Chapter 3: Gods of Faerûn

New and Foreign Gods

The Faerûnian pantheon isn't the only one on Toril. Elves, dwarves, and other Humanoid species honor their own gods, for example, and people in faraway lands might worship different gods entirely. Occasionally, foreigners bring the worship of these gods to Faerûn. On rare occasions, a new god comes into being, perhaps a mortal elevated to godhood or a deity whose arrival was foretold by prophets and leaders of new religions. In cosmopolitan places such as x and Calimport, small shrines and temples to strange gods spring up from time to time.

Over generations, a new god might join the pantheon. Scholars posit that Faerûn has many such gods who joined the pantheon's ranks so long ago that their origins are lost to antiquity.

Dead and Resurrected Gods

Over and over, mourning bells have tolled for deities of the Realms. Gods were struck down when ancient Netheril fell during the Time of Troubles and more recently when the Spellplague wrought its destruction. Some deities have even been slain by mortals wielding impossibly powerful magic.

When a god withdraws from a pantheon, miracles and omens associated with that god cease, the deity's priesthood loses faith, and holy sites are abandoned or taken over by other faiths. Clerics devoted to a dead deity don't lose their ability to access divine power and cast spells; once that power has been unlocked, it can't be taken away by the mere death of a deity.

To a deity's worshipers, it is immaterial whether the god is truly dead or merely dormant—the consequences for them are the same either way. Yet, as recent events have borne out, a god who has vanished might not remain absent forever. Supposedly dead gods have returned and amassed a new body of worshipers, most notably in the Second Sundering, when several gods long presumed dead reappeared or returned to life.

Temples and Shrines

The core religious institutions of Faerûn are temples and shrines. Whether a small, out-of-the-way building or a complex of multiple structures built on many acres of land, each temple operates according to the traditions of its faith. Occasionally, powerful or charismatic figures who rise to prominence within the temple hierarchy motivate or inspire changes to those traditions.

Temples in Faerûn don't usually conduct regular public services. Group observances in a temple occur only at specific festival times, and priests go out into the community to perform rites such as marriages and funerals. Worshipers visit temples to spend personal or family time in a space consecrated to a deity or to seek the aid of the priests for personal reasons.

Small shrines and private chapels are common throughout Faerûn, particularly in areas that lack an official temple. Shrines tend to be unstaffed, kept up by the locals and visitors who use the place for prayer. A shrine might be as modest as a roadside well where traveling merchants can drop a coin to request good fortune from Waukeen, or as grand as a statue of Amaunator surrounded by braziers in a pavilion in the middle of a village.

Traveling priests visit these sites, which serve as meeting places for the faithful. For example, when word gets around that a traveling priest of Eldath has come into town, the faithful seek them out at the holy spring at the edge of town dedicated to the god.

Personal shrines abound: A family or business maintains a shrine or a chapel to its favored deity. A fighting school sets a room aside for a lanceboard set dedicated to the Red Knight, or a local mage displays a wooden symbol shaped like the hand of Azuth on a prominent wall, with a space nearby to burn a candle or incense.

Communing with the Gods

Though tales speak of times past when the gods appeared in physical form and walked the land, deities rarely appear in Faerûn. Instead, the gods communicate with their faithful through signs and omens. Of course, some signs are subtler—and thus more open to interpretation—than others.

Priests and worshipers commune with their deities through prayer, song, and meditation. Such experiences are intensely personal, and few worshipers care to relate details of such profound vulnerability. Each worshiper communes with their deity in their own way.

Divine magic provides a direct means of communing with the gods and calling on their guidance. Divine pronouncements of this sort are often brief and personal, and edicts that concern broader matters tend to be open to interpretation or debate.

Priesthood

Priesthood is a vocation, where those who undertake the profession hone their abilities through a system of apprenticeship. At a small temple, a novice or an acolyte studies under the single priest available. Larger temples accommodate groups of acolytes, each learning under the direction of one or more mentors responsible for training them in performing the gods' rites and tending their followers.

Once an acolyte completes their education, they are ordained in a ritual that invests a successful candidate with the responsibilities of the priesthood.

Religion and the Law

The moral and ethical values of the deities in Faerûn express a range of predilections and are embraced by mortals who share those ideals, from principled agents of good to vicious proponents of evil. As a result, worship of certain deities might be frowned on in some places.

It's impossible to prevent individuals from innocuously or secretly worshiping whichever deities they choose, so restrictions on the worship of specific deities focus on formal temples, priesthoods, and organized festivals. For instance, worship of Talona is forbidden in x, like that of many evil gods. This prohibition extends only to the creation of a temple and the presence of her priesthood within the city. Individual citizens or families who revere Talona might be viewed as misguided, but they aren't taken into custody or punished as long as they obey the laws of the city.

Some places take these restrictions a step further. A tyrant might outlaw worship of Torm lest it inspire rebellion, and an otherwise fair-minded mayor of a river-mill community could demand that worshipers of Silvanus find elsewhere to live because the timber cutters have had run-ins with the local druids.

Chosen

When a deity wants to take direct action, they turn to their Chosen, powerful mortal agents of a deity. Some deities rely more heavily on Chosen than others, but it's unusual for a deity to go without a Chosen, and most deities imbue several Chosen at the same time.

How a deity selects their Chosen, and the unique magic they grant to those Chosen, varies by deity. In rare cases, an individual might not realize they're Chosen.