Umnos

Old Version of Umnos

Umnos
Father Time; Great Machine; Watcher

Symbol: A stopwatch with a scythe for a seconds hand
Home Plane: Mechanus
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Cleric Alignments: Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, Neutral, Lawful Evil
Portfolio: Boundaries, time, protection of Therafim, multiversal laws
Worshipers: Warforged, guardians, builders, those who make and uphold laws, those who defend Therafim
Domains: Artifice (Construct), Fate, Knowledge (Thought), Luck (Fate), Protection (Defense), Time, Travel
Favored Weapon: Scythe

Physical Description:
Umnos is the most perfect mechanism ever to have been made, a machine of such exquisite construction that it could only have been a divine act. However, though the first of Umnos’ parts were assembled by the gods, the Watcher has improved upon itself, and can be said to be almost completely self-made. Umnos, on the plane of Mechanus, takes the form of its domain, actually being the realm in which its subjects dwell, as a part of the perfect machinery that makes up that realm. When Umnos is forced to act on the Prime Material Plane through some grave breach of cosmic law (a very rare occurrence, for Umnos prefers not to intervene when there are others that can accomplish the functions that are required), it takes the form of a perfectly-constructed warforged with a multitude of interchangeable attachments to accomplish any task. When in a humanoid form, Umnos is armed with the Reaper Scythe, a blade able to cut through anything, even the armor and flesh of the gods.

Description of Nature, Personality, and Dogma:
What Umnos is, exactly, is something that even Umnos does not completely know. It (or sometimes "he," though Umnos lacks a sexual nature) is the Great Machine, a sentient device of such magnitude and complexity that it takes up a large section of its present dwellingplace, and petitioners who come to its realm can and do walk and live on and in its body. Umnos lacks most emotion, and does not concern itself with most mortal functions. Instead, Umnos is concerned with universal elements and laws, things that affect all mortals, but which most mortals seldom notice except when things go wrong.

The role of Umnos is usually beyond mortal consideration. It maintains the barriers, passages, and portals between the Prime Material Plane and the Outer Planes, and ensures that there is an appropriate balance of communication between the two. Umnos also ensures that time passes at its appropriate speed and that events in history take place at coherent incidents which can be comprehended by mortals. That the gods are able to grant aid to their worshipers is possible only because Umnos allows it, for that is the role they initially gave it, and the function that it constructed itself to fulfill with perfect precision. However, the Prime Material Plane is a messy place, full of disorder, and so things do not always function perfectly. For this reason, mortals are needed to keep order, and laws and barriers and well-kept roads on the Prime Material Plane are a sign of this greater, cosmic order that keeps all things connected and regulated. Creating and maintaining such things are the chief duties of Umnos' followers, and they also regularly act as accountants and bookkeepers for other organizations. These normally reserved, bookish individuals also have a powerful martial side when it comes to defending the boundaries of Therafim itself, and when they learn of breaches from the Outer Planes and other realities, they can become quite deadly in their furor.

Clergy, Places of Worship, Important Rituals, and Servitor Races:
Those who worship Umnos are divine judges, given the right and duty to ensure that there is no imbalance in the strength of different factions controlled by planar powers, and to correct them if such imbalances arise. Because of the esoteric nature of most of Umnos' work, he has few clerics, but those that he does have receive a great deal of his attention when they wish it and can justify such requests. Umnos selects his clergy from those who have a mechanical precision in their lives, and who can live up to the high ideals of exactness that Umnos sets, despite the vagaries of chance on the Prime Material Plane. Many of these clerics are living constructs, and those who are not often take on a slightly mechanical appearance when Umnos chooses them to serve it, an appearance that gradually increases with their power and devotion to it, as a sign of its favor.

All temples of Umnos have huge clocktowers that keep precise time, and some of the best locks and other security measures in the world come from their workshops. The Day of Umnos is celebrated at these temples, held on the first day of the year, when all watches and other timepieces everywhere are set to precise time, new schedules are made, and plans and resolutions formed for the coming year. Many people also celebrate the Day of Umnos with more private parties, which can get quite wild, though neither Umnos nor his clergy officially approve of such frivolity.

The inevitables are Umnos' eternal servants on the Outer Planes. He regularly makes use of them to prevent breaches to the boundaries of time and space, or to mend those breaches when they do occur. Modrons also revere Umnos, and Primus of the modrons earmarks many of its servants for Umnos' exclusive use.

History and Relations:
In desperate need of organization and establishment of barriers to keep the multiverse from encroaching on the world of Therafim, and so as to keep all things from melting into discordant disorder, the gods formed the initial seed of power that would eventually attain self-awareness and begin to construct itself into the perfect machine that is Umnos.

Since it was made to maintain the boundaries that provide order to the multiverse, Umnos is principally concerned with that all-consuming task, and has little time for the other gods. All deities that are not among the Forbidden Ones must work through Umnos in order to make their presence known on the Prime Material Plane, and while most of them have established channels that allow them to do so with relative speed, Umnos regularly has to take deities to task for being too zealous in meddling in the affairs of mortals without proper authorization. This can result in gods losing the ability to provide direct intervention for a time in more minor cases, or can even result in clerics temporarily losing their spellcasting ability in more extreme cases. Because of this, no gods like Umnos, but they all respect him, whatever else they might feel about him, since at least he keeps the other gods from doing as they like, maintaining the delicate balance of powers.

The one mistake that Umnos has ever made as a part of its normal functions is to have taken time for dreaming not long after its creation. This was supposed to allow Umnos' mind an opportunity to explore new boundaries and approach problems with renewed creativity, since Umnos, as a machine, does not really need to dream for healthy mental function. This activity had an unexpected side effect, when Umnos' own mind turned against it in the midst of a nightmare. So was born the Nightmare King, and Umnos was only barely able to save itself by cutting off the Nightmare King from its mind with the Reaper Scythe. This took several sectors of Umnos' mind with it, and it took a great deal of time and effort to replace and repair those lost mental segments. Because of their relation, and the horrific knowledge that the Nightmare King is Umnos' own fault, Umnos and its worshipers regard it as a necessary duty to hunt the Nightmare King as his followers whenever possible.

Favored Offerings and Justifications for Direct Intervention:
A perfectly-constructed, finely-tuned piece of clockwork is at once an act of meditative devotion to Umnos during its creation process, and also the sort of offering that Umnos appreciates most. Building devices to keep time, erecting doors, gates, and barriers, laying roads, and making and upholding laws are all sacred acts to Umnos.

The only times that Umnos intervenes in mortal affairs are when significant breaches of the planar boundaries occur. Umnos does its best to maintain a minimalistic approach to correcting such breaches, first preferring to use mortals to handle these problems, since they are closest to the situation, and providing them with a degree of assistance should it become necessary. The next tier up is for Umnos to deploy the inevitables. Finally, Umnos can rewrite reality itself, though this is something reserved only for the most dire of emergencies that threaten to unmake the whole of time and space.