The Forgotten Realms Calendar and Holidays

[Wids]

Now, if you really do want to blame someone, blame, oh, I don't know, the writers? James Lowder and Troy Denning sound like a good place to start.

Works for me! 

Out of all Cyric's victims and not-quite-victims, Myrkul's fate is the only real mystery (and Mystra's fate and Mask's fate too, if you include 4th Ed and the Spellplague, which, as I recall, LotN doesn't, and thank Tymora for that).  Bane, being god-worthy as he is, had enough foresight to create Ich Ikthu Ichyachi Alphabet Xvim by way of having a self-resurrection contingency plan.  Bhaal did the same thing, only he created the Bhaalspawn (and, in passing, the Baldur's Gate series) for his eventual self-resurrection instead.  Leira, being the ultimate deceiver and illusionist, faked her own death (and if she even fooled Ao himself, I wouldn't be a bit surprised).  But what about Myrkul?  Think he has an ace in the hole somewhere, or is he well and truly kaput?   

But people (and characters) vary, and so does their worthiness for godhood, and I'll concede that Ao isn't nearly as good at reading people's destinies as he's claimed to be.  Valkur and Velsharoon are other recent additions to the pantheon; Valkur ascended to godhood after he (and his crew, and his ship) survived everything that Umberlee threw at them until Umberlee finally said, "Aw, the hell with it," and Velsharoon stole godhood for himself after placing a bet with Szass Tam on who could attain the highest rank of power; Szass Tam became the Emperor of Thay, but Velsharoon became a god and won the bet.  Now, Velsharoon's demise has already been written in later editions (and I might add that his death is the equivalent of spontaneous combustion, which is kind of lame), so he's probably a sucky god.  But Valkur seems to have legs; he doesn't run out picking fights with everyone, he focuses on keeping sailors safe from Umberlee, he has yet to do anything patently foolish and, aside from Umberlee (and possibly other evil sea gods, like Sekolah and Blibdoolpoolp), he doesn't really have any enemies.  And hey, he bested Umberlee before and he can do it again.  So I think Valkur will make a decent god, and he's in it for the long haul.  He might even be around for D&D's 10th Edition.  What do y'all think?

[Neutral_Zone]

Valkur is probably my favorite FR deity. He's one of the few that is unique the setting, and is one of the few folks to have ever given Umberlee (The Bitch Queen that she is, pardon my Chondathan) a run for her money.

[Wids]

Ah, you must be referring to the Forgotten Realms' way of borrowing deities from our own myths and legends: Tyr from the Norse pantheon, Loviatar and Ilmater from the Finnish pantheon, Tiamat and the entire Untheric pantheon from the Ancient Babylonian mythos, Bahamut from the Ancient Arabian mythos, the entire Mulhorandi pantheon from the Ancient Egyptian mythos, and maybe a smattering of others.

I wouldn't say that only a few gods are unique to the Forgotten Realms, though; Umberlee herself is a FR exclusive, as are Auril, Malar, Tempus, Sune, Sekolah, Blibdoolpoolp, the Primordials, the entire orcish pantheon, the entire elven pantheon, the entire dwarven pantheon, the entire halfling pantheon, the entire gnomish pantheon, the entire drow pantheon, et cetera.  I'm also not sure if the FR-exclusive deities who used to be "borrowed" gods before changing in some way (like the Roman goddess Tyche becoming the "Realmsian" goddesses Tymora and Beshaba, the Babylonian god Assuran/Ashur becoming Abeir-Toril's Hoar, or the Egyptian goddess Bast becoming Abeir-Toril's Sharess) would count as the former or the latter.

And I still fondly remember my high-Level Cleric of Umberlee from the bygone Pirate Isles server.  She did everything she could to undermine the Church of Valkur's foothold on Prespur.  She never quite succeeded at getting the Valkurites kicked out of Palaggar, but she did eventually gather up enough materials, indebt a large enough workforce to her and build an Umberlant temple on Prespur's southern beaches (just across the bay from Palaggar), which gave the Church of Umberlee a nearby foothold on Prespur, which was the second-to-last thing that the local Church of Valkur wanted.  So it all worked out in the end.  Screw Valkur. 

[Neutral_Zone]

Actually, I'm referring to the fact that a significant amount of FR deities are from lands not its own - not just the Olympians and Norse gods, but also many from Oerth and a few other places too.