Page 22 - D&D - Player's Handbook

ually worships Denier would give thanks to Sune after a it is immaterial whether the god is truly dead or merely
successful coming-out party for her son. Even priests of dormant- the consequences for them are the same
particular gods acknowledge the roles that other deities either way. Yet, as recent events have borne out, a god
play in the world and in their lives. who is gone might not remain absent forever. More than
In general, worshipers view their relationships with a few supposedly dead gods have returned and amassed
the gods as practical and reciprocal: they pray and make a new body of worshipers. Indeed, the legends of some
offerings because that is how one invites the blessings gods speak of a cycle of death and resurrection.
of the gods and turns away their wrath. These prayers As the Sage of Shadowdale once noted, "If the gods
and other acts of devotion are generally performed qui- can grant the power to raise mortals from death, why do
etly at the shrine in one's household or community, or ye assume they should be laid low by it forever?"
occasionally in a temple dedicated to one's deity, when
a worshiper feels the need to "come knocking upon a THE AFTERLIFE
god's door" to ask for attention.
Most humans believe the souls of the recently deceased
Forms of worship are often acts of veneration: giving are spirited away to the Fugue Plane, where they wan-
thanks for favor shown, making requests for future der the great City of Judgment, often unaware they are
blessings, and offering praise for the deity's interces- dead. The servants of the gods come to collect such
sions, large and small. Because most folk in FaerO.n souls and, if they are worthy, they are taken to their
don't want to attract the ire of the cruel or savage gods, awaited afterlife in the deity's domain. Occasionally, the
beseeching them to keep the peace is also an act of faithful are sent back to be reborn into the world to fin-
worship. A hunter or a farmer might make offerings to ish work that was left undone.
Malar in hopes of keeping predators at bay, and a sailor Souls that are unclaimed by the servants of the gods
might pray to Umberlee that she withhold her wrath for are judged by Kelemvor, who decides the fate of each
the duration of a voyage. one. Some are charged with serving as guides for other
lost souls, while others are transformed into squirming
NEW AND FOREIGN Goos
larvae and cast into the dust. The truly false and faith-
The FaerO.nian pantheon isn't the only one known on
less are mortared into the Wall of the Faithless, the
Tori!. Nonhuman races honor their own gods, for exam-
great barrier that bounds the City of the Dead, where
ple, and people in faraway lands are known to worship
their souls slowly dissolve and begin to become part of
altogether different gods. Occasionally, foreigners bring
the stuff of the Wall itself.
the worship of these gods to FaerO.n. In addition, on
rare occasions a new god comes into being, perhaps a
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
mortal elevated to godhood or a deity whose arrival was
foretold by prophets and leaders of new religions. In Those who serve as priests of a god aren't necessarily
cosmopolitan places such as Waterdeep and Calimshan, clerics. Indeed, the power invested in clerics and other
small shrines and temples to strange gods spring up divine spellcasters by the gods is given out only rarely
from time to time. (see "Divine Magic" below). The work of a priest is to
The burgeoning worship of a new deity is rarely a con- serve one's deity and that deity's faithful, a task that
cern to the other gods of the FaerO.nian pantheon, and doesn't necessarily require the use of magic.
the people who revere those deities, except when the The kind of person attracted to a deity's priesthood
newcomer's area of concern directly competes with that depends on the tenets of that god: the cunning rogues
of an established deity. The methods of resolving such who venerate Mask have little in common with the up-
conflicts range from friendly dueling festivals or rites right law-keepers of Tyr, and the delightful revelers who
meant to emphasize the glory of one god over another, to revere Lliira are different from both.
campaigns of outright religious bloodshed.
TEMPLES AND SHRINES
Over generations, a new god might become a set-
The core religious institutions of FaerO.n are temples
tled-in member of the pantheon. Indeed, some scholars
and shrines. Whether a small, out-of-the-way building,
posit that FaerO.n has many "immigrant" gods, who
or a complex made up of multiple structures and tracts
joined the pantheon's ranks so long ago that their for-
of land, each temple operates according to the traditions
eign origins are lost in antiquity.
of its faith, although powerful or charismatic figures
DEAD AND RESURRECTED Goos who rise to prominence within the temple hierarchy
Over and over, mourning bells have tolled for some might motivate or inspire changes to those traditions.
of the deities of the Realms. Gods were struck down Temples in FaerO.n don't have regular services as
during the Time of Troubles, when the Spellplague such. Group observances in a temple occur only at spe-
wrought its destruction, and most recently when Neth- cific festival times, and priests also go out into the com-
eril fell. Some deities have even been slain by mortals munity to perform rites such as marriages and funerals.
wielding impossibly powerful magic. Temples are places where worshipers go either to spend
\ hen a god withdraws from a pantheon, divine magic personal or family time in a space consecrated to a deity
tops flowing to the faithful, and miracles and omens or to seek the aid of the priests for some reason.
a ociated with that god cease, that deity's priesthood Small shrines and private chapels, as distinct from
lo es faith, and holy sites are abandoned or taken over full-fledged temples, are common throughout FaerO.n,
by other faiths. To the deity's worshipers in the world, particularly in areas where a temple doesn't exist.

CHAPTER l I WELCOME TO THE REALMS