Deites Guide

Terminology

Worship

A weapon smith might take Gond as his patron deity, but also pray to Tempus, Lord of Battles, before attempting to forge a fine sword. During a difficult forging or when striving to make a blade lucky for wielders, the same smith prays to Tymora. A weapon forged for guardians would involve prayers and offerings to Helm. A weapon to be wielded fir justice (an executioner’s blade, perhaps) would be dedicated to Tyr.

Most people of Toril worship more than one deity on a daily basis, even if they dedicate their lives to one patron deity. Some folk of Faerûn believe deities are akin to awesomely powerful mortals and are therefore prone to foibles, tempers, and the haste, mistakes, and emotions of mortals. Other see them as beyond mortal flaws or mortal comprehension. Overlaid on these extremes are beliefs as t6o whether deities like to intervene in mortal affairs daily, at crucial junctures, on whims or to further mysterious or started aims – or whether they remain aloof, influencing mortals only in subtle, hidden ways or through dream visions or cryptic auguries. With these widely varying views come a correspondingly wide range in practices of worship.

With that said, many folks make offerings both to deities they revere and appeasement offerings to deities of markedly different alignment and interests from their own to ward off holy vengefulness, spite, and divine whim. The simplest offering to a deity is to toss a few coins into a temple bowl or make another suitable offering (blood to Tempus or Malar, for example, or particular sacred or token objects to most other deities) while a plea is murmured. The formalization of this practice is the payment of a set temple fee to clergy of the deity to be appeased, who either provide the prayer with a short prayer to be preformed at an auspicious later time or perform a rote prayer for the payer.

Patron Deities

The deities of Faerûn are deeply enmeshed in the functioning of the world’s magical ecology and the lives of mortals. Characters of Toril nearly always have a patron deity. Everyone in Faerûn knows that those who die without having a patron deity to send a servant to collect from the Fugue Plane at their death spend eternity writhing in the Wall of the Faithless or disappear into the hells of the devils or the infernos of the demons.

Sins and Penance

Some members of the clergy believe their deities watch over every act, thought, and consequence of the deeds of every mortal worshiper. Most priests, however, see their deities as judging mortals only on deeds or on acts plus obvious intent rather than ultimate consequences.

A cleric or druid who commits a minor offense against her deity or ignores portions of the deity’s dogma is guilty of a sin. He has to do some penance appropriate to the seriousness of the sin in order to remain in good standing with the church, other clerics or druids, and the deity. Paladins, rangers, and other divine spellcasters are held to this standard (to a less exacting degree) also.

Typical penance for lesser infractions includes spending an hour in prayer, making a small monetary donation to the temple (1 to 10 gp), performing minor duties in the temple (which vary by religion), and so on.

Penance for moderate infractions includes spending anywhere from a day to a tenday in prayer, making a moderate monetary donation to the temple (100 to 500 gp), or going on a small quest for the church (a short adventure).

Penance for major infractions includes a month or more of prayer, a large donation (1,000 gp or more), a quest, and possibly an atonement spell (which might require its own quest).

Continued abuses of the church’s dogma may result in a divine spellcaster losing his class features (but not any class-related weapon and armor proficiencies) until he atones for his sins.

Deity Symbol

The deity’s symbol is the preferred symbol of the faithful to represent the deity. The symbol is also form of the holy symbol used by clerics of the deity, and may be as ornate or simple as the cleric can afford or the religion requires. Note that in some cases there are limits to the decoration of a holy symbol. For example, Silvanus’s clerics carry as their holy symbol a fresh oak leaf, which cannot be decorated but might be displayed in an open case of carved and lacquered wood.

Deity and Cleric Alignment

The deity’s alignment is the most common alignment evidenced by the deity. Just as evil deities can act benignly to advance their cause, good deities sometimes need to be cruel to save something of importance, and so a deity‘s alignment is just a guideline. However, the cleric still uses the deity’s alignment for determining her own alignment (using the “one step” rule from the Player’s Handbook). A few deities permit clerics to have alignments not allowed by the one step rule. These exceptions are described in the deity’s entry.

(All deities of Faerûn allow more than one alignment of worshipping)

Types:

• LG – Lawful Good
• NG – Neutral Good
• CG – Chaotic Good
• LN – Lawful Neutral
• N   – Neutral / True Neutral
• CN – Chaotic Neutral
• LE – Lawful Evil
• NE – Neutral Evil
• CE – Chaotic Evil

Deity Portfolio

The deity’s portfolio is the topics, ideas, or emotions over which the deity has dominion, power, and control. No two beings within the same pantheon may hold the same concept in their portfolios.

Deity Domains

The listed domains are those granted by the deity to clerics, reflecting the deity’s alignment and portfolio. As with the deities listed in the Player’s Handbook, a cleric chooses two domains from the deity’s list and acquires the granted powers of those two domains.

Deity Favored Weapon

The deity’s favored weapon is most often a representation of an actual weapon the deity is said to carry. Sometimes, though, it is a magical manifestation or a physical object associated with the deity that is not commonly considered a weapon.
Since the favored weapon of some deities is a particular artifact weapon of theirs (such as the Wand of Four Moons) or a force of nature (a whirlwind), the parenthetical conventional armaments also serve as the conventional favored weapons of clerics of those faiths, which most clerics use as a point of pride, though they are not required to.

Deity History/Relationships

This section gives important notes on the deity’s history, including his or her origin or the historic reason for current enmities. The deity’s relationships indicate allies and enemies among the ranks of the divine, as well as whom the deity reports to (if anyone).

Deity Dogma

The last paragraph gives the dogma of the deity – tenets of the religion that all clerics (and divine spellcasters) must hold dear. This paragraph is written as if it were an excerpt from a holy text of that deity. Some of the dogmatic statement are phrased in absolutes (Azuth’s “Learn every new spell you discover,” Chauntea’s “Let no day pass in which you have not helped a living thing flourish,” and so on). If a cleric is unable to perform these acts because of circumstances beyond her control (such as being locked in a dungeon cell, failing a Spellcraft roll, being involved in a lengthy religious ceremony, and the like), she is not penalized. However, if she could perform the necessary task but choose not to (for example, if a cleric of Chauntea spent the day looking for a new pair of boots instead of helping a living thing flourish), she would be guilty of a minor sin.

Ao

Ao (ay-oh) stands outside of the power struggles of deities in Faerûn. A quiet and distant being, Ao is the overgod of Toril. He is responsible for the creation of the first deities of Toril and for maintaining the cosmic balance. Ao was completely unknown to mortals before the Time of Troubles. His presence was made known when he single-handedly banished all the deities to walk Faerûn in mortal forms as punishment because many of them had abdicated their responsibilities.

Ao has supreme power over all the deities of Toril, is capable of demoting, banishing, or destroying any of them, and can elevate mortals to any level of divinity if they accept the responsibilities and duties of the divine state. No being can be promoted to divinity without his approval. He is impervious to all attacks, even by a concerted effort of all the divine powers, and has no know realm among the planes. Ao is essentially the god of the deities of Faerûn. He answers no mortal’s prayer, grants no spells to mortals, and has not been heard from since the end of the Godswar. It is unknown if he established the foundation of the cosmology of Toril or if that structure is something that evolved over time from the interaction of the deities.