I was not aware of a lot of that! Thank you. Though I'm still kinda thrown off on "okay, so I've got conflicting sources on if Sharess is a goddess of love and hedonism, cats and vengeance, all of the above?" I know my last character in a game who had her as one of their gods paid homage with both cat idols and the lipstick print because it seemed fair game to do so. And yeah, I was definitely thrown off by Tyr there.
As blasphemous as it may sound, it seems like the pantheon(s) of Toril may be a bit overdue for some simplification. Or at least some book or entire chapter of a book dedicated to "these are the living gods, their current status and why, their portfolio, who they like, who they hate, their tenants, and what worshipers believe about their realm in the afterlife. And here are the dead gods and what they used to be about."
Though I'm still really looking for some clarification on just what being an "aspect" means. Especially in regards to say, Merrshaulk. And what Sseth now being asleep in the Abyss means for his worshippers who weren't worshipping him as Merrshaulk, and who didn't switch over to worshipping Set/Typhon/Zehir. Because *man* has it been difficult trying to figure out making a yuan-ti character loyal to the lore of Faerun who knows their religion pretty well. All because it sounded fun to me after reading Volo's Guide to make a lawful evil character who decided to abandon their own culture and skip a few stages of ascension by just going to the surface to consume and replace a surfacer mammal's god. (Also apparently the yuan-ti know of an ungodly number of minor snake deities who grant clerical magic. Whom yuan-ti clerics often seek to eat and replace. So that kinda adds to the idea there must be many gods of the same things.)
To compound the trouble figuring out this character and divinity, it sounded fun to turn around the "good person with an evil patron" trope and make her a celestial pact warlock. Say she formed a pact with a couatl serving Jazirian because her yuan-ti ways make her see it as acceptable to work within the confines of their lawfulness for a serpentine deity. Get some growing power and knowledge as she tries to find a suitable god to supplant. Mayyyybe aim for one of Jazirian's enemies for bonus points from big ol' magic-daddy-of-everything? But then going all over the net for reading up it was like "oh, Merrshaulk killed Jazirian's aspect on Toril and shut him out of it. Does he still have any power there, since the couatl were born from his blood and are celestials? Wait, so the Toril couatl now- two gods? Different gods only get domain over their own continents what? Wait wha-?"
*There is so friggin' much.* Too much. 47 years of ever-changing god lore that feels so hard to keep up with if you haven't been here from near the beginning.
Last edited by Chupicron; 24/02/21 10:35 AM.
