Laduguer

Laduguer
Broken Crossbow Bolt
Alignment	Lawful Evil
Divine Rank	Intermediate God
Pantheon	Morndinsamman (Dwarven Pantheon)
Portfolio	Magic weapon creation, artisans, magic, duergar
Domains	Evil, Law, Magic, Protection
Home Plane	Hammergrim (Astral Plane)
Worshippers	Duergar, Evil Dwarves
Favoured Weapon	Warhammer

Laduguer is an evil member of the Dwarf pantheon in Dungeons & Dragons, cast out of the Morndinsamman for his behavior. Also known as the Exile, the Gray Protector and the Master of Crafts, Laduguer is a bitter, resentful, cheerless diety, a cosmic slave-master and tyrant who despises beauty as "useless frippery" and demands unceasing toil from those under his command. Xenophobic in the extreme, he charges his duergar followers to enslave, exploit and ultimately exterminate all other races.

Indeed, Laduguer's creation myth claims that he birthed himself out of the chill nothingness of the time before time out of sheer will and the desire to create, forging a cold, dark world of eternal twilight and populating it with his duergar faithful, who labored alongside him to produce wondrous art. However, one arrogant duergar known only as the Lone Craftsman sought to surpass his creator, with his efforts giving rise to all of the other races of the world; though Laduguer struck down the Lone Craftsman by turning him into the first derro, the damage was done. In what is called "The Time of Perversion", the other races elevated their own gods, who "defiled" the world with such foolishness as bright sunlight, green things and song.

Prayers to Laduguer are simple one-or-two-sentence affairs, but they're repeated dozens of times, with exactly the same rhythm and intonation each time. They're intended to be used to guide his followers at their work; as God of Toil, Laduguer has few rites, because time spent in ceremonies is time spent away from work. Temples to the Gray Protector are structural marvels, but completely lacking any form of ornamentation, and often with attached torture chambers, prison cells and battle arenas.

Priests of Laduguer are called Thuldors, and are distinguished by a brand of Laduguer's holy symbol on their forehead and by the practice of wearing unpolished iron breastplates emblazoned with the same broken crossbow bolt symbol. Only the strongest of duergar are selected to be thuldors, as the training is literally torturous; hours of repetitive prayer, interspersed with hard physical labor, branding, torture and other acts that require feats of superhuman endurance, culminating in being tied between two crushing stone blocks and left in solitude for a weak. Many don't survive the training.

Holy Quests of Laduguer often revolve around awakening - and hopefully controlling - some long-buried evil of some kind.

Laduguer has no true allies; Deep Duerra aids him, but wants to overthrow him, whilst Dugmaren and Sharindlar are on speaking terms with him, but that's it. He is served by various baatezu, most notably bearded devils (hence the existence of durzagons), barbed devils, and pit fiends. His Herald is Garludor, a 20th level duergar (Rogue/Assassin) who alternates between hunting down Laduguer's enemies and stalking the forges of Hammergrim, where he slays negligent and unskilled workers.