Kuraulyek was the patron deity of urds,[1] and said in legend to have once been the mortal leader of their kind.[4]
Description[]
Kuraulyek's 4 feet (1.2 meters) avatar[1] appeared as either a blue-skinned dragonwrought kobold[4] or a blue-skinned urd with feathered wings.[1]
Personality[]
Kuraulyek was a deeply cowardly demigod.[1]
Powers[]
Aside from their spellcasting capabilities, avatars of Kuraulyek could fly through the air on their magical wings, and from those wings pluck somewhere between 1-4 feathers each day, causing them to transform into air elementals which would serve him for an hour.[1]
Possessions[]
Kuraulyek's weapon was a simple +2 dagger.[1]
Realm[]
Kuraulyek's realm, known as Urdsrest.[3] was a gloomy cavern located either in a hillside in Oinos[5] or in the Underdark of the Barrens of Doom and Despair, depending on the cosmology. Again depending on the cosmology the lair was defended by a force of monstrous mobats or infested with fiendish dire bats. He seldom left his dismal home, remaining in hiding since he got there.[1][4]
Activities[]
Kuraulyek would never send his single avatar outside his home unless his chosen race was in deadly peril on the Material Plane. More often, he would send a huge mobat bestowed with some minor magical power (such as cause fear) to aid one of his priests instead. Even then, he would only directly confront problems when absolutely unavoidable, specifically when urds were being attacked in their homes.[1]
Relationships[]
The reason for Kuraulyek's solitude was his fear of Kurtulmak,[1] a jealous deity constantly watchful over other gods.[6] He was ever afraid that Kurtulmak would come to exact his revenge one day[1] and so never ventured from his cave.[5] Furthermore, he shunned all contact with the other deities (and general inhabitants) of the Gray Wastes.[1] Despite his estrangement, he, like the kobold gods, was an enemy of the gnome pantheon.[7]
Aside from urds, Kuraulyek did have his mobat servants. His avatar rode a huge bat when it appeared despite being able to fly.[1]
Worshipers[]
Kuraulyek lacked specialty priests, possessing only shamans, and such devoted had only two specific duties. Their primary task was to oppose those urds who revered Kurtulmak and putting an end to such misguided veneration. Secondly they were to aid in the defense of their gens.[1]
History[]
Common myth regarding Kuraulyek, whether from kobolds or from urds, spoke of him as a former godling servitor of Kurtulmak who betrayed him in some way.[8] In one popular tale he stole dragon wings from him before flying away to create the urds as rivals to the kobolds.[4] A similar story had him steal a pair of magic, feathered wings that Kurtulmak took from the aarakocra goddess Syranita (hence his symbol), at which point the story unfolded the same way.[1]
According to the Treatise Historical of the Dragon Tyrants, after the first Rage of Dragons, their kobold servitors were all but destroyed in the rampaging chaos of their masters. Kuraulyek, leader of the urds, led his people to the safety of what would later be known as the Thunder Peaks, escaping the dragons' wrath in the complex of bat-filled caverns. In doing so however he had betrayed the common kobolds, leaving them to die at the start of the rage by the claws and fangs of their masters, caring more for personal profit and power than loyalty to the race.[4]
The Dragon god Asgorath took pity on the kobolds, resurrecting and deifying the firstborn of their race, Kurtulmak. He learned of Kuraulyek’s betrayal during his ascension and the near-genocidal results of his treacherous desertation, promptly swearing vengeance on him for abandoning his wingless kin in their time of greatest need. To protect Kuraulyek from the new deity's wrath, Asgorath also raised the blue dragonwrought kobold to divinity, allowing him to flee to other planes, where he remained hiding in abject terror from his former master eversince.[4]
Appendix[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), p. 55. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 9. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 176. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood (September 2007). The Grand History of the Realms. Edited by Kim Mohan, Penny Williams. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-0-7869-4731-7.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Colin McComb (December 1995). “Liber Malevolentiae”. In Michele Carter ed. Planes of Conflict (TSR, Inc.), p. 47. ISBN 0-7869-0309-0.
- ↑ Carl Sargent (May 1992). Monster Mythology. (TSR, Inc), p. 44. ISBN 1-5607-6362-0.
- ↑ Eric L. Boyd (November 1998). Demihuman Deities. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 137, 146, 149, 151, 154, 158. ISBN 0-7869-1239-1.
- ↑ Mike Mearls, et al. (November 2016). Volo's Guide to Monsters. Edited by Jeremy Crawford, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 66. ISBN 978-0786966011.