Church of Haela Brightaxe

The church of Haela Brightaxe was the primary religious organization dedicated to the worship and service of the goddess Haela Brightaxe, the Lady of the Fray. They were commonly called Haelans.

"Because it was there, and because I have always wanted to cut my way out of something's stomach."

- A Haelan cleric upon being asked why she attacked an ancient dragon.

Dogma
It was the doctrine of Haela that freedom and validation could be found in the exhilarating nature of battle, and that the power of one's swing, the sound of smiting worthy foes, and the challenge of the fray were things to rejoice in. The faithful were to trust the Luckmaiden to see them through the battle regardless of the apparent strength or numbers of the enemies they were cutting down. Those that believed in her benevolence would be blessed, and in turn the besieged and beleaguered dwarves would always be saved through her by her faithful.

A noble, honorable foe was to be shown mercy if asked, but treacherous enemies received no such clemency.

Activities
Haela's followers aided hard-pressed dwarves, as well as their known allies and companions, not only by fighting alongside them, but also by healing them and casting certain spells. They aided dwarves by wandering Faerun looking for conflict, as there was no way to know when or where they would be needed. Like in battle, they relied on the Luckmaiden to guide them. Senior priests also made use of their monster hunting experience by sharing great amounts of information regarding the tactics, secrets, habits, lairs, and weaknesses of specific creatures with their juniors and others who asked.

The general goal of the clergy was to ensure dwarven victory with minimal losses. They also wished to make all dwarves comfortable with their own combat skills, believing as they did that the survival of the dwarves would be dependent on their battle prowess.

Membership
Dwarves of all moral and ethical alignments venerated Haela the Hard, but the active worship of the Luckmaiden was seen in particular types of dwarves. Battle-loving dwarves that wandered the surface and had to face monsters and unknown dangers, particularly in the North, turned to the Lady of the Fray. Her active followers often exhibited berserker tendencies and a chaotic or neutral good alignment (though chaotic neutrality and true neutrality was also seen among her clergy).

Haelan clerics were called the kaxanar, which could be loosely translated as "bloodmaidens". The vast majority of her clergy (85%) were female, and before the Time of Troubles they were entirely so, though the male members didn't seem to have a problem with the feminine title, difficult as it was to try and emasculate a raging warpriest painted in a fresh coat of blood.

Haela was particularly well regarded by shield dwarves, who made up 70% of her clergy, particularly those that wandered. Her cult among the younger gold dwarves of South Faerûn (that made up about 28% of her clergy) had been growing steadily, as both males and females among them were favorably disposed towards her love of unrestrained fighting, they themselves enjoying nothing more than a good battle against their old Underdark foes. Ironically, the other two percent of her clergy was primarily made up of the brutal duergar.

Titles
Novice members of Haela's faith, like those of Clangeddin's, were called the Unblooded, while full priests were the Blades of the Brightaxe. In ascending order of rank, priests were known by the titles of First Blood, Deadly Dirk, Stout Spear, Sharp Axe, Shining Sword, Flamebolt, and Brightaxe, with High Old Ones of the church having individual titles and being collectively known as the Hallowed Crimson.

Classes
Haela's clergy was evenly divided into thirds between her clerics, crusaders, and specialty priests known as luckmaidens, with half the clerics and luckmaidens training as fighters. Kaxanar also frequently trained as barbarians, their rage engendering joyous destruction for them to savor.

Luckmaidens, were primarily found among shield dwarves and secondarily among the gold dwarves, though some members of nearly every dwarf subrace were known to show particular devotion to the Lady of the Fray. Only females could become luckmaidens, and other requirements included above average strength and dexterity, basic levels of common sense, and the ability to smith weapons.

Luckmaidens, unlike regular specialty priests, could train as fighters and were far more proficient in the skills of a warrior, both on and off the battlefield, than regular priestesses. They could perform elaborate acrobatics called tumbling, fight while blind, and use a wide assortment of weapons. The spells at their disposal included those like aid and shield at the lower ends and ones such as flame strike and heal for the higher tier.

Orders
Many religious and military orders had been founded by the Lady of the Fray's followers in centuries past, but few survived for more than a generation or so, known as they were for the daring and valor of their members and focus on reducing the population of wicked monsters in their vicinity. Some of the most recent and famous included:


 * Haela's Host: A militant order consisting of clerics, crusaders, and luckmaidens that kept watch over ancient dwarven battlefields in the Western Heartlands. They frequently clashed with the various monsters of the Serpent Hills, Marsh of Chelimber, and Forest of Wyrms, and were highly effective in keeping the monstrous population in check.
 * Skyriders of Aglandar: An order of lance-wielding, hippogryph knights from the Great Rift in the Shining South.
 * The Dancing Damsels of the Brightaxe
 * The Dauls of the Luckmaiden
 * The Shining Host of the Underdeeps

Rituals
Kaxanar prayed for spells in the morning, a ritual accompanied by the tracing of elaborate scars on their forearms that had originally been ritually carved there upon initiation into the order. Most scars were accepted geometric patterns, but a few iconoclasts among the "free-thinking" order used their initiation to carve profanities or lewdness into their skin.

Holy Days
Haelan worshipers had three notable holy days. On each, her devout were expected to offer several drops of their own blood, as well as the blood of dwarven enemies, proportional to the follower's capabilities. Only one drop of blood per defeated enemy was allowed as sacrifice.

The first ritual was annually celebrated on the day of Greengrass, a ceremony called the Time of Spawning, though the word "celebration" was used somewhat loosely. It was a somewhat depressing ritual where the kaxanar prepared for the next onslaught of orcs and other dwarven enemies to pour out from their long-fallen strongholds to threaten those that still lived. These grim preparation ceremonies included battle hymns sung in endless choruses, rhythmic chanting to the ceaseless beats of drums, and the ritual shattering of weapons and armor seized from the enemy.

The second of these major events was the high holy day of Axe Held High, a day meant to glorify Haela's valor and protective role against ancient dwarven foes. It was a joyous Midsummer event, to which the kaxanar's allies were also invited, held outdoors in midday in full embrace of the sun. Followers of Haela claimed that at high noon, an unsheathed sword, Haela's Flamebolt, was momentarily outlined in the sun (although no members of other faiths reported seeing such a thing) and all good standing members of the clergy that participated in the ritual would be enveloped in Haela's silvery aura for the next twenty-four hours.

Finally, the Commemoration of the Fallen was celebrated on the Feast of the Moon. During this ceremony, the kaxanar remembered those dwarves and non-dwarves alike who fell in defense of Moradin's children while battling monstrous foes. Their battles were recounted, and new armor and weapons were consecrated in their memory.

Shrines & Temples
Main article: Category:Temples to Haela Brightaxe

Kaxanar cared little for dwarven tradition, flaunting precedent and building their temples wherever was most convenient to where nearby conflict was to be found. Temples were regularly built in caves or underground, rooms, such as the cellars of human ruins, abandoned dwarf holds, or even empty gnome warrens. Most temples also doubled as food storehouses, small smithies, and armories crammed with odd weapons and armor. They were never guarded by less than a dozen priests, more often 16-20, and all were set with at least one bombastically violent trap so that no temple could fall into enemy hands.

This could take the form of an explosive, but one famous example was a temple in Amphail that, upon being overrun by orcs, was revealed to have six separate blade barriers set up that used the cached weapons one after the other to whirl and slice at the invaders.

Symbol
Haela's symbol was an unsheathed sword surrounded by a two-ended spiral of flame. Priests carried their holy symbol in the form of a steel medallion embossed with the insignia.

Dress
For ceremonial purposes, Haela's clergy typically dressed in plain, steel-gray robes or any kind of armor, preferably chainmail, with a scarlet overcloak, crimson footwear, and an open helm. Those planning to adventure donned the best armor available, again usually chainmail, the best weapons they could find, and a helm, though not necessarily an open-faced one.

Weapons
Priests and priestesses of Haela were always heavily armed and normally skilled enough to repair their own equipment, but they freely gave away excess weapons to dwarves in need while keeping at least one for themselves (potentially hidden).

In honor of an ancient custom, between the Luckmaiden's clergy and the halflings of Secomber, part of an ultimately futile effort to protect what remained of the Phalorm, Haelans constantly carried around bags of caltrops with the hope of using them, the practice being a kind of joke and affectionate tradition between both sides.

Payment was expected for Haelan services in the form of a spare weapon, or failing that armor or useful gear of some kind, for the follower to give to those in need. They were practiced at throwing weapons so that they'd land on ledges, cut ropes, land hilt up, and in other ways to get them besides those who needed them. It was considered bad form to give back a weapon that was just bestowed.

Magic Items
If the mythical quintent of sentient blades that the Tor of Swords was named after really existed, they were likely wielded by the ablest swordswomen of Haela's Host.

Spells
A number of spells were unique to Haelan priests or were closely associated with them:
 * Detect weapons
 * Haela's battle blessing
 * Hurl rock

Relationships
Even among nondwarven adventurers, the Lady of the Fray was well-known and well-regarded in the North due to the near-legendary feats of her followers, though the more settled inhabitants of elven and human cities commonly perceived her merely as a dwarven berserker god little better than barbarous Garagos.