Faiths & Avatars

FAITHS 8d AVATARS Byjulia Martin with Eric L. Boyd Tempus Contents Torm Powers of the Realms .™ 2 Tymora Worship in the Realms 2 Tyr Worship and Divine Power ,..;',.. 3 Umberlee Spheres of Godly Influence 4 Waukeen 176 Spheres of Influence Map 3 Divine Immigrants 4 Appendix 1: Priest Classes 182 The Birth of Powers 4 Default Class Characteristics 182 The Death of Powers. Expanded Priest Experience Levels Table 182 Multispheric Powers, or Is Tiamat Dead or Not? 14| Racial Class Limitations and Level Restrictions 183 The Time of Troubles 15 Racial Class and Level Limits Table 183 Being Dead 15 Kit Usage 183 Back From the Dead 15 Spheres of Access 183 Divine Abilities 15 Religion-Specific Spells and Spheres 183 Ao, the Over-Power 15 Sphere Corrections 18 5 All FORGOTTEN REALMS' Setting Deities 16 Paladins and Rangers 183 Greater Powers 16 Cleric 183 Intermediate Powers 16 Crusader 184 Lesser Powers 17 Druid 184 Demipowers 17 Monk 185 Avatars 17 Mystic 186 Members of the Clergy 18 Brewing Potions and Ointments 186 Priests and Deities 19 Candle Magic 187 Nonhuman Clergy, Priests, and Followers 20 Shaman 187 Running Realms Powers 20 Shaman Spirit Powers 188 Format of Deity Entries 20 Shaman Spirit Progression Table 188 Extended Calculated THACOs Table 22 Calling Spirits 189 Extended Priest Spell Progression Table 22 Extended Wizard Spell Progression Table 22 Appendix 2: Spell Index 190 Extended Bard Spell Progression Table 22 Credits Faerunian Pantheon 23 Design: Julia Martin with Eric L. Boyd Akadi 23 Additional Design: Ed Greenwood, L. Richard Baker HI, and David Wise Amaunator 27 Design Assistance: Kate Grubb Ao 30 Project Coordinator: Thomas M. Reid Auril 30 Cover Art: Alan Pollack Azuth 34 New Priest Color Plates: Victotia Lisi Bane 36 Priest Color Plates: Ned Dameron Beshaba 42 Interior Illustration: Earl Geier Bhaal Sample44 New fileDeity Symbols: Earl Geier Chauntea 47 Deity Symbols: Paula M. Holz Cync 51 Color Cartography: Dennis Kauth Deneir 54 Interior Page Layout Design: Dee Barnett Eldath 57 Interior Page Layout Art: Red Hughes Gond 62 Typesetting: Ttacey L. Isler Grumbar 66 Production: Shan Ren and Terry Craig Helm 68 Ibrandul 71 Special thanks to Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Brion Babula, and Ilmater 75 Robert L. Nichols for reviewing this manuscript. Istishia 78 Iyachtu Xvim 82 For Moonlion, for being so very patient. Kelemvor 84 Kossuth 88 ADVANCED DUNGEONS 6* DRAGONS, AD&D, DUNGEON MASTER, FORGOTTEN REALMS, MONSTROUS Lathander 90 COMPENDIUM, RAVENLOFT, and GREYHAWK are registered ttademarks owned by TSR, Inc. ARCANE Leira 93 AGE, ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA, MONSTROUS MANUAL, PLAYER'S OPTION, PLANESCAPE and the TSR Lliira 96 logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Loviatar .....100 All TSR characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Malar 105 ©1996 TSR, Inc All rights reserved Printed in U.S.A. Mask 109 Random House and its affiliate companies have worldwide distribution fights in the book trade tor Mielikki 112 English language products of TSR, Inc. Milil 116 Distributed to the book and hobby trade m the United Kingdom by TSR, Ltd. Moander 119 Distributed in the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Myrkul 124 This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduc- Mystra 128 tion or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork printed herein is prohibited without the ex- Oghma 131 press written permission of TSR. Inc Selune 134 9516XXX1501 ISBN 0-7869-0384-8 Shar 138 Shaundakul 142 TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. Silvanus 145 201 Sheridan Springs Rd. 120 Church End Sune 149 Lake Geneva Cherry Hinton Talona 152 WI53147 Cambridge, CB1 3LB Talos 155 U.S.A. United Kingdom POWERS OF THE REALMS n the Forgotten Realms, the gods and goddesses of the Realms are referred to as powers. This usage is followed throughout Faiths & Avatars. The revised FORGOTTEN REALMS* Campaign Setting box categorizes all the Realms' powers as greater powers, intermediate powers, lesser powers, dead powers, quasi-powers, over-powers, nonhuman powers, and alien powers. Faiths & Avatars dispenses with the quasi-power category and places all powers previously ranked as quasi-powers somewhere within the categories of greater, intermediate, lesser, and demipowers. (The functions of demipowers are described here, but the demipowers themselves will be dealt with in another work.) Dead powers also are rated within this system according to their former statuses. The function of the over-power, Ao, is described within this introductory chapter, but a brief discussion of Ao as a power and his cult is also included in the Faerunian Pantheon chapter. The nonhuman powers of the Realms—the elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, drow, ore, and other nonhuman pantheons—are not dealt with in Faiths & Avatars. For information on those deities and their spe- cialty priesthoods, consult Monster Mythology, Drow of the Underdark, Dwarves' Deep, Elves of Evermeet, Giantcraft, the Draconomicon and other FORGOTTEN REALMS setting products, as well as the numerous PLANESCAPE® campaign setting products detailing the different planes of existence in the AD&D8 game. (Future sourcebooks on the deities of the Realms will deal with these popular nonhuman powers.) The alien powers present a problem in that many deities now considered "native" Faerunian powers were once alien powers. They traveled to the Realms through many transdimensional migrations that have occurred on Abeir-Toril over the millennia. The powers dealt with in Faiths & Avatars are those that are worshiped in Faerun, the region of Abeir-Toril that is generally considered to encompass every- thing from Evermeet in the northwest and the jungles of Chult in the southwest to the lands of the Shining South in the south and the Great Glacier in the north and to be bordered by Kara-Tur in the east and Zakhara in the far southeast. The pantheons of Maztica, Zakhara, and Kara-Tur are not cov- ered in this work, and though Chult and Mulhorand are generally considered to be part of Faerun, their pantheons are significantly different from that of the bulk of Faerun and are not described in this work (though they may be detailed in future accessories of this type) Worship in the Realms The religions of the Forgotten Realms are not monotheistic. They are polytheistic. This is difficult for many role-playing game players to understand, as most real-world nonoriental religions of the modern era are monotheistic. In polytheistiSamplec religions, multiple deitiefiles are worshiped, usually in groups called pantheons (meaning all the gods of a people). In the Realms, the religion of Mulhorand involves the worship of a family of deities. The religion practiced over most of Faerun involves the worship of a collection of powers who are not generally related by blood. The religion practiced in Chult is the worship of but two deities and a collection of ancestral, place, and animal spirits, along with a regard for the force of nature. The philosophy of the Shining Lands of Durpat, Var the Golden, and Estagund sees all things in the world as connected and part of a single creation spirit, the Adama or the One; all the many powers of the Realms are different aspects of the One, and consequently the Shining Lands are some of the most religiously tolerant in the Realms, with literally all deities being reverenced here (although the Faerunian pantheon holds the Shining Lands within its sphere of influence—see below). All of these religions involve the worship of multiple powers within a pantheon, although not neces- sarily multiple pantheons. This is the normal state of affairs in the Realms. Thus, in abstract it is really ridiculous to think of one deity of the Realms becoming angry at a wor- shiper just for worshiping another deity. What matters to a particular Realms power is not that a fol- lower worships someone else—most everyone in the Realms worships several someone elses—but rather which other powers are venerated and which are appeased, and how serious a person's offerings and worship are to other deities. Some pantheons even do not care if their worshipers also venerate deities from other pantheons. It is also rather silly to think of a particular temple having a congregation that is exclusive only to it, except in special cases. The folk of the Realms worship in many places, and they worship the powers both by venerating them and by placating them. If a person has a high regard for knowledge or is a singer or bard in most of Faerun, she or he worships Oghma. But if that same person is planning an ocean voyage in winter, she or he also worships Auril and Umberlee by placating them with offerings to persuade them to allow the trip to proceed safely. Most folk have a handful of powers that they regularly venerate, only appeasing an unpleasant power when they are entering or engaged in a situation where that deity holds sway. Most people in the Realms also eventually settle on a sort of patron deity who they are most comfortable venerating and who they hold in the greatest reverence. A person's patron deity is the power that eventually escorts that person's spirit trom the Fugue Plain, the place where spirits go right after people die, to its afterlife as a petitioner in the Outer Planes in the realm (or at least the plane) of its patron deity. (Those who 2 • POWERS OPTHL REALMS .—i y Celestial Bureaucracy of Kara-Tur Disputed I Territory on Spheres of Godly Influence firmly deny any faith or have only given lip service most of their lives and that allowed lyachtu Xvim to suddenly rise from demipower to lesser never ttuly believed are known as the Faithless aftet death.

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