AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

Is there a set in stone fate and rules and such for worshipping Dead Powers - Gods like Bhaal, Myrkul, or Amaunator - or other such...shall we call them non-traditional Deity choices, like a follower of Araushnee, a being who might be said to no longer exist since becoming Lolth?

Related questions I have: Is there anything for ancestor worship, or the worship of things that aren't actually deities, like someone worshipping a Mountain or a Forest, for example?

Or would all of these just be considered Faithless or False?

Side note: Not actually planning anything for this right now, it's just a question that occurred to me.

I think there's not a set of rules for this on Amia. There would be feats and prestige classes governing dead power worship in PnP, but those aren't available here, so these kinds of things have just been handled by special character requests. At least one relatively prominent current PC did that, and is an Amaunator follower, so it's possible. There's no fixed rules or standards though, you'd just have to submit a sufficiently awesome request, which happens to fit in with some aspect of the server's setting or plot.

It is possible and there are feats for it. Servant of the Fallen to gain spells from a dead deity (Lost Empires of Faerûn) and Heretic of the Faith (Power of Faerûn) to gain spells from a living deity but hold unorthodox beliefs about their nature or identity. Servant of the Fallen is also said to allow you to petition divine favors from near-divine beings, in some cases.

Servants of the Fallen can be raised and resurrected normally. It's not entirely clear what happens to them after death, but I imagine an allied deity or the current holder of the portfolio will take them in. They are also not that uncommon for recently dead deities like those passing in the Time of Troubles.

And yes, it is definitely possible to receive divine spells from various types of totemistic, animistic and ancestral faiths. How exactly that works - whether it's Grumbar granting your spells or something else when you worship the mountain - is better left ambiguous, and indeed is in many of the better sources.

That's if this is a lore question, anyway. If it's about Amia rules: if it isn't spelled out in R&L, it's not a rule. Some will say you should make a request, but I don't recommend it. That only sets the precedent that it needs approval, which it certainly shouldn't because the selection of dead deities to choose from is clearly defined and unproblematic in LEoF. Amaunator, Auppenser, Bhaal, Gilgeam, Leira, Moander, Myrkul, Ramman and Tchazzar are all listed as (more or less) dead powers who retain a following and grant spells via Servant of the Fallen - there's really nothing to request or justify about that any more than worshiping Chauntea or Mystra. Marcus's request for a special Prestige Class and patron deity was his prerogative and probably has served him well, but before that players were never expected to request something as everyday as an Amaunatoran or a Myrkulite. I have one of the former myself.

I have requested for clarification on this and other related subjects in the Unwritten Rules topic but the team has yet to formulate a clear ruling. Until they do, it remains non-regulated.

It's both lore and a question about how it's handled on Amia, I'm curious about both. I've already got a Cleric of Ilmater and I don't plan on making any characters that really tie into Dead Powers any time soon, at least none that I need to explain where they're drawing powers from - an Assassin worshiper of Bhaal, maybe, but aside from that it's mostly just curiosity.

The source of the power of Servants of the Fallen is somewhat ambiguous. Deities are rarely really dead, and the spark of divinity in their corpses floating in the Astral can often be reignited with worship or extraordinary means. Devotion alone can be enough to fuel a few clerics. On the other hand, LEoF also suggests it could be through sheer dedication to the symbols and portfolio of the god. It's not explicit, but it seems that the core D&D idea of clerics worshiping ideals is not altogether impossible in the Realms, on a small scale and as long as it's associated with the name of a (dead) god. It's possible that for some gods, the power actually comes from another deity, but that's not really plausible for most of them. Nobody has Auppenser's portfolio, for example.

Corsair wrote:

Related questions I have: Is there anything for ancestor worship, or the worship of things that aren't actually deities, like someone worshipping a Mountain or a Forest, for example?

I think Uthgar is often worshipped by proxy through totems.

Any of the primordials work for that sort of thing too.

Elemental Lords. This is not 4e! Uthgar manifests in a specific set of totem animals (and only as those totem animals) to the Uthgardt tribe, so he wouldn't work anywhere else. As for who empowers the beast cults of the Tuigan, for example, is anyone's guess. You can always pick a nature or beast deity with the required geographical reach (a lesser deity of the North simply wouldn't have influence in Narfell, for example).

But there are animal spirit demigods in Evermeet, that's for sure. No reason they wouldn't exist elsewhere. The deity books do not list nearly all the divinities and near-divinities of the Realms, just the greater and lesser gods of the big pantheons. Salandra is a demigod with barely any influence outside Amia, and I imagine many places would have such local demigods not documented anywhere. The Elves of Evermeet mentions such gods as the Bear.

Totem and spirit worship is legit, yup. Uthgar and Ulutiu are the most totem focused of the known Faerunan pantheon. Spirits are less talked about in books, but they definitely exist. For example, Rillifane Rallathil answers a lot of the spirit worship for Elves (notably Bear, Eagle, Raven and Wolf). In theory, Gods like Silvanus, Chauntae and the elemental lords make great fits for most nature spirits.

Dead Powers and the Like

Who is online