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Remus
Acolyte
USA
7 Posts |
 Posted - 07 Jan 2006 : 05:14:28
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I know that following the Time of Troubles that a god's power is based on worshipers. However, I am curious as to whether deities continue to openly battle each other. After all, since it was their squabbling that resulted in their temporarily mortality, do the gods now battle through their worshipers only?
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"Finally the flesh reflects the madness within."
-- Remus Lupin-- |
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Pardan
Acolyte
31 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2006 : 14:13:37
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As far as I know, it is immensely difficult for a god to fight another god in its true form on the respective home plane(as the homeplanes are divinely morphic and thus bow to the will of the resident deity). Also, only a god of higher status who battles another god on their respective home plane can even try to seriously injure or kill that deity.
Thus, it is way easier for a god to attack the worshippers of their enemies, harming their power base.
In addition, the battle even between avatars might wreak such devastation that the gods normally shy away from it (the good ones, anyway).
So, today, they mostly fight through their worshippers and while scheming against each other still happens very often, the gods normally no longer do battle against each other - at lkeast openly.
Hope I'm not totally wrong.... |
Do not knock on Death's door - ring the bell twice and run away.
He hates that. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36803 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2006 : 14:24:06
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Nope, Pardan, you are correct. Direct conflict is too costly, both in terms of power expended and the collateral damage it can cause.
So the gods fight each other using their churches, their followers, and other divine servants. It's kinda like the real-world Cold War: minor skirmishes here, proxy battles there, both sides constantly trying to outmanuever the other... But no major battles, and certainly not all-out war between the big guys. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31772 Posts |
Posted - 07 Jan 2006 : 15:45:53
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
So the gods fight each other using their churches, their followers, and other divine servants. It's kinda like the real-world Cold War: minor skirmishes here, proxy battles there, both sides constantly trying to outmanuever the other... But no major battles, and certainly not all-out war between the big guys.
Indeed.
Churches and the clergies mostly, that is... they are the devices which deities use to wage the kinds of divine wars against one another -- and usually such conflicts are aimed at the clergy of the opponent deity. It's about creating weaknesses and disruptions in the faithful of the opponent clergy and thus, by extension, affecting both the power the opponent god draws from his/her worshippers and decreasing his/her active influence in the Realms.
Powerful followers rarely figure into such conflicts, only being called upon when the situation for the deity's clergy is particularly great or the threat dire enough to warrant their entry into the conflict. And divine champions -- or rather the Chosens of other deities (but I refuse to acknowledge them as such because I believe the term "Chosen" should refer only to those who have received Mystra's Gift) -- are those singular individuals whose service to their gods requires them to take a greater position of power and command in the conflict between two opposing gods and their clergies -- perhaps even leading the clergies of their gods into battle against their opponents. But such large scale divine wars are extremely rare occurences in the Realms, and most deities seek only to undermine the worshipper bases of their divine opponents. Since the ToT, Ao has made it relatively clear what would happen should the gods take a more active role in prosecuting their ambitions in the Realms proper.
And so, we see that ull-scale religious wars are not common factors in the FR setting, nor should they be. Such concepts work against the established positions the gods have in relation to Toril and as such, we have the types of situations detailed in this scroll.
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Direct conflict between deities
