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EltonRobb
Learned Scribe
USA
134 Posts |
 Posted - 06 Mar 2025 : 17:22:13
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While looking for certain mods for Skyrim, I noticed a magical statue mod that will train you in certain skills. So, bringing this to the Forgotten Realms, do you make use of magical statues?
How do you use magical statues in your Realms? Are they something odd? Are they worshipped? Do they speak? Do they throw fireballs?
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Seethyr
Master of Realmslore
USA
1187 Posts |
Posted - 07 Mar 2025 : 02:38:59
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| I wrote an adventure where a dungeon (in Maztica ) had statues of all of the different Maztican gods. You could “attune” to any one of them simply by touching it and it would grant you some sort of blessing or ability but only one at a time and only while in the dungeon. Each statue’s granted ability had some connection to the deity in question (related to their portfolio, etc). Also, each blessing gave a distinct advantage on different encounters within the dungeon itself. Destroyed statues resulted in temporary cursed, as did any attempts at trying to bring them out of the dungeon. |
Follow the Maztica (Aztec/Maya) and Anchorome (Indigenous North America) Campaigns on DMsGuild!
The Maztica Campaign
The Anchorome Campaign |
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bloodtide_the_red
Learned Scribe
USA
305 Posts |
Posted - 10 Mar 2025 : 03:22:40
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I do follow the standard D&D trope that 'most' statues are often anmate or magical traps. Nearly like 50% of all 'statues' are animated monsters. And a lot of other ones might be a 'magic item', like a classic dragon statue that breathes fire.
There are plenty of "statue monsters" in Realmslore, and I'll use them all. Gargolyes are the uber classic 'statue monster'. Ed Greenwood quite often uses gargolyes as monsters in both adventures and novels. |
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Gelcur
Senior Scribe
533 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2025 : 02:43:59
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Statues fill lots of roles, guardian (gargoyles, caryatid columns, golems, traps), treasure (worth something as an art piece or to a religion), information (the old magic mouth on a statue).
I like having statues contain secret compartments but only usable if the statue is interacted with in a certain way. Slip a sword in an empty scabard, three tugs on the codpiece like so, etc.
I've wanted to find a reason to have a statue have all the memories of a creature (but not their soul). Like a Tel'kiira that you can't tote around and requires long drawn out conversations to get the answer out of. But I always found Dixie Flatline from Neuromancer fascinating. Not sure what players would make of it. |
The party come to a town befallen by hysteria
Rogue: So what's in the general store?
DM: What are you looking for?
Rogue: Whatevers in the store.
DM: Like what?
Rogue: Everything.
DM: There is a lot of stuff.
Rogue: Is there a cart outside?
DM: (rolls) Yes.
Rogue: We'll take it all, we may need it for the greater good. |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11962 Posts |
Posted - 11 Mar 2025 : 13:04:16
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regarding "statues" one of the things I was dreaming up for Abeir with the Torilians that went there was that there were gods there, BUT for a long while they couldn't have clerics. For a while, the world would follow something akin to Time of Troubles rules in which a god could only grante spellcasting to his followers within range of them, so for a short term the gods actually resides amongst the main human cities that would worship them. This would be because the gods themselves were extremely weak and could in theory be threatened by a flight of dragons, etc.... much like the lesser avatars during the ToT (and much like the lesser avatars during the ToT during this time, they had to share habitation with a WILLING mortal vessel).
Why do I mention all that? Because as time passed, these gods endowed statues or "idols" with a portion of their divine essence so that mortal worshippers could renew their spells by praying in front of it. Initially, these "idols" were specific to the deity, but as time passed, they made a "mesh" so that prayers for other allied gods in the same pantheon could be fulfilled by praying at a temple's idol (this may have been because smaller shrines with smaller idols to the rest of the pantheon would eventually be made/added to existing temples).
These idols would be the source of more than just spell renewal, and in essence clerics were replaced by "priests" using possibly modified rules on DM's Guild for "Priestess : Ancient World Divine Class" ( https://www.dmsguild.com/product/192760/Priestess-Ancient-World-Divine-Class . In these rules, you imbue idols with powers that extend around their area, give idols the ability to move and fight, etc.. But in essence, it makes a "statue" into something so much more potent .... and it turns a statue into something that's suppoorting a WHOLE CITY OR CULTURE. Because if that god's idol is destroyed, that city is crippled for use of divine magic, unless there is another temple in the city with an idol. So, in small cities, their temple's idol will be fiercely protected. In large cities, they would be equally treasured, but they may at least have a few temples in place.
To note, in the above I said "allied gods in the pantheon" may be able to be prayed to in a given place. I hold to this very loosely, and in my view of Abeir their were multiple "pantheons" in play (Faerunian, Untheric, Mulhorandi, Metahel, Maztican (including Lopango), Great Spirits of Anchorome, Katashakan, etc...) but that they wouldn't be pantheon wide for gods with entirely different world views (i.e. you couldn't say pray at a temple to Deneir's idol to receive spells from Talos, but you could for any of the gods of magic that may have truly been in Abeir such as Azuth, Savras, Leira, Velsharoon, Auppenser, Karsus, etc... even if their alignment didn't necessarily work with Deneir's ). In essence, in a way like credit card companies, the god owning the temple would take a bit of the faith energy offered by the supplicant in order to "initiate a transaction" with their deity. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 11 Mar 2025 13:05:59 |
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Magical Statues
