Non-humans and human pantheons

[Xtreme_Banana]

Hey, quick lore question:

How common it is for nonhumans to worship faerunian deities? Is it rougly 15% 1% or 0,01% of the elvish and dwarven population who venerate more common deities?

Sorry if asked before

[CheddarChampion]

I think there haven't been any official or canon answers for statistics questions such as this. Ask your DM/decide on something if you're the DM.

If I was running a game in the Forgotten Realms and someone asked me, I'd say 2/3 of species with their own pantheons worship them, 1/6 aren't involved with worship, and 1/6 worship more generic gods/pantheons.

[Unoriginal]

Hey, quick lore question:

How common it is for nonhumans to worship faerunian deities? Is it rougly 15% 1% or 0,01% of the elvish and dwarven population who venerate more common deities?

Sorry if asked before

In FR, most humanoids don't worship one deity exclusively, and pray to the relevant gods when they're doing something in their purview. Most people near the sea or on boats don't forget their prayers and offerings to Umberlee, for example.

For the rest, as mentioned by CheddarChampion, there is no real official answer. The more cosmopolite a community is, the more the faiths are independent from the species.

Don't think there is a specific "human pantheon", though.

[Xtreme_Banana]

In FR, most humanoids don't worship one deity exclusively, and pray to the relevant gods when they're doing something in their purview. Most people near the sea or on boats don't forget their prayers and offerings to Umberlee, for example.

I know, my concern was mainly for paladins and clerics, who devout themselves to teachings of one church



Don't think there is a specific "human pantheon", though.
Took a mind shortcut there.

Also, how does portfolios work between pantheons? Are different gods just aspects of one another like in WH? Or maybe rather one portfolio per pantheon? (in that case it's pretty weird that for instance Mystra deals with all magic, as "faerunian culture" isn't even the most numerous afaik)

[Unoriginal]

Took a mind shortcut there.

Also, how does portfolios work between pantheons? Are different gods just aspects of one another like in WH? Or maybe rather one portfolio per pantheon?

Neither of those options. Several gods have parts of their portfolios they share with other deities, while some have more or less exclusivity on one aspect in particular.



(in that case it's pretty weird that for instance Mystra deals with all magic, as "faerunian culture" isn't even the most numerous afaik)

There is no unified "Faerunian pantheon" or "faerunian culture".

[LtPowers]

Neither of those options. Several gods have parts of their portfolios they share with other deities, while some have more or less exclusivity on one aspect in particular.

I'm not aware of any examples of overlap within a pantheon.




There is no unified "Faerunian pantheon" or "faerunian culture".

There is a Faerûnian pantheon: the one to which Torm, Gond, Oghma, Lathander, Selûne, and Shar belong. It's even listed as such in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.


Powers &8^]

[Spiderswims]

How common it is for nonhumans to worship faerunian deities? Is it rougly 15% 1% or 0,01% of the elvish and dwarven population who venerate more common deities?

A bit uncommon, but not unknown. It really does depend on place and time and person. Few humans in modern Waterdeep worship anyone except the human deities. But some humans living in Elventree worship elf deities. And way back when in places like Myth Drannor people of all races might have followed any 'race' deity.

To keep it generic, a typical mining town that was half dwarves and half humans would have people of both races worshiping gods of each race. So dwarf cleric of Gond or Human cleric of Mordian.



Also, how does portfolios work between pantheons? Are different gods just aspects of one another like in WH? Or maybe rather one portfolio per pantheon? (in that case it's pretty weird that for instance Mystra deals with all magic, as "faerunian culture" isn't even the most numerous afaik)

Mostly they "share". Each god is unique. The vague rule is one portfolio per pantheon.

A race god has the focus on the race and what they think of each portfolio. Collerlan is "all elf magic" for example.

[Unoriginal]

I'm not aware of any examples of overlap within a pantheon.

Well, as one of the example, Kevelmor and Myrkul are both gods of death (one was the other's replacement, but now they both exist as gods due to AO being a dumb jerk).

For many others, though, it'd be more correct to say that they have overlapping influence rather than strictly sharing their portfolio. Helm and Torm, for example.



There is a Faerûnian pantheon: the one to which Torm, Gond, Oghma, Lathander, Selûne, and Shar belong. It's even listed as such in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.


I misspoke. What I meant is that they're all gods of Faerun-the-place, but they're not otherwise unified like the Elven of Dwarven pantheons are.

Mystra got magic because she's the one who shaped the background magic field into the Weave, worldwide, IIRC.

[Devils_Advocate]

How common it is for nonhumans to worship faerunian deities? Is it rougly 15% 1% or 0,01% of the elvish and dwarven population who venerate more common deities? I don't think that anyone has done any polls. Would the relevant statistics be helpful in some way? I can't find any indication that it's any more or less common for non-humans to worship human deities than vice versa, but either could be the case. I wouldn't expect it to be equally common among all races.
Well, as one of the example, Kevelmor and Myrkul are both gods of death (one was the other's replacement, but now they both exist as gods due to AO being a dumb jerk). They're now listed as "god of the dead" and "god of death" respectively. Dead individuals are not the same things as the cessation of life. My understanding is that Ao allows deities of related things but not exactly the same thing within the same pantheon. Unless he has changed that policy. In practice, the clear overlap in portfolios means that there are multiple deities that deal with the same basic area of concern. Because while the Red Knight's name is a chess reference, and her followers are probably pretty keen on chess, in practice the goddess of strategy is mostly about strategic warfare, making her and Tempus both war deities. And that's nice, because then different people can go to different gods for the same thing based on their individual needs and preferences, but it kind of makes the restriction not really matter in terms of which deity can deal with what. But, hey, I don't know what the purpose of that rule even is, so maybe it accomplishes exactly what Ao intends.