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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ilbranteloth" data-source="post: 6789610" data-attributes="member: 6778044">That's one of the things questioned in Erin Evans' blog: <a href="http://slushlush.com/2015/05/on-playing-a-dragonborn-in-forgotten-realms-part-2/" target="_blank">http://slushlush.com/2015/05/on-playing-a-dragonborn-in-forgotten-realms-part-2/</a>In this case is seems to be partially dependent on the fact that Dragonborn come from a different planet. But what's been written already supports this:According to Realms lore, particularly from the 2nd Ed and later, the strength of the Gods is dependent upon the faith of their followers. Faith is by definition a personal choice, so faith by magical coercion (charm spells) wouldn't count, but faith by fear does. If faith applies equally, then fearing a good God is as helpful as fearing an evil God.A single person isn't enough 'faith power' to sustain a God. But a large enough group is, which means that the Dragonborn, or another society of sufficient size, can have their own pantheon. Prior evidence to this is with all of the monstrous and demo-human deities. There are also 'immigrant' Deities from other realms. According to Faiths and Pantheons, only Ao has the ability to determine if a being is divine (a God), and grants that power. One could extrapolate that the Fugue Plain also cannot be changed by anything less powerful than Ao, although it's also possible it existed before him.Based on how things are described to date, I think it's very possible (likely) that large groups of faithful can import or raise a new God. It still requires Ao's involvement (of which the faithful are not aware), but I don't think that they can have an alternate afterlife. Otherwise I think that the other races would already go to some other afterlife (although if I recall there are a few novels that contradict the Fugue Plain design...War of the Spider Queen maybe?).--As to the wall being evil - didn't Kelemvor originally eliminate the wall, but then learned about the damage that caused and changed it to only be constructed of the faithless? It's been a long time since I've read those novels.--I commented a bit earlier about the faithless, and the nature of 'good' Gods. First, there's a definition of good. First, oppression is defined as evil, but suffering in and of itself is not. Suffering due to just judgement would also not be viewed as evil by most, if not all, of the good Gods. Mortal individuals are free to believe in what they wish. There are consequences to that belief, but that in an of itself is also not evil. It's just the way the Forgotten Realms cosmology works, part of its natural laws.In addition, a non-faithful in a given Gods realm is most likely a danger (however small) to that God. At the very least, it would appear that based on the way the cosmology is constructed, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a God (or their agents) to collect a soul that is not 'theirs' based on the faith of the soul. Most of them probably feel that it's Kelemvor's problem to deal with, and he can handle it as he wishes. Regardless, they most likely have no power to change it themselves if they wanted to, and having all of the good Gods band together is extremely unlikely because you'd be assuming all of the good Gods are against the wall to begin with.If a good God decided to save the souls of the faithless (assuming they could), what would they do with them? What could they do with them? Could they even bring them to their domain? What effect would the dilution of faith have on their domain? Would it set the faithless soul free to wander the planes as immortal? As interesting as that may sound, I'm not sure any of the Gods would like the prospect of millions of souls that don't believe in them - or any of the Gods for that matter. Millions of immortal atheists set free in their domains that could band together against the Gods would be potentially catastrophic to the Gods.On the other hand if they band together in a common cause, presumably behind a common leader, would that present a potential new divine power and generate a new domain from which they would reside in the afterlife (and probably not escape). All of this could be an interesting story, but in the end would probably not change the way the Realms cosmology works, although it might eliminate the Wall and a lot of Gods.--Note that the concept of faith 'powering' the Gods creates the existence of the faithless by definition. If a large enough group of faithful is necessary to maintain a God, than atheists are doomed. Faith is belief IN something, not that something doesn't exist. In the Realms that faith can manifest itself in the ability to power a divine being. It would appear Ao is the final judge as to whether there is enough faith to allow a being to ascend to divinity, but it has that power. But atheists believe that the Gods don't exist, or at least aren't worthy of their worship. That's all well and good during a mortal life, but it dooms an individual in their afterlife in the Realms.So for a person to believe there are no Gods in the Forgotten Realms is no different than a person to believe (without magical assistance) that gravity does not exist and therefor does not apply to them. They are in for a rude awakening if they choose to walk off a cliff. The only way for the atheists (faithless) to avoid that fate would be to begin a new faith in something/somebody. Which is quite a paradox. There was (still is?) a cult of Ao, but no classes gained divine powers (spells or abilities) from Ao, and it's not clarified what would happen to the dead of the cult. My guess would be they are considered the false, since they had faith, but not faith in a God with a domain, or at least one that would collect them.The only Realms god that I think might truly have an issue with the Wall is Ilmater. If it is possible (and I'm not sure it is) one might expect the faithful souls of Ilmater to be constantly at the wall, comforting and taking on the suffering of those in the wall. Ilmater is aligned with Tyr and Torm, as well as Lathander, but Tyr and Torm would view the wall as just (probably for different reasons), and Lathander would probably not like the wall (since it doesn't offer any new beginnings), but the other deities wouldn't support Lathander in any overt attempt to modify the cosmology due to the Dawn Catalysm.Essentially I don't have any issue with the Wall or the fate of the false or faithless. From a game design standpoint, when you begin designing a cosmology in which the Gods are dependent upon their faithful, then there will naturally arise a question of what will happen to them. In a monotheistic cosmology they are relatively easy to deal with (Hell, for example). Not only is the Realms polytheistic, but there are multiple exclusive pantheons, although with connections (because ultimately they are all part of the same cosmology).The false and faithless could have been relegated to Hell or the Abyss, or no afterlife. Instead, they still have a choice to make for their 'sin' of non- or false belief: They can choose to become a devil or demon, or they will suffer the fate of the Wall or as an indentured servant for eternity. It may not seem like much of a choice, but they had their mortal life, in a world where they undoubtedly had time to make their own decision.I also still think that a faithless character, if played well, would be a very interesting character in a Realms campaign, provided that the rest of the group was equally competent at playing the faithful.Enough of my rambling for now.Ilbranteloth</blockquote>

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