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[Henadic Theologian]

Wrong. If you use something that isn’t yours it’s stealing, and if it’s been horribly misrepresented for over a hundred years, it’s not unreasonable to be upset.

But the bottom line is, it doesn’t matter if you are incapable of understanding why someone is upset, because that’s not your call to make. You can either apologise and try not to do it again, or you can be a total jerk.

If you can't be polite I see no reason to continue to discuss this with you.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The dragonborn in 3e were something else entirely, if memory serves. Bahamut created them via other humanoids (odd).

The dragonborn as we know them today came to Faerûn via the Spellplague or thereabouts in the 4e era. Still very recent in historical terms; they’d be easily identified as aliens. All elves, gnomes and dwarves either remember or know someone who remembers when they weren’t around.

The orcs are native, except for a subsect of them, who arrived nearly 20,000 years beforehand. No one remembers, and I’m not sure anyone knows except for, say, an aboleth. I’m also somewhat unclear about the need of this plot considering there are native orcs, but maybe some of the FR loremasters can clarify.

I don’t think dragonborn aliens is a particularly elegant solution, but Erin Evans gave them a lot of interesting cultural flavor in her novels.



On the topic of real-world deities; it’s very hard to avoid with FR. Tyr, Loviatar, Mielikki, Silvanus, etc. all bear their original names. Some just have their names swapped (e.g. Sune is Venus, written backwards without the V).

I agree that these were dead religions and pure mythology when first introduced to FR, and their recent revival is something Ed couldn’t have foreseen. Nonetheless, mythology is reinterpreted in fiction all the time, and I’ve never seen much discourse about it outside of TTRPG spaces.

It's not just hard, it's outright impossible, it's so utterly baked into setting and has been for decades.

Sune being Venus backwards without the V just blew my mind. Would have explain the rumours that Sune is just another name for Aphrodite/Venus.

WotC literally just released Kratos and Freya cards for MtG, so they can't be too worried about it.

Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles MtG set or secret Lair is just a matter of time.

 

[Amphytrion]

It's not just hard, it's outright impossible, it's so utterly baked into setting and has been for decades.

Sune being Venus backwards without the V just blew my mind. Would have explain the rumours that Sune is just another name for Aphrodite/Venus.

A handful of FR deities were first Greco-Roman gods who later got renamed. Lathander is a renamed Apollo, etc. Sune's renaming was however less imaginative than the rest.

Another forum member dug up an original source from FR's early days a while ago that kept the original names before rebranding, but now I cannot find it.

WotC literally just released Kratos and Freya cards for MtG, so they can't be too worried about it.

Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles MtG set or secret Lair is just a matter of time.

I think this is a good way to sense how WotC is looking at this; thank you for the picture.

In a sense, it's an adaptation of an adaptation, far removed from the original myth and completely unconcerned about accuracy. I think WotC has maybe just ruled that there aren't enough neo-pagans to outweigh the profit in adapting these popular myths. Then again, it's not even guaranteed that a majority of neo-pagans would be upset at all.

 

[Parmandur]

I think that would be much more of an issue then Greek or Egyptian Gods, although those are Gods are worshipped still today, but the Pagan community really doesn't make a big deal about it, but some times the Hindu community does get upset at particular depiction, but never D&D.

Literally the last time thst D&D used a resl world deity in s product, over 3 years ago, someone said:

"Spelljammer preview video has Hecate as Chaotic Evil, which has going WTF?"

"Out of all the faiths that believe in Hecate, only in certain Gnostic & Satanic (no I don't know why some Satanists worship Hecate, but they do) sects is Hecate viewed as evil. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is referred to tender hearted. The Chaldean Oracles called her The Mother of Angels. The Neopatonists viewed her as omnibelevent."

"For those of you who wonder why I wanted to see Jesus statted up with a loot table in the Biblical 5e setting, this kind of stuff is why."

"And despite praying to Hecate daily, I'm not offended, a little blasmphy keeps Zealotry at bay and is spiritual valuable, I'm just disappointed that they have such a naughty word understanding of Hecate. If they wanted a Chaotic Evil Greek God, that is what Typhon is for."

H

D&D 5E (2014) Thread 'Why the heck does D&D have Hecate as Chaotic Evil'

Aug 8, 2022

Spelljammer preview video has Hecate as Chaotic Evil, which has going WTF?

Out of all the faiths that believe in Hecate, only in certain Gnostic & Satanic (no I don't know why some Satanists worship Hecate, but they do) sects is Hecate viewed as evil. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Hecate is referred to tender hearted. The Chaldean Oracles called her The Mother of Angels. The Neopatonists viewed her as omnibelevent.

For those of you who wonder why I wanted to see Jesus statted up with a loot table in the Biblical 5e setting, this kind of stuff is why.

And despite praying to Hecate...

• Henadic Theologian
• Replies: 84
• Forum: *Dungeons & Dragons

• 

I think that's mostly because there isn't much overlap between D&D players and Hindus.

In 2025, actually quite a bit of overlap. My sister's primary D&D group was mostly Hindu, but she is a software engineer in Seattle so thstthe scene.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

I agree that these were dead religions and pure mythology when first introduced to FR, and their recent revival is something Ed couldn’t have foreseen. Nonetheless, mythology is reinterpreted in fiction all the time, and I’ve never seen much discourse about it outside of TTRPG spaces.

They were not "dead" religions, the creators at TSR were simply unaware of their practices at the time, and simply because a religion is "dead" doesn't make it any more or less sacred.


All unfalsifiable claims of the supernatural should be treated equally, because they all have equal evidence. If one supernatural belief is to be respected, then all should, or the inverse. There is no more or less evidence for the existence of Vishnu, Zeus, J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, Kolob, Xenu, Jehovah, Peter Pan, Frankenstein or Superman.