Valkauna
| Valkauna | ||
|---|---|---|
 3E: Clasped Hands 5E: A Silver Ewer |
||
| Aliases | The Runecarver | |
| Alignment | Lawful Neutral | |
| Divine Rank | Intermediate Goddess | |
| Pantheon | Morndinsamman (Dwarf) | |
| Portfolio | 3E: Oaths, Birth, Death 5E: Oaths, Birth, Aging, Death |
|
| Domains | 3E: Death, Law, Water 5E: Grave, Life |
|
| Home Plane | Celestia | |
| Worshippers | Dwarven Undertakers, Dwarven Midwives, Dwarven Judicators, Dwarven Bards | |
| Favoured Weapon | Heavy Flail | |
Valkauna is a goddess in the Morndinsamman, the Dwarf pantheon, in Dungeons & Dragons. A lesser deity amongst their number, she was invented in 3rd edition for the splatbook Races of Stone, but made a surprise leap to full-fledged canon in 5th edition with "Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes".
Sadly, as a lesser deity than Moradin, Abbathor, Berronar Truesilver and Clanggedin Silverbeard, no updated information on her was presented, meaning you still had to look back and find out about her online or else own a copy of Races of Stone. Luckily, 1d4chan is here to help.
Valkauna takes the form of an elderly dwarf matron with white hair. Many dying dwarf warriors claim to see her walking across the battlefield, offering water to the fallen from a silver pitcher. However, she is an unusual deity by dwarven standards in that she is responsible for two portfolios that don't seem to be immediately intertwined.
Firstly, Valkauna is a goddess of the cycle of life. She shepherds the souls of dead dwarves into the afterlife, but she also leads the souls of unborn dwarves into the world. Her clerics perform funeral rites full of pomp that honor major events in the life of the deceased and commend the deceased's soul to the ancestors, but also bless births by performing a lineage chant - in noble dwarf clans, this is typically begun when the mother-to-be first goes into labor, just because of how long it can take to recite the chant. For this reason, her shrines are built in or near the places where dead dwarves are cremated or buried, serving as much as mausoleums as they do temples, and many of her holy quests often see the faithful traveling beyond the Prime Material in order to speak with the soul of a long-dead dwarf hero.
Secondly, Valkauna is the goddess of oaths and law. It is said that whenever a dwarf swears an oath, she records it by carving that oath into an impossibly tall cliff - hence her title of The Runecarver. Most of her prayers are taken in the form of oaths, exacting a promise from the worshipper; "I will cover your altar in splendor if I live to see its radiance again", as one common prayer goes.
This discrepancy is reflected in the training of her clerics; they begin by performing birth and funeral rites, but once they have attained higher ranks within the faith, they often find a role within the dwarven justice system, mediating contract disputes and conflicts between clans.
Valkauna’s herald is the ghost of a 10th-level dwarf cleric. Her allies are formian myrmarchs, trumpet archons, and hound archon heroes.