Iron God for Dungeon World

The Iron God

Lesser God  

Symbol: Iron shaped medallion with the Arrow of Law, Arrow of Law with a Skull or Gravestone or an Iron Golem with a Sword (think Academy Award in Iron)

Home Plane: “Underworld”

Alignment: Lawful neutral (Lord of Law)

Portfolio: Retribution, truth, discipline, death, darkness, graveyards, underworld, wealth

Worshipers: Fighters, monks, judges, constables, executioners and undertakers

Cleric Alignments: LN, N, Lawful

Domains: Destruction, Law, Protection, Strength, Death and Wealth

Favored Weapons: Sword, Mace

The Iron God is a largely forgotten deity of the Underworld that guards the spirits and bodies of the dead. He is neither evil nor good but highly lawful and very vengeful towards oath breakers and traitors to his own order. A sort of chthonic Hemidall he stands at the gates of the graveyard or underworld and he acts as a psychopomp. A psychopomp (from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός, psuchopompos, literally meaning the "guide of souls") are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls from Earth to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply to provide safe passage.

Apparently his followers were originally a guild of undertakers than gained great wealth because of a boon he can offer: burial on the god’s holy ground will hold the deceased soul in a dreamless sleep in their tomb deferring judgment or forfeiture to dark powers as long as the tomb is undisturbed. Many powerful evil sorcerers and brutal aristocrats would pay enormous sums and powerful magic items to delay judgment day.

The problem was the harsh and judgmental nature of this deity who would strike down with terrible wrath any member of his clergy who violated his precepts. This coupled with the tempting target the rich graveyard monasteries and nunneries of his order offered to freebooters may have what lead to the cult’s decline. Ruins of his cultic sites and the god's few remaining cult centers remain popular targets for adventurers and robbers due to the cult’s fabulous wealth and known habit of stockpiling magic items donated by desperate and dying wizards and rulers.

(The Iron God was conceived by Matt Finch for his OSR adventure module The Tomb of the Iron God)