Deep Duerra

Deep Duerra, or simply Duerra, was the duergar demigoddess of conquest, expansion, and psionics, and was venerated by those dwarves skilled in the mysterious Invisible Art. Ever the imperialist, the Axe Princess of Conquest was a resolute believer in the supremacy of psionics and the manifest destiny of the duergar to rule all the Underdark.

Description
Duerra usually appeared as a, stocky, and powerfully-built, female duergar. Most of her hair was shaved off, leaving no beard and only a monk's tonsured cut and a rear-facing, tightly wound braid on her scalp.

Personality
Duerra was a pompous and arrogant authoritarian with the expectation that her every whim be immediately attended to. She dismissed arcane magic as inferior to psionic power, viewed the duergar as a unique race whose ancestral relation to other dwarves as an irrelevant piece of best forgotten trivia, and was resolute in her conviction that it was her inalienable right to rule.

However, it was not the actual possession of territory that Duerra enjoyed, but the act of obtaining it; the Axe Princess was always plotting, planning, and strategizing for her next glorious conquest. Never content, Duerra was ruthless in her pursuit of assured victory, having no tolerance for anyone, no matter who they were, that didn't meet her expectations, and considering no sacrifice too great for her continued success.

Powers
An avatar of Duerra could cast spells from any sphere and use psionics of all types. Every minute at will, Duerra could cast deflect psionics, though she herself was completely immune to any mind-affecting abilities, whether spells or psionics. She emitted a constant mental chant at all times, and allied duergar within of her were fearless, even in the face of supernatural terror like a dragon's aura.

Duerra could only be harmed using enchanted weapons. Like some other dwarven gods, Duerra could enter a ghost-like anima form upon being killed. This phantasmal form couldn't be turned, could become invisible at will, and use any of her magic powers, though she was only half as durable in this state.

Duerra could manifest her influence as a crown-like nimbus of silver light that surrounded a creature's head. For the next ten minutes, the target's reservoir of psionic power would quadruple, they would have some kind of psionic defense surrounding them (such as intellect fortress, mental barrier, mind blank, thought shield, or tower of iron will), and/or, like Duerra, their minds would be immune to magic tampering.

Possessions
The Axe Princess of Conquest's weapon was Mindshatter, her enchanted battleaxe that, upon striking an enemy, could steal psionic strength and transfer it to its wielder. The enchanted, everbright chainmail armor she was clad in was both shimmering and ornate.

Realm
Like Laduguer, Duerra's home was the pessimistic plane of Hammergrim, a gray, massive fortress with windowless walls a mile thick. In Hammergrim's vast courtyard, Duerra had her own hall, her personal realm known as the Citadel of Thought. Screams of incredibly agony could be heard below the catacombs of the Citadel, the sounds of duergar that offended Duerra being tortured by ember guards spawned from Hammergrim's forges.

Activities
Aside from the constant formulization of military plans, Duerra was known to dispatch avatars to intervene in matters regarding the duergar and other races. Occasionally this was to aid in conflicts where the duergar faced psionic foes, particularly aboleths and illithids, and at other times it was because a duergar city had a perfect opportunity to expand their dominion at the expense of others, but, for whatever reason, the ruling duergar authority was unwilling to capitalize on it.

Relationships
For as long as Duerra had been a divine being, she had been exiled (though not stricken completely) from the Morndinsamman, and she had shown no interest in trying to remedy the relationship. She had no friends among the dwarven gods, though Sharindlar had managed to forge working relationships with her despite loathing her principles and the wandering Dugmaren had no true foes among dwarven gods, tolerated as he was by lawful members of the pantheon due to the beneficial aspects of some of his inventions, though he found Duerra's company trying at the best of times. If some rumors were to be believed, she was the granddaughter of Moradin and Berronar and the daughter of her superior and only ally, Laduguer.

Though thought of by many as Laduguer's dauther, whether in the literal sense or perhaps because he raised her from a mortal to a demigod, the two had a very poor affinity for one another and showed a remarkable lack of compassion towards each other. While Duerra enforced the principles of ambition, greed, might, and stoicism that Laduguer had set for the duergar race, and though she both respected and obeyed him, acting as his chief lieutenant, their alliance was completely nominal.

The Axe Princess secretly felt restricted by her patron, regarding her "father" as a man whose bitterness and spite had wasted centuries of opportunities to claim the duergar birthright, and whereas Laduguer was fixated on feelings of rejection and unappreciation, Duerra was indifferent to the duergar's distant heritage. Duerra endlessly schemed against Laduguer and he did the same in kind, and, in more recent times, Duerra was said to be only a hair away from trying to depose him as the primary gray dwarf deity.

Others
Among their list of foes were the derro gods Diirinka and Diinkarazan, the beholder deities Gzemnid and the unnamed Great Mother, as well as the entire drow pantheon. There were also the deep-dwelling gods Blibdoolpoolp, of the kuo-toa, the ixzan deity Ilxendren, and the abolethic elder evil Pisaethces. Laogzed and Urdlen, the ever-hungry gods of troglodytes and evil gnomes respectively, were also among their enemies, with Urdlen specifically burrowing under Hammergrim's ore-rich earth looking for food. On the other hand, the duergar gods had less wicked opposition in Callarduran Smoothhands, deity of the deep gnomes, Psilofyr, protector god of the myconids, and Shevarash, the elven god of vengeance.

Orcus was also an enemy of Duerra since the Prince of Undead once subverted the worship of duergar beneath the Mines of Bloodstone. Particularly fierce was the hatred between Duerra and Ilsensine (as well as Maanzecorian before he died), since the Queen of the Invisible Art had stolen much of the psionic secrets and energy from the Great Brain of the illithids.

Worshipers


Like Laduguer, Duerra was venerated by the duergar to the near-exclusion of all other Morndinsamman members, the rest being only revered in name. Duerra's worshipers were primarily duergar that studied psionics and the militant warriors among the gray dwarves that chafed at the defensive ways of Laduguer's priests, those that sought to conquer much of the Underdark and would rather crush than cooperate with their neighbors. Though a few rare surface dwellers called upon the Queen for help in understanding, and more importantly concealing, the Invisible Art that was so often viewed with fear and suspicion, few outside the Underdark had heard of Duerra or her followers. Even hill and mountain dwarves were unlikely to have heard of her, although a handful of hill, mountain, and jungle dwarves skilled in psionics secretly served her (making up less than a percentage of her followers), and the more recent efforts of Duerra's priests had made them the talk of underground waystations and trading communities.

Under the surface, Duerra's specific worshipers were known as norothor, (norothar singular) a dwarvish word roughly translated as "those who seize enemy land", and the exact opinion of them widely varied within duergar communities. While younger gray dwarves admired their confidence and assertiveness, the norothor preached their expansionist philosophy so heavily that they were considered a nuisance by older dwarves that favored Laduguer. Elder dwarves viewed the norothor as cocky upstarts whose aggressiveness would bring down the collective wrath of the drow, illithids, and aboleths (as well as other Underdark races) on their heads, and indeed other Underdark races viewed the emergence of Duerra's faith as a threat to their own lands. While in theory the norothor focus on psionic discipline would make them ideal ambassadors to beings like illithids and aboleths, in practice their inherent brashness meant diplomacy often went awry, the illithids in particular loathing the dwarven adepts that dared to use psionics against its rightful masters.

The vast majority of her clergy (97%) were female, and before the Time of Troubles they were entirely so. Novice members of Duerra's faith were called the Closeminded, while full priests were known as Mindaxes. In ascending order of rank, priests were known by the titles of Psionic Blaster, Mind Thruster, Ego Whipper, Id Insinutor, Psychic Crusher, and Thought Conqueror, with High Old Ones of the church having individual titles and being collectively known as the Axe Princes and Princesses of the Invisible Art. Around 75% of all her clerics were psionicists and in general members frequently trained as psions and fighters. Norothor could wear metal armor if they pleased, though helms not made for psionics tended to interfere with their powers. Being lawful evil wasn't a requirement to become one, with lawful neutrality also being an option.

A secretive order of Duerran psionic priests known as the Mindstalkers of the Invisible Art had cells in most northern duergar settlements in the Realms, their goal being to unify the Northdark duergar kingdoms into an empire ruled by their collective consciousness. Though centuries from being finished, their invisible tendrils had already extended, secretly controlling much of duergar trade in the Savage Frontier and, in recent decades, acting from Skullport to cull psionic talent from slaves and steal surface dwellers with skill in the Invisible Art to breed with their own kind.

Rituals
Norothor prayed for spells at night.

The Rallying
They celebrated a perverse festival known as the Rallying on Midwinter Eve. The clerics commemorated the triumphs of the past year that evening, and they announced their intentions of expansion for the coming year. Accompanied by the sound of hammering and war chants the norothor passed around the freshly severed head of an enemy. This enemy was one whose territory they would take before the next Rallying.

The Melding
On the 5th of Mirtul, norothor gathered in their temples for the Melding. This was a psionic ceremony where they contacted Duerra herself. The result was a communal mind which granted all clerics greater insight in their endless quest for power and territory.

Temples
Duerra's temples were constructed in symmetric patterns meant to be visually appealing, and they featured an empty seat at the center of the centermost room. This seat was called the Daul's Throne and served to remind the norothor that Deep Duerra was always present and watching.

History
In the stories of old duergar mindwardens, Duerra was the queen of a dark and immense subterranean dwarven empire in ancient times. In their expansionist wars, the queen herself stood in the front of her armies. On one campaign leading to the domination a huge illithid city. Duerra then ordered her men to capture the mind flayers, who were once slavemasters of the entire duergar race. After a century of work, Duerra and her surgeons succeeded in taking the psionic powers from the captive illithids and transferred it into her brood and her clan's bloodline. Mindflayers tell the story differently though, by claiming Duerra was the leader of a slave rebellion. They attribute the psionic powers of the gray dwarves as an invention of their own, used to create a more efficient slave stock. Regardless, many duergar honor Duerra as the progenitor of their psychic abilities. These abilities established them as a distinctive subrace and a symbol of the dominance the duergar attempted to establish through enslavement and expansionism, until they are the preeminent political force of the Underdark.
 * 1383 DR : Deep Duerra, along with Laduguer, was destroyed . Hammergrim dispersed into the Astral Plane.