Ubtao

Ubtao was the patron deity of Chult. He was also known as The Father of the Dinosaurs, Creator of Chult, Founder of Mezro, and The Deceiver. He stayed distant from both mortals and other deities, and he seemed to be above the daily doings of the world and his followers. This might have been partly due to his origin as a primordial, and in fact it was not fully known if he was a deity in the traditional sense. Only since the Time of Troubles had he begun to show interest in his followers again. The many jungle spirits worshiped in Chult were all aspects of Ubtao. But due to this he only had power in and around the jungles of Chult.

"The world is a labyrinth, and the true followers of Ubtao know the pattern that represents their life. When they die, they must recreate that maze, spell out their past for me. To be a paladin of Ubtao, a bara of Mezro, you must know more. You must complete the maze long before you die, look ahead to the pattern that will be your life in the years and decades to come."

- Ubtao to Artus Cimber

Worshipers
The Church of Ubtao was split among three wholly independent sects, all based in the jungles of Chult among the various clans of the humans.

Mazewalkers were found only in the city of Mezro. They took care of the general spiritual welfare of the clan, and tried to prepare the faithful for their trek through the maze of life. They taught the history and lore of Chult to both children and adults. Mazewalkers also provided council about important life decisions, such as marriages. They were the mediators when disputes broke out between and among clans, and they were the caretakers of Mezro's laws. Mazewalkers were usually clerics.
 * Mazewalkers

Spiritlords lived outside the city and sought to ensure a safe passage for their clan through the spirit-infested world. Their main goal was to ensure the clan did not offend ancestor spirits or elemental deities by missing sacrifices and rituals. They also aimed for favors from the spirits. Spiritlords were usually adepts.
 * Spiritlords

Jungle druids taught the clans to fit in as best as possible into the web of life in the jungle. Most of the time they functioned as clan healer. Outside this they also collected and taught knowledge about plants, animals (including dinosaurs) and their behavior. Jungle druids also trained the very few domesticated animals kept in Chult. Jungle druids were, as the name suggests, druids.
 * Jungle druids

The Spearbearers of Ubtao made it their duty to protect the world from Dendar. Their goal was to give Ubtao the necessary strength to defeat the Night Serpent when she finally came to eat the sun. Towards that end, they conducted a large number of rituals, many of which involved sentient sacrifices.
 * Spearbearers of Ubtao

Rituals
Both clerics and druids prayed for their spells at noon, when Ubtao's majesty hung over all of Chult. There were scores of ceremonies and holy days, most particularly to dead ancestors. Many of these rituals were necessary before performing certain activities, such as hunting special animals or burials. The small, moveable stone altars which were used for these ceremonies were treated just like any other rock in the jungle when they were not otherwise in use.

Chultan followers of Ubtao used gravestones and grave markers to bury their dead. When such a thing was unavailable, following a death deep in the jungles, for example, a big flat surface, such as a large flat leaf, was used for a similar purpose. As with the tombstones, the people closest to the dead would write the perished soul's name upon the surface, and the others each would add a single word of praise. These ritual inscriptions were intended to serve as the deceased's introduction to Ubtao when the god arrived to claim the person's soul.

Relationships
Because of Ubtao's distance to the other deities he had only one ally: Thard Harr. His biggest foe was Eshowdow. He had only one other enemy: Sseth, a deity of yuan-ti and an aspect of Set.

History
During the Blue Age, when Toril was still a new world, the gods and the primordials fought for dominance. This Age came to a sudden stop when the primordial known as the Dendar the Night Serpent took the sun out of the sky. Eventually, the Elder Gods won the fight when the primordials were betrayed by one of their own: Ubtao the Deceiver.

Ubtao made an agreement with the rest of the Faerûnian pantheon to guard the Peaks of Flame for the day when Dendar the Night Serpent would enter Toril and end the world. As reward for this service, the other deities granted him sole control over Chult and agreed to leave his lands alone and never to spread their own religions there. Over time Ubtao's essence began to split into many nature spirits which now are spread across the jungle, one of these was the shadow entity Eshowdow. As of 1372 DR, Shar had recently absorbed Eshowdow, and it was believed this activity might be the beginning of the end for the agreement between Ubtao and the rest of the deities.

Sometime before 1400 DR, Ubtao abandoned Chult, allegedly because he had grown angry over his worshipers' infighting and on their overreliance on his assistance. Thereafter, his influence ceased to be felt among his Chultan followers, and yet, despite the spiritual void left by Ubtao's absence, the many warring tribes among the Chultans learned to unite as a people and set aside their differences. With Ubtao gone, many Chultans turned aside to other gods, including those introduced by foreign missionaries such as Waukeen, Gond, Savras, Sune, and Tymora.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * The Ring of Winter