Volkan

Volkan is the god of artisans, known as the Hammerhand, the First Blacksmith and the Shaper of Stones. His domains are creation, hardships, discipline and obstinacy, and his symbol is the hammer and anvil.¹

He is also named the god of production, wealth and oaths, and like Rakash and other Greater Gods he is bound in his own way to the old rule of giving something in return for what one receives.²

The First Blacksmith

Volkan prizes craftsmanship, the artisan's skill and mastery of one's craft above all else. He lacks the power that other gods have to create from nothing, but he is supremely skilled at turning materials into new forms. He works every metal with ease, carves runes whose effects last for ages, and is the inventor of every known crafting technique.³

Volkan taught mortals the art of blacksmithing, and every weapon the gods wield was made by his hands.³

In iron we trust, with fire we rise.⁴

Volkan and the dwarves

The Dwarves believe, though the High Church rejects it, that it was Volkan who shaped them from stone. In their telling he places their lost souls in anvils and calls them back from the void with a whistle: he may not have made their souls, but he is the one who saves them from being lost. The nature and culture of the dwarves run parallel to his teachings.³

Worship

Contrary to popular belief, one need not be a dwarf to be a priest of the god of blacksmiths. Still, a human lifetime is short for producing masterpieces worthy of his name, and most of his priests do come from dwarven communities.³

To worship Volkan, the faithful meditate while drinking a specially brewed alcoholic drink, believing that in this meditation they will find the inspiration for their next great work. Those who are not craftspeople can worship him by giving raw materials freely to skilled artisans.⁴

The 2024 introduction to the setting adds that the inspiration does not always come, which is why artisans are usually given raw materials and money as an act of worship.⁵

Earlier name

In the 2017 introduction to the setting, the god of smiths is called Moradin; the name Volkan replaced it later. That account already describes him as the god who taught mortals smithing, worshipped above all by dwarves, his favourite people, and by smiths, and as the one who shaped the mountains and forged the core of the world.⁶

The 2017 account also tells of the hot, specially brewed drink and the meditation in which the faithful receive inspiration for their next weapon or armour, and links it to how well dwarves hold their drink. In that account he accepted only dwarves as his paladins and servants; elsewhere, by contrast, it is held that one need not be a dwarf to become his priest.⁷³

In Sürgün Günlükleri

In the campaign Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles"), a dwarf official offers to bring the companions before the rune masters and ancient smiths of Gazad Fortress. These masters, he explains, give to those who prove worthy the holy objects they see in dreams sent from Mor.⁸