Gond

Gond
Aliases	Zionil, Holy Maker of All Things, Inspiration Divine, Lord of All Smiths, Wonderbringer
Alignment	True Neutral
Divine Rank	Intermediate God
Pantheon	Faerûn
Portfolio	Artifice, Craft, Technology
Domains	3E: Craft, Earth, Fire, Knowledge, Metal, Planning 5E: Forge, Knowledge
Home Plane	Great Wheel: House of Knowledge (Outlands) World Tree/World Axis: House of Knowledge
Worshippers	Architects, Engineers, Inventors, Smiths, Gnomes
Favoured Weapon	Craftmaster (Warhammer)

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The Wonderbringer, not to be confused with Hephaestus.

Gond, also known as the "Wonderbringer", "Lord of All Smiths", and "NEEERRRRD" By Bane is the deity of craft and artifice in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. In the Shining South he is known as Zionil and to the Gnomes he is referred to as Nebelun (who is actually an entirely different god in Greyhawk).

History

Gond serves with Oghma, Deneir and Milil and are collectively referred to as the Deities of Knowledge and Invention. The Wonderbringer was said to take the ideas that Oghma holds within his portfolio and manifest them in concrete form, making him the god of invention and design. However Gond has grown apart from the other deities to the degree that many forget the relationship between them, often considering him completely independent.

He strives to invent new things as fast as possible and loose them into the mortal world without consideration for the implications, which annoys Oghma because new technologies can upset markets and change societies, while Mystra considers him a rival due to his attempts to perform miracles through technology instead of magic. However Waukeen finds his creations fabulous and seeks to exploit them before anyone else can jump on the bandwagon while Tempus considers him an ally due to the fact he creates bigger and better war machines. He supposedly also crafted Valkur's floating cathedral, the "Schooner of the Seas" purely as an example of good ship-building, which was the largest and fastest vessel in the realms.

During the Time of Troubles, Gond's avatar manifested as a Gnome and washed up on the island of Lantan, which worshiped him as its state religion. His divine status was quickly discovered and he remained there for the duration of the crisis. His parting gift was to give them the knowledge of how to create smokepowder.

Despite the "frantic inventor" persona he is known for, Gond can be a bit protective of his gifts. This is a large part of the Forgotten Realm's Medieval Stasis. If a tool or technology becomes too useful, Gond simply declares that it no longer functions. This is why, for instance, gunpowder cannot be used in the Realms and inferior smoke powder is a tool almost exclusively of the Gnomes.

Worshippers

Following the Time of Troubles, worship of Gond was on the rise. His cult is mostly human, though a significant number of Gnomes are converting to him. His church is loosely organised with Clerics being discouraged from settling in any one place for far too long as it stifles the spread of new technologies. One element of their faith requires them to build two copies of any successful new item they invent or discover, gifting one to the church to add to the accumulated knowledge and sacrificing the second to their god.

Due to their constant trial-and-error experimentation methods, his followers have notorious reputations as lunatic inventors that are unreliable to be around. Their apparent disregard for morals also leads them into associations with disreputable organisations - such as Zhentil Keep. They are also quite protective of their intellectual property, even going so far as to sabotage or eliminate rivals to their positions, which is cited as one of the few reasons that the realms have not been overcome with knock-off copies of cannons, rifles and bombs.