The Orcgate Wars

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

A series of conflicts which took place in eastern Faerûn beginning in -1076 DR and ending in -1069 DR. Narfell, Raumathar, Thay, and Chessenta had not yet been founded, but the nations now known as the First Empires of Mulhorand and Unther were shaken and subsequently entered a period of decline which lasted until about -150 DR.

In the aftermath of this event, orcs were exterminated across the lands of Mulhorand and Unther. Even today, the only place in the Old Empires where they can survive in any numbers is within the Akanapeaks. In the cities of Mulhorand and Unther, orcs are attacked on sight.

Sources

  • Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting [11836] pages 109, 263, 267, 268
  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] pages 3, 5, 8, 18, 23, 24, 33, 34, 44, 86
  • Xaeyruudh: starting with “Man Versus Orc” this account was written for the Xaeyruudh campaign

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Enlil

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

Enlil is one of the God-Kings of Unther; the leader of the pantheon from -2087 to -734 DR. He’s apparently been absent from the Realms for the last 2000 years, and his cult was long ago eradicated by the followers of Gilgeam.

Source

  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] pages 3, 4, 5, 39, 44, 46, 60

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Gilgeam

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

Gilgeam is one of the God-Kings of Unther.

Incarnations

Gilgeam, in his arrogance, does not have incarnations. His manifestation sits on the throne, drinks inordinate amounts of wine, crushes citizens who come seeking his generosity, slays hapless harem girls in the course of gratifying himself with their bodies, and so forth.

Priests

Notable Followers

Source

  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] pages 4, 5, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 70

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Tiamat

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

Ulutiu, Ubtao, Siamorphe, Tiamat, and Valkur


At a Glance

Tiamat —also known as the Dragon Queen, the Dark Lady, and the Nemesis of the Gods— is a power of the Draconic, Faerûnian, and Untheric pantheons.

Tiamat is the progenitor of the chromatic dragons. She’s also known as the Chromatic Dragon, to reflect her primal nature. She is opposed by Bahamut, the father of metallic dragons.

She has manifested at least four avatars in Unther.

  • One participated in the Orcgate Wars, and was slain by Marduk
  • Her cult summoned the Dark Lady in 1346 DR
  • One was sent to Unther during the Time of Troubles, and slain by Gilgeam
  • Finally, she created another avatar and slew Gilgeam following the ToT

Tiamat is the subject of the Tyranny of Dragons campaign, connected with the launch of 5th edition of the Forgotten Realms setting.

Tiamat


Appearance


Personality & Power

Allies
Enemies

The Church

Sects
Affiliated Organizations

Symbol

Temples
Priests

Personal History


The Xaeyruudh Campaign

Following her defeat of Gilgeam, she’s the last remaining member of the Untheric pantheon and the cult of Tiamat becomes the official church of Unther. She is essentially the goddess of everything, as far as (most of) the people of Unther are concerned.


Sources

Primary Sources
  • Faiths & Pantheons [88643] page 108
  • Manual of the Planes [11650] (3e) page 118
Passing Mention
  • Fiendish Aspects II (Fiendish Codex II web enhancement) pages 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 21
  • Fiendish Codex II [95387] pages 11, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 108, 110, 111, 112, 143, 146, 156
  • Manual of the Planes [11650] (3e) pages 52, 117, 120, 133
  • Forgotten Realms [11836] (3e campaign setting) pages 23, 63, 65, 66, 182, 186, 187, 188, 234, 235, 258, 264, 272
  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] page 45
  • Monster Mythology [DMGR4/2128] page 107
  • Monster Manual [2009] (1e) page 32
  • WotC Monster Index
  • Rand’s Travelogue: More Old Empires and Sembia!

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Sects

Sects is the word I’m using for the “gray area” of churches… something I’m going to be relying on in the Xaeyruudh campaign both to introduce variety and also to keep the players guessing.

The idea is that there can be variations in interpretation of key ideas in each church, and this can result in schisms (like the Protestants splitting from the mainstream church of their day, if you want a real-world example) but it can also be smaller in scale.  It doesn’t have to result in a church splitting into two churches.  Sometimes it can’t go that way, because the mainstream church would hunt you down and exterminate you before you could gather enough support to defend yourself.  So you spread your own ideas, as much as your self-preservation instinct allows for, and keep your heretical ideas under wraps when your superiors are listening.  If your instincts are good enough, and if your ideas are appealing enough, then you have yourself a sect.

To keep things relatively simple, I’m organizing them by alignment.  I recognize the possibility that there could be 14 CG churches of Anhur, but that would be kinda crazy and I don’t want to be crazy.  So all CG “churches” venerating one God-King are considered one sect of that God-King.  CG churches of another God-King are a sect of that God-King.  Each alignment gets its own sect.  Potentially.

The head of each pantheon (Horus-Re and Gilgeam) can theoretically have a sect for each alignment.  In practice, the church of Horus-Re only has six sects and the church of Gilgeam really only has one.  To limit the crazyness of having up to nine churches for each God-King, only the head of each pantheon gets that kind of diversity.

The other central God-Kings – Anhur, Isis, Nephthys, Osiris, and Thoth – get a sect for each alignment within two steps of their own.  Anhur is CG, for instance, so his church can have up to six sects: CG, CN, CE, NG, N, LG.  Once again, this is just a theoretical max; sects tend to combine and ally with each other.

The remaining mainstream God-Kings – Bast, Geb, Hathor, Nut, Shu, and Tefnut – are limited to one alignment “step”.  Hathor is LG; her church has up to three sects… LG, LN, and NG.

The other God-Kings – and churches of foreign deities trying to get established in the Old Empires – don’t get sects, with the exception of Set.  Set is sorta like the head of his own subpantheon (which contains only himself) so he gets a loophole.  But it’s mostly academic because most of Set’s followers join his church because they like what he stands for.

The result of this “graying” is a bewildering array of possibilities… like CE followers of Anhur and CG followers of Set.  This is by design.  It creates a framework for unexpected interactions… roleplaying opportunities!

God-King

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

The God-Kings of Mulhorand and Unther are basically like the powers worshiped by the rest of Faerun.

DM’s Notes

It’s a little more complicated than that, but from the angle that they have priesthoods, they grant spells, and they have more personal power than the average festhall full of adventurers… yes, they’re basically like the powers of other pantheons.

And, really, the basics are all the PCs need when it comes to the Gods.

But, because I can, and because it’s fun, I might expand this later.

Source

  • Old Empires [FR10/9274] pages 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 23, 26, 32, 35, 44, 46, 92

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.

The Untheric Pantheon

This information is intended for use with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.

At a Glance

Gilgeam is the God-King.  There is no other god.  Worship of any other beings is punished by death.”

That’s the official story. Under the propaganda, however, there is more to be known.

DM’s Notes

This “pantheon” was once a living pantheon.  Anu, Ashnan, Enki, Inanna, Kabta, Ki, Lahar, Marduk, Nanna–Sin, Nergal, Ningal, and Utu were slain in the Orcgate Wars.  At the time, the Mulhorandi pantheon was reeling from the loss of Re and the intrigue related to Anubis and Set, so no attempt was made to claim the fallen Untheric God-Kings’ titles or duties.  Since that time, various Faerûnian powers have occasionally considered making a push into Unther, but Gilgeam’s extreme violence toward all other religions is a “turn-off” for most benevolent and neutral powers.

Enlil survived the war, but later ceded leadership of the pantheon to Gilgeam and retired from his active role in the Realms.  Some time after that, Gilgeam expelled Assuran and Tiamat from the pantheon, for offenses which were probably imaginary.  Assuran left grudgingly, and later became Hoar of the Faerunian pantheon… arguably a “step up” in terms of power and respect.  Tiamat’s cult actually grew much larger after she was publicly denounced by Gilgeam, and it remained in Unther to be a thorn in Gilgeam’s side, though her influence had been expanding into the rest of Faerun for some time.

Ramman and Ishtar were harangued for years, and eventually defeated or browbeaten into obscurity by Gilgeam.  Ishtar willingly ceded her divine power and her cult to her friend and rival, Isis — a very old pair; they were students together at the same academy in Imaskar, more than 4,000 years ago.  Ramman submitted his power to Anhur, or was defeated in honorable combat, depending on the story.

Now Gilgeam stands alone against Tiamat, who was old and powerful before he was born.  Tiamat, who styles herself the Nemesis of the Gods, and has the power and cruelty to back it up.  Gilgeam, in contrast, is too arrogant to ponder the possibility that his ambition might outreach his sword, or that millennia of “big talk” with no real challenges might have left him unprepared for a challenger whose bite is far worse than her hiss.

Unlike Mulhorand, where (other than the outsider powers who pose as God-Kings) there’s almost no worship of the Faerunian pantheon, several “foreign” powers have a foothold in Unther.  This is due primarily to the near-universal hatred of Gilgeam among the people of Unther, but it’s also difficult for one god to be all things to all of his people regardless of how much they might like him.  Among the powers who have significant followings in Unther are Anhur, Bane, Mask, Mystra, Sebek, Tempus, Umberlee, and Waukeen.  There is also a cult of “The Old Gods” which remains loyal to the fallen members of the Untheric pantheon… unfortunately they don’t have any magical or political power.

Source

  • Gilgeam, Ishtar, Ramman, and Tiamat are described on pages 44-46 of FR10.  Enlil is mentioned in a couple of places.  Marduk, Nanna-Sin, and Utu are mentioned under The Old Gods. The other gods were added for the Xaeyruudh campaign.

Disclaimer

Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC.