18 replies to this topic

[-JR-]

What gods do your Baldur's Gate PCs worship, or even pay slight homage to? Not just your main choice: list all you have ever used if possible. Does anyone use race-specific pantheons that their character's race does not match? Does anyone ever stray into the Maztican or Kara-Turan deities?

This actually does have a point in the end; it's not just out of boredom.

[Ipsissimus]

Oh, come on, why'd you have to post this at G3 too?

Calling all Forgotten Realms enthusiasts: I'm not sure if most race-specific deities would accept a worshiper of another race. Maybe the halfling pantheon would.

One of my PCs worships Ao, so she's basically Faithless. The others... Aerdrie Faenya, Bahamut, Sehanine, Sune, Sharess, Milil, Silvanus, Labelas Enoreth, and Kelemvor. I think that's it.

[Miloch]

Never really gave it much thought since I rarely play clerical types. I've always thought my half-orc characters vaguely paid heed to Gruumsh, but in the same sort of way Conan pays heed to Crom (figures he's out there, but never asks nor expects any aid from him).

As for Maztican deities, there are no Maztican characters I know of, though that would be pretty cool (if you had a good story for how he/she came to Faerun). I've reckoned Tamoko might worship Hachiman of the Kara-Turan pantheon (as mentioned here) but that's probably the only thought I've given to that.

Edit:

I'm not sure if most race-specific deities would accept a worshiper of another race.

Quite a few do, I think (check Aerie's worship of a gnomish god; some of the elven gods accept centaur followers, etc.)

Edited by Miloch, 10 May 2010 - 07:44 PM.

[Choo Choo]

Moved to BG/BGII forum.

The Bhaalspawn I almost always play is my dear, elven kensai, who worships the Seldarine - Sehanine Moonbow, in particular.

I've got a half-elven bard whom I very rarely play with, who worships Milil.

[Philiposophy]

At the end of ToB, I just worship myself

[vilkacis]

..."worship"? Arcanists don't <i>worship</i> gods. We ambush them in parking lots, beat them up and steal their lunch money.


"Forgotten Realms" has the worst gods ever. I'm thinking the Athar have the right idea.

[-JR-]

Thanks for the input. Keep it coming if you can?

[vilkacis]

...to give a serious answer, some form of "atheism" isn't entirely unlikely, but of the FR gods one would typically have access to, Oghma is probably the most likely. (Boccob might work as well, but I don't think he's an option in FR.)

[-JR-]

Faithlessness, Oghma, Tymora, and Ao are the ones that will be initially suggested, and then a way to access lists of good, neutral, evil, and nature-oriented deities to pick from.

Trying to figure out how many choices would be too many... don't want to blow up anyone's computer.

[Miloch]

...to give a serious answer, some form of "atheism" isn't entirely unlikely

Well, it sort of is in the FR, where the gods had actually been observed walking the planet fairly recently. So it's kind of hard to logically disbelieve in them, though whether you believe they're "divine" or worthy of worship is where that might come into play. But then, I think all that polytheism comes down to is a recognition that "gods" exist and can actually impact your world and/or life - you don't actually need to pray to them or whatever.

[Bluenose]

In a polytheistic society I don't think most people would worship a single god. They'd pray to whoever seemed most appropriate at the time. So even if you're a farmer and mostly pray to Chauntea, if the village militia was called out for a battle you'd still offer a prayer to Tempus before it. Even if you don't know the proper words.

That said, while I haven't always thought about it, for some of my characters I've had an idea which god/dess they worshipped.

Mages: Mystra, Azuth, Savras (specialist Diviner)
Clerics: Sune, Lathander, Auril
Rangers: Meilikki, Sehanine Moonbow
Fighters: Tempus, Red Knight, Gond
Thieves: Mask, Erevan Ilesere
Druid: Silvanus
Sorcerer: Azuth
Barbarian: Tempus
Elf F/MU: Corellon

[berelinde]

According to FR lore, Bluenose is right... with a modifier. A farmer whose patron is Chauntea would say a prayer to Tempus if the militia was called, *but* he would only have one patron deity, Chauntea. Every person on Toril has one patron deity, and those who don't are rare indeed. After death, a soul travels to Fugue Plane, where the avatar of the person's deity claims it. Faithless, those who either don't have a patron or whose worship is superficial, are not claimed, but are consigned to the Wall of the Faithless. Lemurs attempt to pull souls out of the Wall to steal in order to make them slaves in the Abyss, but if a soul isn't stolen, it gradually dissolves into the Wall and becomes nothing. And that's probably a great deal more than most people want to know about atheism in the Forgotten Realms.

[Lysan Lurraxol]

In my current playthroughs - Mystra and Kossuth

Other favourites include Shar, Talona, Loviatar, Lathander and Leira. Evil death goddesses FTW

[Deathblade Prime]

@berelinde

The Wall of the Faithless was created by the Dead god Myrkul, in which he also created the Spirit Eater curse, as seen in NWN2 MotB.

My favorite Deity is Eilistraee, Patron Goddess of the Dark Elves/Good Drows, she shall always be mourned since 1379 DR.

[-JR-]

I think both sides of the debate are right; true atheism in the Forgotten Realms is rare, since the gods are right there for everyone to see, but there are faithless people like Valygar aplenty, people who admit the gods exist but ignore or disdain them.

Thanks for all the input. Feel free to keep it coming.

[berelinde]

Heh. Wall of the Faithless was not created by Myrkul, nor was it created for MotB. Kelemvor created it. Kelemvor is a relatively new deity at the time of BG2 and the Wall of the Faithless will not have been in place for very long, less than a decade, in all probability. This is a mild contradiction of what the Forgotten Realms Wiki has to say in the Wall of the Faithless article, but the latter article is concerned only with the events of MotB. The article on Kelemvor, however, uses the actual books as references, so I'm more inclined to believe it. The Kelemvor article doesn't mention the spirit eater curse at all, which is hardly surprising, since I suspect that the only reason the spirit eater curse was instituted was to prevent the PC from resting every time he got in a fight. In other words, it was invented to make MotB gameplay more challenging, not because it has any basis in lore. The disclaimer at the bottom of the spirit eater page says it all "This article is about an element from the game Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, and so some content may not be canon [sic]."

[Deathblade Prime]

I've read the entire article on Kelemvor and nowhere was it written that he created the Wall of the Faithless during his Godhood nor during his mortal life before being killed by Cyric with the God's Bane in the Time of Troubles. In the beginning, he was judging with a bias view of the Faithless and False souls of Honorable and Virtuous mortals.

He was later exposed by Cyric then forced by the Circle of Greater Gods to change his criteria of Judgment to the False and the Faithless and this eventually destroyed his relationship with Mystra aka Midnight. Due to those changed criteria when judging Adon, who was driven mad by Cyric making him Faithless when he died.

Therefore, the Wall was created during Myrkul reign as Lord of the Dead. So if any avid Forgotten Realm players can refute this, then show me the exact line on the exact web page.

I did my research.

[Miloch]

Faiths & Avatars (the definitive reference on the subject, at least for 2nd ed. aka "The One True Edition" ) suggests the Wall had been in existence for some time, and that Kelemvor did not create it, but "the new lord of the dead, may soon rename it" (p. 3).

Moreover, it suggests that most folk in the Realms do not have a personal deity, but rather "a handful of powers that they regularly venerate" and that only priests revere just one particular deity. But then it contradicts this just a sentence later too: "Most people in the Realms also eventually setlle 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 from the Fuge Plain, the place where spirits go right after people die, to its afterlife as a petitioner in the Outer Planes..." Well, it's a contradiction but for that first "eventually" I suppose. Apart from mention of the Faithless, it doesn't say what becomes of the folks who don't live long enough to revere (or otherwise settle on) a particular deity.

[Vherdel]

Well I had a priest of talos once, but usually my assassin worships himself, as he wil lbecome the true lord of murder anyway.
Other characters mostly worship the dead three gods ( Bhaal, Myrkul, Bane ), and others sometimes worship Mask, Olidammara or Cyric.

And of course Ardenor Crush, the overfather.