The FR setting has struggled with how to handle this aspect of the lore since its invention.
The problem is that the gameworld often treats polytheism in Faerun as if this was Babylon, or Ancient Greece or pre-christian Rome. In other words, a system that is already highly polyglot with layers of compomise and synchronicity built up. For the Ancient Greeks at a later stage, the Olympians represented things like emmotional states, social roles, or certain stages of life. Sure they still had cults and priests with temples, ritual observances and stories to relay their petty jealousies, but everyone knows what is meant. "The gods" at that point are complex etiologies for explaining common emotions or mundane phenomena. They've already developed at that point way beyond the sort of singular nationalist or local dieties that expressed more common tribal identities, or local identities in competition with other outside tribes all vying for dominance. Already morphed into a big shared family of beliefs by then. To put it another way, Polytheism was already Imperial by then.
Poseidon the Earth Shaker has already arrived, to stand alongside Athena, and they both have to be dealt with and worked into the fold. Zdeus is already at the head of the Pantheon as the All Pater, cause the centaurs are already enthroned. The warlords on horseback are already running shit and we're pretty far along at that point.
But Faerun isn't like that. If it were, everyone would worship and acknowledge Shar, every time they told a secret or wished to learn one. Instead Faerun is more like that earlier conception, except with one super important exception that completely distinguishes the Realms from the real world - and that's the that gods in Faerun are actually real, and visable, and intercede in mortal affairs without having to shroud it all in etiology and metaphor. We don't have to "believe" in their reality or in their miracles here, because its on full display. With a whole repertoire of associated spells and powers granted to their followers.
Believing in the gods of Faerun doesn't make one gullible or vulgar, instead its pretty rational and sensible given the context. This is why its so odd that a developer who achieved fame for making games with the word Divinity in the titles, wouldn't lean into this stuff a bit more?
I think they should do our FR Olympus not as metaphor or etiology but as reality. Basically just like Clash of the Titans or Jason and the Argonauts. The player should see the gods! That doesn't necessarily mean that the character needs a vision or visitation, (though you'd think that might help) but the player should at least get one. We should see a god early on, so we know it's for real, and have plenty of reasons to pick a team and fret off what might happen if we don't. We should be getting all tangled up in their affairs right from the getgo.
Here's a thought, when the player calls out Shadowheart and blasphemes against Shar, she should immediately demonstrate Shar's power and hit us with a guiding bolt that throws off a divine cutscene.
Shar's story then appears to us, thrown in stark relief, with some high drama and high stakes. And if the PC doesn't have some backup from another diety they've already chosen, then Selune should get involved and throw them a lifeline. Perhaps Shar blinds them and whispers in their ear how she won't be denied! all power acrues to Shar! As the scene envelopes in pitch. But then Selune intercedes, restores the players sight with moonlight. And says something else about it. So the player isn't confused, and it's all made pretty crystal fucking clear... in this world of the Forgotten Realms, religion isn't hyperbole or metaphor, it's life and death! It's for real!
I just think that would be a better approach and make things a lot more dynamic down the road and they would be able to make better use of the established lore. So the player is brought up to speed with where their character is supposed to be at concerning all this stuff.
The way it is now, its like those silly stories where the protagonist character is being confronted by demons or ghosts or aliens or whatever, and yet still stubornly refuses to acknowledge the situation. "But I don't believe in those!" Even though they just watched one eat their friends and family lol. Everyone finds that character annoying. Like wake up and get with the program character! The only thing more annoying is when such a character regresses after the fact. Like where the don't believe initially, but then do after an epiphany, but then don't again later, trying to convince themselves it was all in their head. When it clearly wasn't. The game should avoid that trope, since its so tired. Its ok for the narrator/audience/villainous antagonist to be two steps ahead of the protagonist character, but once the protagonist is clued in, they should move forward and not backtrack just so the audience can groan about how stubborn and stupid the protagonist is being hehe
