Something bugs me. In the Times of Troubles, gods were forced to walk the earth right? Afterwards they didn't. Why is it that gods can't step foot on the earth anymore but a demi-god can?

i'm not steeped in d&d lore but i think gods can walk if they want to, most of the time they don't.

Maybe because they dont have feet and our just a big face in the sky?

<font color="lightblue">In the Time of Troubles, gods were forced to walk the earth. Afterwards, they were no longer forced to, but still can. </font>

The gods don't have the right to step on the physical world, they can only do so in avatar form. Because when they didn't have that rule, they ended up destroying too much worlds with their fighting and that was a waste of potential followers.

By the way, during the time of trouble, the gods where forced to be in the physical world, but they only had the strength of a regular avatar.

[ 02-23-2003, 01:36 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

And remember that the gods became mortal during the Time of Troubles. Cyric, who was a human, slayed Bhaal and took his place as the Lord of Murder, among other things.

The Time of Troubles
The Realms Pantheon has never been stable. The powers of the Realms always have tried to get an edge over one another through various means. To this end, Bane, God of Strife, and Myrkul, God of the Dead, stole the Tablets of Fate from their Overpower, Lord Ao.

They took one each and hid it without telling the other where it was, and hoped that during the chaos that followed, that they could seize more power.

However, things did not go entirely as planned. Ao was extremely angry at the theft of the tablets, and the petty power struggles between the powers, so he banished them to Faerûn, so they "may learn what you once took for granted".

During the year in which the gods walked the realms, many of them lost their lives. The first to die, was Mystra, Goddess of Magic, but not before she managed to send out the majority of her power to her chosen (Elminster, Khelben, and the Seven Sisters, and to the mortal mage Midnight.

Midnight and her companions (Adon, Kelemvor & Cyric) then travelled to Shadowdale, to warn a certain prick (Elminster) of Bane's plan to attack it. They helped in the successful defense, and Bane's Avatar was destroyed in the battle.

However, the God of Strife was not so easily defeated. He claimed another avatar with the help of Myrkul, and then mounted an attack on the city of Tantras, where he had hidden his tablet.

Unfortunately for Bane, the God of Duty, Torm the True, had taken up residence in Tantras, and in the mighty battle that followed they both perished.

Midnight, Adon & Kelemvor recovered the tablet, and then set off for Waterdeep while constantly being pursued by their former friend Cyric, and some Zhentilar who had broken their loyalty to Zhentil Keep.

On the way however, Midnight was captured by the avatar of Bhaal, Lord of Murder. He tricks her into believing that he accidently told her where the other tablet is, in The City of Strife, Hades.

Kelemvor, Adon and Cyric all teamed up to rescue both Midnight and the first tablet, and during this rescue, Cyric, with his newly found blade (Godsbane, actually Mask in disguise), managed to slay the Lord of Murder.

All of them bar Cyric then left immediatly for Dragonspear castle where there is rumored to be an enturance to the Fugue Plane, which is connected to the City of Strife. However, when they got there, they were ambushed by zombies of Myrkul who stole the first tablet, and forced them to the river underneath the keep.

Deep underground, Midnight found the enturance to the plane, and she managed to liberate the tablet from Myrkul's realm. She arrived in Waterdeep just after Kelemvor, and so he, Elminster, and Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun set out to find her beneath the sewers in Undermountain.

While they were returning to Blackstaff tower with the second tablet, Myrkul was tracking them and he had the first with him. He hoped to slay them all, and escape with both tablets to the Celestial Stairway on top of Mount Waterdeep. There, he would get passed Helm, God of Guardians since he had them both, and then try and kill Lord Ao.

Unfortunately for him, Midnight's power proved too much. She disintegrated him, and liberated the first tablet, just as Cyric returned and murdered Kelemvor. He then retrieved both tablets from Midnight, and set off towards the stairway.

Adon and Midnight were assissted up the Mountain by the Waterdeep guard, and lay in wait for Cyric. However when he arrived, Helm came down the stairway to defend him until his master, Lord Ao, made his enturance.

Ao then appeared, summoned the attention of all his gods, and decreed the changes the would take place amoungst the pantheon. He then raised both Cyric and Midnight to godhood, Midnight replacing Mystra as goddess of magic, and Cyric replacing Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul.

Although the balance was restored, the pantheon (especially Cyric) is now just as petty about power as it was before. Cyric has since taken a forth god's portfolio, but he has now shown that insanity is not something limited to those who dwell in the mortal realms.

http://www.raflar.com/waterdeep/Back...-religion.html

Wow, that really clears it up now. But if Helm is on the "good" side supposedly, then why did he help Cyric?

Helm is neutral - he was acting on Ao's order, didn't he?
What is enturance?

I think enturance was a typo, maybe they meant entrance?

helm was acting on lord Ao's orders... helm i thought in the book was a spineless twit... but thats my opinion...cyric did lose the title of death, he lost the power to kelemvor. the gods can walk in avatar form only....