Tor

Thunder cracks and rain answers — Tor walks the high places, and the village names him most. The Rain-maker, the Thunderhead, the Slayer-of-Beasts is god of wind and weather, patron of warriors and hunters, the most popular of Stonetop's four main gods. Many tales are told of his victories and, yes, of his foibles too.

The Stone is sometimes called Tor's anvil, or the quiver for his javelins; the Cistern beneath Stonetop is sometimes called his drinking horn. The villagers use many colorful phrases that invoke his name. His shrine in the pavilion of the gods may be laden with whisky and gifts, a simple idol with the Stone as its true altar, or a smoldering fire constantly tended. Worship of Tor elsewhere ranges from "local patron" to "barbaric storm-god worshipped under many aspects" — every people that knows him knows him differently.

Many tales tell of a stranger met in an unlikely place — a brash youth, a put-upon father, a hapless old man — who challenges the hero and then vanishes, leaving them to realize they just met Tor. The worthy win gifts, the unworthy win curses. Lightning strikes are usually a sign of his displeasure.

Tor is weather, challenge, and gift-economy with teeth. Drought breaks when the right offering is made or the right quest is completed; storms test the village's preparations; the Slayer-of-Beasts is invoked when something monstrous comes down from the Whitefangs or up from below.