Tyr

Tyr was the lawful good greater god of law and justice in the Faerûnian pantheon. He was the leader of the coalition of deities known as the Triad.

Tyr was the same power as the god of the same name in the Norse pantheon, although in the Realms he was worshiped only as a god of justice and not as a god of war.

Titles
Tyr had many titles among mortals; among them was the Even-Handed,   Grimjaws,   the Maimed God,  Wounded Tyr,, Blind, Blind Tyr, the Blind Overlord, the Wounded One, and the Just God,   These titles symbolized his nature to his followers.

In Calimshan, Tyr was worshiped under the name Anachtyr.

Description
Tyr was portrayed as blind and missing his right hand,     for which he bore his title of the Maimed God. (His title of the Even-Handed, though it referred to his position of god of justice, was likewise seen as dark humor. ) He usually was shown as a burly, noble warrior with a powerful build and a bearded face.

When an avatar of Tyr appeared to his followers, his eyes (or eye) were at first the color of bright steel, but they faded away to empty sockets before the avatar vanished. His brow always shone with a white radiance, leaving no doubt as to his divine nature.

He was often shown wielding a powerful magic sword or warhammer and dressed in light armor. He did not try to hide or bandage his stump.

Abilities
Tyr was said to be able to instantly perceive any thief coming near him and to see invisible objects and persons. He always knew anyone's moral and ethical viewpoint and could detect any lies. Tyr was immune to all illusions, fear, or magics affecting one's emotions.

If casting magic, Tyr never used damaging necromantic spells. His spells from the law sphere were three times as powerful as normal.

Possessions
Tyr's sword was said to have been a gift either from Tyr's predecessor or from Lord Ao himself. It was said to have been crafted with the aid of Mystra. Tyr's warhammer was especially disrupting to undead.

Portfolio
Among the greater deities of Faerûn, Tyr was the only one of lawful good alignment.

In the divine realm of Asgard, Tyr was responsible for ensuring that only the most valiant of warriors were permitted access to the great hall of Valhalla.

Personality
Tyr was primarily concerned with the punishment of wrong-doers and the general furthering of law and good in the world. Tyr hated duplicity, trickery, rule-breaking, and wanton destruction.

Tyr was hard to understand to those outside his faith, as they more readily perceived him as a stern and rigid punisher. On the other hand, he was seen as a brave father-figure to his followers. In truth, he was well aware that a lawful utopia would never be possible in the imperfect Material Plane, yet this did not stop him from trying to make the world a better place for his mortal followers. He wanted his followers to see themselves as a "perfect family", not made of perfect individuals but rather of members who tried and wanted to be perfect, who acted out of trust, courage, and love toward each other. His knowledge that such a dream would never be achieved among the mortal realm filled him with genuine sadness.

Tyr was more willing than many other gods to manifest in some form or other to his followers, because of his fierce feelings of fatherly protection toward them. Besides his avatar, Tyr might send an intelligent war dog as a representative, or he might use a resounding gong, a choir of male voices, or a floating warhammer to express his will.

Divine Realms
Within the Great Wheel cosmology, Tyr had his divine realm called the Court on Lunia, the first of the Seven Heavens. He also still considered Asgard on the first layer of Ysgard his home, the joint realm of most of the Norse pantheon.

Worshipers
The highly organized church of Tyr was strong in the more civilized lands of the Realms. They were known for never refusing service or aid to the faithful when they were in distress. To keep Tyr's favor, one must respect fallen enemies, never make sacrifice of a corpse, and keep one's alignment lawful good. Tyr considered slaying agents of evil to be honorable and worthy of the highest praise.

After the Time of Troubles, an entire decade passed where Tyr forbid specialty priests within his church. The clergy believed that he wished to ensure that no members of the faith were treated with greater favor than others. After other churches mocked them for this, Tyr established special orders of priests beginning after the Feast of the Moon in 1369 DR.

The Triad


Tyr was the head of the group of deities known as the Triad. The two other gods who made up the Triad were Ilmater and Torm.

Along with the Triad, Tyr was close to Lathander. He opposed the deities Bane, Bhaal, Cyric, Mask, Talona, and Talos.

Early History
Tyr lost his right hand to Kezef the Chaos Hound,    in a test of his honor and strength of will. The Circle of Greater Powers had previously banned all mortals and powers from any contact with Kezef, but he was still free to consume souls, and a coalition of gods joined together to stop the Chaos Hound once and for all. This alliance included Tyr. They pursued the primordial beast to the Barrens of Doom and Despair, where they offered him a deal. They would lift the ban on him if he could escape from chains forged for him by Gond. Kezef insisted that if this were truly a fair challenge than Tyr must be willing to place his right hand into the elder evil's mouth. Tyr agreed. Kezef was enchained, the chain was anchored deep in Cocytus in Pandemonium, and Mystra placed an enchantment to prevent the chain from ever being severed. Furious, Kezef bit off Tyr's hand. It was said that he feasted on the gods hand, drawing power from it, for centuries. (Among the Asgardians, the story of the loss of Tyr's hand was similar but involved the members of the Aesir and the entity Fenris Wolf instead. )

Tyr was a power before the time of Jhaamdath and over the millennia, was known by a multitude of different names such as Achanatyr, Anachtyr, Arrtyr Judge Of All, Iltyr the Blind but All-Seeing Eye, The Sword of Justice, and several others. He was a member of the Jhaamdathi Pantheon and sponsored cults as well as priests. His followers were known to have slain the great wyrm Rivenaurlgoth the Darkly Pious in the Marching Mountains in -284 DR.

Appearance on Toril
Tyr first made a major historical impact on the world of Toril in a campaign to pacify the remnants of the fallen empire of Jhaamdath in the Year of the Striking Lance, −247 DR. This was known as the Procession of Justice, in which the god himself appeared on Toril, allied himself with Torm and Ilmater, and led a host of archons and angels against the chaotic and evil forces arrayed in the remains of the fallen empire. Ilmater aligned himself with Tyr in -243 DR. Torm joined them to complete the Triad some years later.

The faith of Tyr did not become a dominant one in Faerûn until after the establishment of the Standing Stone,  when most of the other members of the pantheon were already well-established in their roles.

An exception to this seems to have been in Calimshan, where Anachtyr had been worshiped for far longer than Tyr had been in other parts of Faerûn. Among the Calishites, religious legends suggested that the god who was Tyr passed on his portfolio to another at the end of each millennium, and that Anachtyr was actually an earlier Tyr who passed his portfolio on to the Norse newcomer.

At some point, the conman Conner made a deal with Tyr: he promised to bring the god the Claw of Malar (which was then in the possession of the tyrannical crime-lord Pasha Abon Duum), in exchange for some unknown service, debt, or crime. Finally, in the Year of the Prince, 1357 DR, emboldened by Conner's apparent death, Abon Duum used the power of the Catlord to travel to Tyr's realm in Gladsheim to confront Tyr with the Claw of Malar, apparently seeking to seize the power of the gods. However, "Tyr" was revealed to be Conner in a cloak, having faked his death and been spirited to Gladsheim. The Catlord stole the Claw of Malar and passed it to Conner, before the real Tyr appeared and took the artifact. With a warning that he would keep an eye on Conner and the scales of justice, he sent the heroes home while Duum was left to face Justice himself.

Time of Troubles
At the onset of the Time of Troubles,  Tyr's eyes were put out by Lord Ao when he questioned Ao's decision that all the gods would be punished for failing to prevent Bane's theft of the Tablets of Fate. Ilmater, true to his ethos, worked to teach Tyr to live with these disabilities, though in truth they were not a great hindrance in view of his power as a greater god. Torm, being a god aware of his own past humanity, also aided Tyr by tempering the god's zeal for justice with the gift of mercy.

The Spellplague
Shortly before the catastrophic events of the Spellplague, Tyr killed Helm in a duel in 1384 DR, when he mistakenly thought Helm had stolen Tymora's heart. It was suspected that Cyric had a hand in this.

In 1385 DR, just after the Spellplague, Tyr abdicated his godhood and granted Torm all his deific power, because he had lost faith in himself and his ability to lead and judge. Tyr counseled all of his followers to offer their allegiance to Torm. Tyr's portfolio of justice was subsequently absorbed by Bahamut, who later became a subservient deity of Torm.

At some point, Tyr sent the deva Ayrx into Undermountain to try and talk sense into Fazrian. Unfortunately, Halaster was able to capture Aryx, and trapped her in a shield in his Lair.

Death
At some point between 1385 DR and 1479 DR, Tyr died fighting off a demonic invasion of the upper realms.

Tyr was still being venerated in secret after his death in his ancient aspect as Iltyr by Waterdhavian and Cormyrian nobles. Iltyr was depicted as an entirely black, weeping eyeball with a prehensile tail. Iltyr's hidden shrines however depicted one or a pair of large but normal staring eyes, which his followers often dismissed to visitors as the only surviving portrait of an ancestor.

Resurrection
Tyr managed to return to life during the event known as the Second Sundering, in the 1480s DR.

Behind the Scenes
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition, Tyr was actually an external god who came to Toril from Earth's Norse Pantheon. As such, if an Earth-born cleric of the Norse Pantheon came to Toril—via a Spelljammer ship—he would be granted spells through Tyr.

Tyr was originally intended to be a greater god in the 4th edition pantheon of the Realms, but was removed in mid-development and replaced with Torm, mainly due to fan reactions towards Tyr's slaying of Helm in The Grand History of the Realms.

Appearances

 * Comics
 * Advanced Dungeons &amp; Dragons (comic book series)
 * vol. 2, issue 16: Spell Games, Part 4: "The Last Betrayal"
 * vol. 2, issue 16: Spell Games, Part 4: "The Last Betrayal"