who has died to march against Chaos, while the Dwarf race assembled in one gigantic army and were joined by the spirits of every Dwarf that ever lived in the final battle (absent were Gotrek, who took the mantle of Grimnir from the real Grimnir, and Valaya who was drained of power by Nagash, - which he used to shroud Nehekhara in darkness - in his titular End Times splatbook). As such it seems like Dwarfs were right, their souls live on in the ground.

* '''Grungni''' 
Your generic patriarch-god; a stern, all-knowing, wise all-father, responsible for teaching dwarfs everything about runes, crafting, mining, smithing, building, whatever. His primary portfolio is mining and stoneworking, although crafting in general is also attributed to him. Basically making anything is a prayer to him, so you make it to the best of your ability.

* '''[[Valaya]]''' 
Again a fairly bogstandard matriarch-goddess; a protector, healer and nurturer. Technically tied to the domains of all other Ancestor Gods because she created most Dwarf culture, booze, written language, and established the first Holds, but is subordinate to the male gods for [[-4 Strength|some reason]]. Kingly authority originates with Valaya, strangely making her closer comparatively to Zeus than Hera. Her priests and priestesses (mostly examples of the latter exists in canon) are advisors to kings and nobility as well as healers 

* '''Grimnir''' 
The dwarf god of war and honor, founder/inspiration (depends on your interpretation) of the [[Slayer]] cult. Attempted to close the northern Warp Gate by himself, somehow wound up in the Warp itself where he's fought a one-Dwarf war against the entirety of Chaos (probably alongside [[Kaldor Draigo]] and [[Oxyotl]]). He’s got the least organized religious representation as far as priesthood goes, but we have more references to shrines of him than the others. Mostly because its WARhammer obviously.

* '''[[Gazul]]'''
The Dwarf god of Death. Lived in the time of the trinity, and created the written version of their names as well as the concept of venerating your ancestors. His faith includes the '''Order Of Guardians''', the Dwarf equivalent of Witch Hunters. Every Hold and most settlements, any place that has a place to honorably bury dead Dwarfs in fact, has a shrine or temple to him. We also have references to them Witch Hunter’ing abroad, including a priestess who puts down undead in Imperial Dwarf hangouts.

* '''[[Morgrim]]'''
God of Engineering. Oldest child of Valaya with Grimnir, personally invented Bolt Throwers and Dwarf Catapults/Stone Throwers (which later became Grudge Throwers). Was Grimnir's companion on the way to close the Warp Gate, but Grimnir forced him to turn back and return home. All Engineers are basically priests of Morgrim, since his teachings are a code of conduct for the craft. Liberal Engineers are considered heretics (but not the kind you shoot, just the kind you shout at) by conservative Dwarfs for their loose interpretations of scripture and in turn conservative engineers are considered grumpy old assholes by the radicals. Interestingly the only example we have of a Dwarf who SHOULD have become a Slayer but refused and accepted exile instead was a radical Engineer.

* '''[[Smednir]]'''
God of smelting and metalworking. Oldest son of Grungni and Valaya. Smednir created the tools that Thungni and Grungni inscribed their rune magic on, and among the greatest creations of the trio of laborers is [[Ghal Maraz]] itself. Smednir's shrines and temples are basically just extensions of those of Grungni's, since the two are inseparable in theme.

* '''[[Thungni]]'''
God of Runesmithing. Youngest son of Grungni and Valaya. During the settling of the first Holds he descended into a mystical realm called "Ankor Byrn (Glittering Realm)" where he discovered the ability to forge his mother's language with magic to create runes, although it was his father who later turned the discovery into a science and art. Only descendants of Grungni like himself were capable of learning Runesmithing. All Runesmiths are basically priests of Thungni, like Morgrim's Engineers. Unlike all the other gods who are friendly with the faiths of the allies of the Dwarf race and enemies of those who are Dwarf enemies, Thungni's cult has an additional enemy; non-Dwarfs who try to learn or succeed at making rune magic. This includes human wizards. Interestingly this taboo didn’t exist for the Elves, who in the days of kinship worked with the Dwarfs to enhance High Magic and Runesmithing together.