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Home , Age of Mortals, Alan Pollack, Alias (Forgotten Realms), Crystal Spheres, Julia Martin, Monster Mythology

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 ,..;',.. 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 ' 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: with Eric L. Boyd Akadi 23 Additional Design: , L. Richard Baker HI, and David Wise Amaunator 27 Design Assistance: Kate Grubb Ao 30 Project Coordinator: Thomas M. Reid Auril 30 Cover Art: Azuth 34 New Priest Color Plates: Victotia Lisi Bane 36 Priest Color Plates: 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, , FORGOTTEN REALMS, MONSTROUS Lathander 90 COMPENDIUM, , and are registered ttademarks owned by TSR, Inc. ARCANE Leira 93 AGE, ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA, MONSTROUS MANUAL, PLAYER'S OPTION, 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* box categorizes all the Realms' powers as greater powers, intermediate powers, lesser powers, dead pow- ers, 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 , dwarf, gnome, , , ore, and other nonhu- man pantheons—are not dealt with in Faiths & Avatars. For information on those deities and their spe- cialty priesthoods, consult , Drow of the , Dwarves' Deep, Elves of Evermeet, Giantcraft, the 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 in the southwest to the lands of the Shining South in the south and 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 col- lection 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 (al- though 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. They ate power), but such "spiking" of the system must be reinfotced by stable, formed into a living wall around the City of Strife—Kelemvor, the new lord long-tetm worship or the quickly gained power leaches away within a few of the dead, may soon tename it—in the tealm of the dead in OinoSamples in the month files or a year. The mechanism is totally transparent to mortals, and Gray Waste and left thete until they dissolve. The unearthly gteenish mold while the powers can guess roughly how it works, they cannot discern its that holds the wall together eventually destroys them. The False, those who precise nature or its quirks so as to exploit any divine loopholes. intentionally betrayed a faith they believed in and to which they made a With the powers in competition for worship, scholarly folk have occa- personal commitment, are relegated to eternal punishment in the City of sionally wondered why strong deities do not simply kill the weaker ones, Sttife aftet their case is ruled upon by Kelemvor in the Crystal Spire thus thinning the field of competition, and why any deity would choose (Kelemvor's abode in the City of Strife). to serve another. Learned and philosophical priests and monks have de- Some folk of Faerun choose to devote their lives to a particular god. veloped a theory that explains this. Weaker deities sometimes serve Most often these people are priests; others belong to other classes, such as deities higher than they ate in tank because the stronger powers have paladins or mages. These folk are expected to be loyal to their faith because promised to protect them from the divine predations of other deities. In of the commitment they have personally sworn to a power, although they exchange, the weaker deities provide more hands for the greater power to may respect the faiths of other deities who their deity serves or is allied to. use toward its ends. Often, especially among evil deities, thete seems to be an almost extortionistic aspect to this relationship. Perhaps, scholars Worship and Divine Power speculate, weaker powers sometimes pay some amount of their divine power to sttonger powers to strengthen this arrangement, or perhaps The powers of the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting are divided into different stronger powers who are receiving a lot of worship threaten to "squeeze categories: greater, lesser, intermediate, and demipower The ranking (and out" weaker powers or outright destroy them if the weaket deities do not relative power) of a deity in the Realms is determined by the numbet and swear to serve them and provide a tithe of divine power. If this is ttue, it devotion of a power's followers. Without worship, powers wither, declining would seem to provide an explanation as to why powers whose portfolios in deific rank and ability, and can even perish. seem to overlap tend toward this arrangement. Presumably only similar Exactly how much worship and how many followers it takes for powers divine energy can be shared or passed on willingly from power to power. to rise (or sink) within the ranks is unknown. It is evident that some sort The hierarchies of the gods of fury, with Talos ruling over Auril, Malar, of divine formula for the rating of deific ability has been enacted by Ao, and Umberlee; many of the gods of nature, with Silvanus ranking over El- but he has never revealed it even to the powets themselves. The divine dath and Mielikki; the gods of justice and duty, with Tyr leading Ilmater mechanism for powers to rise and fall in rank operates smoothly and with- and Torm; and the gods of bardic knowledge, with Oghma leading Deneir, out anyone to control it. It accounts fot the worship of followers devoted Lliira, and Milil, are revealed as pragmatic and possibly less than benevo- to only one deity and the more casual worship of the average inhabitant of lent when viewed in the light of this theory. Presumably the beneficent or the Realms of several or many powers. It may be influenced temporarily by extortionistic qualities of such arrangements are established by the moral the use of powerful worship ceremonies or artifacts (such as the ceremony inclinations of the powers involved. POWERS OF THE REALMS -3 J Spheres of Godly Influence sphere they found themselves in In the second case t Jn ine struggle for • dominance ensued, and one power won (usually after a short and spectacu- The powers active on Abeir-Toril have broken the surface of the world up lar battle, but sometimes after years of manipulation and divine intrigue). into different areas over which they have spheres of influence. Different pan- The loser either was banished from the Realms or was reduced to the level theon groups, for want of a better term, have dominion over different areas of of a demipower and lingered on. If, however, the Realms sphere of influ- the globe. As can be seen on the Spheres of Influence (found earlier in this ence in the crystal sphere the new immigrants moved to lacked any deity chapter) map, the Maztican pantheon rules Maztica, the Zakharan pantheon with the portfolio of a deity worshiped by these immigrants, the immigrant *^ has dominion over Zakhara, the Celestial Bureaucracy of Kara-Tur rules deity was free to cross over to this new crystal sphere and sphere of influ- Kara-Tur, the Faerunian pantheon has dominion over the majority of Faerun, ence uncontested, and in most cases did so. Such immigration-induced flux and the Chultan pantheon holds sway in Chult. The Mulhorandi pantheon was common within the Faerunian pantheon, which had many waves of holds ultimate power in Mulhorand and Murghom and holds equal power immigrants after the spheres of influence were formalized. with the Faerunian pantheon in Unther (a land that has undergone the most volatile recent divine restructuring), Chessenta, and the desert of Raurin. The Birth of Powers A pantheon holds ultimate sway within its own sphere of influence (if it is uncontested). Priests from other pantheons may cross into its sphere of Powers can come into existence in a number of ways. In the Realms, al- influence, receive spells, and remain relatively unnoticed and unmolested though some powers are described as being the children of other powers, by the deities whose sphere of influence they are in provided they do not at- these births seem to be more a convenient way to describe the relationsh.il tempt to convert the inhabitants of the region, set up a temple, or engage in among deities than an actual method for new powers to come into exis- a holy . Any of these last activities provokes a pantheon to act in its tence. At least, no power is believed to have ever directly given birth to an- own self-interest. At this point, most powers have their priesthoods or other while mortals were in existence. One power, Tyche, split into two knightly/military orders take action to eject the foreign influence (most deities, Beshaba and Tymora, and this occurrence has had precedent. good and neutral deities) or expunge it (most evil powers). When necessary, powers seem to be able to carve themselves into at least Disputes between pantheons and even between members of a particular two separate pieces, with at least one of the parts becoming an entirely dif- pantheon are usually settled by meetings of the Circle of Powers in the Pavil- ferent being. ion of Cynosure on a demiplane floating somewhere in the Ethereal Plane, Long before the Time of Troubles, Ao evidently created some of the which is held as neutral ground by all powers active in the Realms and pro- powers of the Realms, as well as the crystal sphere of . However, vides an open forum for all parties involved in a dispute. A fundamental prin- he left the Realms powers to change and evolve for millennia untold before ciple upheld by all pantheons active in the Realms is the essential sover- deciding that he needed to readjust the balance of the Realms and set in eignty of a pantheon within its sphere of influence and, consequently, its motion the events of the Time of Troubles. right to act when threatened by agents of another sphere of influence. During those millennia, the powers split themselves, gave birth, killed The Faerunian and Mulhorandi pantheons hold codominion over Un- each other, raised sufficiently powerful mortals to godhood, and welcomed ther, Chessenta, and the desert of Raurin at the moment. It is yet to be seen wave upon wave of emigrant powers, brought by waves of mortal emigra- who will gain ultimate sovereignty in Unther, as until recently its borders tion from other spheres, into their ranks. They were unchecked in their defined the sphere of influence of the now-defunct Untheric pantheon. At proliferation and self-destruction. Only after the Time of Troubles did Ao the moment, the two pantheons remain distantly cordial with each other take an active part in the generation of new powers, the resurrection of and are taking a "wait-and-see" attitude toward the situation. The sleeping dead Realms powers, and permission or denial of the emigration of multi- powers of Mulhorand, so long content to remain within its ancient borders, spheric powers into the Realms. have been roused by the Godswar to a more active role and are trying for After the Time of Troubles, in order for a candidate for divinity to attain the first time in centuries to actually gain more worshipers. The Faerunian godhood, Ao must give his consent. He does this either formally in a presen- pantheon is the more vigorous one at the moment in acquiring new wor- tation ceremony carried out beyond the eyes of mortals or informally by al- shipers in Unther, but the Mulhorandi pantheon has a substantial estab- lowing a being to become a deity in the Realms. Usually a mortal attempts to lished base of the faithful since Ishtar, superficially a power of Unther, was become a deity through the accumulation of power, the use of arcane rituals, actually an under which Isis, a Mulhorandi power, worked for cen- the use of artifacts, the sponsorship of an already-established power, or some turies in Unther. combination of these. At some point in the process, Ao makes a decision. If Sample thafilet decision is "no," the candidate does not become a deity. Divine Immigrants Often in attempts to attain divine status through powerful rituals or the use of artifacts, failure (in the form of a tacit "no" from Ao) results in the When Abeir-Toril was young, the human deities of the Realms were not so mortal becoming a lich, being transformed into some other form of odd un- formal about their spheres of influence because their worshipers were not so dead creature, or being totally destroyed. Usually if a divine power is in- crowded together on the sphere of Toril as to likely ever encounter one an- volved in some sort of sponsorship of a candidate before Ao, a rejection other. For a long time, a human pantheon would simply stake out a claim on means that the mortal either continues on in life, hoping to overcome a continent or large geographic area uncontested. Entire human pantheons whatever the cause of Ao's rejection was and to be given a second chance, or subsets of pantheons from other found homes on the conti- or passes on into the afterlife to become a powerful servant of the sponsor- nents of Toril in this way. They did not worry about other human pantheons ing deity in the Outer Planes. Ao is never obliged to explain his decisions. with deities who claimed similar portfolios living a whole continent away. In game terms, in order to even attempt an ascent into godhood, a mor- Eventually, though, pantheons started to see intermixture between their tal in the FORGOTTEN REALMS setting should have achieved at least level worshipers as various groups wandered across the face of Toril, and they 25, have one attribute score of 21 or above, and have another attribute began to worry about how to deal with the threat to their power base that score of at least 19. She or he must then spend a great deal of time re- such immigrations caused. As a solution to this, they agreed on the forma- searching methods to attain divinity, come up with a plan for doing so, and tion of the spheres of influence discussed above. Within these spheres of in- confront great peril in order to execute that plan. The plan must always in- fluence, while more than one deity may have similar portfolios, no more volve at least two of these three things: the performance of a specially re- than one of such parallel powers can ascend in deific stature to a higher searched ceremony or spell of elaborate complexity, great cost, and great rank than demipower. personal danger; the use of an artifact; or the sponsorship of a deity. If a wave of transpheric immigration occurred (most often brought on by If all of these conditions are met, the DM may, at his option, allow Ao to a gate opening), the mortals who emigrated to the Realms continued wor- smile upon the attempt and elect to invest the character with demipower shiping their old deities. If the Realms sphere of influence those people im- status. Characters granted such status become part of the culture's pan- migrated to already had powers who possessed the same portfolios as the theon. If they are player characters, they are removed from play and treated immigrants' old powers, one of two things would normally happen: either as a demipower from that point on. the worship of the immigrants would go to the already-established Realms powers or the immigrant powers would cross to the new crystal sphere and The Death of Powers battle with the old Realms' deities for control of the contested portfolio. In the first case, the power now receiving new worship would eventually in- Powers can die. They have done so numerous times in the history of the form his or her new clergy and worshipers of the appropriate changes to Realms. Dead powers have also returned from the dead numerous times in make in their behavior, dress, or theology to accommodate the new crystal the Realms. So how can a power die?

4 • EOWERS OF THE REALMS Sample file

Priest of Azuth Priest of Auril

Priest of Kossuth Minister of Ao

POWERS OF THE REALMS • 5 Sample file

Priest of Akadi

Priest of Beshab Priest of Eldath

6 • POWERS OF THE REALMS