#thinking abt those notes in the ilmater temple - 'even bhaal has things to teach us 😔🙏' otoh but the absolute cult is 'heresy'

[s1ithers]

wish i knew the forgotten realms lore better...how am i meant to make my little ocs in this state of ignorance

#i'm so interested in how people relate to the gods in this world which is sort of hard to glean from the wiki #thinking abt those notes in the ilmater temple - 'even bhaal has things to teach us 😔🙏' otoh but the absolute cult is 'heresy' #like who decides that? what does heresy /mean/ in this polytheistic setup where each god's cult seems to p much do their own thing #& it seems like even among the good-aligned gods ppl tend to pick one to hitch their wagon to in a pretty committed way #what does polytheism mean to the average joe in this world #i need to know #i need to make a little guy about it #wrapped up shadowheart's quest and....idk man! #just going off the lore as presented in bg3 so far it's set up distrust for deities pretty much across the board #like babe is your new cult better? bc they've got angel imagery? i guess so #the whole problem of evil thing - the dead three shar et al being so extant & active in the world makes the (apparently?) more distant #benevolence of good gods pretty limp by comparison #so much of what draws lay people to them seems to be protection from the very real material threat posed by the evil ones? #& at least SH is in a better place to choose than say. the goblins #vast swathes of people just born under a bad sign in this world #i heard somewhere that if you don't get a god to claim your soul for their afterlife it just kind of withers away in limbo for eternity? #kinda fucked up #some protection racket shit dude #being a mortal in FR like you're just a little guy in a precarious cosmological situation aren't u #to be clear none of this is a criticism i think it's very fun & chewy #rife with cosmic horror potential #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #edit: i mean it's a little bit of a criticism in that i don't think the game sells SH's conversion super well #if the intention is just to be like. yay white-hat god good ^_^ #but i don't hate the worldbuilding implications if we take the iffiness as read