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redking
Learned Scribe
141 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Jul 2024 : 08:41:13
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Do we have a list of heads of faith in the realms?
By this, I mean spiritual leaders, and temporal leaders that lead a faith. A spiritual leader leads the faith like the Pope. A temporal leader leads the faith like the prophet Muhammad or the prophet Joseph Smith. These leaders could also be unrecognised heretics in a faith with an existing head of faith, or faiths without a head of faith.
Any thoughts?
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TomCosta
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
971 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jul 2024 : 18:28:11
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Most of the faiths are not so centralized. If you go through the 3 2E god books, you'll find a few that are and that list their leaders at the time, but not many. For example, High Priest Barriltar Bhandraddon of Torm in Tantras during at least late 2E. With the rise of Thultanthar in the 3E era, the shade Rivalen Tanthul of Shar appears to become the head of her church most of Faerun wide.
As for prophets, the only one, arguably, that comes to mind is that late 3.5E era Sunlord Daelegoth Orndeir of Amaunator from Power of Faerun, who was signalling the reemergence of Amaunator and a schism within Lathander's faith. That said, there are the various Chosen of the gods, many of whom have acted like prophets: https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Chosen |
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redking
Learned Scribe
141 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jul 2024 : 12:48:51
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| If I recall my 2E lore correctly, were not Fzoul and the High Imperceptor of Bane in Mulmuster (or was it somewhere else?) competing for head of faith? |
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Gelcur
Senior Scribe
523 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jul 2024 : 17:05:59
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| Ed recently posted some religious curses on Twitter and it was transcribed here at Candlekeep. Many of the curses contained names of religious figures. You figure anyone who was synonymous with a religion enough to have their name cursed probably had a decent amount of sway in that religion. |
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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TomCosta
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
971 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jul 2024 : 21:16:13
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quote:
Originally posted by redking
If I recall my 2E lore correctly, were not Fzoul and the High Imperceptor of Bane in Mulmuster (or was it somewhere else?) competing for head of faith?
Arguably yes, that's another of the few examples, at least during the 1E and early 2E era, yes, but only really in the Moonsea region, and to some extent in the Lake of Steam region, beyond that, it's not clear that either had the reach. Of course, that all changed with the death of Bane and fall of Zhentil Keep, among other events. |
Edited by - TomCosta on 14 Jul 2024 21:17:31 |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 15 Jul 2024 : 15:02:37
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I'd probably stress that generally only the most organized, and thereby lawful, religions would probably have Heads of Faith. So, even though someone like Rivalen Tanthul was "the head of the Church of Shar", I'd be hard pressed to believe that his hold was more than tenuous. I'd be hard pressed to even believe that just because a religion is lawful that it would also be this structured mind you (so for instance, I can see it with Tyr and Torm, but I'd bet Ilmater is more focused on doing good than following a rigid hierarchal structure).
Amongst the Faerunian pantheon, off the top of my head, I can see about a handful of religions falling into this category
Bane
Tyr
Torm
Asmodeus
Amaunator
Red Knight (to make sure that tactically they relay information about ongoing wars and how it affects their religion, so that they are not abused by their clients)
Bahamut
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 15 Jul 2024 16:53:38 |
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Delnyn
Senior Scribe
USA
953 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jul 2024 : 19:00:02
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| Wasn't Daramos Lauthyr trying to make all Tymoran temples report to Arabel? |
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TomCosta
Forgotten Realms Designer
USA
971 Posts |
Posted - 16 Jul 2024 : 21:01:33
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| That sounds right, key word being "try." |
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Giant Snake
Seeker
80 Posts |
Posted - 23 Jul 2024 : 12:51:48
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| I think of Bane as the default for any evil cleric who gets an army and decides he wants to try and conquer all. Im sure this happens once a generation or more in every major zone. |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3741 Posts |
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Ayrik
Great Reader
Canada
7989 Posts |
Posted - 26 Jul 2024 : 10:53:39
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| 2E Forgotten Realms Adventures named the "Patriarchs" of some faiths. |
[/Ayrik] |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11829 Posts |
Posted - 26 Jul 2024 : 14:06:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Lord Karsus
-Related kind of, one thing I always wanted and we never really got was some kind of nice list with holy books of different faiths.
On this idea... and this very much spreads this off topic, so sorry.... I know at one point someone here was talking about wanting a "library list" of sorts to hand out for a powerful mage in the Untheric region to a party.
I very much think a good DM's Guild product specific to the Forgotten Realms could be simply this... a book list. Now I'm not saying specifically a "listing of holy books" or "a listing of history books" or a "listing of spellbooks", etc...
With that in mind, from a metagame perspective... and again, sorry for derailing... it might be interesting to develop what "columns" someone might want to track in terms of each book. What do I mean by that? I think it best to give a quick example, and people can quickly reply with additions that might be both useful and "not hard to define/use"
So, here goes
Title
Author
Year Published in Dalereckoning
Category of book (examples, regional history, spellbook, holy text, magical theory, nature lore, monster lore, mundane crafting guide, alchemical text, symbology & vestige lore, warlock magic lore, administrative text, art collection, weapon and/or armor magic item creation guide, general magic item creation guide, ..... probably a dozen more we can come up with)
Region of Realms in which Produced (example, Bloodstone Lands or a specific city)
Region Last Found in (i.e. where was this book last found.... doesn't mean its still there)
Last Owner (If Known)
Game Notes: (this would be a generic field in which someone could list spells, make a note that this book gives some bonus, make some notes about what the book is about, etc... preferably short, with a note like "see specific book notes for detailed explanation" if someone wants to develop a spellbook, etc.. like Ed used to do in the old grey box and other sources.)
Any other pertinent fields?
I mention this all because this would make a great DM's guild product to make and distribute for "pay what you want", and I think it could inspire lots of other information building (whether it be someone taking an author name and building a whole history about the author, or taking a title and deciding to vet the whole history, or taking the notes on a spell name listed and developing the spell, etc...).
And being as I just wrote all this up here.... I think I'll actually start another topic for this goal. Please reply there if you'd like to discuss this.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
Edited by - sleyvas on 26 Jul 2024 14:12:31 |
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Topic |
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Forgotten Realms heads of faith
