Deities of Hearth: Lawbringer

Lawbringer

God of Order

Lawbringer is an ambiguous, androgynous god of absolute order, the deity of cities, civilization, technology, crafting, and nobility. Lawbringer does not care for mercy or circumstance: only justice and equality. Lawbringer is the patron god of judges, kings, and those who crave justice, or sometimes even vengeance, and are sometimes called even to settle disputes among the gods or devils. Lawbringer finds beauty only in straight lines and hard angles, never in shades of gray or in wavering. Lawbringer is also the god of fire, which refines metals and turns the wood of the wilds into warmth and light for civilization.

Lawbringer is depicted as a bald, androgynous being with brassy skin holding scales in one hand and a hammer in the other, wearing a robe with geometric symbols across it.

Lawbringer’s Influence

Lawbringer’s sphere of influence is the city. Cities often have a statue, engraving, or other representation of Lawbringer or their symbol on the city’s building where justice is handled. Worship for Lawbringer is often held as centrally inside a city as possible, with no signs of undomesticated nature within view.

Craftsmen, architects, and other creators of artifice often have symbols of Lawbringer as decoration in their places of work, hoping that Lawbringer will guide their hands and sanction their handiwork.

Lawbringer’s symbol and scion creature is the mighty colossus and the iron golem.

Lawbringer’s Goals

Lawbringer's ultimate goal is to bring absolute order to the universe by eliminating extremes, working the raw into the refined, and bringing absolute unity and fairness. Lawbringer strives  most to expand cities and tame the wilderness, and to protect and bolster existing cities. Civic responsibility is essential in Lawbringer’s eyes, and having an engaged citizenry is important.

Divine Relationships

Lawbringer’s ideals most closely align with those of honor-bound and perfection-loving Skyfather and merciless, calculating Deepwarden. Both support Lawbringer’s unbiased and impartial approach to affecting the world, and rely on Lawbringer’s knowledge and wisdom when dealing with disputes.

Hearthmatron’s value of life to the point of valuing mercy over justice displeases Lawbringer. To Lawbringer, absolutes are the only thing that make sense, regardless of circumstance or context, values that Hearthmatron always takes into account. Lawbringer also comes into conflict with Hearthmatron’s natural world when Lawbringer fells trees to create cities, and Hearthmatron overgrows the ruins of cities with vines and ivy.

Lawbringer’s values of tradition, refinement, and civilization are completely opposite to that of Moondancer, who revels in the chaos of the untamed wilderness and the bliss of freedom and change. Lawbringer and Moondancer often come into direct conflict with each other, especially when it comes to the value of animal life over the progress of intelligent humanoid civilization, and Lawbringer’s focus on pragmatic handiwork over artistic expression and freedom also brings sparks of rivalry.

Worshiping Lawbringer

Lawbringer's favor can be gained through creation—building monuments, crafting tools or furniture, repairing ruins, writing records, and so forth. Lawbringer also smiles on those who uphold the law with absolute justice. Lawbringer’s symbol or likeness is a common sight in cities. People often swear oaths or engage in verbal disputes in front of these images, believing Lawbringer won’t let a falsehood told in front of them go unpunished. Whether Lawbringer actually intervenes is unclear, but conflicts that play out this way are often resolved peacefully, without a need for the justice system to get involved.

Lawbringer’s Champions

Alignment: Always lawful

Suggested Classes: Artificer, cleric, fighter, monk, paladin

Domains: Forge, Knowledge, Order

Paladin Oaths: Crown, Devotion, Vengeance

Suggested Backgrounds: Acolyte, entertainer, guild artisan, noble, sage, soldier

Lawbringer’s followers are astute observers of justice and obedience who seek to root out imperfection and chaos in the world. They are often perfectionists and advocates of safety and peace over freedom and carelessness.

The Five Commands of Lawbringer

1. Obey the law with precision. If a law is wrong, obey it until it is changed.
2. Land for land, coin for coin, life for life.
3. Uphold your word and oaths with absolute honor.
4. Those who disrespect or mock order are not worthy of its protection.
5. Work hard and honestly, create order from chaos, and seek truth in all things.

Devotion to Lawbringer

Followers of Lawbringer support cities and create useful things out of raw materials. As a follower of Lawbringer, consider the ideals on the Lawbringer’s Ideals table as alternatives to those suggested for your background.

Lawbringer’s Ideals

d6	Ideal
1	Justice. Laws keep society functioning, and I must see to it that they are enforced.
2	Civic Duty. It is my responsibility to serve my city.
3	Honor. I behave nobly and always keep my promises.
4	Enforcement. Those who violate the laws that hold civilization together must be punished.
5	Civilization. Nature achieves its highest calling when human communities make use of it.
6	Aspiration. With Lawbringer’s blessing, I will create something magnificent.

Earning and Losing Piety

You increase your piety score to Lawbringer when you expand the god’s influence in the world in a concrete way through acts such as these:

• Defending a city from a major threat
• Creating a masterwork using artisan’s tools
• Completing a hard day of hands-on work
• Catching a criminal and ensuring their punishment

Your piety score to Lawbringer decreases if you diminish the god’s influence in the world, contradict the god’s ideals, or make Lawbringer look ridiculous or ineffectual through acts such as these:

• Wilfully breaking the law and fleeing from justice
• Disrespecting or manipulating an official authority figure
• Betraying one’s trust to commit acts of corruption or tyranny
• Vandalizing civilized property

Lawbringer’s Devotee

Piety 3+ Lawbringer Trait

As a devotee of Lawbringer, you can cast shield of faith with this trait, requiring no material components, a number of times equal to your Intelligence modifier (minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

In addition, you know the mending cantrip. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

Lawbringer’s Votary

Piety 10+ Lawbringer Trait

You can cast zone of truth with this trait. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can’t do so again until you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for this spell.

In addition, you have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks against humanoids.

Lawbringer’s Disciple

Piety 25+ Lawbringer Trait

You gain the ability to halt those who flee from your justice. When you hit a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature’s speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn.

You also gain resistance to fire damage.

Champion of Order

Piety 50+ Lawbringer Trait

You can increase your Constitution or Intelligence score by 2 and also increase your maximum for that score by 2.

Omens of Lawbringer

d6	Omen of Lawbringer
1	A carved image, face-like pattern on a wall, or statue animates and speaks.
2	The streets of a city seem to alter course to lead to a specific destination.
3	Animals begin acting in unnaturally orderly ways.
4	Plants are found that grew in perfect symmetrical patterns.
5	Scratched or damaged gear spontaneously repairs itself.
6	The sound of a hammer rings in the air.
7	The flames of a nearby torch or campfire burn in geometrical shapes.
8	A perfectly cubic or polygonal stone is found on the ground.

Lawbringer’s Domain: Lawbastion

Lawbastion is a realm of absolute order. Every line there is perfectly straight, every object is of perfect symmetry, and no leaf or stone is out of its proper place. The majority of the realm consists of colossal structures of impeccable metal architecture. Geometric designs are worked into the crafts, with subtle designs meant to point in specific directions or bring particular notions to mind. Even outdoors, everything has an air of purpose and organization. The shrubbery is immaculately trimmed and set in perfect rows, streams bend and flow at right angles, and trees grow a precise, consistent number of identical fruits. Instead of animals, forged constructs in their likenesses roam the landscape with purpose. In the sky is an orb like Hearth’s sun, half of which is black. As it rotates, Lawbastion cycles (with exact punctuality) from day to night, sharply transitioning between the two.

Those who worshiped Lawbringer are at home here, as are righteous judges, kings, craftsmen, and those who valued hard work and stability. They spend their time in Lawbastion enjoying a perfectly laid-out schedule and an unchanging routine from day to day. They craft marvelous innovations and buildings with all the materials and time they would ever need to do so. In this paradise, nothing is unexpected, no erratic creature will disrupt the order, and no rule will ever be broken.

Those who led a sinful life of crime, broke promises, or brought ruin to organized cities may find themselves condemned to Lawbastion as their eternal punishment. Such residents are doomed to forever follow rules without any free will and forced to spend their time in an endless routine where nothing ever changes.

Law of Averages. Instead of rolling dice, all attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws are treated as being the average of their rolls.