| Gruumsh | |
|---|---|
| Titles | He Who Never Sleeps, The One-Eyed God |
| Gender | Male |
| Power Level | Greater Deity |
| Alignment | Chaotic Evil |
| Domains | Orcs, Conquest, Survival, Storms |
| Holy Symbol | Unblinking eye |
| Favored Weapon | Spear |
| Cleric Domains | Tempest, War |
Gruumsh is the chief deity of the orcs — a savage, one-eyed god of conquest, survival, and unending rage. He was blinded in one eye by Corellon during the earliest days of divine conflict, a wound that never healed and that defines his eternal hatred of elves and their patron. He teaches his followers that the world is a place of scarcity and conflict, and that orcs must take by force what others would deny them.
Gruumsh is not merely a god of evil — he is a god of survival and belonging for a people who feel the world has been stacked against them. His theology, while violent, gives orcs a sense of divine purpose and dignity that is easy to understand why it persists.
Followers
Gruumsh is worshipped almost exclusively by orcs and half-orcs, though some brutal humans and other races pay him homage. His followers are expected to be fierce, strong, and relentless — to conquer, to survive, and to prove their strength constantly. His clergy are warchief-priests who lead from the front and are expected to be the most formidable warriors in their community. Followers tend to be aggressive, communal, and deeply loyal to their tribe if not to broader civilization.
Divine Relationships
Gruumsh’s eternal enemy is Corellon, who blinded him, and by extension all elven deities. He also has ancient conflicts with Moradin and the dwarven pantheon, as orcs and dwarves have clashed for millennia. He has contemptuous relationships with most other evil deities, viewing them as insufficiently direct. Luthic, his consort, is the only deity he genuinely respects.