Hasamel

Hasamel
Titles	The Autochthon The Self-Made God Master of Ceremonies Lord of the Stone
Type	Pantheonic deity
Areas of concern	Cities, trade, families, wealth
Typical worshipers	Craftspeople, merchants, dwarves
Domains	Cities, Creation, Earth, Family, Toil, Wealth
Divine font	Heal or Harm
Divine skill	Crafting or Society
Divine ability	Constitution or Intelligence
Favored weapon	Pick
Symbol	Hammer resting on top of a book
Sacred animal	Bull
Sacred color	Orange and tan

To build is to pray. Start with your tools, then your houses, then your cities. Sculpt a prosperous life for yourself and your family, just as Hasamel sculpted himself out of the primordial essence as easily as a potter works her clay.

—Excerpt from a sermon by the Wildlander cleric Qurus Oxamon

Hasamel (pronounced HAZ-ah-mell) is the god of cities, trade, family, and wealth.

Edicts and anathema

Edicts

Build and grow cities, create useful tools, refine and streamline your craft, bring prosperity to your family and community

Anathema

Undermine a community's laws, destroy an object or place without cause, create shoddy works

Description

In most stories, Hasamel created himself, sculpting a shape and form out of the ether. As the other gods set about creating the world, Hasamel emerged as the personification of their labors, then gave himself hands so that he might assist. Quickly observing that his self-given task would be slow and difficult without tools, he then created the first forge, and with that the first hammer and chisel. Armed with his new implements, he joined in the chorus of creation with focused delight. Once again, he was unsatisfied - he was more efficient, yes, but he was still not as productive as he could be. Hasamel used his tools to craft a small army of ethereal assistants, to whom he delegated parts of his work. Thus aided, he resumed his task once more with vigor, indelibly leaving his mark on the world.

Hasamel is the builder, the crafter. He calls for his followers to build and create, whether that be an object as simple as a tool or as large as a city, or something even grander in scope. Hasamel and his faithful value the prosperity gained through one's labors, seeing it as an expression of self-worth. At the same time, building something merely for the sake of it is not necessarily virtuous to Hasamel - only if it is done in service of family, community, or a higher cause.

Followers

Hasamel has a large following among craftspeople worldwide. No matter the trade, those that work with their hands are welcomed by Hasamel. From the greenest apprentice to the most experienced master, all find a reason to worship the god.

While individuals of all ancestries worship Hasamel, he has an especially large following among the dwarves of Kishar, who additionally see him as embodying the importance of strong and close-knit families and communities. Dwarves often worship Hasamel though their great forge-temples, where prospective blacksmiths labor to simultaneously hone their skills and produce works that exalt their god.

Though proper temples to Hasamel tend to use much grander works, small shrines to the god often include a clay figure of Hasamel, in reference to the stories of his origin.

Church structure

There are many churches to Hasamel, often organized by nation or region. The leaders of these church hierarchies are almost always on good terms with each other - the proliferation of churches is more due to how cultures prioritize different aspects of Hasamel than due to any theological disagreements.

Holy text

Hasamel has multiple holy texts. Each major church has its own combination of writings it considers to be particularly important, but there are several collections that are widely read.

Providence of Wealth

The Providence of Wealth teaches that the accumulation of wealth is a moral good, as first enriching one's self allows for the later enrichment of one's community. This book is especially popular in Tirione and its colonies in the western Chaska Sea.

The Model City

Perhaps the single most widespread holy text of Hasamel, The Model City describes the god's thoughts on how the ideal community should be constructed and organized.

To Craft a Life

To Craft a Life is the holy text used most often by dwarven followers of Hasamel. This book describes how to forge various tools and objects. Lessons in morality are interspersed within the instructions - each tool is used to demonstrate a particular value that should be held by the faithful of Hasamel.

Relations

Followers of Hasamel tend to have good relations with other lawful-aligned religions, and negative relations with more chaotic faiths. His faithful often work closely with those of Harinna and sometimes Malavisch due to their shared emphasis on law and order. As they both place great importance on family, Aduntarri is well-liked by Hasamel's followers as well. His religion and that of Marya often find themselves at odds, as Marya's followers do not appreciate how some of Hasamel's clergy teach the acquisition of wealth to be a holy endeavor. Nyras and Laverna are also disliked due to their self-interest.

Depiction

Hasamel is commonly depicted in a heavily anthropomorphized form. To those that are primarily concerned with his aspect as a crafting god, Hasamel is often pictured as a craftsperson hard at work, often at a forge or drafting table but sometimes using instruments of other trades. In some places he is thought of as a family patriarch, depicted as sitting at the head of a great table.

Variations by pantheon

Pantheon	Name	Notes
Aserdian	Rasalas	Rasalas (pronounced RAH-sah-lahs) is a goddess of cities, development, and trade. In the Aserdian pantheon, Rasalas is seen as a much more conservative god than he is in other pantheons. He is the builder of cities, but also the one that keeps them together and stagnant long after they have begun to decline. His aspect as a god of trade is more positively received in the Aserdian pantheon. Most of Rasalas' most devout followers are merchants and caravaneers, those whose livelihoods are dependent on trade. His clergy recount his teachings in large, ornamented temples, almost all of which can be found in major urbanized centers: Teshub, Okoton, and Laniobriga especially. Outside these areas the priesthood of Rasalas are considerably less common. Rasalas' clergy often preach from one of his holy texts, The Model City, which they adopted from his Khapeshan counterpart Shai. Rasalas is most often depicted as either a caravaneer, leading his pack animals (representing his followers) to wealth, or as a craftsperson hard at work at his forge, drafting table, or loom. Either way, anthropomorphized forms are preferred by his followers.
Chaskan	Hasamel	In the Chaskan pantheon, the city-building and mercantile aspects of Hasamel are particularly emphasized. He is seen as the one that brings development and order to unorganized lands, and as the connecting force that brings prosperity to those that engage in open trade.
Hellean	Khalkeus	In the Hellean pantheon, there are two commonly-held interpretations of Khalkeus. In the older depiction, he is a god of trade and cities, much like in the Chaskan pantheon. A more recent trend among his faithful interprets him as a god of industry first and foremost, a driving force towards greater production and wealth. His newer interpretation is also much more closely tied to merchants, the traders that allow industry to generate wealth. This version of Khalkeus is especially popular in Metrya.
Khapeshan	Khenmu	In the Khapeshan pantheon, Khenmu is a god of craftspeople in general, but he is also more specifically connected to architects. Craftspeople that follow the Khapeshan pantheon commonly leave a short dedication to their god in their completed works.
Dwarven	Tharrus	In the Dwarven pantheon, Tharrus is a god of central importance. He is the patron of smiths, engineers, and others critical to the maintenance of a functioning society, the teacher of even masters of their craft. Dwarves tend to hold particularly strongly to the his teaching that creation and productivity bring prosperity. To followers of the Dwarven pantheon, there is no action more holy than to build and craft in the name of Tharrus. Prayers are often performed through the production of finely made items in Tharrus' forge-temples.
Elven	Thalan	Thalan (pronounced THAY-lan) is a god of cities, trade, families, and laborers. He is the patron of those that work for an honest living, a god who watches over those that toil for a greater purpose. Thalan's aspect as a deity of cities is also important to followers of the Elven pantheon. In the Elven pantheon, Thalan takes on the responsibility for families that is typically shared between himself and interpretations of Aritimi in other pantheons. He aids parents in raising their children and elders in teaching the new generations. In this role Thalan is seen as a strict yet kindly figure. Unusually for interpretations of Thalan across pantheons, his followers in the Elven pantheon do not ascribe particular importance to any holy text. Some teach from The Model City, taken from Aserdian and Khapeshan influence, but this is seen as much less prescriptive than it is elsewhere. His clergy instead prefer to collect what they call life-tomes, stories of model devotees of Thalan from whom all can glean meaning. Thalan is usually depicted as a humble laborer, dressed in austere clothing as he toils at his work. He is sometimes thought to take such a form to walk the world in order to meet his followers directly.