Mother of Mountains
Heart of Stone, Hoard Mother
© Dean Spencer
Symbol: A serpentine dragon coiled around cut gemstone.
The Mother of Mountains manifests as a colossal wingless dragon, more than two hundred feet long. She bears six powerful legs tipped with stone crushing talons and covered in dark grey armor that shimmers with uncountable gemstones and veins of precious metal that have become embedded in her scales.
She has been known to appear as a female dweorg with skin that gleams like polished stone. Her eyes resemble cut gemstones and her hair delicate filaments of gold, silver, or platinum. She often appears in mines, vaults, or treasure halls. Those who meet her describe an unsettling aura of weighing and measuring, as though she is silently assessing the value of everything around her, including the mortals.
In the earliest age, the treasures of the earth lay exposed across the land. Gold, silver, and gemstones could be found scattered across the surface. Seeing this disgusted the Mother of Mountains, furious at such careless abundance of precious things. She tunneled beneath the earth and pushed the land upward with her back, raising enormous mountain ranges. These peaks buried the world’s riches beneath miles of stone.
The Mother of Mountains embodies pure possession. To her, wealth exists to be accumulated, hidden, and guarded. Unlike gods who seek active worship, she values devotion in the form of hoarding valuables within shrines and on offering tables.