D&D 5E New Deities Moving Into Forgotten Realms

[cooperjer]

I'm working on a plot for the level 15 - 20 game that will approach in about 1 year. I plan to run a portion of Storm Kings Thunder as the main story, but I would like to include a secondary plot that intersects with the SKT plot and helps develop the PCs.

One of the PCs has a strong connection to Auril. One of the players has a strong fascination with the fey and Sylvan deities. The PC dragonborn barbarian has succeeded more times on an Int (Arcana) check than the sorcerer and thus I feel I'll work with that and offer the player a chance to increase the characters magical connection. In addition, the barbarian character has a strong connection with the element of fire. The player with the fey fascination has a sorcerer character that has a strong connection to water.

I would like to bring the Sylvan deities into the story, but that list of characters is missing a god of the forge or similar metal craft. I noticed that the Celtic deities listed in Legend & Lore has a god of the forge. I cannot remember the name right now. So, the next thought is to have the Celtic deities listed in Legend & Lore decide they want to gain followers in the Forgotten Realms. What story has been done already that would be similar to a pantheon of gods leaving one place or realm and moving into a new place or realm to gain new followers?

I can intersect this story line through two paths. Auril interacts with the ice giants. She is very similar to the Sylvan deity The Cold Dark Queen. The Celtic god of the forge may interact with the fire giants or a fire giant god of the forge. Both intersections should lead to some interesting role-play as the Celtic and Sylvan gods seek new followers from the PCs and collide with the existing gods who influence the NPC giants. What I don't have is a story of how this may rise to the climax of the collision between gods, PCs, Giants and Dragons and then a couple possible resolutions that end story. I should mention that there is a fourth PC that is on a path to be a paladin of Bahamut.

To rephrase the question, is there a story or resource material in existence of gods seeking territory / followers in another realm?

 

[jaelis]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jeffersons?

Has the moving on up thing, if not quite the deity part.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I'm working on a plot for the level 15 - 20 game that will approach in about 1 year. I plan to run a portion of Storm Kings Thunder as the main story, but I would like to include a secondary plot that intersects with the SKT plot and helps develop the PCs.

One of the PCs has a strong connection to Auril. One of the players has a strong fascination with the fey and Sylvan deities. The PC dragonborn barbarian has succeeded more times on an Int (Arcana) check than the sorcerer and thus I feel I'll work with that and offer the player a chance to increase the characters magical connection. In addition, the barbarian character has a strong connection with the element of fire. The player with the fey fascination has a sorcerer character that has a strong connection to water.

I would like to bring the Sylvan deities into the story, but that list of characters is missing a god of the forge or similar metal craft. I noticed that the Celtic deities listed in Legend & Lore has a god of the forge. I cannot remember the name right now. So, the next thought is to have the Celtic deities listed in Legend & Lore decide they want to gain followers in the Forgotten Realms. What story has been done already that would be similar to a pantheon of gods leaving one place or realm and moving into a new place or realm to gain new followers?

I can intersect this story line through two paths. Auril interacts with the ice giants. She is very similar to the Sylvan deity The Cold Dark Queen. The Celtic god of the forge may interact with the fire giants or a fire giant god of the forge. Both intersections should lead to some interesting role-play as the Celtic and Sylvan gods seek new followers from the PCs and collide with the existing gods who influence the NPC giants. What I don't have is a story of how this may rise to the climax of the collision between gods, PCs, Giants and Dragons and then a couple possible resolutions that end story. I should mention that there is a fourth PC that is on a path to be a paladin of Bahamut.

To rephrase the question, is there a story or resource material in existence of gods seeking territory / followers in another realm?

Read up on how the Mulhorandi (read: Egyptian) pantheon moved into the Realms. It was done somewhat like you are saying, but on a more massive scale.

Also, there are already some Celtic deities in the Realms, most notably Oghma, so that should come into play as well...

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

 

[discosoc]

Read up on how the Mulhorandi (read: Egyptian) pantheon moved into the Realms. It was done somewhat like you are saying, but on a more massive scale.

Also, there are already some Celtic deities in the Realms, most notably Oghma, so that should come into play as well...

Sent from my VS987 using EN World mobile app

Specifically, they were allowed into the Realms by Ao. He's basically the key to it all, and any story where some pantheon moves in *without* his blessing and/or knowledge is breaking the FR lore in a pretty major way. That doesn't mean you can add a new pantheon (the reasoning can be vague or something like "they struck an agreement" or whatever), but it does mean you have to understand how "portfolios" work in the setting.

Basically, each deity has a "portfolio," which is a collection of ideas/skills/concepts/etc that they control (magic, crafting, love, war, weather, crocodiles, etc), and an area of influence that's usually tied to a race or culture, and almost always tied to a geographic location. A "Pantheon" is nothing more than a collection of deities that are all part of the same area of influence (elven gods, faerunian gods, mulhorandi gods, etc). Within a sphere of influence (or pantheon), no two gods can have overlapping portfolios. Outside of the pantheon's sphere of influence, overlapping can exist (such as common concepts like war or the sun).

So the main challenge in adding a new pantheon is two-fold:

1. What brought them to Toril and why are they allowed to stay? Gods are supposed to be tied places, to the extent that an immortal and infinite being can be, so if a pantheon makes the move to Toril, it means they are leaving somewhere else. You might want to know why they are leaving in the first place.

2. What is their area of influence? Forgotten Realms is big, but most of the known regions already have their territory claimed by other pantheons. This means you might need to have the pantheon's worshipers hail from another land or undiscovered island or something. As long as the pantheon isn't portrayed as being crazy powerful or war-like, I guess it's possible that a fairly small part of an isolated or otherwise wild region like The Eastern Shaar could be made home to a new pantheon. Anyway, you'll need to make sure it's clear exactly where this pantheon's sphere of influence is, especially since it doesn't seem to be tied to a specific race.

 

[CM]

As has been mentioned, FR has a number of "interloper gods" already, like Oghma, Tyr, the Mulhorandi pantheon, and formerly, Tyche. Loviatar, Talona, and Mielikki are also all Finnish gods, although I don't think FR considers them as actual interlopers.

Gond would be the primary FR god of craft and forgework, so if Gofannon (?) arrives in Faerun, Gond may challenge him, attempt to absorb his worship, or even ally with him, making him an apprentice/exarch (assuming Gond, as an intermediate god, would win out).

This Candlekeep thread may be useful, as well as this FR Wiki page.

 

[cooperjer]

@ Demetrios1453, thank you for bringing the Mulhorandi to my attention. Although the 4th ed FR campaign guide indicates the diets left I can adjust that as needed to make a good story. I'm going to shift my plans to use Geb in place of Goibhniu or Gond. Geb will have stayed in FR with a few clergy surviving the spell plague and rift in Chessenta. It seems his worship has faded since the Spellplague ended. He is in search of new followers and sees a good opportunity in this Dragonborn barbarian with a flaming maul and a knack for magic.

I agree that a group of deities leaving one place and trying to find worship in a new place would be a difficult story to write. Even asking a set of five why's as to why the Celtic god of the forge is in FR could lead to significant work. It will be easier to use a deity that already has been accepted and is looking for new support. The next step is to decide if I want to use a Mulhorandi deity for the sorcerer or if I want to continue with the Sylvan deity. It makes more logical sense that two Mulhaorandi survived post the Spellplague by working to together than individually. However, I have a hard time linking Isis and Geb to the SKT story. Would Isis find worshipers in the Golden Fields and the Dessarian Valley?

 

[Demetrios1453]

@ Demetrios1453, thank you for bringing the Mulhorandi to my attention. Although the 4th ed FR campaign guide indicates the diets left I can adjust that as needed to make a good story. I'm going to shift my plans to use Geb in place of Goibhniu or Gond. Geb will have stayed in FR with a few clergy surviving the spell plague and rift in Chessenta. It seems his worship has faded since the Spellplague ended. He is in search of new followers and sees a good opportunity in this Dragonborn barbarian with a flaming maul and a knack for magic.

I agree that a group of deities leaving one place and trying to find worship in a new place would be a difficult story to write. Even asking a set of five why's as to why the Celtic god of the forge is in FR could lead to significant work. It will be easier to use a deity that already has been accepted and is looking for new support. The next step is to decide if I want to use a Mulhorandi deity for the sorcerer or if I want to continue with the Sylvan deity. It makes more logical sense that two Mulhaorandi survived post the Spellplague by working to together than individually. However, I have a hard time linking Isis and Geb to the SKT story. Would Isis find worshipers in the Golden Fields and the Dessarian Valley?

Isis is, among other things, a goddess of agriculture, so that could connect her to Goldenfields. Perhaps a Mulhorandi refugee or two ended up there, and Isis is now reaching out to them?

 

[Eltab]

In my version of the Spellplague (working with Grand History of the Realms), I had Tyr receive a summons to come back home, he is needed immediately. This replaced the silly (imho) "divine love triangle" material. GHotR has some nice writing about Tyr's arrival, which you should look at for flavor and inspiration.

The Netherese pantheon broke up and found other worshippers after Karsus' Folly. Auppenser just faded away. The Mulhorandi pantheon has come and gone from the world several times. Some idiot opened a dimensional portal and let a zillion orcs and the orc pantheon into the Uttermost East - the orc gods slew the Untheric (pseudo-Babylonian) pantheon.

Gods in FR seem to come and go based on the needs of meta-plot. If it works for you to have a new pantheon arrive as part of the Sundering, you CAN do that without having to excuse / justify yourself.

 

[gyor]

In the Bakkar Empire in the Raurin Desert some Gods from outside the usual ones such as Baldar and Prometheus were worshipped thanks to their familiarity with planar magics gained by being an Imsskar survivor state so that is your in right their if you want aceltic deity, a holy artifact from the ruins of Bakkar connecting the character to the Celtic forge God of your choice.

Alternately Gond has a Gnomish aspect (Gnomes have Fey roots in FR) who seems to have gained some independence lately, I forget the name.

Lastly you can just use the Sundering it's self as an excuse for a Gods appearance like the Catlord apparently sort of did (in the sense that he seems to have reappeared and become a full God thanks to the Tabaxi who reappeared from Abier when Maztica did.

 

[transtemporal]

The realms is honestly like grand central station for deities. You could pick any reason: Ao having a sleepover, the sundering, the unsundering, realms adventure tourism. Take your pick. Hell, even the native realms deities are a hodgepodge of refugees from other worlds.