Meneus the Father

Meneus was the first God, supposedly in existence since the beginning of time itself. He is the embodiment of all that is knowing, all that is understanding, and all that is wise. Meneus presides above the lesser realms in his home plane of Illuvar. Meneus is the most fearful of the deities since he is acutely aware of just the threat that mortal beings pose, and hence he is extremely xenophobic, and extends his hand to control as much as possible to maintain his position of regency amongst all that is sentient. He embodies himself as an old wise man in the lesser realms, usually bearded and wrinkled clutching a staff. Legend has it that he occasionally visits the world in this form to check on how society is running and to gain to new knowledge from the mortal sentients.   Meneus' goals are to prevent mortal sentients from becoming too powerful, and to himself gain all of the knowledge of the universe. A revered disciple of Meneus will do their best to gain knowledge and pass it on to him without retaining it themselves. Churches of Meneus often construct themselves as libraries dedicated to cataloguing and storing as much information as possible in the hopes of achieving a level of knowledge mildly comparable to Meneus himself. In stark contrast, Missions of Meneus will structure themselves as destroyers of knowledge, as the will of Meneus is that mortal sentients should never ascend themselves close to godhood. Thus there has been a millennium old series of skirmishes between the Missions and Churches of Meneus where the Missionaries raid the libraries and archives of the churches. Because of this, the library churches of Meneus are few and far between but enormous castles with deep catacombs and exotic fortifications.