Are there any Ancient Egyptian influences in BG?

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April

Apart from the sarcophagus and mummies in the crypts?

atcDave

Yeah the mummy tomb area in BG2, otherwise I can't think of much. Too bad, it could be a lot of fun. Although the technology would be so different for a good adaption (bronze only, so a lot of brittle, and short, weapons. Actually even worse than that, Old Kingdom was copper only!)

Tresset

Well there is an Aztec calendar in Amkethran...

Oh yeah, and I believe there is a whole pantheon of gods in Forgotten Realms cannon that is made up of Egyptian gods but they have very little mention in BG.

Rhaella

Yeah, the Mulhorandi pantheon is quite literally Egyptian. That's pretty far away from the Sword Coast, of course.

HaHaCharade

Bhaaldog said:

Just curious, has anyone noticed any influence from ancient Egyptian lore and mythology in the game?

The nations of Mulhorand (as @Rhaella mentioned) and also Unther worship Egyptian gods who have been re-worked into the Forgotten Realms mythos. Here's a good link below that shows some of the gods:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Mulhorandi_pantheon

I always have my evil clerics from BG have Mulhorandi or Untherian origins so that they can worship Set in their background. Set is the only other living FR deity that has murder in his pantheon, and since CHARNAME has part of Bhaal - The Lord of Murder's essence within them, I felt that it'd be cool if they had a natural pull towards Set due to the similarities there.

The_Shairs_Handbook

yes there is Mulhorandi pantheon and the Untheric gods... of them all Sharess,behamut, Tiamat and Hoar (Assuran) are the most interesting gods... aslo those four are the only gods that survived the spellplague

The members of the Untheric pantheon were as follows:

Assuran (Hoar, joined the Faerûnian pantheon)
Enlil, the patriarch of the Untheric gods. He abdicated in favor of Gilgeam and left Toril in -734 DR.
Gilgeam (intermediate deity then demigod, killed during Time of Troubles)
Girru (killed during the Orcgate Wars)
Inanna (killed during the Orcgate Wars)
Ishtar. Shortly after the departure of Enlil, Ishtar gave the power of her manifestation to Isis and vanished from Toril as well
Ki (killed during Orcgate Wars)
Marduk (killed during the Orcgate Wars)
Nanna-Sin (killed during the Orcgate Wars)
Nergal (Killed during the Orcgate Wars)
Ramman (Killed during the Time of Troubles)
Tiamat (Lesser deity, then archfiend, then demigod, now a lesser Faerûnian power.)
Utu (killed during the Orcgate Wars)

Mulhorandi pantheon:
Anhur, Geb, Hathor, Horus-Re, Isis, Nephthys, Osiris, Sebek, Set, Bast (more known as Sharess) and Thoth
The Mulhorandi pantheon consisted of the deities worshipped in Mulhorand. Their domain was Heliopolis.
When the Imaskari captured the Mulan people and brought them to Toril, the slaves also brought the worship of their deities. With help from Ao, these deities were able to follow their worshipers and end their servitude.

After the destruction of Mulhorand by the Spellplague, the Mulhorandi pantheon disappeared.

Who knows they might return with DnD next.....

HaHaCharade

The_Shairs_Handbook said:

yes there is Mulhorandi pantheon and the Untheric gods... of them all Sharess,behamut, Tiamat and Hoar (Assuran) are the most interesting gods... aslo those four are the only gods that survived the spellplague

Yeah besides the classic Egyptian pantheon, they do add some of the FR gods to the mix as well. I know in Unther, besides the Mulhorandi pantheon they also may worship Bane, among others.

Djimmy

Love that topic. Actually scrolls are kinda Egyptian and we have many scrolls in BG saga. Also gods like Tiamat the snake(and many others). I think Yan-ti are somehow influenced by Egyptian civilization too. Sarcophaguses, mummies, part of the Graveyard District in BG2, things that are already mentioned.

Miloch

The Untheric pantheon is Mesopotamian (Sumerian/Assyrian/Akkadian/Bablylonian) but the Mulhorandi pantheon is Egyptian. I mean straight out of Sumer and Egypt in both cases - even in lore they have the actual peoples and their deities coming over from ancient Earth as noted above. Gilgeam is just a deification of Gilgamesh - the rest are actual ancient Earth deities. But you won't find much mention of them on the Sword Coast, those pantheons are further inland to the east.

bill_zagoudis

pretty much in all western RPG's you'll find elements of Egyptian,Greek and Nordic mythology if you search for them

Mummies,sarcophagous and generally some of the undead are for sure Egyptian

Yuan-Ti are based on Greek mythology(echidna or however was the snake woman called),the generall idea of the 4 primal elements is also Greek(earth,fire,water,air),centaurs,gorgons/petrification/mirror shield that reflects gazes and various others seen in other video games

and for nordic well that's easy,dwarves,giants,dragons,trolls dragons alone are defining for the genre

they're all blended together including real cultural elements from diferent timelines adding magic and supernatural stuff,that's how you make fantasy setting

for instance shortswords were used mostly by Greco-Roman troops because the metallurgy of their time was not advanced enough to support longswords and rapiers were reconaisance weapons because armor was rendered obsolete by guns so there was no need for a weapon to have any penetrating power it was designed to hit unarmored targets,in D&D they coexists alond with pure fantasy stuff such as dual wielded flails or stuff like bladed/blunt weapon or blunt/piercing etc generally 99% of dual wielding was done by fictional characters in fantasy settings, infact two handed and dual wield styles,which are the most popular in video games found extremely limited uses in history,yet people who paly video games consider them common,dual wielding is mostly nonsense and two handed swords were weapons for very specific purposes(breaking walls of spears mostly),flails were infact not used by infantry but by cavalry,anyway people fought with weapon and shield back then,plain,boring,effective...shields started to loose prominence only after crossbows gained considerable penetrating power(late medieval)

on top of those add some religious elements(angels,demons) some relatively modern myths (vampires,werewolves) stuff none knows wtf they are(beholders,mindflayers,Xvart!)
and a magic system that's borrowed from many cultures and ofc Tolkin's ideas

there you go,D&D

The_Shairs_Handbook

Miloch said:

The Untheric pantheon is Mesopotamian (Sumerian/Assyrian/Akkadian/Bablylonian) but the Mulhorandi pantheon is Egyptian. I mean straight out of Sumer and Egypt in both cases - even in lore they have the actual peoples and their deities coming over from ancient Earth as noted above. Gilgeam is just a deification of Gilgamesh - the rest are actual ancient Earth deities. But you won't find much mention of them on the Sword Coast, those pantheons are further inland to the east.

I wouldn't say that....

Sharess (Bast) is worshiped in large urban areas such as Waterdeep, Calimport, and other cities along the Sword Coast. She is revered by male and female professional escorts who take pride in their professions, the decadent rich, and those who seek only endless pleasure in life. In Mulhorand, she is also revered by those who combat Set and rewards those who work long and hard against him with occasional nights of wild pleasure to inspire them to further efforts. Sharess's faith is still very young and its ceremonies very loose and fluid, with long worship services that resemble nothing so much as extended feasts and revels, heavy on the pleasures of the flesh and light on the teachings of the spirit. A goodly number of former followers of Waukeen who have rejected Lliira's teachings have become interested in Sharess.

The few temples of Sharess are typically located in large cities along the Sword Coast, but small shrines to the goddess of pleasure may be found in almost every festhall in the Realms. Her temples are typically constructed to resemble elaborate festhalls, with graceful, fluting pillars, octagonal domes, great halls sculpted to resemble forest glades, secluded nooks, bathing areas in natural mineral springs, great banquet halls, and richly scented massage parlors. Most are guarded by staunch fighters and even exotic sentient monsters who are sworn to protect all revelers who partake in the name of Sharess.

Basically there should or must be a Sharess Temple in Baldurs gate city in BG1 and another one In BG2...
or at least there should be a NPC follower whe have Sharess as her/him goddess....this goddes is extremly active in sword Coast...

the other god who is very active is Hoar The god of Vengance... he's faith is growing...
His followers:
Aside from a handful of scattered temples, the church of Hoar is composed primarily of lone wanderers who travel the realms, agreeing to pray for Hoar's aid on behalf of those who seek or fear vengeance, in exchange for a small fee. Charlatans who would try to scam people in this manner quickly feel the punishment of Hoar. His followers seek out victims of injustice, hear and appraise their stories, and track down the perpetrators in order to inflict a fitting form of punishment. No injustice is too small or too large for revenge to be sought and a fitting punishment meted out, earning the church of Hoar the ire of town watches and Tyrists alike as well as the adulation of the downtrodden.

It would be interesting to have a follower of hoar as party member... lol The child of god of murder get helps from cleric of vengance... I like the twist in it....

For more information read here:

http://www.nj-pbem.com/data/Gods/humangods/Sharess.htm

http://www.nj-pbem.com/data/Gods/humangods/Hoar.htm

If there is any further questions about forgatten realms gods just ask... I know everything there is to know... where they are worshipped, who hate who and so on...