Haela Brightaxe

Haela Brightaxe is a fictional god in the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, a god of the dwarves of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.

Haela Brightaxe (hay-la brite-axe), also called the Lady of the Fray or the Luckmaiden, was a dwarven demigod of battle and luck.

Publication history

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

Haela Brightaxe was introduced in Dwarves Deep (1990).^[1] Haela Brightaxe received a detailed description in Demihuman Deities (1998).^[2]

Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition (2000-2007)

Haela Brightaxe is described in Faiths and Pantheons (2002).^[3]

Description

Overview

Haela Brightaxe was one in spirit with good-aligned dwarves who love battle, and who live to cleanse Toril from evil monsters. Haelan clerics fought monsters whenever they could find them, either to destroy the evil beast, or just for the thrill of battle. Haela, as she was a goddess of luck, took great risks in the battles she fought.

Followers

Haela's clerics were called kaxanar, which can be translated as bloodmaidens. Most of her clergy were females, but the few men didn't seem to have a problem with the feminine title. Kaxanar cared little for the rules of dwarven society and build their temples wherever conflict was to be found. Temples were regularly built in the cellars of human ruins, abandoned dwarf holds, or even empty gnome warrens. Most temples also served as armories, and all were trapped with at least one very violent bombastic trap so that no temple could fall in enemy hands. Kaxanar frequently multiclassed as barbarians, since the rage ability of the class engenders joyous destruction.

Rituals

Kaxanar prayed for spells in the morning, during their prayers they also traced the elaborate ritual scarring carved into their forearms upon initiation into the order. Most scars show geometric patterns, but a few iconoclasts use their initiation to carve profanities or lewdness into their skin.

Time of Spawning

On the day of Greengrass, the Haelans celebrated a ritual called the Time of Spawning. In this ritual they chanted and shattered captured enemy weapons to prepare for the next onslaught of monsters from occupied dwarven holds.

Axe Held High

Axe Held High was a high holy day for the followers of Haela. This day kaxanar and those allied with them gathered on the surface and claimed to see an image of Haela's greatsword outlined at the center of the sun.

Commemoration of the Fallen

The Commemoration of the Fallen was celebrated with the Feast of the Moon, when the kaxanar remembered all dwarves and non-dwarves who fell in defense of Moradin's children.

Relationships

Most of her companions in the Morndinsamman respected Haela's lively manner. Haela made sure she never acted against the wishes of the other accepted members of the dwarven pantheon, though she accepted only Moradin as her superior. Of her brothers and sisters, she preferred the company of Marthammor Duin and Clangeddin Silverbeard, who respectively shared her interest in the surface and her love for battle. Haela was so focused on the dwarves that she had little time for gods outside her own pantheon. Abbathor, who is always interested in luck, had been sending more dangerous threats to her ever since she had gathered his interest.

Death

Haela, along with Gorm Gulthyn, died in the battle with the duergar deities Laduguer and Deep Duerra in 1383 DR.

References