Diirinka

Diirinka was the patron god of the derro (particularly the savants), and twin brother of their forgotten demigod Diinkarazan. Titled the Betrayer, Diirinka was a god of magic and knowledge, as well as cruelty, said to have created the derro by stealing magic and cleverly leaving his sibling to pay the price, teaching the degenerate dwarves the virtues of being deceitful and cruel.

"In a paroxysm of fear, Diirinka stabbed his brother in the back and fled, leaving Diinkarazan's mind to be horribly consumed by the tentacled one, while his body was thrown into the Abyss where yet it lies."

- An excerpt from Sigil and Beyond, a sacred tome for aficionados of the Outer Planes.

Description
Diirinka preferred to appear as a diminutive (around ) tall, stunted creature, a kind of derro-lich hybrid.

Personality
Diirinka was a mean-spirited, hateful, despicable deity. He was a chaotic and treacherous individual (as well as a skilled improviser) with little care for anything and anyone and a willingness to betray them all to accomplish his goals. Notably this apathy extended to himself, perhaps because the ancient betrayal he dealt to his brother still gnawed at his soul.

Powers
Diirinka was a skilled wizard and capable priest capable of drawing spells from whatever school of magic or sphere of divine influence he wanted. Much of the magic that empowered him however was stolen from Ilsensine. His avatar had all the special protections of a lich.

Possessions
Diirinka wore a magical robe of in a state of constant change, always swirling gray, white, and black. He could draw up to five magical strands from it each day and when holding them in his hand could cast difficult to resist versions of slay living, disintegrate, and destruction by touch from white, gray, and black threads respectively. He also carried a +3 dagger of venom and wand of cold and wore a ring of telekinesis and a brooch of shielding.

Realm
Diirinka realm, known as The Hidden Betrayal, was, appropriately enough, hidden away on the 3 layer of Pandemonium, Phlegethon. No one who had seen it ever returned to tell of it, though it was said to be chillingly dark and endlessly dripping with foul water.

Activities
Diirinka only sent avatars for his own benefit, usually either to obtain magic items or to amuse himself with acts of cruelty. If he chose to punish his servants it would either be out of whim or temper, and he never sent them omens (although he sometimes indirectly guided them to magical items or locations, albeit always on a perilous route).

Relationships
Diirinka and his twin brother were perhaps the least respected of the dwarven gods. Even the avaricious Abbathor, despite being distrusted and disliked by the other members of the Morndinsamman, was considered a member of the pantheon. Even the duergar gods Laduguer and Deep Duerra were at least considered members-in-exile, still acknowledged by the dwarves and with Laduguer's leave being debatably mutual. Diirinka and Diinkarazan were not just banished but completely disowned.

The most commonly given reason for the banishment of the twins by Moradin was that both were irredeemably evil, and while true, it was also possible that fear and jealousy of their magical powers played a part in the consensus. Diirinka was the most magical of all the dwarven deities, a notably distinctive trait as the pantheon had few cases of arcane or mystic gods.

Diirinka and Diinkarazan were often considered the youngest of the pantheon's elder members. The twins were thought to be children of a dwarven god that was a lesser deity at the time of their conception, possibly even Moradin himself, although this was unclear.

To all but the derro, Diirinka was a wholly loathsome being. His only known ally was Kiaransalee, an ascended necromancer and goddess of the undead. Other members of the pantheon however, including Lolth, Vhaeraun, Eilistraee, Selvetarm and Ghaunadaur, considered him an enemy. The duergar gods were also among his foes, and the duergar believed that he had cursed part of Hammergrim so that haunting spirits slowly drained the ruling chieftain until he was incapable of ruling without them (though they might have confused him with Diinkarazan). Other enemies of the Deep Lich included Callarduran Smoothhands, patron of the deep gnomes, and Shevarash, elven god of vengeance.

Worshipers
Before his banishment from the Mornsdinsamman, Diirinka was the dwarven god of magic and knowledge, his swirling spiral symbol used since the times of Deep Shanatar having marked many magical artifacts from Torglor. By the time of Shanatar's fall however his worshiped had been abandoned in favor of newer gods, such as the likes of Dugmaren Brightmantle.

Derro
While most of the derro worshiped Diirinka, there were very few actual clerics in their wisdom-deficient ranks. Rather, than priests in the orthodox sense, the clergy of Diirinka was occupied by "savants" granted power by Diirinka in a wholly unusual way. Rather than granting them spells, Diirinka infused the derro with sorcery stemming from an unusual source for a god, that being his own magical nature. The race had a greater-than-normal tendency to develop sorcerous powers, and those who had them were considered specially blessed by the Great Savant, which was in fact true. Their innate magical skills were the result of Diirinka shaping their bodies and brains during gestation, his work on their forms allowing for such power.

The magic of derro savants was considerable, though not all their sorcerers were automatically savants. First, they had to reach a certain level of power, with most savants accompanied by two less experienced students. The savants were the undisputed leaders of the derro, exerting their authority at all times, and other derro followed them fanatically. The visible madness common to all members of the race, most typically manifesting as paranoia and mania, were noted by derro only when exhibited by savants, odd behaviors they believed arose because the savants carried messages from the Deep Lich.

Dogma
In reality, Diirinka was fairly indifferent to what his savants actually did or taught and sent them no signs, caring only that they revered him and helped the derro grow stronger. Savants took it upon themselves to guide their people and were the interpreters of Diirinka's teachings. They maintained order among their groups and forces and gave instruction as to the proper treatment of slaves (discipline through cruelty and fear), typically using spells to confuse and irritate rather than kill so as to enslave the defeated.

Savants pursued magic and power, their key objectives including adventuring and crafting to acquire magical items. All were trained in some esoteric sphere of knowledge, usually the arcane, and some were known to experiment with fungal extracts and poisons to the end of functionally pacifying (and lobotomizing) their slaves.

Temples
The Hall of Sacred Spells was a known shrine of Diirinka within Gracklstugh.

History
Diirinka was once the patron deity of the Shanatar fiefdom of Torglor, the Silver Kingdom, located beneath the Snowflake Mountains, a city with extensive connections between the upper and middle Underdark but few to the surface world. Befitting their patron, the dwarves of Torglor were renowned for their invention and rune magic. Like Korolnor, the city of Diinkarazan's dominant faith, Torglor's forces skirmished with the thrall armies of the illithids in Oryndoll long after the formal conclusion of the Mindstalker Wars, and its artisans had developed many unusual weapons and tactics for besting the mind flayers, many of which were used into the future.