TRPG General Chat

Q: What deities are common knowledge along the northern parts of the Sword Coast? (post-1480 DR)

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Specifically between Neverwinter and Icewind Dale, which religions are common knowledge in the years following 1480 DR? Common knowledge being that if a player character grew up in this area, they would realistically already know that that deity is a deity and maybe something about their religion...

dnd-5e lore religions-and-deities

Not sure if this is too vague of a question, or if the period is too vague. But any of you lore hounds capable of helping me out here?

I don't remember ever reading anything which would have scoped down which deities are known about

@Carcer I just wanted to narrow down the scope to the time period I cared about, rather than get comments like "During the 1300s DR or 1400s DR?"

Because depending on the era, some gods are different/dead/new

I think the question then sort of becomes "which gods exist in 1480 DR"

Faerun's gods don't tend to be secret unless they're dead

Will the average person know all of them?

It's less about them being secret and more about like finding someone who knows about Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, but not even knowing Shintoism is a thing.

7:12 AM

talking spuriously out of my posterior I'd have reckoned that your common human in the region will know any greater deity in the faerunian pantheon and probably lots of the intermediates and lessers depending on what's relevant to their life

But that's essentially what I'm trying to figure out. Despite your joking, Is that the case? Are there some gods less popular than most that probably wouldn't be known about?

well the gods in FR do have a built in popularity ranking

their status as greater/intermediate/lesser/etc. deities is based at least in part on how many followers they have

I'm pretty sure I've not read anything that comes close to answering the question for 5e, but the FR setting material for prev eds might clarify what the commoner's religious knowledge is like

now I'm curious. off digging

In 5e, they drop the designations of Greater Diety and Lesser Diety when describing the gods. In SCAG, they have blurbs for various deities.

> The faith of Mystra is pervasive in Faerûn, which is to be expected for a land as touched by magic as it is.

gruh, so they do

how inconvenient

At the very least, I know people will know who my deity is.

7:29 AM

morning.

@Axoren I think it's not entirely the same, because the gods are part of the same pantheon, so to speak - they're complementary, not mutually exclusive. Christianity or Judaism or Islam are "standalone" religions, they don't see themselves as part of a set of religions that's part of the same set of beliefs (though of course they don't ignore the existence, or the historical relationships, between those religions).

But in a polytheistic pantheon, if you have Chauntea doing "agriculture" and Waukeen doing "commerce", you have to ask yourself "ok, there's a lot missing there, who are the other gods I need to know"

I mean yeah, fine, if you live inland you probably don't care about Umberlee too much. You might go "what was the name of that tempest goddess that in the stories people always make a sacrifice to before a sea journey?". But you know that she's there.

@Axoren That would assume some regional selection bias. So it could be possible for someone to not know about a powerful deity, simply because they haven't been exposed to, or learned about, any of its religion. In other words, someone from a very homogenous background with little education about the outside world.

7:47 AM

you certainly wouldn't expect a sword coast commoner to know about anyone in the mulhorandi pantheon

but part of the function of the deity's clergy is to travel around spreading the good word about why you should worship their deity

they don't just sit in temples and wait for people to turn up.

@MikeQ But that would be the exception to how the religion of Faerun is usually presented - most gods, even the pettier one, don't presume to be the One True God, but they have their aspect and their realm of responsibility. Unless you're growing up in a cult (and that happens quite a lot, sure) you probably know there are many gods that interact.

You might not know the names of them all, especially localized pantheons (panthea?), but you would know that they're there, and if push comes to shove you can ask your local priest who will grudgingly name them for you.

pantheii

pantheaeae

Right, I am saying that this case is possible, not that it is common

<10>pantheons-y</10>

7:52 AM

pantheon[]

I suppose one would need to ask about their setting, whether the people think like medieval europeans, or if they just dress that way

To come back to a discussion here the other day - don't try to examine D&D settings too closely. You won't like what you see.

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For example, if the wizards in one's setting can magically store information and send instant long-distance messages, then could they make a worldwide internet or telecommunications network?

Be result-oriented. Think of what you want, and see if the setting can allow for it.

V2Blast

8:11 AM

@lisardggY Indeed.