Page 37 - D&D - Player's Handbook

that left-handedness is more often associated with great those who use magic or magical objects in their daily
artistic ability and the belief that the greatest art comes lives. She also receives the prayers of those who find
from the ~cceptance of truth. magic wondrous or encounter magic they fear. Mystra is
the goddess of the essential force that makes all spell-
MYRKUL casting possible. She provides and tends the Weave, the
conduit through which mortal spellcasters and magical
The Lord of Bones, Old Lord Skull, the Reaper
crafters can safely access the raw force of magic.
Myrkul is an ancient god, one of three former mortals The faith of Mystra is pervasive in FaerOn, which is to
who were raised to deityhood whenJergal grew weary of be expected for a land as touched by magic as it is. Her
his divine duties and distributed his influence between worshipers include those who use magic or work closely
them. Myrkul became the god of death and the dead,
with it, such as alchemists and sages. The blue-clad
and ruled over the City of the Dead for centuries until priests of Mystran temples count wizards and sorcerers
he, in turn, was slain. In time Myrkul returned, for can among their numbers, as well as the occasional bard.
death itself truly ever die? Myrkul's faithful see him as The goal of Mystra's faithful is simple: that magic be
the Reaper, who lays claim to souls and brings them to preserved and promulgated throughout the Realms.
Kelemvor to be judged. It isn't unusual for her followers to keep an eye out for
Myrkul is a deity of death, decay, old age, exhaustion, those who demonstrate high potential for using magic
dusk, and autumn. He's the god of the ending of things and help arrange for such persons to find tutelage with a
and hopelessness, as much as Lathander is the god of suitable mentor.
beginnings and hope. Folk don't pray to Myrkul so much
as dread him and blame him for aching bones and fading OGHMA
vision. Myrkul is thought to be passionless and uncaring
The Binder, the Lord of Knowledge
even of his most devout worshipers. Those who take
Myrkul as a patron tend to be morose, taciturn, and ob- Oghma is the god of inspiration, invention, and knowl-
sessed with the dead and the undead. Like many follow- edge. Above all else, Oghma represents knowledge
ers ofKelemvor andJergal, priests ofMyrkul serve as un- in its most supreme, raw form- the idea. An aphorism
dertakers and typically keep their patron's identity secret. cited by his faithful about this concept serves them as
Shrines to Myrkul or engravings of his holy symbol a prayer when it is repeated aloud: "An idea has no heft
appear in many places where humans bury their dead, but it can move mountains. An idea has no authority
but full-fledged temples are rare. The few that exist are but it can dominate people. An idea has no strength but
hallowed places where the dead from hundreds of miles it can push aside empires. Knowledge is the greatest
around are brought for internment, even if they were not tool of the mortal mind, outweighing anything made by
of Myrkul's faith. There is little space set aside for the mortal hands. Before anything else can exist, the idea
living in such a location, usually a single modest shrine, must exist."
but its catacombs and ossuaries are vast. In the deepest Oghma's faithful spread knowledge and literacy as
chamber of each temple rests a throne, and upon that widely as possible, believing that minds ought never to
throne sits the doomwarden- the preserved corpse be shackled by ignorance and thus not be able to be-
of the most revered saint in the history of the temple queath the benefit they might otherwise provide their
(often its founder). Initiates to the faith are brought to fellows. Not surprisingly, those who follow Oghma op-
kneel before a temple's doomwarden, where they must pose those who foster deceit, trickery, and ignorance.
spend a night and a day fasting and meditating in com- Folk of many professions favor the Binder: wizards,
plete darkness. cartographers, artists, bards, clerks, inventors, sages,
scribes, and all manner of others who uncover, pre-
MYSTRA serve, and create knowledge and learning. The worship
of Oghma was, at one point, one of the few organized
The Lady of Mysteries, Our Lady of Spells, the Mother
faiths in FaerOn that had an established orthodoxy and
of All Magic
a complete network of temples that adhered to that or-
Mystra is the goddess of magic, and with that the god-
thodoxy. Schisms during the Time of Troubles shattered
dess of possibilities. She is venerated by mages and by that network, and now the structures that house the

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CHAPTER l I WELCOME TO THE REALMS