"May you ride with Daal."
- Common Daalite farewell
Daal the Herald of Justice, also known as the Even-handed, the Righteous Sword, and the High Judge, Daal is the god of justice, honour, and truth. He is the uncompromising force of justice within Aranor and embodies the mortal virtues of honour, honesty, and unfailing loyalty. His symbol is that of a set of scales suspended from a mace.
History
The first recorded worship of Daal is said to have began early on into the Age of Fear which would suggest his ascension occurred post-Curse, theorized by some scholars to have originated as one of the primordial powers of Torek's creation or even one of his wayward servants whom would become the devils, forsaking the cold, mechanical law of his maker to be influenced by the far more mortal concepts portrayed by the denizens of Aranor. Whether owing to these murky origins or sheer disinterest, Daal's own clergy places little emphasis on the canon of his ascension and concern themselves instead with affairs in the present rather than the past. His worship first began in the Heartlands in the core of what would finally become Paladia, so named for the first holy warriors whom tapped into the divine power of trueoaths in his name where his faith remains the strongest to this day.
Characteristics
Daal is frequently portrayed as a faceless, armoured knight or as a hooded figure carrying a set of scales in various styles and sometimes even gender, referred to as more of a power than as an individual deity, which for all intents and purposes might be an apt description as he is known to remain aloof of all other members of the pantheon. Utterly absorbed in his own affairs Daal is known to take great if impersonal interest in his chosen champions and followers whom most competently further his causes of imposing justice upon the evils of Aranor and defending the integrity of civilization, although the nuances of morality and circumstance are largely lost upon him which renders him particularly prone to inspire zealousy in his followers.
Worship
Faith in Falandine tends to primarily exist in two forms: knightly orders of paladins and temples that serve as courts of law, the dual arms of the Daalite faith largely divided between they who serve him by the sword or by the scales. While his worship is widespread across the Heartlands and beyond it is often limited to sheer lip service owing to the fervour demanded by true followers of Daal, he is nevertheless a paragon many try to emulate, and as such the representatives of his faith are laden with great expectations to live up to this lofty image. Paladins of Daal serve the ideals of their deity and their mortal masters in that order, frequently serving as champions of the common folk by keeping the corruption of the ruling classes in check but they may just as well show little compassion for those driven to lawlessness out of desperation. The clerics whom serve at Daalite temples are famous (and infamous) as being uncompromising arbitrators of the law and to see through all manner of deception, a reason for which many consider very carefully before they resort to bring a case before the Scales should their judgement prove not to play out in their favour.
The most holy symbol of Daal is that of a mace for his martial followers or a set of scales for his clergy, his favoured weapon is the mace as the blunt instrument of justice. Common domains associated with Daal is Order, War, and Protection.