Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback How Many Goddam Moon Goddesses Are There?

Aaah, suddenly the main selling point of the monotheistic-aspirational Absolute becomes apparent.

Yeah but when Balder dies and everybody becomes depressed and gives up hope what will you without the divine personification of Fighting Spirit to go down to Hel and challenge Hel and get him back?

I have also notes that their are many overlaps when it comes down to a deity powers but when it comes down to Shar Selune and Mystra Shar is the goddess of darkness Selune is the goddess of the moon and Mystra is the goddess of the stars they do overlap a bit but they are not one in the same thing

I would swap it for the divine personification of Contentment and Hygge, if possible?

Then again, if it was up to my baseline personality, no-one would ever go on an adventure unless the divine personification of Plot came to their home and threatened to burn it down with them inside.

Considering I didn't see it mentioned already- it's also worth noting that there are several gods that share portfolios in D&D from different pantheons even just on the continent of Faerun. And some gods that cross pantheons like Mystra or Tymora. Like, there are a *ridiculous* number of "nature" gods. Though many specialize in a specific sliver of nature.

Then apparently there's also some stuff about gods of Toril only being able to influence certain areas of the world? And that's why Tempus gets to be god of war in Faerun while Zaltec is god of war in Maztica. But that's still a weird reasoning because Tempus isn't even the only god of war in Faerun. There's also Tyr, Corellon, Bane, Bahamut, Essyliss, Clangeddin Silverbeard, Gruumsh, even Sharess dipped her toe in war domain for a while, and she's mostly a love/hedonism kinda goddess. Or a cats and vengeance goddess. Wizards of the Coast doesn't seem able to decide on her identity. (There's a lot of conflicting accounts of her domain, symbol, and appearance that really feel like someone just decided to merge her with Bast without thinking things through and they don't pay enough attention to notice the conflicts.) And it's not like clerics of these deities lose their powers when they go to another continent, or even another plane.

Sharess is Bast. She's one of the few surviving deities of the Mulhorand pantheon. She was Best originally, but changed over time as she started to become worshipped by the rest of Faerun.

If course I'm not sure if any of the Mulhorand gods have returned for 5th ed so she may not be one if the only surviving ones any more. But she was for a long time.

Also, are you sure you're not confusing mechanical Cleric domains with divine domains/portfolios? Tyr isn't a god of war just because he offers the mechanical War domain to clerics.

Not that there aren't still a bunch of gods of war besides Tempus -- The Red Knight and Garagos comes to mind from the top of my head -- buy these usually focus on different aspects of warfare.

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.

This is based off 4e campaign book.

The forgotten Realms pantheon is broken down into different layers/classes. Consisting of Greater Gods, The Gods, Exarchs, The Primordials, and Archdevils. Examples: Greater God: Selune & Shar, God: Garl Glittergold & Umberlee, Primordials: Akadi Bazim-Gorag, Exarchs: Abbathor & Arvoreen, Archdevils: Bel & Dispater

There's a dominion called Gates of the Moon where mutli gods are located, another example of a dominion would be the nine hells.

This would be Selune's section in the Campaign book page 76:
Selune
The Moonmaiden
Good Greater Goddess
Together with her sister Shar, Selune created Abeir-Toril from the cosmic either and assisted Chauntea as she blessed the twin worlds with life. She has infused her spirit into the moon and forever looks down on the world she helped create.
Selune's influence on Toril is felt in the ebb and flow of the tides and in the comforting silver glow of a moonlit night. She brings light to darkness, holding back the tide of evil embodied by her shadowy sister.
Mostly female, the selunite priests known as silverstars administer to their flocks with patience and compassion, letting all know that "anywhere the full moon shines is the place for Selune."
Silverstars are particularly interested in combating the dark side of lycanthropy. Tehy wander Toril in search of werercreatures, hoping to aid them in maintaining or regaining control, or destroying those who have allowed their humanity to be overwhelmed by their affliction.

This was rushed, running out of time and have to get ready for work. later

That's true and what @Chupricon has said is also true. There were conflicting stories that got retconned into: Bast after she fell under Shar's spell and then freed herself.

The first version I read in 2nd edition is that she was an aspect of Shar that was worshiped by ladies of the night and anyone who had to hide their passion under a cloak of darkness and secrecy. During the time of troubles Sharess was separated from Shar. Bast, Sharresss and some minor elven goddess of dancing and revelry came together, combined their portfolios and become a single goddess. Now her temples and festhalls double as cat sanctuaries.

This is all speculation -- but in Greenwood's supplements festhalls play a larger role than they do for any other WotC author. I think he had vision where Sharess' festhalls would form a nexus of spying / information sharing. Essentially doing the same thing that the Harpers were doing but operating independently: adventurers could show up and get clues to further their quest. My guess is that others inside WotC didn't feel comfortable with the festhall intrigue plots and decided to emphasize her domain over cats.

Let's all imagine the combination of smells that is the bordello festhall cat boarder experience

...and as a crazy cat lady, I took that personally.