Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Faiths & Clerics of the Forgotten Realms
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- What singles out those individuals to become servants of a particular god, in a polytheistic fantasy world, and what are the most common faiths on the world of Toril, the continent of Faerun? This video covers almost all of them, aside from the non-human deities which are talked about in other videos on my channel. Check the Time Stamps below to jump to a specific Faith of the Realms.
TIME STAMPS.
4:35 : Becoming a Cleric
9:06 : Evil Clerics and Faiths
16:47 : Auril
19:16 : Azuth
22:09 : Bane
24:42 : Beshaba
28:00 : Bhaal
29:29 : Chauntea
31:32 : Cyric
32:54 : Deneir
35:02 : Eldath
36:19 : Finder Wyvernspur
36:48 : Gond
40:16 : Helm
42:21 : Ilmater
44:41 : Kelemvor
46:27 : Lathander
48:37 : Leira
50:49 : Lliira
52:30 : Loviatar
53:26 : Lurue
54:50 : Malar
56:11 : Mask
57:02 : Mielikki
58:31 : Milil
59:51 : Myrkul
1:02:33 : Mystra
1:05:03 : Nobanion
1:07:43 : Oghma
1:09:35 : The Red Knight
1:12:28 : Selune
1:14:13 : Shar
1:16:03 : Shaundakul
1:18:44 : Silvanus
1:22:06 : Sune
1:24:07 : Talona
1:27:14 : Talos
1:28:39 : Tempus
1:31:10 : Torm
1:35:21 : Tymora
1:39:43 : Tyr
1:41:30 : Umberlee
1:43:09 : Waukeen
1:46:18 : Ur Priests
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Thanks for the shout out AJ! I've been kicking around the idea of writing a cleric domain around Malar for a while now... might have to make that happen...
The Beast Priest sounds awesome!
@@Im-Not-a-Dog It rhymes, so now it has to be a subclass.
The fact that there is both a Lliira and a Leira is maddening.
LEER-Rah and LAIR-Rah... or really, have them sound exactly the same, because mixing them up in the campaign can be HILARIOUS.
Worship them both and it is up to both of them to figure out to whom of them you are praying
Garagos and Gargauth disagree
Arwen and Eowyn, Sauron and Saruman (for many audiences): you telling us!
Just don't mix up Shar and Sharess.
To borrow a quote from Terry Pratchett's *Small Gods* about agnostics in a fantasy realm:
"We get that in here some nights, when someone's had a few. Cosmic speculation about whether gods really exist. Next thing, there's a bolt of lightning through the roof with a note wrapped round it saying 'Yes, we do' and a pair of sandals with smoke coming out. That sort of thing, it takes all the interest out of metaphysical speculation."
A PC I had once started off as just a bard raised by a church, who despite being a monk wasn't exactly what you'd call devout. When I had to come up with a god for said church, I must have spent a week trying to find one that my happy go lucky wannabe-standup-comedian could casually worship that would fit well for the setting of the campaign. Long story short, once you talked about Kelemvor I knew who Brother Geoff was gonna be a follower of. More than that, by the time the video got that far I'd already decided I was gonna multi into cleric. Well done. You literally converted someone.
*bows* Clerics are awesome, you're welcome
Best video yet in an extensive catalogue of excellent content!
This is a really amazing video. I know you work hard and put plenty of effort into all of your videos, but this video in particular really shows the level of dedication and attention to detail you're willing to donate to the community in order to educate the curious about the finer details of the wonderful world of Toril.
Please never stop doing what you're doing. We are all better for your contributions. :)
Thank you. I will never stop!
Excellent video - one piece of CC, keeping the name of the god on the screen as you discuss them as I was listening while working and sometimes lost track of who we were on. Very valuable video for the game!
Thanks, that is great feedback!
That or have chapters with the name of the diety that is being discussed would help as well.
Here for the launch of Baulder's Gate 3 to fill myself in on making a Cleric!
It's my sleepover and I get to pick the movie
45 minute long MrRhexx video AND a nearly 90 minute long AJ video in the same week? What D&D god do we have to thank for these repeated blessings? Damn, I'm EXCITED to get deeply nerdy.
Tymora.
It's over 90 mins lol
And we will be talking live together with Ted and Jorphdan in a few hours.
I watched both videos this morning.
When a creator makes a video such as this quality and length I watch the otherwise skipable ads.
Thought i'd come back to rewatch this and I had lost concept of how long I've been watching your videos. Great stuff as always
>nearly 2 hours of quality content
Mate deadset you've got the best bloody lore channel on youtube by an order of magnitude. Keep up the awesome work.
"My God could kill your God."
"Oh yeah? Who do you worship?"
"Helm."
"... fair enough. Sorry for troubling you."
Dont hv time to play baulders gate 3 so getting my fill listening to these as i fall asleep. Thank you!
Enjoy!
I fell asleep twice but my notes and dreams drip with ideas
Before I even watch this video I would like to thank you for the long hard work it had to take to put this video together.
My highest level players is a 15 pali/3 cleric to Lathander. Once I work in a quest arc for his ascension to "Morning Lord" or "High Morning Lord" he may explode in real life.
Thank you Professor. This entire video is such a valuable source of information. Cant even begin to express enough gratitude to you for the amount of work and preparation that went into this endeavor. You the real OG.
As a DM who allows both the artificer class of Eberron and the blood hunter class by Matt Mercer in his Forgotten Realms games, the fact that clerics of Gond and Malar are called artificers and blood hunters (respectively) has given me some very interesting thoughts on how to integrate the aforementioned classes into the Realms.
I will probably have the church of Gond be a good place for a player's artificer to have received their class training from, and I like the idea that the monster-hunting blood hunters have their roots in the evil blood rituals of Malar's faithful. Especially Order of the Lycan blood hunters, who seem right at home among Malar's faithful.
I thought the exact same thing for Gond. I've two players trying out artificer
That's a possibility. Yet I'm not a D&D player yet, but I think Wizards of the Coast can expand upon their lore. Yet that entails looking over older lore that they have in order to make informed decisions, even if that means not listening to the Twitter cesspool.
Good shoutout on Sparhawk as an example.. in actual D&D stuff i like Cadderley, the cleric who's openly agnostic to begin with & that being the actual thing that attacts the god's attention is pretty great - I also like the granny weatherwax approach, paraphrased "i know the gods exist, i just don't hold with encouraging them!"
The cleric quintet was the first Salvatore series I read, and that got me hooked on his work. Pratchett was and is an absolute legend.
No such thing as an agnostic cleric. Clerics are religous by definition.
Haven't played in decades, but I watch your videos like a maniac. Appreciate your work.
I appreciate that!
this is it. the single greatest most detailed and researched video you've ever made. I'm afraid it's all downhill from here... (JUST KIDDING MAN AWESOME VIDEO KEEP GOING NOW I HAVE A SHIT TON MORE IDEAS FOR RELIGIONS IN MY CAMPAIGN TO ADD TO THE WORLDBUILDING TYVM GODSPEED!!!)
The Red Knight faith sounds like a perfect suggestion for a deity for players who enjoy war gaming and strategy games themselves! This video was great!
I bet the Red Knight plays Mechanicus just to use Knights.
Dammit, I absolutely love this channel and every ounce of care and work you put into it.
Thank you for being a nice cozy happy place to sit back and listen. Whether you know it or not, your content adds so much fun back into people’s lives, including my own.
Thank you so much!
Glad you finally got it completed and uploaded. Clerics and paladins are my favorite class to play also. Thanks for all the hard work on this one my man.
Seeing those Basic illustrations brought back some memories...like...I'm reminded of how old I am.
This is one of the best D&D videos I've seen and I've watched thousands
Ggg
You have the 3 'A's. Always Awesome A.J. Great video. It's very inspiring how enriching could be for a DM to keep gods and faiths present in the game. I would like to see more about other pahteons. Such Greyhawk deities, and non-human pantheons. I can't wait to see more. CHeers!
I have been waiting for this video since you showed the picture of the script I have always loved clerics and holy magic. I'm ready for an hour and a half of character inspiration 😁
I just started playing DND with a new group after 15 years of not playing. I am playing a Kenku dark priest addicted to gambling named " Knocks on wood" and I LOVE IT. thank you so much for these amazing videos! much love
That's awesome!
What a fantastic journey through the clerics and priests in the Forgotten Realms. Thank you so much AJ. Really gets the creative juices flowing even if the campaign isn't set in FR. The archetypes of each of the churches is easily given a name change and a change of vestments and bam! Ready to bring life to a homebrew world. :3
Thanks buddy. You're killing it like a wave of necrotic energy.
I'm sorry I didn't come up with this line myself
You will always have Oghma's blessing my friend.
Long one, sorry in advance. 7:35 My Gnome Druid, Lief Clifthistle Bramble Bushen Little-Spriggan Rivertide Templecrest - who I've been playing for years, your vid on gnomes a huge inspiration - actually had this in his backstory (a vision of a cataclysmic event), eventually leading him to befriend a Godess, and through a wacky chain of events based on her quests and her father's, made a wish that ended up mitigating the damage of the event so much, it cleared his visions and became a favored of said Godess. TL:DR - Your vids gave me the inspiration to make my most fun character whose choices had huge ramifications on the world, SOLELY due to the one sentence, "I have been experiencing visions of a cataclysmic event."
Thanks AJ, you're a God among Sages, you Dire Halfling, you.
I'm very glad you have released a video specifically on faith. I've been a big fan of yours for a long time and - if you remember - I'm playing a Leshay Paladin of the Raven Queen who was "popped" into my DM's world with its destruction. He identifies with both Humans and Elves and follows the Raven Queen almost fanatically (he apparently has his original soul trapped in his body while Eroquen, the main character I'm playing, controls everything). One of the party members was recently resurrected after being disintegrated but when he rearrived he registered as undead. I'm curious as to what the Raven Queen Faith says about this....
Why does the character register as undead?
@@AJPickett Not entirely sure yet. His character got disintegrated by - you guessed it - the Disintegrate spell. Then he pulls a Vax on us and just approaches the camp butt-naked and when I used Divine sense, he registered as undead. Strange right? Dost thou have any insight on how this could be? He just pings as undead but doesnt have any typical undead characteristics.
Dude that was a super neat look into gods and worship...
I was not expecting that at all and I like it.
I know some don't like long videos, but I do. The most interesting part of this was the mention of a lawful society working with the faith of evil gods (especially given the state of things here in America) - interesting to think about.
Nothing less than fantastic! It took a couple of stops and starts to get through it, but that was SO worth it. Thank you.
Love the whole channel, but keep coming back to this vid especially. I think I've spent more time watching/rewatching this one video than I have watching most other channels I like and subscribe to.
I absolutely love the lore, and this is such a good example of making it accessible while keeping depth and engaging presentation.
Fantastic work! Thank you for all your content. It's always entertaining and has greatly improved my experience playing D&D. :)
My pleasure Mr Copeland
I checked your channel 4 days ago looking for some in-depth specific things about Gods and especially Ilmater, but I did not find what I was looking for.
But the heard my prayer! Fuck yes! You are a God!
This is 100% a video I’ll be rewatching until i have this dedicated to memory. Clergies are the solution to many campaign plots
Light cleric at Lvl 1: I want to bring my gods light of peace to the darkest places of the world.
Lvl 10+: BURN IN HOLY FIRE!!! YOUR FLESH WILL SMOLDER AND CHAR!!! AAAAAGGGGHHHHAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!
They don't call the inside of the body(and pants usually) the place "where the sun doesn't shine" for nothing.
Light needs to be brought there too. Some people are willing to take a torch enema, others... less so.
I love this book! Clerics and other divine based casters are my favorite
You should sell the script of this episode as a booklet titled "Pickett's pocket guide to the faiths"
I'd buy it.
All about clerics the movie
Still better than most hollywood bullshit
The story of Jay and righteous Bob
I hope we get Clerics II ("I'm not even supposed to be on this plane of existence today.") and eventually Clerics III, but take the time for the adventures of AJ (and Bob who hath taken a vow of Silence).
I played a Cleric of Cyric once. He only spoke spoke the truth and spread harmony wherever he went, cursed be Cyric's name.
Im playing an shapeshifter favorite soul of cyric who has made a cult spreading that Lathander is actualy Cyric and has traped the real Lathander who is actualy Cyric
I personally love auril, I love her misunderstood nature of loving beauty, loving through necessary pain that leads people away, that makes people hate her.
And all she wants is for everyone to live on a winter wonderland she sees as perfect. She even gives proportionally more blessings and power to humans, marking every child born in midwinter and protecting zealously those that willingly submit
I don't always play the gods and canon as you describe them, as my players' universe is a bit different (and honestly a bit more gentle than most), but your videos really are so useful to flesh out their world: they're really treasures. Thanks for going to the effort of making them.
I love the video! Also, I grew up with those kinds of books too ... choose your own adventure, lone wolf, dungeons & dragons game novels, fighting fantasy, etc.
Forge Cleric is my favorite. Once you get Spiritual Weapon and Animate Objects going you’re basically a party unto yourself.
My favorite is just throwing flux powder in the eyes of annoying NPCs. The GM never asked how much I had.
Roboute Guilliman
“My Spiritual Weapon is a Big Blue powerhammer”
DM: “A whatnow?”
I know its old video but i kinda watch this one like once a month
Same dude.
Would you consider doing deep dives into individual gods and their faiths? I feel like that could be pretty interesting.
I luv playing a healer cleric. Since I cannot lay hands and heal people in real life I can do it in D&D.
If you lay on hands in real life, it’s gunna get you arrested for either assault or sexual assault.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog Massage Therapists dude :)
Praying over someone who wants someone to pray with them is how you do it in real life. Happens pretty often in Christian churches.
Yet the power of prayer is miraculous. When two or more are gathered in prayer it's a testament of faith.
With all the crazy things going on a lot of people need salvation. I just pray that our the US doesn't erupt into civil war.
@@zacharygadzinski3147 me to.
I mean every cleric I know also tends towards either suffering from AMYOYO Syndrome, or realize they are the masters of life and death.
Another great lore video! My brother is about to play a cleric in my upcoming homebrew; I'm going to point him to this video!
Sent this to my group right away.
Ive made a priest werewolf and this helps a lot. I had a good conversation on ur discord so I became a patron. We talked about Malar and Kanchelsis working together more Kanchelsis controls Malar and his lycans
Its taken me a couple weeks to process the info in this vid. (Partly from personal life events I wont get into. I havent had the time like I normally do to sit down and research and study like I normally would.)
That had to be a tremendous amount of effort and work, AJ. Well done, sir. Well done. :D
_Faiths & Avatars_ , _Powers & Pantheons_ and _Demihuman Deities_ are still the best supplements for _Forgotten Realms_ religions.
Eldath, if I remember correctly I remember seeing info online on how the Ondonti, a peaceful subrace of orcs, were worshippers of her. It would be great to see the Ondonti get added as an orc subrace.
Not a D&D player yet, but bringing the Ondonti back would help flesh out orc culture and possibly create a new pantheon for their race. In other words, they would be akin to the drow equivalent of orcs. A culture based on nature and fighting to maintain peace.
This was exactly what I needed and I didn't realize it was so recently uploaded. Amazing.
If the name of the god was on screen during the discussion of them that would have been helpful to keep it in my mind while watching. For future reference.
I know I am many years late for this, but many thanks for this video. Was rushing to put together a players' handout for Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and this has been incredibly useful.
Kevin Smith should make a fantasy movie titled Clerics. It would be a day in the life of a hapless yet devoted cleric named Dante who was called to duty on his day off. He's aided by his foul mouthed friend Randal, a mage who spends way too much time reading pulp novels rather than attending his shop, two thieves named Jay and Robert the Mute and a veritable rogue's gallery of freaks, mutants and misfits.
I mean, yeah, but that's pretty derivative.
@@AJPickett it's just satire. I'm pretty sure he and some of the View Askew guys run D&D campaigns from time to time.
Thank you A.J. great video to watch with my morning coffee. Been working on an evil cleric order for my story. Always on time 💜
I watch a lot of D&D lore stuff on UA-cam, but I never heard of you or your channel until today. You have earned a new subscriber. I loved the video, and am looking forward to looking into your back log.
This was a surprise to see back into my UA-cam recommendations but a welcome one
This was a monster, but I enjoyed every minute!. Great work, Professor
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a beast, WELL DONE. Demigorgon video eat your heart out.
Awwww YEAH! My girl The Red Knight is in the house!!
My favorite character concept is a Scourge Aasimar that manifested his heritage after surviving a battle in which his uncle and mentor died, with the Red Knights symbol on his hand.
A normally jovial, kinda dumb but observant giant that likes to enjoy life and help whenever possible. But when the traitors, the cruel and tha Lower Planes denizens harm the helpless, he lets his rage and strategic mind overtake him and crush the deviants in the name of the Lady of Strategy.
I have watched this video atleast 4 whole times and a few bits here and there, thank you so much for making it, I have gotten so much inspiration from it and learned a lot of new things! Hugs
Glad it was helpful!
29:29 Glad you added in the part about clerics of nature Deities. I've always wondered how they really differ from Druids in their outlook and place in nature. Worshipers of both Obad-Hai and Ehlonna sorta act as the helping hands, or guidelines of Druid culture. Although I'm sure many overlap and cross class, I see the clerics of nature gods as a more structured society of nature worship, with Druids being it's caretakers who maintain it.
Awesome video. I am so grateful for the timestamp list in the description
Ahh yea time to grab some popcorn and watch this vid👍
AJ: so grab yourself a beverage cos we're about to get deeply nerdy...
Me, already pouring my third rum: Thats what im here for, you fuckin legend you!
Don't want to sound like this is a bad thing because it isn't. But I have fallen asleep to this particular video I don't know how many times. Think I am creating my own demi god of dreams on our plane the amount of times I have slept to this
Can't wait for the Seldarine. Labelas, Rillifane, Shevarash and Naralis are my favorites.
I definitely agree with you. I get the impression AJ doesn't like the elves, their content often seems to register as a low priority for the channel.
Wrong impression. The exact opposite is true. I have such a respect for the Elven lore that I want to get to a point where I have the grounding I need to do their history and culture in the game the justice it deserves. Yes, they did terrible things, but also great things.
@@AJPickett Wow, thanks for the reply. In that case, I am quite looking forward to what you have to say about the fair folk's place in the worlds of D&D. They are my favorite race and hope you do them justice when it happens.
I love Clerics in every single way.
I actually played a character that, without being a cleric or even a wisdom caster, had a sufficient level of faith in his chosen deity that the party paladin actually got a mite jealous of him while going through a crisis of faith. I based the character on how, rather than seeing his deity as this overbearing figure that protected and ordered his followers around, saw him as just another person doing important work, and believed that through prayer and good deeds he could help him out with that whole "keeping the world from ending" thing.
I imagine a Cleric of Gond wielding a mace that looks like a big heavy wrench
Great job, AJ :)
Viewers: "So, what deity is next up on your list?"
AJ: "Yes."
Hell yes im so glad i been waiting on this video...So glad its a long video...longer the better.
I love this. It makes the world feel so much more real and lived in. I get the sense that these are real people with real lives. Previously I had never considered that clerics would be anything other than adventurers, so it's interesting that you describe how clerics fit into society and have jobs. More than that though, I really liked your description of how worshippers of the various gods make their worship a part of their lives.
With this in mind, now I gotta figure out how my reluctant cleric of Hastur fits into the homebrew world I'm playing in...
Cleric of Gond, becomes a weapons dealer
What a massive undertaking
A point I bring up to my players about evil churches in otherwise normal cities is that the easiest way to bring doom upon yourself is to mess with the faithful of an evil God and invoke their wrath.
Additionally, attempting to eliminate these orders can do more harm than good. When a faith, evil or otherwise, is persecuted, they go into hiding only to rise up when you least expect them. If the faith is tolerated openly, they are much easier to keep an eye on.
Finally, the easiest way to garner sympathy for a cause is to appear the victim and to paint the aggressor in a negative light. If the church of Lathandar is burning worshippers of Malaar at the stake, it's much easier to sway the minds of the masses. "Look what these so-called holy men are doing to us! Are these people TRULY good?"
I burn those that protest in holy fire, we are talking d&d!
So a cleric serving The Red Knight, Tymora, and a god of story (not sure which would be best for that) would be ideal for introducing a version of D&D into the world of Faerun, giving commoners a way to experience adventurer life.
Oghma seems like a decent fit for the story god.
Thank you for this video. I will definitely be coming back to it!
You are doing awesome work.
Excellent guide and resource
Great video AJ
OME, can I say thank-you for making mention of the Elenium/Tamuli series? My first serious novel reading were sci-fi I "borrowed" off my eldest brother, when I was 11, but my first truly self-owned novel was "The Diamond Throne", which I came across in one of those cardboard shelving units for new releases, in a news agency that had a respectable little book section. I read David Eddings right through my teens, up until the start of my 20s. I will say his last seris had a climax I felt was a weird negation of the whole series' events via time travel, and I realise "The Redemption of Althalus" also had it, but that was a Franchise Original Sin in it's first appearance (it's a trope, where early episode get away with a fault, but that fault gets worse in sequels, until one cannot stand it).
But in the long right, I feel like Eddings was an ideal fantasy writer for a teenager (especially one from a religious upbringing) to be reading.
Hard work put into this one!
Thanks!
Thank you!
Cleric multiclass opportunities are so flavorful. A trickery cleric/ rouge who spreads chaos through subterfuge and infiltration, a monk/ war cleric who pummels their opponents with divine haymakers of justice, or a grave cleric/ undying warlock who spreads the word of a council of liches! So much potential!
I want to thank you so much for the David Eddings callous! The Belgaraid/Mallorean and the Eleniad/Tamuli were some of my favorite books of the late 90s, when my best friend introduced me to them. I don't think I'd day he and his wife were minor authors, but they certainly feel more like books I read, and really liked, but never expected any other people to bring up, anecdotally, so that was great! And yeah, I'd definitely use the Pandian Knights as a good analog to paladins, especially those who aren't so painfully Lawful Good that they feel obligated to infringe on other people's fun, and character expression, which was why I had to van player Paladins, back when I ran 3e.
Of course, the rest of the video has been fun, too, since some of the gods are so much more than just a color, a weapon, and a Domain granted. Thank you for taking the time.
This particular one gives such an insight into the everyday life of a citizen of one of these npc lifestyles.
0:02:08 Can I just say, I love/find hilarious that a militant order of warlocks were basically your introduction to "Paladins". I love it. And yes, Eddings basically wrote Novelized D&D :P
Great googly moogly! That was just beautiful! I do hope you do some more of these. Perhaps a series on all the various cults and worshipers faiths of the fiends, old ones and demons, as well as other gods from the other settings and such?
Thanks you for this. This has provided me with quite a lot for my upcoming campaigns.
I love what you do , big fan ! , I’m broke or I’d support more you definitely earned it !
Working soon, there’s is no other I’d to show my gratitude. Truly a dnd knowledge hero . Very deep and appreciated
Awesome view , have to finish later
1:27:15
"Talos, the Stormlord"
>Valkur will remember that
Amazing job AJ!!!
I loved the video.
Clerics and Paladins were my first classes in d&d for me as well. Way back in the late 90's.