Valkur

}} Valkur was a minor Faerûnian god of sailors and their ships, as well as favorable winds and naval combat. The Captain of the Waves was the very picture of the daring sea captain, one capable of sailing his vessel through any disaster the Gods of Fury could unleash. "Valkur, speed his path, fill his sails, and calm his seas."

- A prayer for the deceased in Valkur's name.

Description
Valkur's avatar appeared as a man of broad girth with a full black beard and brown eyes that sparkled with derring-do. He had a great belly laugh, but when driven to anger his voice would crack like rolling thunder. He was often depicted wading through the ocean, the water only coming up to his knees, and was known to actually make such appearances.

As buffeted by uncountable storms as he seemed, Valkur always looked dapper. His fantastic captain's outfit consisted of a blue frock coat with gold braid trim and brass buttons over a colorful brocade vest and white shirt with a ruffled collar and cuffs, along with knee-length trousers, hose, and shoes, with silver buckles. His tricorn hat shared the same color scheme, blue but trimmed in gold braid, and featured a large, white plume.

Manifestations
Valkur often manifested as an aurora borealis or aurora australis and sailors swore he appeared to becalmed ships at sea as a ghostly wind in which his image could be faintly glimpsed. Sometimes he manifested as a ghostly ship on the horizon, which always sailed to the nearest port but never seemed to get closer or farther away.

Valkur was served by many intelligent and benevolent animals, including dolphins, whales (especially narwhals), and sea birds. He used the latter to indicate his mood, manifesting as a silver albatross or gull drifting on the wind currents to indicate his favor and as a night black raven to convey his displeasure.

Personality
Valkur was usually jolly and never held a grudge. He was a figure of endless luck and great boldness, emphasizing his points by shaking his fist in the air and never backing away from a challenge. However, he was not always available for his followers, and there was no guarantee he would answer a call for aid. He was fickle and unpredictable, his moods as mercurial as the weather, but he was always extremely loyal to his crew and did in fact feel his primary responsibility was protecting sailors. Though still unreliable, he had become more responsive to his faithful's petitions after the Time of Troubles.

Powers
Valkur could pilot any sailing craft in any conditions, and no ship on which he stood would ever sink regardless of its condition or the surrounding weather. He was specialized in the use of cutlasses, harpoons, and tridents, and proficient in the use of all melee weapons and naval armaments, as well as the arquebus. He favored conjuration, divination, and evocation spells, as well as those from the spheres of divination, air, water, and weather.

The Captain of the Waves could function just as well in water as he could above it and stride knee-deep through water of any depth using a form of modified water walking, hence his ability to seemingly wade through the ocean. Each hour he could call 2-5 whales to come to his aid, usually a pod of narwhals or orcas, but on rare occasions (about 1 in 20 times) a single leviathan would answer his summons.

Valkur could change the weather within a radius of himself, calming stormy seas simply by placing his hand on the water's surface or stirring up storms by swirling his hand within it. He could breathe a gust of wind every minute and breathe water as air. In addition to being undrownable, he was immune to elemental water spells, water elementals and related creatures, and electricity and lightning. He could bestow all these immunities, and the ability to swim, to anyone he touched, a blessing known as the "shield of Valkur" which lasted for a day.

Possessions
Valkur wielded the Captain's Cutlass, a +3 weapon able to cast a weather-related spell every minute, its power varying based on the aptitude of the wielder. Though normally a cutlass, it could transform into a trident or harpoon with an unbreakable rope tether attached to the wielder's wrist that could extend as required by the user. The weapon was sized for Valkur, had increased range in his hand, and (so long as the line was attached to him) left him unable to be knocked over or toppled from a deck he stood upon. Sometimes he loaned it to the faithful or those on special missions for him, but in anyone else's hands it was normal sized and had normal range.

Valkur also possessed a great shield with which he turned back the worst that nature had to throw at him. In some religious images he was at the helm of the great galleon Windjammer, a ship able to not only sail across any sea, but even through the heavens.

Realm
Valkur's realm was located in either Ysgard in the Great Wheel Cosmology, or Warrior's Rest (as part of Tempus's realm) in the World Tree and World Axis Cosmologies. His domain stood apart from the others, primarily due to the terrain but also for its relative calm. Safe Harbor, as it was called, was a placid range of saltwater between two warzones, a desert battlefield and a larger watery expanse of raging naval battles.

Activites
Valkur often used the tether ability of the Captain's Cutlass to tow ships to shore, hauling them in hand-over-hand, and there was at least one occurrence where he harpooned a sea monster and used it for tow. Some claimed to have seen him stride through the waves dragging a small boat to sailors who went overboard, feeding them with the sea biscuits and casks of water contained within.

Relationships
Valkur looked to Selune for guidance across the oceans of Faerun, the two sharing such a friendship that the moon goddess passed on a minor blessing to Valkur's faithful in the form of improved navigational abilities. In more recent times, Deep Sashelas of the Seldarine lent his aid to the Captain of the Waves so that he could better act as a counterweight to Umberlee's burgeoning influence, and Istishia, the elemental god of water, had ties to Valkur even if he was uninterested in his sailors (or Umberlee's storms for that matter).

The Red Knight, and by extension Tempus, attempted to persuade Valkur in taking a greater interest in the area of naval conflict. Her expectations of him sometimes exceeded his demonstrated commitment to anything but protecting sailors, but she still saw him as her best ally in that field even despite his unreliability. Tempus himself was casually friendly with Valkur, as he was at least somewhat martially-inclined, and at one point the sailor's god become an exarch of his.

Valkur was the sworn foe of the Gods of Fury, as the Captain of the Waves protected ships from the destruction wrought by their leader Talos, invoked as he was by sailors to intercede with favorable winds. His true nemesis among them however was the Sea Queen Umberlee, whose cruel whimsy he defended sailors against. She might yet try to destroy the upstart for daring to challenge her dominion, but as far as could be discerned he continued to defy her without significant retribution.

Worshipers
While there were many gods that Faerûnian sailors might pray to in regards to their work, Valkur was invoked in hopes of good tidings for the ship, all hands onboard and the voyage as a whole. His clergy was loosely organized, with many of its clerics serving as captains or sailors aboard ships. Usually they met each other only by happenstance, such as when they were both serving the same ship or were present in the same port. The clergy was known for helping sailors who were down on their luck.

In the past, Northlanders only honored Valkur occassionally as a result of the unreliability of his protection. In more recent times, he had become their unique god, the mighty deity they revered and honored above all others. In him they saw embodied and exemplified the traits that they, particularly their warriors, most admired and treasured: strength, courage, ferocity, guile, and sailing skill. To question, let alone insult this veneration was not advisable.

Valkur was venerated by the human fishermen and worshiped by the general half-elf populance of Aglarond. He was a favored deity in Impiltur, Altumbel, Tharsult, and Wizard's Reach, appeased and beseeched by sea traders in Amn, and significiant in areas where Illuskans and Tethyrians lived together.

Water genasi tended towards deities of water, including Valkur. Those who revered him were respected by common sailors and welcomed aboard by captains, as even those without a taste for adventure loved working on boats. Clerics among air genasi were also known to choose Valkur as a patron.

Dogma
Valkur's doctrine placed emphasis on the importance of defying the odds and daring the impossible. This exploratory spirit was seen as both necessary to spread the reach of huamanity and for the thrill in and of itself. It was a philosophy of carpe diem that embraced risk and viewed life on a ship, feeling and fighting the elements themselves, as the greatest, most invigorating feeling in the world. Notably, his dogma encouraged self-sufficiency and independence from his followers and placed himself third in their list of priorities, their loyalties going first to their crew and second to their ship.

Rituals
Clerics of Valkur prayed for their spells around dawn, upon the stirring of the first breeze. Valkur's church celebrated only one holy day known as the Shattering. The exact date of the festival varied but it was always celebrated in the spring. The purpose of the festival was to celebrate the breaking up of ice floes in the north, which marked the beginning of the sailing season.

Valkur's name was spoken to bless the spirits of dead sailors and lost ships.

History
Valkur's worship originated in North Faerûn centuries before the 13 century. He seemed tied to the story of a legendary captain from Mintarn, a mortal sailor (possibly himself) who challenged Umberlee and emerged victorious against all odds. From there his faith spread quickly to Tethyr and Amn, where it became centered, steadily increasing southward.

Valkur's activities during the Time of Troubles were unclear. Since then, he had worked on his unresponsiveness, which resulted in northern sailors trying to placate the Gods of Fury rather than seek his unreliable protection. Although his help still could not be relied upon, he had become more attentive to entreaties from his faithful. In the 15 century DR, his focus had notably recentered to the North to the point he was considered a deity of Northlander sailors.

Trivia
The sight of a species of spined-fish named Valkur's fish, so called for the belief that Valkur left the dark, eye-like spot on their side with his thumb, was considered good luck.

In the Valkuryte faith, the northern tropic was called Trethen and the southern tropic Lonthen.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Prophet of Moonshae
 * Prophet of Moonshae
 * Prophet of Moonshae