Kord

Kord, the Stormlord, is the storm god and the lord of battle and warfare. He is worshiped by the denizens of the Braving Grounds district of Vasselheim and sailors of the Menagerie Coast in Wildemount.

His worship is banned in the Dwendalian Empire.

Appearance
An iron statue in Vasselheim depicts Kord as barrel-chested man with massive muscles and a beard down to the middle of his chest. He wears iron bracers around his wrists, and his torso and legs are clothed in furs and leathers. He carries a long, thick shortsword in one hand.

Known worshipers

 * Earthbreaker Groon, a human monk at the Trial Forge in Vasselheim, and one of the Dawn Marshals of the city
 * Kern, a half-orc barbarian/monk brawler who probably follows Kord
 * Samson, a blacksmith in Vasselheim
 * Yasha, an aasimar barbarian and member of the Mighty Nein

Pre-stream
Kord carved the Titanstone Knuckles from the heart of the earth titan that fell in the Founding, and bestowed them as a gift to mortals.

In the Calamity, Kord impaled Lolth with one heave of a thunderspear before her troops even saw battle, making her one of the first casualties of the war and leaving her drow followers leaderless during that time.

Whether intentionally or not, Kord is responsible for the existence of cyclops stormcallers, who are born during raging storms and can eventually use innate magic to conjure storms, fly within storms, and cause cold damage with each swipe of their hands. Ironically for creatures shaped by Kord, stormcallers are notably smaller and weaker than other cyclops, causing them to be bullied relentlessly in childhood. Goliaths born in similar circumstances, called stormborn, are if anything slightly more robust than other goliath warriors, have some limited ability to evoke lightning, and are resistant to lightning damage.

Between Campaign 1 and Campaign 2
The first time Yasha Nydoorin was under the magical domination of Obann, she found herself at a shrine to Kord and the domination was lifted from her.

Campaign 2: The Mighty Nein


Yasha revealed to the rest of the group that she is a follower of the Stormlord and greatly indebted to him.



Yasha dreamed she saw the gloomy fields of Xhorhas covered in dead bodies. Dull blue flames and streaks of blood started curling down her arms. The dream then shifted to a broken statue of the Stormlord, the entity that had pulled her from the darkness. Rolling storm clouds formed the body of a giant man. A voice crept into the back of her head, saying that she walked the right path and never to forgot who she was and what she will become. After waking from the dream, Yasha said a short prayer to the Stormlord and carved his symbol into a piece of bark.



After going to sleep, Yasha had a vision of her wife Zuala calling out to her. The dream shifted with a flash of lightning to the Stormlord calling out to Yasha to find her strength. Yasha woke up suddenly and saw a being made of pure energy fly down from the sky and start attacking her.



As Yasha slept outside with the rain pounding down on her face, she felt her wrists get cold. She looked down and saw shackles binding her wrists together. There was a sudden flash of bright light in the sky and the clouds parted, revealing two glowing eyes. The Stormlord called out to Yasha to fight against the chains and release herself. Yasha strained against her shackles, but wasn't able to break them.



After being freed from Obann's control, Yasha had a dream where she was walking through the barren fields of Xhorhas in a heavy storm. As she reached the top of the mountain path, Yasha looked down and saw the shackles now broken from her wrists. She saw in the roiling clouds the glowing, electric eyes of the entity that found her on the ship weeks before, and although there were no words, she felt a sense of pride and welcoming.



While sleeping during a heavy storm at sea, Yasha dreamed of walking through the muddy fields of Xhorhas, exhausted and sore. She looked up to the sky and saw the familiar glowing eyes of the Stormlord and a warmly lit path. As she walked down the path she tried to jump over a wide chasm, but started to plummet. She called out to the Stormlord for help, but he responded back saying, "Prove". A bolt of lightning came down from the sky and zapped Yasha, her vision going blurry for a moment. Using Necrotic Shroud, she summoned her wings which were feathered rather than their usual skeletal. The Stormlord told Yasha that she was worthy of his acceptance and her own as well.



Before fighting Vokodo, Yasha had a dream where she saw a small white feather drifting into a pool of still water. As she moved toward it, a storm moved in around her, and when she moved to pick it up, lightning struck the pool. Turning, she saw behind her was respite and escape, but she heard a voice saying "Do not run from yourself. Overcome what faltered, and rise stronger." She took a deep breath, grabbed the feather, and sensed lightning streaking towards her. Saying, "I do not want this fear anymore," she stood firm and took the impact. A dark abyss below her revealed an endless underwater hillside of broken chain link, and the voice said, "Show me you can be reborn." She bamfed out her wings and saw, like flowers blossoming on the extended branches of a tree in the beginning of spring, feathers emerging to fill them into full, angelic wings.



Yasha dreamt of herself walking aimlessly in the broken fields of Xhorhas, with nothing to protect and having failed to protect. The bare fields gave way to grass and she saw the newly borrowed Holy Avenger before her. As thunder rolled, she saw the others of the Mighty Nein calling to her to save them, but as she ran toward the Avenger, it moved farther away. Lightning struck beside her and she saw the face of the Stormlord, saying, "You found your strength, Yasha. Now, you must learn to use it. [...] You are an avatar of the Storm Lord. I work through you, but your strength is your own. You've begun the first steps, but you must earn this one."

 and 

In another dream, Kord challenged Yasha to show her worthiness to be his champion, sending spirits of storm and lightning to fight her past the point of death. When she defeated the spirits and flew, technically dead but still raging, into the storm clouds above to speak with Kord, he asked her where she found her strength, and she said it was in those she would protect. When she awoke she was attuned to the Holy Avenger, which can usually only be attuned by paladins.



When warriors of the Dolorav tribe charged at Yasha and Beau, the latter two women did not actively resist, but suddenly lightning blasted from the sky and charred a line in the ground between the two groups, which intimidated the charging cavalry into calling off the attack.

Appearances

 * Campaign 2

Mentions

 * Campaign 1
 * Campaign 2
 * One-shots
 * Campaign 2
 * One-shots
 * Campaign 2
 * One-shots
 * Campaign 2
 * One-shots
 * Campaign 2
 * One-shots
 * One-shots
 * One-shots

Trivia

 * Though the Stormlord is based primarily on the Dawn War version of Kord, his holy symbol in the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting bears a closer resemblance to that of the Greyhawk version of Kord.
 * His holy day is the Day of Challenging, on the seventh of Misuthar. It is a rowdy holiday celebrated with well-attended Godsbrawl tournaments in Kord's temples in both Emon and Port Damali; aside from the champion of Kord, in Emon many also root for champion of Bahamut, and in Port Damali the other major draw is the champion of Moradin.
 * Though the date isn't mentioned in the episode, Vox Machina slew Thordak (and attempted, with a metallic dragon's help, to slay Raishan) as their allies sieged Emon on the Day of Challenging in 811 PD, amidst a thunderstorm.