Meriadar

❌

Meriadar was the ever-patient deity of the mongrelfolk.

Description
Meriadar was said to be able to appear as a tall member of any goblinoid species, but more often he appeared as an mongrelfolk with elf-like ears, a dwarven nose, a human chin, an orcish jaw, and gnome-like eyes. His exact height, weight, build, and color changed moment to moment, however. He always wore plain brown robes.

Personality
Meriadar was a peaceful, but not pacifistic, and orderly deity.

Abilities
As part of his peaceful nature, Meriadar used protective magics, such as wards, with great skill and cunning.

His avatars, though largely peaceful, were known to use power word, stun, power word, blind, Otiluke's resilient sphere, Otiluke's telekinetic sphere, and forcecage to subdue any being foolhardy enough to attack him. His avatars also typically carried a wand of size alteration for the same purpose. He fought with a powerfully enchanted quarterstaff that affected any goblinoid struck as if by a symbol of persuasion.

Divine Realm
Meriadar lived on the plane of Arcadia, and the town of Ghetto in that plane was said to be a splinter of his realm and under his protection. His realm, the Hand of Peace, was located on Buxenus.

Activities
Meriadar was known to send out his avatars for defensive purposes, but omens from him were far more common. Such omens were known to take the form of automatic speech, speaking in tongues during philosophical debates, sudden artistic inspiration (usually coupled with automatic drawing or sculpting), bubbles in bowls of soup that released smoky, vaporous symbolic images, and strange scents that alerted mongrelfolk to imminent danger.

Relationships
Meriadar, though a good deity, had long spurned the aid of other good deities in his attempts to draw non-evil goblinoids to his worship, as he did not wish to alienate such potential worshipers by allying himself with the deities of their enemies.

The various goblinoid deities had an enmity for Meriadar, and he himself had a particular antipathy for the bugbear deities.

Worshipers
Meriadar was primarily worshiped by the mongrelfolk of whom he was the patron, though he was also known to be worshiped by non-evil goblinoids.

The priesthood of Meriadar preached peace, but they also helped to defend mongrelfolk communities, as well as acted as advisors to leaders concerning social policy. They supported laws, hierarchies, and established leaders unless those were grossly unjust.

Meriadar's symbol, a decorated bowl, held great significance as an object of both artistic and practical purposes, combining the two into one. Such bowls were used for both sacramental feasting and the sharing of food. His priests and shamans were also known to use the decorated bowl symbol as a starting point for philosophical discussion, as they "debate the quality of the 'eternal now' as having its origins in spiritual parallels to the act of drawing sustenance, and the immediacy (and 'nowness') of the most basic earthly drive, that of hunger." Meriadar smiled on such philosophical and spiritual thought, sometimes of great nuance, occurring amongst his priests despite their strongly orderly tendencies.

Meriadar had two known proxies: Feryli Krenurum in Nemausus, and Magruntel Dent-head in Arcadia.

Rumors & Legends
Some sages thought that Meriadar was responsible for the creation of the buseni.