D&D 5E Cat Lord vs. Sharess

[gyor]

Okay I found out that in the Tabaxi section they offered up a new Deity, the Cat Lord, who traditionally wasn't a deity at all I think. Trickery Domain.

Also the only FR reference in the Tabaxi section is a side bar mentioning Tabaxi in the Forgotten Realms.

Why did they need a new Cat Deity when FR had Sharess who hasn't been mentioned 5e yet, outside of a brief mention in one of the novels.

So is the Cat Lord a Male aspect of Sharess? Or will AL replace the Cat Lord with an FR Deity Sharess?

 

[gyor]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabaxi

Just to get an idea of how Tabaxi used to work.

I think most of the Races are actually depicted for generic D&D, which is why Tabaxi get a short side bar for FR and why Aasimar don't mention Mulhorand at all.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

He is a Maztica god it seems.

 

[dave2008]

Okay I found out that in the Tabaxi section they offered up a new Deity, the Cat Lord, who traditionally wasn't a deity at all I think. Trickery Domain.

Also the only FR reference in the Tabaxi section is a side bar mentioning Tabaxi in the Forgotten Realms.

Why did they need a new Cat Deity when FR had Sharess who hasn't been mentioned 5e yet, outside of a brief mention in one of the novels.

So is the Cat Lord a Male aspect of Sharess? Or will AL replace the Cat Lord with an FR Deity Sharess?

I believe the Cat Lord is in a AD&D book: MM2, Fiend Folio, or Deities and Demigods. Give me a minute and I will look it up

EDIT: pg 22 of the MM2.

 

[gyor]

The Cat Lord isn't a Maztican God at all. Zaltec and other Maztican Gods were worshipped by the Tabaxi traditionally, the Cat Lord was an Animal Lord from the Beastlands (Outer Plane).

Of course that was before Maztica was shipped off to Abeir where Divine Magic doesn't work and the Gods have no power, so I feel that little blurb wasn't enough to do much, except establish that FR Tabaxi sound more like Refugees from a Maztica gone wonky then curiousity seekers, because prespellplague Tabaxi didn't behave like that, now they do, something happened in Abeir, what we don't know, plus the Sundering in of itself which brough back Maztica or parts of it was a messy business, it wasn't a clean switch, not everything shifted over and back. For all we know the Blazing Rorn could be awake, resisted shifting back to Abier and is laying waste to part of Maztica, we don't know what's going on there exactly.

 

[dave2008]

FYI,
"The cat lord, or master cat, is the ruler of all forms of felines from domestic cats through the giant lynx to the largest smilodons. Some believe the cat lord to be at least a deity of minor sort; others claim the cat lord to be a malign creature of evil."

I guess the first impression is correct as his alignment is Neutral. He also has AC -9 which is one of the best in AD&D, but only 81 hp(treat as 19 hit dice).

 

[gyor]

Yeah, not a God at all. I think I'd just treat him as a male Tabaxi aspect of Sharess, along with female aspects of Zandilar (elves & lust), Bast (Mulhorandi Goddess of Cats and War), Felidea (Pleasure, nomads). It just fits. I don't know if the Maztican Pantheon survived they're people being dumped into Abier, so maybe the Tabaxi dumped Maztica Gods like Zeltec in favour of an incarnated Tabaxi aspect of Sharess, called the Cat Lord.

I could see Sharess eating the original Cat Lord, she's merged with other deities/cosmic beings before.

 

[gyor]

The real question is now how is Adventurer's League going to handle clerics of the Cat Lord, unplayable, playable, but an aspect of Sharess, or straight up playable as is?

Maybe send this question to the AL subforum.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I remember you really loving Sharess.

Honestly I think the reason Sharess is not being used too much is because of the fact that Shar is a god.

(Also that Sharess is Demigod.)

 

[gyor]

Maybe.