Hephaestus is the son of Hera. She attempted to make a child on her own after Zeus gave birth to Athena with no apparent mother. The result was the ugly Hephaestus. His appearance was so repulsive that Zeus immediately cast the infant down from Olympus. When Hephaestus hit the ground his leg was broken and he remains lame to this day. He is the god of dwarves, the disabled, the forge, fire, and non-precious metals. His sacred animal is the crab. He is the forger of almost all of the artifacts described in myths.
Hephaestus wanted a wife, but no one would marry him as he was so ugly. He devised a plan to fulfill his wishes. First, he made a golden throne for his mother. When Hera sat on it, she was unable to stand up. Hephaestus only released her when the Olympians agreed to give him Aphrodite as his bride. While Aphrodite agreed, she is essentially only Hephaestus’s wife on paper. She is far more often in the bed of Ares. Hephaestus is not a faithful husband himself, often chasing nymphs and Athena.
Hephaestus is worshipped by all who labor to construct things. In Greece his favored island was Lemnos where he fell to the earth from Olympus. In Cimmeria his favored city is Restnor’s Point. He has a great temple there and gifted the city with impenetrable adamantine walls for defense. Hephaestus’s forge was one located on Lemnos, but after the Goblin War he established a new forge near the summit of Horror Peak.
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