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Clistenes
2016-09-17, 11:39 AM
I remember having read somewhere that there are some Polygot faiths who believe that all the gods in all the spheres are aspects of the same basic pantheon.

For example, they believe that all the Gods of Justice and Valor/War are aspects of the same god, so Tyr, Heironoeus, Kiri-Jolith, Clanggedin Silverbeard...etc. are aspects of the same deity.

Silvanus, Obad-hai and all the other gods of Nature and the Woods would be the same too.

The same for Branchala, Milil, Bragi...etc., they would be aspects of the same deity.

Artemis, Mielikki, Ehlonna...etc., would be the same too.

They had reduced the number of gods to around twelve, I think, and claimed that all others were aspects of those.

However, I can't find the source now. I don't even know if it was homebrewed material from somebody's campaign, of if it comes from a canon Spelljammer sourcebook.

I know that there is a Pantheist Temple of Tyr on the Rock of Bral, that worships all gods of Justice and War/Valor as the aspects of Tyr, so I think those Polygot churches maybe canon after all...

Do any of you have any idea where that comes from?

Thank you very much in advance.

D+1
2016-09-17, 12:04 PM
The point was simply to enable divine casters to be able to continue to receive spells from their deity in different crystal spheres. For example, a cleric PC from Realmspace worships a god of Strength. He travels to Greyspace. In that crystal sphere his god of Strength from the Forgotten Realms doesn't exist and so technically he would be cut off from contact with his deity and unable to receive spells higher than 2nd. To avoid cleric and druid PC's being totally nerfed simply by travelling around in a Spelljammer game it was decided that a god of Strength from the Greyhawk pantheon would still be the same god of Strength from the Forgotten Realms pantheon, even though they go by different names, have different nemeses, use different weapons and have all sorts of other features that they would not share with each other. They're considered different aspects of the SAME deity and thus the cleric will continue to be able to contact his deity and receive spells.

Clistenes
2016-09-17, 01:49 PM
The point was simply to enable divine casters to be able to continue to receive spells from their deity in different crystal spheres. For example, a cleric PC from Realmspace worships a god of Strength. He travels to Greyspace. In that crystal sphere his god of Strength from the Forgotten Realms doesn't exist and so technically he would be cut off from contact with his deity and unable to receive spells higher than 2nd. To avoid cleric and druid PC's being totally nerfed simply by travelling around in a Spelljammer game it was decided that a god of Strength from the Greyhawk pantheon would still be the same god of Strength from the Forgotten Realms pantheon, even though they go by different names, have different nemeses, use different weapons and have all sorts of other features that they would not share with each other. They're considered different aspects of the SAME deity and thus the cleric will continue to be able to contact his deity and receive spells.

Yes, but, is it canon? I can't find any canon source for this, and I don't even know where it originated.

Quertus
2016-09-17, 02:17 PM
The point was simply to enable divine casters to be able to continue to receive spells from their deity in different crystal spheres.

he would be cut off from contact with his deity and unable to receive spells higher than 2nd.

Personally, I preferred the Contract Hinge Pretty spell... Hmmm... Farm difficulty Contact Home Power spell (darn auto correct) to solve the problem of plane-hopping divine casters. For the low, low cost of a 2nd level spell, clerics could receive spells as though on their home sphere.

But, yeah, getting some stranger to grant you power while you fail to follow their completely different doctrine was a thing. Because if Percy Jackson had taught us anything, it's that different aspects of the same deity are completely identical.

Zaydos
2016-09-17, 02:55 PM
Polyglot priests did not worship all gods of Strength/portfolio. They worshiped all gods in a given pantheon (so should have been pantheonic or polytheistic). For example you could be a Polyglot Priest of the Norse Pantheon and get spells in Realmspace because Tyr is worshiped there. There were also Planar Churches which worship all gods of a given Outer Plane (I worship all gods of Arborea i.e. most Greek and Elven gods). These are detailed in the sidebars between page 16 and 26 in the Concordance of Arcane Space.

I do believe somewhere there was mention that a god of the same or close alignment and similar portfolio would sometimes grant spells to foreigner priests in their crystal sphere (for example Tyr granting spells to a cleric of Heironeous) but I can't easily find the source.

BWR
2016-09-17, 03:10 PM
Polyglot priests did not worship all gods of Strength/portfolio. They worshiped all gods in a given pantheon (so should have been pantheonic or polytheistic). For example you could be a Polyglot Priest of the Norse Pantheon and get spells in Realmspace because Tyr is worshiped there. There were also Planar Churches which worship all gods of a given Outer Plane (I worship all gods of Arborea i.e. most Greek and Elven gods). These are detailed in the sidebars between page 16 and 26 in the Concordance of Arcane Space.

I do believe somewhere there was mention that a god of the same or close alignment and similar portfolio would sometimes grant spells to foreigner priests in their crystal sphere (for example Tyr granting spells to a cleric of Heironeous) but I can't easily find the source.

This.

FFG's Dragonstar, which is basically D&D in space with tech instead of weird magic does have the 'all gods are aspects' idea. The main church of the setting is the Unification church which worships 12 (IIRC) gods with such imaginative names as the Smith, the Warrior, the Mother, etc. UC priests receive spells as normal and I believe (but don't quote me on this) that priests of more specific faiths can start praying to the proper archetype in the UC and keep getting their spells as normal.
The Dualist Heresy claims there are only two gods, one good and one bad. Most everyone else believes this to be nonsense. Obviously, only two gods is just plain silly.

Clistenes
2016-09-18, 02:32 AM
This.

FFG's Dragonstar, which is basically D&D in space with tech instead of weird magic does have the 'all gods are aspects' idea. The main church of the setting is the Unification church which worships 12 (IIRC) gods with such imaginative names as the Smith, the Warrior, the Mother, etc. UC priests receive spells as normal and I believe (but don't quote me on this) that priests of more specific faiths can start praying to the proper archetype in the UC and keep getting their spells as normal.
The Dualist Heresy claims there are only two gods, one good and one bad. Most everyone else believes this to be nonsense. Obviously, only two gods is just plain silly.

Thank you. I must have gotten mixed Dragonstar and Spelljammer.

Still, the Pantheistic Temple of Tyr (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Pantheist_Temple_of_Tyr) is canon in Forgotten Realms... I wonder what is going there, if Tyr has an arrangement with Heironoeus, Kiri-Jolith, Chao Kung Ming, Clanggedin Silverbeard...etc. so they grant spells to those priests, or if it is just that worship of the Norse Pantheon has spread around so much around the Spheres that Tyr has influence everywhere...