Church of Deep Duerra

The church of Deep Duerra was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the goddess Deep Duerra, the Queen of the Invisible Art. They were commonly called Duerrans.

"The mind is but another material, set before us to shape into a weapon."

- Gargosa Ironmind

Dogma
Duerra's faith taught that it was the duergar's destiny to rule the Underdark, conquering the stone from which they were spawned, taking the voids in which they dwelt, and claiming the wealth and servitors that could be found within both. Additionally, while wizards skilled in crafting magic items were typically respected in duergar society, Duerra's dogma went against this idea, preaching the inferiority of arcane magic. According to them, arcane magic was weak, unreliable, and obvious when compared to psionic power or magic that had been given and steadied by godly will (the duergar having strong divine spellcasting traditions). They declared that those who relied on petty magics to survive would be destroyed or enslaved by the duergar by means of psionics, and one day all would bow before duergar might and the glorious Invisible Art.

Rituals
Norothor prayed for spells at night. The duerran clergy had two annual holy days, during each of which an offering to Duerra was made in the form of dirt or stone from the borders of newly conquered land, the brains of psionic individuals, or the shattered skulls of any intelligent creatures.

The first celebration was a perverse festival known as the Rallying conducted on Midwinter Eve. That night, Duerra's followers came together to commemorate the triumphs of the past year and announced their intentions to expand for the coming year. The duergar worked themselves into a grim fury accompanied by the sound of dark war chants and the pounding of hammers into stone, both causing echoes through the tunnels. The culmination of these exaltations was the display of a freshly severed head of an enemy that would be passed around the group, the race of which was the next foe they planned to besiege and take territory from before the next Rallying.
 * The Rallying:

The other Duerran holy day was celebrated on the 5 of Mirtul, and it was on this day that skilled Invisible Art practitioners joined together in Duerran temples to perform the Melding, a psionic ritual ceremony where the assembled duergar minds contacted Duerra herself. While in this state, the collective duergar formed a communal mind rivaling that of the great illithid elder brains, providing the clerics of the collective with many of the greater insights that led to psionic and technological advances, aiding them in their endless quest for power and dominion.
 * The Melding:

Shrines & Temples
Duerra's temples were hewn from solid rock and always constructed in aesthetically pleasing, symmetric patterns, while also being designed to muffle sounds. These houses of worship served as armories, barracks, and command centers, for the priests of Duerra were expected to maintain training grounds and armories inside all their strongholds. The priests organized patrols, oversaw the armories, and honored Duerra by planning for holy crusades there before later executing their plans. The buildings were the second-largest fortresses in a stronghold and normally extensively fortified, housing not only weapons and armor but also emergency supplies and the settlement's army.

An empty seat was always in the center of the centermost room in one of Duerra's temples, an elevated dais called the Daul's Throne meant to remind the norothor that the Queen of the Invisible Art was always present and watching (though her avatars occupied the throne when they appeared).

Symbol
Duerrans carried their holy symbol in the form of a silver orb in diameter carved to resemble a mind flayer skull with a large crack across the top, normally with a steel chain threaded through the ears so it could be worn as an amulet.

Dress
Ceremonial clothing of Duerra's faith was ornate chainmail armor made to mimic her own (often treated with everbright or blueshine), and velvet, dark blue robes trimmed with surface animal furs. Other raiments included drab gray clothing and dull jewelry, and headgear was never worn. Besides their priestly vestements, they wore drab chain or plate mail typical for duergar and a hooded, ankle-length, gray-blue robe.

Weapons
Most Mindaxes used a battleaxe to deliberately imitate Duerra, but they were also skilled in common duergar weapons, including heavy and light crossbows, picks, short swords, spears, and warhammers; their beautiful weapons were often bejeweled.

Spells
A number of spells were unique to Duerran priests or were closely associated with them:
 * Augment psionics
 * Deflect psionics
 * Steal psionic strength