Tower of Ascension

Krom's holy symbol is a hammer over a suit of scaled armor. The hammer represents creation, labor, lawful craft, and the power to shape the world into something safer than it was found. The scaled armor represents protection, draconic resilience, and the covenant between dwarf and scale-born peoples.

Common interpretations include:

• The Hammer: craft, judgment, duty, and the right use of strength.
• The Scaled Armor: protection, endurance, and Krom's restored draconic aspect.
• The Mountain Frame: the hold, the fortress, the clan, and the world that must be guarded.
• The Combined Symbol: the teaching that creation and defense are the same holy work when done for the good of the people.

Krom is most often shown in one of three forms:

• The Dwarven Defender: a broad, stoic dwarven warrior in heavy armor, bearing a hammer, spear, or shield before a mountain gate.
• The Scaled Restored: a dragonborn or lizardman-like guardian in polished scale armor, marked by dwarven runes and the posture of a sworn protector.
• The Twofold God: a divine paired image, with a dwarven warrior and a draconic guardian standing back-to-back, each completing the other.

Kromite temples do not treat these depictions as contradictions. Dwarven theologians often say that Krom's mortal bones were dwarf, his restored breath was dragon, and his divine heart is the oath between them. In artwork he is commonly surrounded by mountain peaks, forge-light, interlocking shields, dragon-scale patterns, and stone halls lit by sacred braziers.

Krom is stoic, martial, protective, and deeply serious. He is not humorless, but his joy is the joy of a gate that holds, a child kept safe, a clan returning from war, a bridge that outlasts the storm, or a sword reforged rather than discarded.

In mortal life he was remembered as a Lawful Good dwarven fighter: disciplined, brave, stubborn, and built around duty. His death in the Original Tower did not soften that memory. If anything, it made his worship more solemn. Krom is the god who fell before reaching the summit, yet became divine because others judged him worthy of sacrifice.

Krom values:

• Keeping oaths when they become costly.
• Protecting kin, guests, allies, and lawful dependents.
• Building fortresses, roads, halls, armor, and institutions that endure.
• Honorable discipline in war.
• Craft used for defense rather than vanity.
• The union of strength and restraint.
• Remembering the dead through the walls they helped raise.

Krom despises:

• Betrayal of sworn companions.
• Cowardly destruction of homes, temples, and ancestral works.
• Warriors who fight for cruelty rather than protection.
• Craftsmen who knowingly make shoddy work.
• Tyrants who demand loyalty without giving protection.
• Those who exploit clan, caste, race, or law to abandon the vulnerable.

Krom began as a mortal dwarf, most commonly remembered as a Lawful Good fighter. He was stoic, martial, and protective even before divinity. In the oldest stories, he was not the loudest of the Tower-bound company, nor the most graceful, nor the most clever. He was the one who held the line.

During the Original Tower, Krom was killed before he could complete the trials. The details differ by tradition. Some say he died defending the others. Some say he fell in a trial meant to test sacrifice. Some say the Tower did not reject him, but marked him for a stranger destiny. What is agreed upon is this: Krom did not finish the Tower in the ordinary way.

Because of this, Kromite doctrine treats failure differently than many heroic cults. Failure is not holy by itself, but a fallen defender may still be worthy if the oath remains unbroken. Krom is the god who did not reach the summit, yet whose worth was proven beyond the summit.

After the first gods ascended, Krom's absence remained an open wound. The other ascended gods chose to restore their fallen companion. To do so, each surrendered a portion of divine power. All except Feng.

Through the sacrifice of the others, Krom was restored and raised into godhood. This restoration gave him a draconic aspect. Some traditions say he was reincarnated as a lizardman. Others say dragonborn. Dwarven temple texts often avoid choosing between the two, saying instead that Krom returned as a god of both stone and scale. Some say this change happened before he fell in the tower; but this is disputed and rarely added to common doctrine.

This event is central to Kromite faith. It teaches that protection may require sacrifice from the strong, that a fallen comrade is not disposable, and that divinity itself can be shared for a worthy purpose.

Feng's refusal to sacrifice power during Krom's restoration is remembered by Kromite temples as one of the first great fractures in divine history. While the other gods were diminished by their shared act, Feng remained whole. This imbalance allowed him to move against the weakened divine order and helped give rise to the Shattered Age.

Kromite priests call Feng the god who would not bleed for a friend. Fengite cults invert the story, treating the refusal as proof of selfish wisdom. Krom's faithful reject that teaching utterly. To them, Feng's choice is the opposite of civilization: strength hoarded, duty abandoned, and trust murdered before the first knife is drawn.

The Shattered Age began in the aftermath of Krom's restoration and Feng's betrayal. As Feng suppressed the weakened gods and scattered divine power through artifacts, much of the mortal world fell under fear, occupation, and silence.

Krom's faithful remember this era as a test of every fortress, every clan oath, and every protective covenant. In dwarven histories, holds that endured did so through stone, steel, faith, engineering, and stubborn refusal to let the old rites die. Kron'ganus is especially remembered as a stronghold of Kromite life that preserved the old ways and later became one of the great centers of Krom worship.

The mortal champions later known as the Chosen recovered the scattered divine artifacts and helped restore the balance broken by Feng. Among those Chosen was Gurkel, a dwarven king and Chosen of Krom who later ascended as Krom's undergod.

Gurkel did not replace Krom in dwarven religion. Rather, Gurkel became proof that Krom's virtues could be embodied in mortal kingship: lawful order, protection of the hold, disciplined wealth, public generosity, and the willingness to feast after hardship without forgetting duty.

Krom is worshipped most strongly by dwarves, lizardmen, dragonborn, and those whose lives are shaped by defense, craft, and lawful protection.

Common worshippers include:

• Dwarven clans and holdfast families.
• Dragonborn and lizardman communities that honor disciplined strength.
• Smiths, armorers, masons, miners, engineers, and fortress-builders.
• Shield-warriors, tunnel guards, city defenders, and lawful military orders.
• Rulers who see kingship as protection rather than entitlement.
• Judges and oathkeepers in dwarven lands.
• Caravan guards and road-builders in dangerous mountain passes.
• Priests who bless walls, gates, bridges, armor, and war-oaths.

Krom's worship is less common among those who see freedom as the absence of obligation. His faith teaches that a person is most honorable when bound to something worthy.

Krom's greatest power base is the Dwarven Holds, especially Kron'ganus. Kron'ganus was already an ancient center of Krom worship before the ascension of Gurkel, and its temples, war-shrines, forge-altars, dragon-halls, and ancestral chapels remain organized around Krom's ideals of dwarven identity, protection, creation, and martial endurance.

Other Kromite power bases include:

• Mountain fortresses.
• Dwarven clan halls.
• Dragonborn enclaves with lawful traditions.
• Lizardman settlements that preserve the draconic covenant.
• Military foundries and great armor works.
• Defensive temples built beside city gates, bridges, and deep-road entrances.
  

Kromite temples are usually built from stone, bronze, iron, and scale-patterned metalwork. Even small shrines are sturdy. A roadside shrine to Krom is expected to survive weather, bandits, and neglect better than the road itself.

Common Kromite holy sites include:

• Great Temples: large fortress-temples containing forge-altars, oath chambers, armories, ancestral tablets, and halls of martial instruction.
• Gate Shrines: small stone altars placed beside gates, bridges, tunnels, or mountain passes.
• Forge-Altars: sacred working forges where tools, armor, and weapons are created under priestly blessing.
• Dragon-Halls: temples or side-chapels honoring Krom's draconic restoration and his scaled worshippers.
• Memorial Walls: stone tablets engraved with names of defenders who died keeping their oaths.
• Krom'ganus Church: the traditional Kromite religious establishment within Kron'ganus and its associated shrines, feast-halls, forge-altars, and clan chapels.

The Great Temple of Krom in Kron'ganus is among the oldest and most sacred Kromite sites. It contains forge-altars, scaled armor icons, dragon-carved pillars, and ancestral tablets recording the obligations of the hold.

Kromite priests are often called Forge-Priests, Stonewardens, Scale-Priests, Oath-Hammers, or Shield-Voices, depending on region and tradition. Dwarven holds prefer formal hierarchies, while dragonborn and lizardman communities may organize clergy around elders, war-leaders, or temple-smiths.

Kromite clergy are expected to understand practical defense. A priest who blesses a wall should know why a wall fails. A priest who blesses armor should know how armor is made. A priest who hears an oath should understand the cost of keeping it.

Common clerical duties include:

• Blessing new fortifications, mines, roads, bridges, and gates.
• Witnessing oaths of defense and lawful guardianship.
• Consecrating armor, shields, hammers, and siegeworks.
• Training militia and temple guards in disciplined defense.
• Maintaining ancestral memorials.
• Mediating between dwarven clans and scaled communities.
• Teaching that craft, law, and protection are inseparable.

• Krom's Ascension Day: commemorates Krom's restoration and elevation by the sacrifice of the other gods. It is a solemn but hopeful day, marked by oath renewals, reforging ceremonies, and the lighting of forge-fires.
• Harvest Days: celebrated in many dwarven holds as days of provision, storage, gratitude, and communal defense. Food gathered into a defended hall is treated as a victory over chaos.
• Foundation Day: observed when a new fortress, hall, gate, mine, or bridge is consecrated.
• The Shield Vigil: held before war or siege, when defenders swear not to abandon their posts without lawful cause.
• The Reforging: a rite for survivors of failure, defeat, exile, or dishonor who seek to take up duty again.

Kromite worship is practical, solemn, and physical. Prayer is often paired with labor.

Common rites include:

• Oath-Stone Swearing: vows spoken before a carved stone, forge, shield, or ancestral tablet.
• Armor Blessing: consecration of armor before battle, guard service, or a dangerous journey.
• Gate-Warding: a rite performed when a city gate, hold entrance, mine door, or tunnel seal is completed.
• Hammerwake: a funeral rite for defenders, smiths, builders, and those who died fulfilling an oath.
• Wall-Feast: a communal meal held after repairs, construction, siege survival, or the completion of a major public work.
• Scaled Covenant Rite: a ceremonial exchange between dwarven and draconic or scale-born worshippers, often involving shield-touching, shared metalwork, and vows of mutual defense.
• Farewell and Arrival Feasts: meals before departure and after return, especially among dwarven holds where Kromite duty blends with Gurkelite feast-tradition.

Kron'ganus is one of the greatest centers of Krom worship in the known world. The hold's Kromite tradition predates Gurkel's ascension and remains the older religious foundation beneath Kron'ganus's later Gurkelite culture.

In Kron'ganus, Krom is honored as the god of the hold's bones: its stonework, its laws of defense, its clan obligations, its military musters, its old forges, and its sacred duty to endure. Gurkel is beloved as the ascended king who embodied these virtues, but Krom remains the mountain beneath the throne.

Many conservative Kromites in Kron'ganus argue that Gurkelite rites must be understood as extensions of Krom's older covenant with the dwarves. More moderate priests answer that Gurkel is not a rival, but Krom's proof made golden.

Outside Kron'ganus, Krom is widely honored wherever dwarves maintain old-style holds, mines, clan halls, fortified roads, and ancestral forges. Each hold emphasizes different aspects of his faith. Military holds may worship him as the shield and hammer. Mining holds may honor him through tunnel safety, deep-road warding, and memorials for those lost below. Mercantile holds often pair his worship with laws protecting contracts, roads, and caravans.

Dwarves who disagree on politics often still agree that a hold which forgets Krom has forgotten how to remain a hold.

Krom's draconic restoration makes him important to many lizardman and dragonborn communities, especially those that value law, defense, clan obligation, or disciplined martial strength. These traditions may place less emphasis on dwarven ancestry and more on the divine meaning of scale, breath, endurance, and transformed life.

Some scaled Kromites teach that Krom's death and restoration prove that identity can be reforged without becoming false. A dwarf could return with a draconic aspect and still be Krom. A scale-born warrior can kneel before a dwarven hammer and still remain fully themselves.

In mixed dwarven, dragonborn, and lizardman settlements, Kromite temples often become neutral ground. The forge, gate, and oath-stone provide a shared language where ancestry might otherwise divide. Such temples are especially common along trade roads, mountain frontiers, dangerous borders, and former war zones where mutual defense matters more than old suspicion.

Gurkel is Krom's undergod, former Chosen, and one of the clearest mortal examples of Kromite virtue. In life, Gurkel was a dwarven king of Kron'ganus, a Chosen of Krom, and a ruler who embodied law, protection, civilization, public wealth, and stubborn dwarven endurance.

Kromite and Gurkelite faiths cooperate closely, especially in Kron'ganus. Krom provides the older divine foundation: mountain, shield, craft, and duty. Gurkel provides the civic flowering of that foundation: banks, feasts, royal law, contracts, prosperity, and the public generosity of a strong hold.

Feng is one of Krom's most hated divine enemies. Feng's refusal to surrender power during Krom's restoration is remembered as a betrayal not only of Krom, but of the very idea that strength exists to protect companions.

Kromite temples teach that Feng's later tyranny was born from the same sin as his refusal: power kept for the self alone. To a Kromite, Feng is the anti-oath, the masked knife in the council chamber, and the coward who lets others bleed so that he may remain strong.

Krom's faith has a respectful but somewhat distant relationship with the Church of the Flame and the followers of Rath. Both traditions honor law, martial discipline, draconic power, and the defense of civilization. Kromites and Flame clergy therefore cooperate naturally in matters of siegecraft, fortress defense, monster-hunting, military engineering, and the protection of settled peoples.

The Church of the Flame also treats Krom's ascension with unusual reverence. Krom did not complete the Original Tower in the ordinary way, yet he was raised by divine sacrifice. To Krom's faithful, this proves that duty, protection, and creation can survive death, failure, and transformation.

Tensions remain mostly theological. Rath's followers often emphasize war, fate, command, and the necessity of harsh judgment. Krom's followers emphasize protection, endurance, repair, and the building of lawful communities. Where the Flame burns away corruption, Krom teaches that the mountain must also be built, guarded, repaired, and passed on. Among moderate clergy, the relationship is one of mutual respect: the Flame stands watch against darkness, while Krom gives civilization the armor, walls, and stubborn heart to endure it.

The gods who surrendered power for Krom's restoration are generally honored in Kromite temple histories, even when their modern churches have little direct connection to Krom's faithful. Their sacrifice is remembered not as political alliance, but as proof that divine strength can be used for restoration rather than domination.

Kromite priests do not always agree with the doctrines of other gods, but they rarely speak lightly of the sacrifice that made Krom's ascension possible.

The Great Temple of Krom in Kron'ganus is among the most sacred Kromite sites. It is both temple and fortress, containing forge-altars, scaled armor icons, dragon-carved pillars, oath chambers, ancestral tablets, and halls where defenders are blessed before war.

Its priests are influential in Kron'ganus politics and often advise the Royal House of Gurkel on matters of war, succession, public duty, and the spiritual meaning of royal protection.

Most major dwarven holds maintain some form of Kromite church. These institutions may differ in name and hierarchy, but they usually combine religious worship with civic defense. A Kromite church may train militia, maintain oath records, inspect fortifications, bless engineers, and preserve the names of the dead.

Among lizardmen and dragonborn, some Kromite clergy are known as Scale-Priests of the Restored Breath. These priests emphasize Krom's transformation after death and his role as a god who bridges dwarf and dragon. They often serve as mediators between dwarven holds and scale-born communities.

Krom's closest organized allies are often Gurkelite institutions, especially in Kron'ganus. The Bank of Gurkel, the Royal House of Gurkel, and Gurkelite feast-halls all operate in the shadow of Krom's older covenant. When a Gurkelite contract funds a fortress, equips a defense, or feeds a besieged city, Kromite priests often bless the work.

This legend tells of Krom's death in the Original Tower and his later restoration. It is especially important to defeated soldiers, exiles, failed apprentices, and those who believe their first attempt at duty ended in ruin. The lesson is not that failure is harmless, but that a broken oath may be reforged if the heart of duty survives.

In this story, Krom's hammer is placed upon an empty suit of scale armor after his death. When the gods sacrifice their power to restore him, the armor fills with divine breath. The hammer strikes once, and the first forge-fire of Krom's restored divinity ignites.

Dwarven versions emphasize the hammer. Dragonborn and lizardman versions emphasize the breath within the armor. Mixed temples tell both versions together.

After a siege, a Kromite priest is said to have refused to hold a victory feast until every breach in the wall was repaired. Only then were the gates opened, the dead named, and the tables filled. Gurkelite priests later adopted this story eagerly, teaching that a true feast honors survival and duty rather than laziness.

• Hammer of Krom: the most famous weapon-symbol of Krom's authority, associated with creation, judgment, and the defense of the hold.
• Ring of the Mountainlord: a symbol of lawful rulership, mountain authority, and the burdens placed on those who command others.
• Armor of the Mountain: sacred protective armor tied to Krom's scaled aspect and the doctrine that a defender's body may become the wall when no wall remains.