Baldur's Gate 3: What Are The Gods?

i've spent a great deal of time talking about the gods in the sense of talking about specific gods their history and their role in the forgotten realms but i have never spoken in detail about the cosmic order in which all gods must operate this video is therefore intended to serve that purpose and help those unfamiliar with the setting to better understand what gods are and how they work however much of this must be explained on the basis of past editions because 5th edition is yet to publish too much on the nature of the gods for example in previous editions gods in some sense almost had stats of a sort almost like players or npcs but it's not clear from 5th edition this is the case anymore as wizards of the coast are likely going for a more abstract look and feel to gods nonetheless there remain some basic principles so i'm going to be combining lore from all the additions in the d d setting and specifically in the forgotten realms a god is simply put an incredibly powerful being that is effectively immortal and can grant spells to its worshippers this is in itself interesting because there have always been mortals both on faerun but also on the planes who've questioned the nature of actual divinity i.e the authenticity of the gods seeing them as just extremely powerful tyrants who abuse their power and bully others into worship unbelievers and those who do not believe in the full-fledged divinity of the gods often cite the fact that whilst deities are technically immortal they can die and moreover they pose the question why true gods would require worshipers in the first place and as we dive more deeply into the nature of the gods some of those questions might become more understandable now at the very top of the divine hierarchy of the forgotten realms is the so-called over god eo who created the crystal sphere of realm space where the planet of toril is found eu is effectively all-powerful and neither desires nor requires worshipers and the only reason we are even aware of his existence is because of his intervention during the time of troubles when he removed all the deities from the planar realms and forced them to walk to real as punishment for the theft of the so-called tablets of fate and since that time no one has heard anything from the over god despite a small mortal following initially cropping up after the time of troubles all that said all gods that operate within the crystal sphere called realm space must heed the will of eu as he has absolute control over all divine traffic that enters realm space some deities for example operate across multiple crystal spheres such as the demi-human deities the dwarves and elves and in this sense ao would only have jurisdiction over their operations in realm space as opposed to say gray space which is where the world of greyhawk is located however for deities whose only place of worship is a realm space ao has absolute power to promote demote and do anything with any god should he so choose he also has the power to allow interloper deities from other spheres to enter realm space in the crew worshippers this has happened in history at least once before when slaves were transported from another world and prayed to their gods and eo allowed those prayers to be heard and for the deities to send avatars to aid their worshipers in short ao has the first and final say in all matters godly and no god is above him in this god's however another story gods are exceptionally powerful but they are not omnipotent and exist in a different state to eu the ethic power levels often correlate with the importance of the portfolios of the gods in question thus gods who reign over more important aspects of existence typically have more power and those with more narrow interests and domains typically have less power so for example sylvanus the oak father a deity we encounter in baldur's gate 3 is a powerful god whose portfolio encompasses all of wild nature and is designated as a greater power whereas his servant goddess eldeth is a goddess of peace waterfalls and stillness as a lesser power the lowest rank of deific power is the quasi-deity which technically is not a real god at all but rather a type of immortal hero being they typically cannot grant spells to their followers and lack many of the abilities of actual gods mortals can through fame and deeds become quasi deities and deities can be demoted or fall down to this position through worship atrophy something i will explain later some examples of quasi deities are the so-called dead three bane merkel and baal and are examples of demotion since all of them are formerly far more powerful than they currently are and they're also true dragons who can become quasi deities through a path that is referred to as the dragon ascendant demigods represent the first stage of actual deific power in part because demigods typically have real followers they interact with demigods do not typically rule over domains of great importance and their powers are far more limited than those of gods of greater stature demigods in fact struggle to attract followers but when they do gain loyal worshipers they often over invest in them though they rarely have more than a few hundred followers at any given time examples of demigods are velshrun a dead demi-power of necromancy and lichtem nobandian a demi power of royalty in lions and gwyron winstrom a demi power of tracking and rangers the next rung of the diving ladder are lesser gods lesser gods have worshippers in the thousands or tens of thousands their portfolios also tend to be more expansive and more important than the more limited portfolio of demigods nonetheless they are not as influential or as powerful as either intermediate powers or greater powers and they often serve more powerful deities as agents examples of lesser powers include oral the goddess of winter malar the beast lord and god of the hunt both of whom serve the greater power talos as well as lyra goddess of joy and happiness and leviator goddess of pain and torment the second most powerful class of deities are so-called intermediate powers they typically have followers in the hundreds of thousands and rule over domains of greater importance and reach than either demi powers or lesser powers do they are important enough that entire nations might worship them as is the case with the nation of lantan which worships the god gand god of invention other examples of intermediate powers are umberly goddess of the sea meliki goddess of force and ilmater the god of suffering and endurance the most powerful of all gods are greater gods they will power far beyond gods beneath them and typically have millions upon millions of worshipers the concepts and domains they rule over are usually very important and integral in some way to faerun and they're worshippers other powers of lesser status often serve them in some capacity examples of greater gods that have wide sweeping influence and worship are tyr god of justice misra goddess of magic augma god of knowledge and talos god of storms and destruction all this said gods whatever their power level require worship in order to persist long term a god whether greater or lesser can wither away in time from worship atrophy if enough of its followers disappear a deity that dies from worship atrophy is then thrust into the astral plane to drift eternally in the ether of that realm the githyanki capital tunarith located on the astral plane was built upon a deific corpse however should a god once again receive a new influx of worshipers it is thoroughly possible for it to be resurrected and reclaim its place in the pantheon inasmuch as this accords with the rules that eo has laid down and one such rule a very important one is that only one god can rule over a certain domain and portfolio at any given time thus for example there can only be one god of justice which at the moment is tier and were another deity to seek to claim that title tyr would have to be defeated die or otherwise be dispatched gods whatever their power level rarely live on the prime material plane and usually maintain outer planar realms that correspond with their alignment within their own realms gods whatever their own status have near absolute power they're often served by a host of planar beings that exist to carry out their will thus a lawful good power such as tyr maintains his divine realm in the seven heavens of mount celestia the plane of absolute law and good and is served by powerful upper planar beings such as devas archons planetarius and solars in order for deities to interact with the prime material plane directly they can manifest avatars which are tiny fractions of their power made manifest as an extension of themselves but this is not a common thing and deities usually prefer to work through intermediary servants and signs they send rather than manifesting avatars beyond the details in the current state of fifth edition as things are not entirely clear in terms of mechanics i have avoided listing the numerical differences in terms of abilities that used to belong to gods in the forgotten realm setting though needless to say each power level represents ever greater access to said power however in practical terms either with respect to campaigns or the game bulger's gate 3 deities of all power levels can effectively do what they want and beyond individual power level each god is the embodiment of the portfolio he represents and most of an individual deity's strivings are directed towards fulfilling the elements that make up their portfolio a good example this would be torum the true god of duty and loyalty who sacrificed himself during the time of troubles in order to destroy bane in mortal combat or misra who permits and promotes all forms of magic to be researched and explored as she herself exists to see the flourishing of magic persist throughout the realms or ogma who promotes the creation documentation of all knowledge throughout the realms whether good or bad in this sense deities are somewhat lost within their own heads due to their own preoccupation with their spheres of interest and often lack the flexibility to think outside of the limits of their own domains the goddess misra for example once described the god talos the destroyer as someone who exists only to tear things apart as befits a god of destruction he simply cannot think outside the paradigm of destruction and despite his awesome power he's nonetheless limited in the scope of the application of that power as everything that he sees that exists in some pristine state he feels a compulsion to destroy now for the purposes of players a deity's power level is not important as a cleric will receive spells regardless of the deity's power level and that probably won't be directly relevant to the game of baldur's gate 3 but it does remain important for the purposes of elucidating the divine workings of the realms as always thanks for tuning in please leave a like comment share and subscribe as it really helps out the channel and i will check you out next time take care

Channel: Spell&Shield

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Length: 10min 56sec (656 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 22 2022