Post by Velaryon on Mar 20, 2009 1:01:27 GMT -5
We haven't played a lot of games in the Forgotten Realms, I thought I ought to make this post to let you guys know how religion is perceived differently in Faerun than in, say, the real world.
For starters, it is acknowledged by most (if not all) Faerunians that the gods are real. There has been ample physical evidence of this, not only because clerics and other divine casters are able to receive spells, but because the gods themselves have had a physical presence in the world several times. In fact, there was one time 17 years ago or so that all the gods took mortal form at once. Several gods were slain during this time, and new gods were created.
Although some gods have existed since the beginning of the world (or nearly that long anyway), many others began life as mortals, and ascended to divinity at some point during their life. This is obviously a rare occurrence, but it does happen.
Practically everyone in Faerun has a patron (or matron deity), whether it just be a god that they pay lip service to for whatever reason, or because they identify with that god's beliefs, or perhaps because that god shows them favor. Atheism is extremely uncommon in Faerun, mostly because the gods are known to exist beyond any reasonable doubt.
Although many do not actively worship a deity, and most do not necessarily make offerings to only a single god, nearly everyone has at least one god that they prefer or nominally consider themselves a follower of. This is because of what is known about the Faerunian afterlife.
When people in Faerun die, their souls go to their god's domain. If they have no god, then their soul spends eternity in a sort of purgatory on the plane of Kelemvor, the god of death. This is hardly a pleasant existence, though it's not exactly the eternal torment of hell either.
There are hundreds of gods in Faerun. Most races even have their own pantheons. The elves have at least a dozen gods, the drow have at least another six, and the dwarves have even more. That's in addition to all the standard gods.
For starters, it is acknowledged by most (if not all) Faerunians that the gods are real. There has been ample physical evidence of this, not only because clerics and other divine casters are able to receive spells, but because the gods themselves have had a physical presence in the world several times. In fact, there was one time 17 years ago or so that all the gods took mortal form at once. Several gods were slain during this time, and new gods were created.
Although some gods have existed since the beginning of the world (or nearly that long anyway), many others began life as mortals, and ascended to divinity at some point during their life. This is obviously a rare occurrence, but it does happen.
Practically everyone in Faerun has a patron (or matron deity), whether it just be a god that they pay lip service to for whatever reason, or because they identify with that god's beliefs, or perhaps because that god shows them favor. Atheism is extremely uncommon in Faerun, mostly because the gods are known to exist beyond any reasonable doubt.
Although many do not actively worship a deity, and most do not necessarily make offerings to only a single god, nearly everyone has at least one god that they prefer or nominally consider themselves a follower of. This is because of what is known about the Faerunian afterlife.
When people in Faerun die, their souls go to their god's domain. If they have no god, then their soul spends eternity in a sort of purgatory on the plane of Kelemvor, the god of death. This is hardly a pleasant existence, though it's not exactly the eternal torment of hell either.
There are hundreds of gods in Faerun. Most races even have their own pantheons. The elves have at least a dozen gods, the drow have at least another six, and the dwarves have even more. That's in addition to all the standard gods.
