Moradin, the All-Hammer, is the lawful good deity of craft, creation, family, and legacy. The All-Hammer is patron of craftsmen, blacksmiths, forgemasters, artisans, and miners,^[5] granting inspiration where respect and prayer are given. He shaped the mountains during the Founding, and stands as the patron of home and family.^[2]

Symbols and appearance[]

A common symbol of the All-Hammer's worship is a hammer with ends carved in the likeness of dwarven heads.^[1] At a temple to the All-Hammer in Uthodurn, an old dwarf wore a thick chain necklace with a heavy anvil symbol on it.^[6]

By his worshipers he is depicted as a faceless, stout dwarf-like being of immense strength, hunched over, clasping within his massive hands a flaming heart.^[2] Some non-dwarven cultures, worshiping the All-Hammer, depict him as one of their own; for example, the fire giants of Vulkanon imagine him as a faceless giant with a flaming mane.^[7] When he appeared with the rest of the pantheon in their convocation to discuss the Rites of Catatheosis, he took the appearance of a squat, chiseled man, wearing all kinds of tools and hammers, stone-like and timeless, a pillar of strength.^[8]

Worship[]

The followers of the All-Hammer are most numerous in dwarven communities,^[2] as most dwarves worship him.^[9] As such, many of the temples are located in the center of dwarven strongholds.^[2]

Marquet[]

There is a temple to the All-Hammer in the Guided District of Ank'Harel, just as with each of the other Prime Deities.^[10]

Tal'Dorei[]

Worship of the All-Hammer is common in the Cliffkeep Mountains.^[11] He is highly regarded in the Earth Ashari village of Terrah.^[4] In the Center Slab of Kraghammer, there is an enormous, meticulously crafted marble temple to Moradin called All-Hammer's Will.^[12]

The Peakclimber Knights of Kraghammer serve the All-Hammer and keeping peace and safety in the Cliffkeep Mountains, but occasionally getting into a conflict with his commandments.^[13][14]

Wildemount[]

Uthodurnian Diarchy[]

In Uthodurn is a temple called Moradin's Mantle.^[15] Followers of the All-Hammer are also invited to worship at the Cinderrest Sanctum in Kravaraad.^[16]

A haunted temple to the All-Hammer remains in the ghost town of Uraliss; during an orc raid, a high priest locked the sheltering worshipers inside, and they died of starvation.^[17]

Palebank Village has a humble temple dedicated to the All-Hammer.^[18]

Menagerie Coast[]

The skyline of Port Zoon is dominated by a massive temple to the All-Hammer called Temple Genesis, with lantern-adorned cables stretching to other high points of the city.^[19]

One of the three temples that also serves as a place of higher education in Gwardan is the House of Invention, dedicated to the All-Hammer.^[20]

In Port Damali, a chosen champion of the All-Hammer is one of the main draws in the competition in the annual Godsbrawl at the Temple of Kord.^[21]

Dwendalian Empire[]

The All-Hammer is one of the deities that is approved for worship within the Dwendalian Empire.^[22] Temples to the All-Hammer are prominent in Grimgolir, Gwardan,^[20] and Hupperdook.^[23]

In the northern side of Zadash's Pentamarket, there is a shrine called the Hearth of the All-Hammer. It is a domed iron structure that is slightly rusty due to lack of upkeep. Its interior has a large central forge and a beautiful heavy anvil with the symbol of the All-Hammer on each of its sides. The anvil was used for both ceremonial worship and the crafting of religious artifacts. Three individuals manned the temple at any one time, two of which were keepers who watched outside of the entry arches leading into the temple. The third was the appointed herald of this temple, a female dwarf with dark brown hair that trailed off in three long braids past her midsection. Taking her place across from the entry arches to the temple, she wore a chain-mail robe that went past her knees.^[24]

Principles[]

The All-Hammer appreciates acts of creation of things outside of oneself and one's progeny, including forging, whittling, building, and other crafts. For this reason, crafted objects are considered appropriate offerings to the All-Hammer.^[25]

Commandments of the All-Hammer[]

Holy day[]

The All-Hammer's holy day is Deep Solace, on the eighteenth of Unndilar.^[2] The dwarves of Grimgolir celebrate with a full day of feasting and drinking. Especially devout worshipers spend the day in isolation, meditating on how to be better family members.^[3]

Known worshipers[]

Exandria Unlimited: Divergence[]

• Morgana Thundershield, Forge Keeper of the All-Hammer in Vasselheim^[26]

Late Era of Reclamation[]

• Sencha^[27]
• Umagorn Smeltborne

History[]

The Founding[]

The Core Anvil, beneath the undersea volcano called Scaldseat, was created by and for the All-Hammer. There, he created the first dwarves^[28][29] and many artifacts of the Founding.^[30] He also used the Core Anvil to craft the Prime Trammels used in the Rites of Prime Banishment;^[31] later, Grog Strongjaw, with the aid of Percy, did the same to prepare for the fight against Vecna.

The All-Hammer shaped forge guardians to watch over the divine furnaces and hearths that designed the first dwarves.^[32] One such furnace is located inside the Ironseat Ridge.^[33]

Age of Arcanum[]

The day after the Raven Queen ascended, she urged three of her champions to ask the Wildmother for guidance about disposing of the body of one of the Matron's heroes. The Wildmother instructed one of those champions, Dust, to carry the trunk of the hero to a volcanic cave (at Kravaraad), burn the remains, and incorporate the ashes into a new kiln. This formed the heart of a temple to the Wildmother, but it was also built as a gift to the All-Hammer "to remind him that nature is the origin of material."^[34][35] (Many centuries later, those who came to the Cinderrest Sanctum were invited to pray to the Wildmother and the All-Hammer.^[16])

During the Calamity, the All-Hammer and the Moonweaver built the King's Cage as a trap for the Crawling King. It appeared to be a temple to Torog, but it was a fane that, once the Crawling King had bound himself to it, was instrumental in banishing the Betrayer God.^[36]

During the Crawling King's banishment, however, the All-Hammer was no longer present among the gods: when the plan of the Divine Gate started being developed, the god of creation declared that if it was purely of divine make, other deities could undo it, so mortal hands had to be involved; he decided to incarnate as Garen Hearthheart, a mortal dwarf from Uthtor, to work on the project himself. However, a miracle made by the Moonweaver (meant to hide Garen from other deities while he worked) was altered by a curse sent by the Lord of the Hells, and as a result no one knew about the All-Hammer's identity in Exandria, not even the god himself, who had lost his memories.^[37] For a long time Garen lived and suffered as a mortal, and despite being unaware of his true identity, some signs presented themselves, without him noticing: in the weeks of the final battles of the Calamity, when he carved the All-Hammer's symbol on a basalt block in a tower once dedicated to the Strife Emperor, the symbol shone in the moonlight as if it recognized the presence of a sibling (the Moonweaver) after a long time, helping create a new phase in the history of that building;^[38] similarly, when he visited the All-Hammer's temple in Vasselheim he inadvertently cast Hallow after fixing the runes of an old tablet.^[39] After the Divergence, the dwarf kept working for years until, in his final moments, the Platinum Dragon appeared before him as Erro Mordaurum (the avatar in which he had incarnated to look for him), reminding him of his divine identity. After finishing his last work as a mortal, Moradin the All-Hammer finished the Divine Gate as well, being the last Prime Deity to cross and "closing" it behind him.^[40]

Late Era of Reclamation[]

Jester Lavorre defaced the central anvil of the Hearth of the All-Hammer as a form of worship to her deity, the Traveler. She covered the central anvil on one side with large pink painted hearts, the words "The Traveler was here", a few brochures for the Traveler left under the offering bowl and on top of the anvil, and a few sprinkled sequins off of her glove.^[41]

In 843 PD the All-Hammer and the rest of the main pantheon attended the meeting in which Bells Hells and the Matron of Ravens proposed to use the latter's Rites of Catatheosis to turn them into mortals and avoid Predathos. Eventually the gods present agreed to the plan and through the Matron's ritual, bound their souls to Exandria itself and were reborn as mortals.^[42]

Appearances and mentions[]

• Kith & Kin, mentioned only
• Campaign One
  • "The Endless Atheneum" (1x106), appeared in a vision
  • "Scaldseat" (1x107), mentioned only
  • "The Core Anvil" (1x108), mentioned only
  • "The Climb Within" (1x110), mentioned only
• Campaign Two
  • "Steam and Conversation" (2x09), mentioned only
  • "The King's Cage" (2x69), mentioned only
  • "Clay and Dust" (2x72), mentioned only
  • "Uthodurn" (2x73), mentioned only
  • "Refjorged" (2x76), mentioned only
• Campaign Three
  • "The Draw of Destiny" (3x01), mentioned only
  • "Thicker Grows the Meal and Plot" (3x09), mentioned only
  • "Hope Within History" (3x55), mentioned only
  • "A New Age Begins" (3x121) (first appearance)
• Exandria Unlimited: Divergence
  • "Give and Take" (E4x01), mentioned only
  • "Seven of Them" (E4x02), mentioned only
  • "Mirror and Key" (E4x03), mentioned only
  • "By Heart Alone" (E4x04)

Trivia[]

• The All-Hammer used to be the only Prime Deity without a connection to a player character in any of the Critical Role campaigns, miniseries, one-shots, or books. This was changed when Matthew Mercer played the god through his mortal avatar, Garen Hearthheart,^[43] although the decision was secretly made by Brennan Lee Mulligan, who wanted to honor his friend by connecting his character to the deity of creation.^[44]
• He is the only known god whose mortal avatar possibly incarnated already as an adult person, instead of going through all the process of birth and growth other incarnations used.^[45]
• After his life as Garen, the All-Hammer declared that he wouldn't mind living as a mortal again.^[46] This was a deliberate reference to the ending of Campaign Three, in which the All-Hammer and the rest of the main pantheon agreed to go through a new form of "mortal divinity", entering a cycle of reincarnation.
• Torm, the founder of Torm's Hill, was in some sense a distant descendant of the All-Hammer.^[47]

References[]

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