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<blockquote data-quote="Bayushi Seikuro" data-source="post: 3651661" data-attributes="member: 23328">I think part of what seems to be muddying the discussion in here is the term 'cult'.Shar's worship is not like the Thuggee cult in Temple of Doom.&nbsp; Shar is a major goddess, the twin sister of the Moon.&nbsp; In the FR, a god or goddess' power is directly linked to the number of followers they have.FR has some very wonky things in it, I admit.&nbsp; Now, the discussion of 'why every paladin doesn't come a-callin'' to smack around a major goddess' temple/shrine?&nbsp; Because the Realms gods all try to mind their own business.&nbsp; In such a situation, it'd be very easy to see how a religious war would break out again in the world, and possibly not even down the good/evil axis, but also along the Law/Chaos axis.Case in point: look at the Dawn Cataclysm.&nbsp; Because of that, the god of sun and light is really carefully watched, even by the GOOD GODS, because he set into motion a plan to completely rewrite the entire world and universe, and remove evil from the equation completely.&nbsp; In the little bits they've talked about, he blames the 'failure' of this plan to remove evil from the universe on Shar's spies, and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again while he re-kickstarts his plans to remake the world and pantheon he's in. Back on point though, the problem should have been taken care of before the game.&nbsp; Even if it were a case of: &quot;Shar's followers are going to be the main campaign villains; follow a different god.&quot;&nbsp; And I also agree, if the player's only concern is that they can't go buy things at the temple or get healing, that's something different.Heck, the FR books even discuss the issue of nonbelievers getting healing at a 'mark-up' from churches.&nbsp; They'll offer services - no doubt limited - 1) as long as helping you doesn't directly interfere with their god (such as a follower of Lathander healing a Shar follower; they're direct opposites), and 2) the money adds to the coffers, allowing the church to fund more adventurers, etc.Nuff rambling. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bayushi Seikuro, post: 3651661, member: 23328"] I think part of what seems to be muddying the discussion in here is the term 'cult'. Shar's worship is not like the Thuggee cult in Temple of Doom. Shar is a major goddess, the twin sister of the Moon. In the FR, a god or goddess' power is directly linked to the number of followers they have. FR has some very wonky things in it, I admit. Now, the discussion of 'why every paladin doesn't come a-callin'' to smack around a major goddess' temple/shrine? Because the Realms gods all try to mind their own business. In such a situation, it'd be very easy to see how a religious war would break out again in the world, and possibly not even down the good/evil axis, but also along the Law/Chaos axis. Case in point: look at the Dawn Cataclysm. Because of that, the god of sun and light is really carefully watched, even by the GOOD GODS, because he set into motion a plan to completely rewrite the entire world and universe, and remove evil from the equation completely. In the little bits they've talked about, he blames the 'failure' of this plan to remove evil from the universe on Shar's spies, and is taking steps to make sure it doesn't happen again while he re-kickstarts his plans to remake the world and pantheon he's in. Back on point though, the problem should have been taken care of before the game. Even if it were a case of: "Shar's followers are going to be the main campaign villains; follow a different god." And I also agree, if the player's only concern is that they can't go buy things at the temple or get healing, that's something different. Heck, the FR books even discuss the issue of nonbelievers getting healing at a 'mark-up' from churches. They'll offer services - no doubt limited - 1) as long as helping you doesn't directly interfere with their god (such as a follower of Lathander healing a Shar follower; they're direct opposites), and 2) the money adds to the coffers, allowing the church to fund more adventurers, etc. Nuff rambling. :) [/QUOTE]

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