faith are individual temples or small networks of allied
temples, much in the manner of other faiths.THE RED KNIGHT
The Lady of Strategy, the Crimson General, the
Grandmaster of the Lanceboard
The Red Knight is the goddess of planning and strategy.
Those who favor her call themselves the Red Fellow-
ship. They believe wars are won by the best planning,
strategy, and tactics. The worship of the Red Knight is
filled with doctrine about strategy, such as: "Every war
is a series of battles. Losing one doesn't mean losing
the war." "In war, plan for peace. In peace, plan for war."
"Seek allies among your enemy's enemies."
Worship of the Red Knight arose among a hero-ven-
erating monastic order of Tempus in Tethyr shortly
after the Time of Troubles. The Red Knight has since
grown in popularity because of what her followers call
the Great Stratagem: for decades, her priests have been
traveling to places of warfare to educate generals and
kings in the arts of strategy and battlefield tactics. Many
of the leaders they approached turned them away at
first, but it soon became apparent that those who ac-
cepted the counsel of the Crimson General's followers
gained a distinct benefit. Grateful victors built temples to
the Lady of Strategy, and gradually her faith spread.
Today, followers of the Red Knight can be found in
nearly any land that has seen warfare in the past cen-
tury. Worshipers of the Red Knight are rare in the gen-
eral population, but those who revere her can frequently
be found among high-ranking commanders of armies,
instructors in colleges of war, quartermasters, and the
authors of tomes of strategy. Each temple to the Red
Knight includes an altar dedicated to Tempus, and so
such a place is likely to be frequented by mercenaries
and soldiers. A temple is surrounded by a vast pavilion
and courtyard, which can be rented by companies of
soldiers and mercenaries for practice and training. Her
priests believe that drilling one's troops in a temple
courtyard is a form of propitiation that the Red Knight
looks upon with special favor.SAVRAS
The All-Seeing, the Third Eye, Divination's Lord
Savras is a god of divination and fortunetelling. Few
people worship him, but many pray to him when per-
forming small rituals of foresight. For example, youngSYMBOL OF THE
Reo KNIGHT
CHAPTER 1 I WELCOME TO THE REALMSmen and women sometimes attempt to divine the names
of their future spouses by saying a rhyming chant that
calls upon Savras while gazing in a mirror.
Savras has no currently active temples in Faerun, and
his shrines are few and far between, tucked away in the
corners of libraries and scriptoria. Despite this lack of
prominence, certain folk pay regular homage to Savras,
including investigators, diviners, judges, and others
who have a need to uncover the truth. Such individuals
can sometimes be identified by the elaborate staffs they
carry in homage to Savras. According to legend, Savras
was trapped in Azuth's staff for ages. Azuth eventually
freed Savras so long as Savras swore fealty, and today
the staff is a potent symbol for those who revere Savras.
Devout worshipers take great pains to decorate and em-
bellish their staffs, each hoping that Savras might find it
a welcoming place to stop for a time.SELUNE
Our Lady of Silver, the Moonmaiden, the Night White Lady
Selune is thought to be among the most ancient of
Faerun's deities. Most humans in Faerun consider the
moon in the sky to literally be the goddess gazing down
on the world, and the trailing motes of light behind it her
tears. She is also a goddess of stars and navigation as
well as motherhood and reproductive cycles. She is seen
as a calm power, frequently venerated by female humans
as well as by a mix of other folk: navigators and sailors,
those who work honestly at night, those seeking protec-
tion in the dark, the lost, and the questing.
There are many legends about Selune, chief among
them being the tale of the battle at the beginning of
time between Selune and her sister, Shar. The Tears of
Selune, the cluster of starry lights that follow the moon
around the sky, are thought to be brought about by the
goddess's joy, sorrow, or both.
Milk, a symbol of motherhood, is used in many rites
performed by the worshipers of Selune, as are trances
and meditation. Those who favor her typically set a bowl
of milk outside on each night of the full moon.SHAR
The Mistress of the Night, the Dark Lady, Our Lady of
Loss
The dark twin of Selfine, Shar is the goddess of dark-
ness, both in its physical form and as it exists in the
minds and souls of mortals. People worship Shar as