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EltonRobb
Learned Scribe
USA
150 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
1202 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
534 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
11984 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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The Arcanamach
Master of Realmslore
1879 Posts |
Posted - 12 Mar 2025 : 18:38:21
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Sleyvas that is one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long, long, time.
I've used nonmagical statues the provide clues for the party (a statue pointing a finger as if scolding others but, in reality, is pointing to a secret door, for instance). Statues standing on top of hidden stairs or cache of treasure, groups of them that, when pivoted in the proper ways, open up portals/secret doors or enact some form of magic.
I had one in each corner of a large room that boosted the enemy's powers making them extremely difficult to fight. Once they were dealt with, though, the enemy became comically easy. He was essentially attuned to each of them and gained great power as a result. |
I have a dream that one day, all game worlds will exist as one. |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11984 Posts |
Posted - 13 Mar 2025 : 12:12:04
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quote:
Originally posted by The Arcanamach
Sleyvas that is one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long, long, time.
I've used nonmagical statues the provide clues for the party (a statue pointing a finger as if scolding others but, in reality, is pointing to a secret door, for instance). Statues standing on top of hidden stairs or cache of treasure, groups of them that, when pivoted in the proper ways, open up portals/secret doors or enact some form of magic.
I had one in each corner of a large room that boosted the enemy's powers making them extremely difficult to fight. Once they were dealt with, though, the enemy became comically easy. He was essentially attuned to each of them and gained great power as a result.
Thanks Arcanamach. I know a lot of you have seen me discussing ideas for the United Tharchs of Toril on Abeir. The idea that the gods were there, but much weaker, is a very strong part of it. I know a lot of folks also think of this as "just a widespread group of red wizards". But red wizards as an organization were to a degree anti-religious (as in they gave small devotion, but not necessarily fervor for gods). When a bunch of Thayan refugees from the Thayan Civil War suddenly find themselves in a brand new world and with magic going awry, when mortals bearing the avatars of the gods of magic show up.... and give them the secrets to using magic in Abeir much like Bane did with Tam... they consider worship a fine trade. Then the gods of magic start gathering this "faith energy" not only in idols, but in OTHER weave anchors that they have their unknowing servants spreading around in order to make a fledgling weave around the lands where these people that worship them live. The key thing being, the worshippers don't really "get" what their gods are having them do, and the gods of magic are growing their own power in expanding this weave.... and if the mortal worshippers don't understand what the gods are effectively doing, neither do the enemies of those mortal worshippers.
So, in short, not only are their idols which are OBVIOUS signs of deific power that people will defend, there are LESS OBVIOUS weave anchors that gods are also spreading around as "divine relics" and "magic items imbued by the gods" and "protective wards over certain places anchored by certain magics", etc.... Some of these things MAY have involved perverting the power of the relics of the primordials/dawn titans as well, who over the last century may have been slowly reawakening or possessing mortal bodies in the form of dragon overlords, etc...
One thing I come back to with a lot of this is the idea that Mystra knew this was coming, through Savras who had a vague foresight of the spellplague coming, and that several gods of magic were working in ways against Shar just knowing that she was trying to seize control of all magic. Each of them may have only known a portion of what was to come as it affected them, or have had some motive bestowed upon them by either Mystra OR Ao himself.... but not the whole picture of what was to come. So, for instance, Leira and Mask may have known that they needed to limit the power of Cyric and get it so that when the time was right they could entirely betray him and destroy his effectiveness as a servitor of Shar. Velsharoon as an example may have known from Talos (who helped raise him up), that he needed to worm his way into Shar's plans so that he could betray her when the time was right, because Talos saw Shar seeking to seize his role for destruction in the end. In a way, some of the gods being sent to Abeir may have been good for them, because it gained them more fervent followers, whereas if they'd stayed on Toril they may have gotten "gobbled up" following the spellplague. So, the gods needed the mortals in order to survive, but the mortals also needed the gods in order to survive, and THAT was part of Ao's "design" ..... I want call it plan, because I don't think even Ao could stop the two worlds colliding, he just prepared for it to protect the mortals and gods under his care. The ToT was just Ao's test run for what he saw imminently about to happen so that he could work out some kinks.
I'll also add here that I picture some gods as psychotic in some degree because they are actually a "collective" god. By that, I picture Velsharoon as actually having risen to godhood using one of Mellifleur's phylacteries, and an unintended consequence of this was that he became something like a 3.5e binder sharing his "deific essence" with a "vestige" of Mellifleur. I picture Mystra in this exact same way, and I also wonder if some other gods like Leira, Mask, Lathander, Karsus, etc.... aren't also similar. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 13 Mar 2025 12:16:59 |
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Magical Statues
