Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

(Nancy Kaufman) #1

22


THE DWARVEN PANTHEON
Deity
Abbathor, gad of greed
Berronar Truesilver, goddess of hearth
and home
Clangeddin Silverbeard, god of war

Alignment
NE
LG

LG

Domains
Trickery
Life, Light

War

Symbol
jeweled dagger, point-down
Intertwined silver rings

Deep Duerra, duergar goddess of LE Arcana, War

Crossed silver battleaxes
Mind flayer skull
conquest and psionics
Dugmaren Brightmantle, god of discovery CG Knowledge Open book
Dumathoin, god of buried secrets N Death, Knowledge Mountain silhouette with a central gemstone
Gorm Gulthyn, god of vigilance LG War Bronze half-mask
Haela Brightaxe, goddess of war-luck CG War
Laduguer, duergar god of magic and LE Arcana, Death

Upright sword whose blade is spiraled in flame
Broken arrow
slavery
Marthammor Duin, god of wanderers NG Nature, Trickery Upright mace in front of a tall boot
Moradin, god of creation LG Knowledge Hammer and anvil
Sharindlar, goddess of healing CG Life
Vergadain, god of luck and wealth N Trickery

Shrines tend to be unstaffed, kept up by the locals and
visitors who use the place for prayer. A shrine might be
as modest as a roadside well, where traveling merchants
can drop a coin to request good fortune from Waukeen,
or as grand as a statue of Amaunator surrounded by bra-
ziers in a pavilion in the middle of a village.
Traveling priests often seek out and visit these sites,
and they act as meeting places for the faithful. When
word gets around that a traveling priest of Elda th has
come into town, the faithful seek her out at the holy
spring dedicated to the goddess at the edge of town.
A family or business might maintain a shrine or a
chapel to its favored deity, perhaps a set of wind chimes
consecrated to Akadi hung from the high branches of
a tree in the garden, or a wooden symbol shaped like
the hand of Azuth in miniature displayed on a prom-
inent wall with a space nearby to burn a candle or
some incense.

COMMUNING WITH THE GODS
Though many tales are told of times past when the gods
appeared in physical form and walked the land, occa-
sions of that sort are few and far between. For the most
part, the gods communicate with their faithful through
signs and omens, appreciated by those able to interpret
them. Of course, some signs are more subtle-and thus
more open to interpretation-than others.
The most common kind of communion that worship-
ers and priests find with their deities is in prayer, song,
or meditation. Such experiences are intensely personal,
and it is common wisdom to keep them that way. After
all, "advice" from one's god that appears during morning
prayer and gives one a good turn to the day is worth-
while only for oneself. Let each worshiper commune in
their own way, as the saying goes.
Divine magic also provides a means of communing
with the gods and can be used to call upon their guid-
ance. Divine pronouncements of this sort are often
personal in scope and brief, and those edicts that con-
cern broader matters tend to be open to interpretation
or debate.

CHAPTER 1 I WELCOME TO THE REALMS

Burning needle
Gold coin with the face of a dwarf

PRIESTHOOD
Priesthood is a vocation like any other, with those who
undertake it often honing their abilities through a sys-
tem of apprenticeship. At a small temple, a novice or
an acolyte might study under the only priest available.
Larger temples can accommodate groups of acolytes,
each learning under the direction of one or more men-
tors responsible for training them in the duties and
skills of the priesthood.
Once acolytes complete their education, they are often
ordained in a ritual in which a successful candidate is
invested with the responsibilities of the priesthood.

CONFLICTS AND PERSECUTION
The moral and ethical values of the deities in FaerO.n
run the gamut, representing all the outlooks that their
mortal followers demonstrate, from the principled
agents of good to the vicious proponents of evil. Most
cultures and societies aren't nearly as cosmopolitan as
the population of FaerO.n taken as a whole; as a result,
religious persecution (from the viewpoint of those who
garner the attention) is practiced in places where wor-
ship of certain deities is frowned on.
Most governments that engage in persecution limit
such restrictions to the establishment of formal temples,
priesthoods, and organized festivals. (On a practical
level, it's impossible to prevent individuals from innoc-
uously or secretly worshiping whichever deities they
choose.) For instance, although worship of Talona-like
that of many evil gods-is forbidden in Waterdeep, this
prohibition extends only to the creation of a temple and
the presence of her priesthood within the city. Individual
citizens or families who revere Talona might be viewed
as misguided, but they aren't taken into custody or pun-
ished as long as they obey the laws of the city.
Some places take this form of persecution a step
further, for a variety of reasons. A tyrant might outlaw
worship of Torm, lest it inspire rebellion, and an other-
wise fair-minded mayor of a river-mill community might
demand that worshipers of Silvanus find elsewhere to
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