RP Guide - Polytheism in Faerûn

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DM Durentius
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RP Guide - Polytheism in Faerûn

Postby DM Durentius » Sat Jan 30, 2016 2:10 pm

I wrote this on the old forum, and I'm bringing it here for your benefit. I've changed a slight few things around to make it easier to parse.

Feel free to comment in the topic, with questions and concerns.

Polytheism in Faerûn

One of my personal favorite aspects of the Forgotten Realms setting is that it is one of the few settings where the implications of there being many gods, all of them known to exist, is taken seriously to some extent. There are gods for everything in the Realms, there are many, many more gods directly stated to exist than in most DnD settings, and it's pretty clear from some sources that far more local demigods and minor gods exist in the setting than those explicitly mentioned.

So let's examine some of the basic properties of divinity in Faerûn. I would note that this is all COMMON KNOWLEDGE in the Realms. Everyone who lives in Faerûn knows these things - it's not a secret that the gods actually exist and it's not uncommon to see their work manifest. Especially now, so soon after the Time of Troubles, where the gods literally walked the earth.

What is a God?

A god in the Forgotten Realms is any being with divine power over a certain threshold (some minor divine power holders include Demon Lords, Archdevils, and Archangels). In the Realms, a non-divine being can become a divine being in several ways, and the majority of existing gods did not start their lives as gods. The gods in Faerûn range from former mortals (Mystra, Cyric, Valkur, etc) to racial progenitors (Moradin, Yondalla, Corellon Larethian, etc), to former Archdevils (Gargauth), to really, really big sentient(?) slime (Ghaunadaur).

In the Realms, divine characters (Priests, Paladins, Blackguards, etc) can only ever be granted spells and special abilities by a deity, as opposed to some other settings where a Druid might be granted spells from "nature" or a Priest might draw power from an abstract concept like "justice" or "hatred". If a Priest is channeling divine power in the Realms, it always ultimately comes from a deity or another divine being, even if they're not always sure which one (deities like Cyric have a habit of posing as other deities to trick true believers into going astray, granting them power all the while).

Every deity has an associated sphere, or portfolio. This is the aspects of reality that the deity exerts control over, and to some extent represents. Deities in the Forgotten Realms are not omnipotent, not even surrounding things of their own sphere, but they exert an enormous influence on that sphere. Deities are not omniscient, either, but are able to extend their senses far beyond that of any mortal being, a power that increases as their influence increases. If you say the name of a great deity (like Tyr, or Cyric) that greater deity can see, hear, smell, taste, feel, etc everything within kilometers of the point where you said their name (this does not mean that they always do, but it's generally a good idea to be careful about mentioning the names of cruel gods, especially since they can also act within that area, to some small extent). If you say the name of a minor deity, or a demigod, on the other hand, that same power might only extend a scant few meters, and be limited to watching and listening. All other deities fall somewhere between those two extremes.

Patron Deities

Each person has a patron deity. This does not mean (as in some other settings) that this deity is literally the only god that the person worships (only very few gods are megalomaniac enough to demand this, the only still-living one is Cyric, and in his case it's not really a command that's de-facto obeyed by all that many of his more moderate followers), it simply means that this god in particular is the one whose philosophy most closely aligns with the ethical and moral codes of the person in question, or that this is the god whose sphere means the most for the day-to-day life of the person in question.

For this reason, patron deities are often the same alignment or close to the same alignment as the person in question, but this might not always be true. A Neutral Evil aligned farmer might still worship the Neutral Good Chauntea (the goddess of agriculture) as his patron deity, and a Lawful Good hunter might worship the Chaotic Evil Malar (the god of hunting) as her. This is exceedingly rare, but it does happen, especially in the case of gods like Malar or Umberlee (the goddess of drowning) and the professions that are within their sphere of influence (hunters and sailors, respectively), since the good-aligned minor gods (such as Nobanion and Valkur, respectively) are usually too weak to provide the required level of safety that a daily life in that field of work would require. There are usually no hard alignment restrictions when it comes to patron deities for non-divine characters, these alignment restrictions tend to only apply to characters like Priests or Monks.

Other Deities

Worship in Faerûn is not limited to the patron deity. Every person in Faerûn gathers, through their life, a small-to-medium circle of gods that are important for their lives in particular, or whom they might for other reasons see eye to eye with (including actions made by their priests). The farmer who holds Chauntea as his patron deity might pray to Tyr for justice and order, Talos so that he is not struck by lightning during a storm, Malar so that he is not attacked by wild beasts, Helm so that the local militia will hold out should anything happen, and so on and so forth. It is perfectly normal, perfectly "natural" for a person of any alignment to give prayers (however reluctant) to evil-aligned gods, and when they do so it is mostly to ward them off, but that is not always the case. Talona, for example, is the evil-aligned goddess of poison and disease, and many people pray to her so that they won't get sick, but some people might even pray to her so that their foes or others who have done them injustice are laid low by her sphere.

The Wall of the Faithless

When a person dies, they go to the Fugue Plane. The Fugue Plane is only a temporary home for most dead souls, since it's the place where the servants of different patron deities pick up the souls of their true believers. If a person has generally kept to the basic tenets of their patron deities' religion, an angel, devil, demon, or whatever else is fitting for the deity in question will soon appear and take the soul to their final resting place, usually the home plane of the deity in question.

If, however, the deity is very displeased with the conduct of the person (a rare occasion, since the basic tenets are purposefully much simpler to follow than what is required of divine characters) or the person has no patron deity (a rarer occasion still, since only fools disbelieve in the existence of the gods) no representative will ever come to claim their soul. They will wander the fugue plane for many eternities, until finally happening upon the so-called Wall of the Faithless, and soon merge with it, becoming one of countless lost souls which slowly merge into the very fabric of the fugue plane, their souls ceasing to exist as distinct entities.

In some rare occasions, an errant devil might come to make a deal for such lost souls before they meet with the wall, or a demon might attempt to snatch the soul. In even more exceptional circumstances, a deity might have taken notice of the soul in question and will attempt to bargain with the god of death (currently Cyric, formerly Myrkul, and in the future Kelemvor) that they might be allowed to take the soul. Myrkul and Cyric have both allowed this in exceptional circumstances, but Kelemvor never has.

Prominence is Power

The Forgotten Realms is also a setting where the gods have a very real stake in mortal worship. The more a god fills in the minds of the mortal populace, the more powerful and active a god can be within their sphere. Every lip service prayer, every panicked cry for help, every true believer, and any other such phenomena, adds to the strength of the deity in question. The nature of the thoughts do not matter, fear and respect mean the same thing to this basic function of the universe, if a deity is talked about, thought about, heard about, and preached about, it inevitably becomes a powerful deity. In some rare cases, the very act of treating something as a deity, if done by enough people, might actually legitimately birth a new deity, which is one reason why so many local demigods are dead folk heroes from ages past or spirits found within prominent landmarks (a grand oak representing the god of the local forest, a Lady of the Lake representing the god of the local rivers).

Divine power in the form of spells and special abilities are drawn from this "pool" of strength. Whenever a person is granted a spell or a special ability by a deity, an incredibly small amount of that deities divine power is spent. The more powerful a deity is, the more spells they can grant, and the more powerful spells they can grant. Enough higher-level spells can definitely be felt on the bottom line, so spells are best not used frivolously by the devoted follower. Deities tend to prefer granting spells that fit within their spheres, and often outright refuse to grant spells that directly runs counter to their ethical views. An example would be that a deity who is strongly against undeath will never grant a spell which would allow someone to raise the dead themselves.

For the follower, this presents an obvious incentive to spread word of their deities. The more powerful their deities are, the more spells they can grant, and the stronger the spells they can grant are. Most deities tend to also reward the more proactive of their followers greatly, so there are generally many reasons for followers to help their deities achieve more prominence. In the more ideological aspect, making a deity like Tyr stronger would increase his ability to influence the world towards his ideal of justice and order, making a deity like Helm stronger would increase his ability to protect the defenseless, and so on, so many of the true believers have even more reason to do their best to see the influence and power of their deities grow.

The strongest boost of power comes, of course, with conversion. Converting a person from one patron deity to another carries quite an amount of divine power from that patron to the new one. True conversion, however, is hard to achieve, and for this reason by far the majority of the priests and other missionaries of different deities do not bother overly much with it, as time can often be more efficiently spent. It is far more common for a priest to remind people that their god should be prayed to in certain situations, or asking people to pray to their gods once or twice a week or month in return for some favor. A hundred lip service prayers a week is a respectable replacement for a true conversion of the soul, and far easier to reach.

For this reason, missionary activity in Faerûn is rarely a matter of getting people to "convert to the one true deity" and more often a matter of telling people to "remember to throw coins overboard for Umberlee, and say your prayers to her, or you might drown the next time you set sail". It is generally a rule of thumb that evil deities attempt to coerce worship through threats and fear, and that good deities attempt to acquire it through being useful in some way, but this is not always correct.

Church versus Deity

A church is a mortal organization dedicated to the worship and service of one particular god. The church is not the same thing as the deity, they are separate institutions, and one might worship the deity without being affiliated in any way with the church. This is more likely in chaotic-aligned religions, some of which don't have a church at all, but only the most well-organized, schism-free, and small religion can be said to have one true authority in Faerûn. It is far more common for there to be a multitude of churches even among the faithful of lawful deities, or at least many schisms and hundreds, perhaps thousands of cults and opinions on how exactly a god should be followed.

An extreme example of this is the church of Ilmater. There are many, many, many hundred Saints, Orders, cults and schisms within the church of Ilmater, limited not only to the Orthodox/Traditionalist split (eastern and western-centric Ilmater worship, respectively) but also the First Among the Equals and Equals Among the First heresies which both dispute the current organization of the Triad and the three churches that make up the Triad. As for the Triad, it is also a good example, for while the Triad is technically made up of three different churches (one of which is far, far older than the other two) it is for most intents and purposes only "one" church, which oversees the construction and upkeep of all Triadic temples in a large region.

As has been alluded to earlier, it is generally a rule of thumb that lawful deities act more often through the hierarchy of their church, or a multitude of their churches (some gods spurn certain cults entirely, and only answer to those not part of that cult, a great opportunity for impostor deities like Cyric) while chaotic deities tend to be far more personal. As with all rules of thumb, however, this is not a completely true representation of the facts. One can find oneself excommunicated from the church but yet retain ones divine powers, if the church has a problem with ones conduct but the deity, for one reason or another, does not. Churches might even sometimes act against the interest of their deities, sometimes without the knowledge of the deity, as was the case of the Tormtar church before the Time of Troubles, a matter that Torm put a stop to when he was informed of the fact.

Churches are political organizations as well, and sometimes their aims and even philosophies might be drastically different from the aims or philosophies of the deity in question, as is the case with the Kossuthan church (Kossuth, being an Elemental Lord, is largely unconcerned with the actions of mortals, but his church is an incredibly proactive and highly political entity in the Realms, especially in Thay, and they have built a philosophy of strength through hardship out of some rather liberal interpretations of Kossuth).

Aspects, Fragments of a God

Adding to the confusion, a deity is not just one thing. Different deities wear different masks in different time periods and different areas. Some Bedine tribes worship a harsh and cruel aspect of Lathander the sun god, known under a different name, which represents the merciless sun and death by heat stroke. The Tuigan worship a glorious male aspect of Akadi known as Teylas Sky-Father, and a nurturing female aspect of Grumbar known as Etugen Earth-Mother. In the Moonshae Isles, Chauntea is worshiped as an entity known as 'The Earthmother', while she is worshiped as Bhalla, part of a Triad of three female deities, in Rashemen. Such situations are many, and the subtly (and sometimes starkly) different faces the deities wear are cause for serious study by scholars and meditation by holy men. It certainly makes life in the Realms interesting.

In Conclusion

That is what I have to write about polytheism in Faerûn. I hope you liked reading it, and I hope it provided some interesting ideas for you in playing your character in the future, or perhaps future characters.

Thank you for reading, please leave comments and feedback if you think of anything.

COMMENTS AND REPLIES IN ORIGINAL TOPIC

Ragnar wrote:
"Anyone know which FR god is most opposed to undeath? Since some characters don't want to be resurrected, it could be neat if there was a charm of said god such people wore to indicate their wishes. (yes I am aware resurrection and zombies are not the same thing... however I would argue it's on the same road)"

I wrote:
The god most opposed to undeath will be Kelemvor, once he becomes the god of death. Kelemvor (who had been an adventuring companion of Cyric in life) will challenge Cyric (the reigning god of death) in the City of the Dead on the Fugue Plane and manage to outwit him in his own palace, with the help of a good portion of every soul in the Fugue Plane screaming out for justice and the machinations of the scribe of death, Jergal himself. Once Kelemvor deposes Cyric, he will seek to make death less unknown and horrifying than his predecessors (Jergal, Myrkul, Cyric), where everyone else who held the role was evil-aligned (Jergal is an interesting case, he stopped being evil-aligned and became Lawful Neutral once he stepped down and became the secretary of death) Kelemvor will be Lawful Neutral, and will focus on administrating an orderly passage from life into death.

His priests and Paladins will focus on hunting undeads (abominations to pure death) and console grieving families, as well as inform them of exactly what is going to happen to their loved ones in the great beyond, and help them with the burial services and so on. For this reason, Kelemvor is also somewhat opposed to resurrection spells, since he believes that death should be final, and not be feared and pushed away, but rather welcomed as a natural part of life. It should probably be noted, though, that it's generally impossible to resurrect a fallen mortal without the consent of the mortal in question, you can make the call but you can't force them back into their bodies. Resurrection also has little to nothing to do with undeath, since undeath is Negative Energy dependent while resurrection, like Cure spells, is Positive Energy dependent.

Right now, though, the most hostile deities to undeath is the sun god Lathander (who sees them as an abomination to life and grants his priests and Paladins great power to destroy them) and the Hin god of death Urogalen (who has more or less the same views as Kelemvor, but only focuses on the Hin).

Ragnar wrote:
"One thing I personally hope is that no greater deities are ever used as NPCs. A dream about a god could be neat, but having even a lesser deity walk into town and do almost anything would risk Mary Sue syndrome (not to say it couldn't be done well, merely that it would be very risky). Granted this is just my perspective, and the most religious character I ever played received no special powers for it."

I wrote:
It does happen but it's rather rare all the same. The gods in the Forgotten Realms are more like Greek gods than anything else, really. Every adult person in the game right now remembers the Time of Troubles, where gods literally walked on the earth (because they were forced to) and interacted with mortals. The only god who really makes a habit of appearing as their avatar is Shaundakul, the god of wanderers and travelers, and that's usually in the guise of an old maimed man, to teach some lesson or another, and he never quite reveals himself until he is already far away and the lesson has been taught. The odds of running into Shaundakul are also rather low.

Fergoose wrote:
"Can I ask if the “Wall of the Faithless” is something that priests and even the wider population could ever possibly have a knowledge of given that it’s a fairly exclusive, one-way club (i.e. you only end up there if dead). Or would there perhaps be a more general suspicion of a limbo like state?"

I wrote:
The Wall of the Faithless is a physical thing (kinda) which can be seen on the Fugue Plane. It's not a secret as such, and it's a widely acknowledged fact of life among planar experts (and to a lesser degree, priests). This means that it figures heavily in stories, plays, myths, bard tales, campfire tales, novels, and so on. Few people have actually seen it, but it's totally possibly to see it if you happen to travel to the fugue plane, and still make it out alive (since it absorbs you slowly, and only if you linger, say, if you can't leave because you're dead), so people have been warned about its existence for a very long time.

It's generally considered one of the most terrifying aspects of Forgotten Realms cosmology by most of the people who live in the Forgotten Realms, and is the number one reason why people think people without patron deities are insane.

Fergoose wrote:
"a) does saying the “nickname” of a god (e.g. Lady Luck) grant the same power to the god as uttering their true name?
b) is it reasonable for a character to know of any difference between saying the true name, or the nickname of a god? My paranoid god-fearer would instinctively suspect that saying the true name was a thousand times more risky."

I wrote:
a) Nope. This is why people prefer saying "the Dark Sun", "the Madgod" or "Lord of Three Crowns" instead of Cyric. Saying nicknames and titles does not grant the same power. This also means that something like "Cyrics blood!" is considered a rather potent swear, used only in the most dire of situations.
b) Yeah, this is why the priests and Paladins always shush people when they use the true names of Evil deities. Again, it's a rather acknowledged fact due to cultural osmosis and such
Have you heard the story of Durentius and his cock?

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