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  1. #1

    A question about gods

    So in the boxed set it says that elves had never encountered priestly magic before humans came to Cerilia. Yet dwarves, goblins, and orogs can all become clerics. So where did the gods of these native races come from? Were they also champions at Deismaar?
    Last edited by Naughtical; 10-26-2013 at 09:37 AM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member teloft's Avatar
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    I have never thougth about that, reconstucting cerilia as it was before the colonial times. Was there no cleric with the other native races. It interests me.

  3. #3
    Ehrshegh of Spelling Thelandrin's Avatar
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    Moradin and Kartathok are Elder Gods (they predate Deismaar) and it's entirely possible that Elves never encountered Dwarven or Orog priests, as they live in totally separate areas. I would find it harder to explain the lack of Goblin priests though.

    Ius Hibernicum, in nomine juris. Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

  4. #4
    So then it must just have been a storyline oversight, and elves did meet priests prior to Deismaar?

    On a related note: If you need to be blooded to gain RP, and realm spells cost RP, and no one was blooded prior to Deismaar, then how were realm spells cast prior to that?

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    Site Moderator Sorontar's Avatar
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    The land had no blood attachment to the people so there were no realm spells. Such power was only in the hands of the gods.

    The truth is that the non-human gods really are up to the DM as there is nothing very canon about them, except that the elves didn't have any. God/s of the dwarves, snolls, goblins etc are not mentioned, IIRC. Personally, I can't see why they can all worship the same gods, but have different personages of them.

    Sorontar

  6. #6
    I don't understand what you mean when you say they're not mentioned. They're listed in the boxed set rulebook. They've got only slightly less of a blurb than the human gods do.

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    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    My take is that much of the stuff on sidhe is written from a human perspective and is at least in part human propaganda.

    So the history says that it was priestly magic that led to human victories as most of the historians were priests (the literate class) and they wanted to exalt holiness - the historians either avoided mention of non-human priests/gods because to discuss them on par with human priests/gods was heresy, or to avoid politically unfortunate questions that might cast doubt on the official history.

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    Site Moderator Sorontar's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Naughtical View Post
    I don't understand what you mean when you say they're not mentioned. They're listed in the boxed set rulebook. They've got only slightly less of a blurb than the human gods do.
    It is one page (page 80) that doesn't define the full range of non-human gods. It just says look at other D&D books. There is no indication of how those gods fit into Cerilia and AD&D with its specialised clerics. All we can say is that you cannot be blooded by these gods as they weren't involved in the battle of Deismaar.

    There are various "demi-gods" that are mentioned in various publications, like the Stone God and the Forgotten God. These may be True Awnsheghlien that have god-like powers, but again, there is little said on how that works. So I feel that it is up to the DM to decide how best to have a priest of Moradin etc in a party or for an NPC. One option is to make Moradin actually an aspect of Sera or Erik, in a similar way to having more than one faith for each God, each with their own angle on worship and behaviour.

    Sorontar

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    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    The Forgotten God is from Dragon Magazine, the Stone God is my creation

    I always thought that the non-humans (sidhe aside) could have been explored in more depth, saying that though, you can never fit everything in to a publication so something else would have had to come out

    I like to change the Karamhul to a more mystical bent, and have them more into ancestor worship - building off the concept in PS Baruk-Azhik to have them commonly ascend into spiritual form when they die so that their faith is less a religion and more a philosophy and the link between mortal and immortal karamhul.
    Last edited by AndrewTall; 10-28-2013 at 09:41 AM.

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    Sorry if this is seen as thread necro, but I think I can actually answer this one.

    Dwarves: According to the BR Boxed set, dwarves are very private about their religion(there may even be dwarven gods other than moradin according to it). If the elves didn't think to ask about Dwarven spirituality, then the dwarves probably never let on.

    Orogs: These always struck me as a race that has spent the majority of its history underground, or in areas where the elves generally wouldn't be very concerned with it.

    Gnolls & Minotaurs: Created by Azrai, so likely a non-issue as they would have followed the human tribes from Aduria.

    Goblins: This one is the hardest to come up with an easy answer to, but I think it has to do with Goblin culture. We know that their race is prone to "borrowing" technologies and ideas from others, so it's entirely possible that, for them, Kartathok didn't actually exist until humanity's arrival in Cerilia. When the humans showed the goblins their divine might, the goblins just made up their own god and brought it into existence with their new found zeal and belief. As we have no proof that Kartathok even existed prior to Deismaar(Spiderfell seems awfully atheist to me), it's also possible that he is a new god too and the human gods just didn't realize it.

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