I have been told that I can choose a god for my Hight Elf Bard, Corellion is one my only option, I did not like other gods. Either I will choose him or nothing.
But I dont know what exactly a chaotic good god expects from me? I know he favors those who fights against Drows and Orcs, but what is a gods favor ?
We have a Drown in our group and I am going to cooperate with her for the greater good, I wonder if this is against of Corellions teachings ... or he believes in doing stuff for the greater good?
Am I going to get punished for cooperating with the Drow?
Will I gain special stats or magics if I choose him?
Any information that could help me to clarify the Order of Corellion would be much appreciated
In FR, Corellon has two drow children: Eilistraee and Vhaeraun, whom he had from Araushnee (aka Lolth). While Vhaeraun worked with his mother to dethrone him, and currently is at odds with both his parents, Eilistraee has a rather strained relationships with her father, but they remain close (if you want to read about this story, this article:
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Eilistraee has a complete overview of it).
Now, considering this, the situation is rather complicated if you look at the full picture, however (in short) Corellon shouldn't shun his followers who decide to cooperate with drow who are not working evil, like Eilistraee's followers, and should even accept drow followers (no god refuses followers, as their power depends on their faith, at least in FR). However, many elves aren't keen on accepting drow followers of Eilistraee or on working with them, as they like to blame the drow for each and every tragedy that happened to their people, and Eilistraee kind of proves those ideas wrong. So, your character might encounter some hostility by other elves.
However, it all depends on the kind of picture that your DM wants to draw. Does he want to include the full history of the FR elves/drow in his campaign? Your DM might decide that Corellon is not really happy that your character is working with a drow. If we want delve deeper, in FR Corellon is a proud god, and some of his actions point towards a character that isn't completely white, but can also become vindictive and rather Greek-esque. He is responsible for cursing a whole race, to the last child, pushing them in Lolth's hands, and then doing basically nothing to fix his mistake, help reconcile those drow who managed to find another way, or to help his daughter in her goal. I'll write a summary of how the whole thing went in the following spoiler, to avoid taking too much space. [sblock]It started when Lolth was exiled by Corellon because of her betrayal. Her son, Vhaeraun, was exiled too because he helped his mother, while Eilistraee (whom Lolth tried to frame) chose to be punished too, because she had foreseen that the drow would need her in the time to come.
Eilistraee and Vhaeraun wandered on Toril (the FR world), where dark and wood elven presence could already be found, acting as guides for these elves. Eventually, the dark elves in the south of Faerun (mainly faithful to Vhaeraun and, later, Ghaunadaur) managed to found a whole kingdom, Ilythiir, which developed into a very advanced nation, but whose leaders/nobles/mages/what you have ultimately became corrupted by the kind of magic and experiments they practiced. Later, some Iliythiiri, mainly followers of Eilistraee, unhappy with that, left the south and joined other dark/green elves, founding the nation of Miyeritar. It too flourished into one of the greatest centers of arts and magic of Faerun.
Meanwhile, after a cataclysm that damaged their original world, the elves of Faerie fled on Toril. Fast forward centuries of migrations, interaction with other races, conflicts and so on and we come to the first Seldarine-approved massacre (at some point within this time frame, Lolth turns her attention to Faerun, and especially Ilythiir, sending fiends to corrupt them). After being confronted with Ilythiir, the elves decided to create a safe haven for all elven people, where to move their tree of souls. They gathered mages from all elven subraces (excluding the dark elves: even followers of Eilistraee were shunned away) and, with the aid of their gods, performed the Sundering. The ritual brought natural cataclysms that severely damaged Ilythiir and caused the death of an immense number of its inhabitants. IIRC from the novel, they knew the consequences, but went ahead anyway.
Fast forward some more and the ''newly'' arrived elves get their own empires and kingdoms (the whole Faerun is covered by them). One of those, Aryvandaar (a maostly gold elven nation), was the cause of the series of wars that brought to the banishment of the drow. Their rulers, the Vyshaan, started the whole thing by trying to conquer Miyeritar. The dark elves fought to kept their independence and managed to offer a tenacious resistance. Tired of that, the Vyshaan (supposedly influenced by a fallen solar) cast an high magic spell that nuked the place, made it so nothing could ever grow there anymore, and killed the vast majority of its inahbitants (also dealing a great blow to Eilistraee, who basically lost almost all of her people with that). Meanwhile Ilythiir went to war as well: they were reported to use ''dark magic'', but, more importantly, that the cult of Lolth was starting to spread among them (it was mostly noble houses and individuals of power that started dealing with her and being ''seduced by fiends''). All in all, these wars were full of atrocities committed by (almost) anyone who took part in them.
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Ilythiir loses the war. Now, enters Corellon. He declared that the Vyshaan had to be brought to justice. However, he also declared that since some Ilythiiri started to worship Lolth and ''deal with dark powers'' (in a war where everyone didn ugly things, btw), the whole race had to be banished: not just their rulers/mages/priests, like it happened for the gold elves of Aryvandaar, the whole damn race (and the ban, for some reason, was extended to the children and to the few remaining followers of his daughter Eilistraee as well). Now, that doesn't really make sense. Lolth was seducing the nobles and powerful individuals of Ilythiir, it is very unlikely that the random commoners, farmers, workers (i.e. the bulk of the population) started trafficking with dark powers and the likes, wanted war, or had any say on, hand in, and perhaps even true knowledge of what their priests and mages were doing. We can't even expect them to have the magical comepetence to do that.
And if worshipping an evil deity was the reason, that doesn't hold in the FR, where everyone worships multiple deities, including the evil ones (for prayers regarding particular situations, like someone praying to Talona to not get sick). In that case, Corellon's choice only made the situation worse. Instead of taking his children to him, of helping his daughter take care of the drow, and try steer them away from the ''evil ways''(1), he cursed a whole culture (even the ones who weren't capable of agreeing/understanding with definitions of good/evil, like the children) and rejected them. With that, he basically pushed the dark elves, who were shunned by the Seldarine, towards seeking guidance and totally giving themselves (and their future, not yet born descendents, since those were cursed too for some reason) to Lolth, Ghaunadaur and the likes. Most drow couldn't see such a guidance in Eilistraee, because she had been drastically weakened by the death of the vast majority of her followers at the hands of the Vyshaan (and it took millennia for her faith to re-emerge). Also Corellon/the Seldarine cursed the surviving Miyeritari as well, which was a massive slap in his daughter's face.
Fast forward to reecent history: Corellon still seems to be totally fine with the situation. Eilistraee and her followers work to show the drow the life that they were denied, and to promote harmony between the drow and other races, yet Corellon doesn't seem to move a single finger to help them. Many elves still detest the idea that Eilistraee and her followers exist, finding them to be a threat to their doctrine that the dark elves were wholly to blame for the Crown Wars and other ancient tragedies, and many priests of the Seldarine do absolutely nothing to debunk this myth: they are happy with letting the truth be forgotten (in fact talking about this period of their history is taboo among elves). Add to this the fact that the followers of the Eilistraee tried to bring knowledge of the goddess and her ideals to Evermeet (the elven island, where they even have an ambassador) and they were denied the possibility of doing so. Yes, the Seldarine accepts drow followers(2), but in FR no god refuses a follower, as they gain power from them.
Recently, even as Eilistraee fought to take the drow from Lolth, even as she, Corellon's own daughter (whom he says to love) was in danger, he did absolutely nothing to help her. He only allowed her followers (who were uncursed through a ritual performed by a cabal of drow mages) into Arvandor at the end, when his daughter disappeared (but then, what god would refuse free followers?) In the current time, now that Eilistraee has returned to her followers, I really wonder how will Corellon act in their regards.
(1) We know that in FR it is very well possible, as even in the present, the drow -with all that was done to them by Lolth- can very well choose to not be evil, and we have proof of that in the followers of Eilistraee, Drizzt and others.
(2)Even if they do nothing to actively try to free the drow from Lolth, or to help Eilistraee in doing that.[/sblock]
As for what Corellon might expect from your character: if you look at his dogma, he is a patron of arts, poetry and magic, so nurturing those crafts should be a good way to worship him. Protecting elves and their work, creating works of beauty, ''seeking out new experiences'' are also parts of his teachings, as is fighting against those drow who are devoted to Lolth and are tools for her goal.
I'll paste his dogma here, so you can figure out what following him is about:
''The elves are sculptors and wardens of magic's endless mysteries. Bring forth the beauty that envelops and lets the spirit gambol unfettered. Seek out new experiences and new ways. Ward against those that would destroy what they cannot create. Commune with the natural and mystical world. Be ever vigilant against the return of the banished darkness, and be strong in heart against the corruption of the Spider Queen.''
