I am 99,99% certain that Xzar and Montaron worship Bane, since they are Zhents.
Bane is dead at this point in the history of FR. The Bhaalspawn crisis occurs in 1368-1369DR. Bane was killed by Torm in 1358DR and isn't resurrected until 1372DR.
I am 99,99% certain that Xzar and Montaron worship Bane, since they are Zhents.
Bane is dead at this point in the history of FR. The Bhaalspawn crisis occurs in 1368-1369DR. Bane was killed by Torm in 1358DR and isn't resurrected until 1372DR.
That doesn't matter, the Zhents still worship him. Worshipping dead gods is really not an issue in the Forgotten Realms (unless you use divine magic). And if the Zhents would give up worshipping him, they surely wouldn't have gone such lengths to revive him.
Yeah, I just looked it up, Zhentil Keep was basically overtaken by Cyricists seven years before BG1 takes place... I just went with the logic route, since in reality, people don't really seem to care if their god is actually around or not :X People in the Realms sure are faithful, huh? *sarcasm*
Technically, Bane was revived because, unlike Bhaal who foresaw his own death and decided a massive orgy was in order, Bane had a good plan to use his infernal child Iyatch Xvim as an egg. Most of Bane's, Bhaal's and Myrkul's faithful just defaulted to Cyric, or went Xvim (very few iirc worshipped him). Remember, being Faithless is a big deal in Faerun, so nobody wants to have no patron.
There were still Cyricists among the Zhentarim in 3.5, I avoided 4th.
You also need to consider that some NPCs aren't religious whatsoever, or at least do not align themselves with any specific deity as their focus. There are multiple instances of NPCs, including the protagonist in his dialogue options, denouncing their faiths or refusing to proclaim worship to any one deity. In one dialogue, you can even falsely claim to be a follower of Talos.
I suspect many of the NPCs you listed are either unaffiliated with any one religious group, or altogether opposed to religion in some respect. Additionally, it's possible some of them may worship certain cults or pseudo-deities.
Edit: I understand the whole concept of the Wall of the Faithless, but some may not fear this end. Moreover, it could be that they become followers later in their lives, whereas they are irreligious during the time during which the games (and stories) take place.
@Nokkenbuer When I created this thread I was aware that some of the NPCs were probably non-religious and so when I listed their deities I meant whom they would most likely worship if they did in fact worship someone.
I have to agree with @Nokkenbuer here, if I remember correctly, in Neverwinter Nights 2 and Mask of the Betrayer it's stated that not everyone is aware of the wall or that everybody cares about it.
Though I guess that characters with a chaotic alignment tend to be more prone to being faithless, due to rebel/ freedom tendencies. I mean, Drizzt himself used to be faithless between the time he went rogue on his house and till he met Montolio, if I am not mistaken (that's at least what they say in the comics). Wasn't that like ~30 years or something?
And while we are on that topic, what about characters who do not knowingly worship a certain god? Montolio states, that Drizzt had been following Mielikki for a long time and all that Montolio gave him was a name. How does that count? Though, don't people like this who end up in the city of judgement get a choice, basically "you acted like a follower of mine, so you may become officially one in the afterlife"?
And then there is of course the possibility of selling your soul, which results in never getting an afterlife.
despite being an interesting concept I've always thought the wall of the faithless was a poor idea that simply feels out of place in the wider setting and causes too many problems in interpretation as to how faith actually in the forgotten realms.
I thought Kossuth was a primordial and aren't all primordials of neutral alignment?, and correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Jubilex just an aspect of Ghaunadaur
Primordials were a 4th Ed thing/term. Kossuth became True Neutral in 3rd Ed, but he might very well have been Neutral Evil before that.
I don't know about that "Jubilex is an aspect of Ghaunadaur" thing but that also sounds very 4th Ed, being as how WotC used that excuse to basically cull a lot of their deities from existance.
Edit: I understand the whole concept of the Wall of the Faithless, but some may not fear this end. Moreover, it could be that they become followers later in their lives, whereas they are irreligious during the time during which the games (and stories) take place.
Change patron gods too much and too hastily or take their worship too lightly or betray them and you become one of the False - doomed to walk the streets of the City of Judgement for eternity at best, and sentenced to eternal torture and punishment at worst.
I thought Kossuth was a primordial and aren't all primordials of neutral alignment?, and correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Jubilex just an aspect of Ghaunadaur
Primordials were a 4th Ed thing/term. Kossuth became True Neutral in 3rd Ed, but he might very well have been Neutral Evil before that.
I don't know about that "Jubilex is an aspect of Ghaunadaur" thing but that also sounds very 4th Ed, being as how WotC used that excuse to basically cull a lot of their deities from existance.
Kossuth, like all other Elemental Lords, was always Neutral in 2nd and 2.5 AD&D. But it's also true that he's quite popular in Thay amongst evil aligned clergies as well. I don't know whenever Kossuth did possess any other alignment than Neutral in 1st edition though.
And according to the AD&D book Demihuman Deities, Juiblex is indeed just one amongst many aliases of Ghaunadaur. Personally, I like both of them equally.
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Worshipping dead gods is really not an issue in the Forgotten Realms (unless you use divine magic).
And if the Zhents would give up worshipping him, they surely wouldn't have gone such lengths to revive him.
Monty could worship Cyric.
People in the Realms sure are faithful, huh? *sarcasm*
There were still Cyricists among the Zhentarim in 3.5, I avoided 4th.
I suspect many of the NPCs you listed are either unaffiliated with any one religious group, or altogether opposed to religion in some respect. Additionally, it's possible some of them may worship certain cults or pseudo-deities.
Edit: I understand the whole concept of the Wall of the Faithless, but some may not fear this end. Moreover, it could be that they become followers later in their lives, whereas they are irreligious during the time during which the games (and stories) take place.
Though I guess that characters with a chaotic alignment tend to be more prone to being faithless, due to rebel/ freedom tendencies. I mean, Drizzt himself used to be faithless between the time he went rogue on his house and till he met Montolio, if I am not mistaken (that's at least what they say in the comics). Wasn't that like ~30 years or something?
And while we are on that topic, what about characters who do not knowingly worship a certain god?
Montolio states, that Drizzt had been following Mielikki for a long time and all that Montolio gave him was a name. How does that count?
Though, don't people like this who end up in the city of judgement get a choice, basically "you acted like a follower of mine, so you may become officially one in the afterlife"?
And then there is of course the possibility of selling your soul, which results in never getting an afterlife.
Though I don't fully understand how that works, demons basically metamorphosize out of souls, right ...?
I don't know about that "Jubilex is an aspect of Ghaunadaur" thing but that also sounds very 4th Ed, being as how WotC used that excuse to basically cull a lot of their deities from existance.
Change patron gods too much and too hastily or take their worship too lightly or betray them and you become one of the False - doomed to walk the streets of the City of Judgement for eternity at best, and sentenced to eternal torture and punishment at worst.
The Wall of the Faithless might be preferable.
And according to the AD&D book Demihuman Deities, Juiblex is indeed just one amongst many aliases of Ghaunadaur. Personally, I like both of them equally.