Tekk
Titles The Soul-Forger, God-Warrior of Technology, God of the Forge, God of the Earth and Underworld (among the Dwarves of Jupiter) Pantheon Trinity Areas of Concern Alchemy, War, Technology, Time, Forge Destiny’s Leaning Free Will Siblings Natu, Magi Sacred Sites Tekkhead Labs, Inverted Temple Notable Devotees Virtus Tenebris, Diallos, Animus Tenebris
Tekk, the Soul-Forger
Tekk, ‘the Soul-Forger’, and the God Warrior of Technology, holds a pivotal position within the Trinity and the revered Solari Pantheon. Emerging as the final deity from the Cosmic Eggs, Tekk is hailed by smiths, craftsmen, artificers, alchemists, dwarves, and sentient constructs, embodying the archetype of the ultimate warrior, eclipsed in combat prowess only by Natu, the Empress of Paradise.
Bestower of Flame. The Solari scriptures weave a tale of Tekk’s profound ingenuity, portraying him as the altruistic alchemist who harnessed his sister’s Holy Flames for creation. Fire spreads, after all; it burns everything that stands in its path. Natu sought to imprison it, but Tekk set it loose. “Now at last,” he thought, “mortals are free, and burning still.”
Soul in the Machine. In battles sung through the ages, Tekk rode at the forefront, wielding divine weapons of his own creation, leading armies of sentient constructs: tools given Souls, responsive to his command.
Post the devastating Soul Wars, a turbulent conflict among the gods concerning Souls, Tekk proposed a transformative solution. He offered mortals the chance to attain Souls, dubbed ‘Spirit Weapons’. Remarkably, Tekk extended this opportunity not just to intelligent mortals but to his own creations as well, paving the way for ‘Artificial Souls’. The earliest and most potent of these sentient weapons, granted Souls, were lost to the annals of time, remnants of the tumultuous Soul Wars. The Ecclesia Solari, the Holy Church of the Trinity, forbids research on this however, considering these artifacts too perilous for the world: weapons capable of cataclysmic devastation.
Debate on Destiny. Tekk’s perspective on destiny opposes Natu’s deterministic divine designs. While Natu asserts a predetermined fate for intelligent mortals, Tekk argues that those graced with Souls can forge their own destinies. This philosophical divergence sparks continuous debates among the clergy of the Trinity and the Ecclesia Solari. It is also the philosophical cornerstone that Diallos and Virtus draw from, and the reason both are so often at odds with the Ecclesia’s traditionalist wing.
Rivalry with Magi. A subtle rivalry runs through the cosmos: the prideful Tekk contends with his brother Magi’s innate magical abilities. Magi wields raw arcane might; Tekk’s brilliance lies in artistry. It is an eternal interplay between magic and machine.
The Third Law. From the Edicts of Balance: “Forge with purpose. You shall build machines to uplift the mortal condition, but never to replace the soul. Let the forge be a tool of creation, never of blind destruction. Do this, and your cities will stand unconquered by time or tide.”
Sermon of Fomorians
Tekk’s stance on evil is among the most uncompromising in the Trinity. From the Scrolls of Tekk 3:1, the Sermon of Fomorians lays out five categories of evil, and the part of the faithful that wages war against each:
- Entities of alien evil. Fiends and aberrations. “I wage my war with thy mind.”
- Entities of unnatural evil. Undead and lycanthropes; once natural, now corrupted. Magi disagrees, holding that the undead are simply “a product of ordered chaos.” “I wage my war with thy body.”
- Entities of innate evil. Fomorians proper: medusas, harpies, trolls. Natu disagrees, holding that no creature is born evil. “I wage my war with thy blade.”
- Those who choose evil. Mortals who fall to it by choice. Always to be led back to the light. “I wage my war with thy heart.”
- The evil within. The capacity each Soul holds. “I wage my war with thy faith.”
God of the Earth and Underworld
Among the Dwarves of Jupiter, Tekk is not the God-Warrior of Technology but the God of the Earth and Underworld: the deity who forged the bones of the world and who receives the Stone-Souls of fallen Dwarven Kings into his eternal forge. Dwarven liturgy uses different titles, different prayers, and different holy days than Solari worship, but the Ecclesia Solari has long recognized the Dwarven Tekk-cult as a parallel faith rather than a heretical one. The Inverted Temple is one of its surviving holy sites, and the Deep Hall of the Regents is among its most sacred.
The Unfinished Anvil
Somewhere on a forgotten Titan, Tekk left an anvil he never completed. The Soul-Forger swore he would return to finish it only when the last Soul he had in mind to forge was ready.
Smiths who have pilgrimaged to find it almost never come back. The handful who do return changed: they say they could feel the work the Soul-Forger was meant to do on the anvil, and they say they understood, briefly, who the Last Soul was meant to be. None can ever describe what they felt, and most go to their graves refusing to say the name they saw. The most devout Tekk-clerics teach that the day the anvil is finished is the day the Soul Wars truly end, and that no one alive (perhaps not even Tekk himself) currently knows which Soul is required.
Edicts & Anathema
Edicts. craft new creations, pay attention to details, share achievements, smite unworthy foes, embrace mistakes
Anathema. carelessly destroy others’ creations or research, enslave and abuse constructs, refuse to acknowledge or learn from mistakes, cowardice
Areas of Concern. Alchemy, War, Technology, Time, Forge
Destiny’s Leaning. Free Will
Notable Devotees
- Virtus Tenebris: Shield-maiden of the Soul Shepherds; channels Tekk’s free-will doctrine in her leadership.
- Diallos: Monk of the Soul Shepherds; Tekk’s perspective on destiny is the backbone of his philosophy.
- Animus Tenebris: Leader of the Palms of a New Dawn; bears Fomorslayer, a colossal two-handed sword forged in Tekk’s name.