Oghma

Oghma, also known as The Lord of Knowledge, was the Faerûnian neutral greater deity of bards, inspiration, invention, and knowledge. Oghma was the leader of the Deities of Knowledge and Invention and his home plane was the House of Knowledge. His symbol was a blank scroll.

"An idea has no heft but it can move mountains. An idea has no authority but it can dominate people. An idea has no strength but it can push aside empires. Knowledge is the greatest tool of the mortal mind, outweighing anything made by mortal hands. Before anything can exist, the idea must exist."

- An aphorism and common prayer of Oghma's faithful.

Description
Oghma was known to appear as a handsome, dark-skinned man in bright, resplendent, and stylish clothes. Typically his outfit included a tabard with projecting, ornamented shoulder plates, a cummerbund with an exquisitely beautiful scene painted on its medallion-shaped buckle, and open meshwork, point-toed boots with crystal teardrops dangling from the end of uppers, almost enough to touch the upraised toes.

On very rare occasions, Oghma appeared as a gigantic elderly man entirely cloaked by his long, flowing hair and beard, who flew through the air hurling spells.

Possessions
Oghma's more common form usually carried a special yarting made of white snowwood. This instrument could play any tone or song flawlessly, sound like multiple instruments at once, and perfectly mimic any noise. Any music Oghma played from it was capable of emotionally controlling the listener, filling them with enrapturing joy, deep despair, or uncontrollable fury. Depending on the effect utilized, a target unable to resist might be rendered incapable of being hostile or dangerously ferocious.

The yarting seemed to have other magical powers, but sages couldn't agree on what they were. Its abilities might change over time, and when loaned to others (Oghma was said to sometimes grant it to his faithful when they were performing some important mission for him) its powers could vary from those typically manifested in Oghma's own hands.

Worshipers
See Church of Oghma

Those who worshiped Oghma included artists, bards, cartographers, inventors, loremasters, sages, scholars, scribes and wizards—archivists, a generalist cleric prestige class, might pray to him as well. They could be of any alignment, unlike most neutral gods. They often wore Oghma's symbol, a silver scroll on a chain, as a necklace.

Orders

 * Companions of the Silver Strings
 * The Companions of the Silver Strings were heroic bards who acted valiantly at risk of their own lives in the service of the church of Oghma.

Relationships
Oghma's most common foes were Mask, Cyric, and Bane. Oghma's old archnemesis, Leira, is now dead and an aspect of Cyric. He may have been opposed to Ilsensine.

Deities of Knowledge and Invention
Along with Milil, Deneir, and Gond, Oghma was one of the Deities of Knowledge and Invention. He led the deific group and, although Deneir was lost, Oghma continued to lead them.

History
Oghma was an interloper deity of the Celtic pantheon who gained power in Toril's crystal sphere when a wave of planar immigrants settled in Faerûn, bringing their gods (of whom Oghma was but one) with them. He rose in power to the point where he became the leader of the Deities of Knowledge and Invention and has remained in that position ever since.

Shortly after ascending to divinity, Oghma fathered many demi-power children. A few of the children decided to specialize in a single subject and learn everything they could about it. At some point Cyric lured twenty-two of the children away from Oghma and transformed them into paintings known as the Whispering Children.



During the Time of Troubles in 1358 DR, the Grand Patriarch of Oghma Cullen Kordamant disappeared without a trace, and reports on his current whereabouts from Oghma were confused and conflicting. As a consequence, a schism formed in the faith. The main branch, the Orthodox Church of Oghma in Procampur, believed that Kordamant had ascended to the House of Knowledge to serve as Oghma's proxy, and he remained the only true Grand Patriarch of the church until Oghma named a successor. A rival group, the Church of Oghma in Sembia, went ahead and named a new Grand Patriarch anyway, which the Orthodox Church refused to accept. The church in Sembia also disagreed with the Orthodox Church on the dissemination of knowledge, teaching that knowledge must be tested and proven "worthy" before being released to the public. Later the Church of Oghma moved its base to Cormyr, renaming itself the Oghmanyte Church in Exile. This schism continued unabated for over a century, a fundamental sickness in the faith, or more likely an assault on it from some external entity.

Undryl Yannathar, a former Grand Patriarch of the Oghmanyte Church in Exile, retired from his position no later than 1455 DR. Advised by the rakshasa Kalkan, his followers traveled to the nation of Akanûl, gathering new followers in that land. After Yannathar's death, a former Orthodox priest of Oghma, the dwarf Landrew, helped found a new group that broke away even from the Church in Exile, calling it the Church of All Tomorrows. The Church of All Tomorrows taught that Oghma's knowledge was incomplete, for Oghma could never inerrantly foretell the future. The Church of All Tomorrows offered Oghmanytes the "true power" of knowledge of the future, which Kalkan gained from an ancient Imaskari magic item known as the damos. The group planned on sacrificing a servant of Oghma's Orthodox Church in order to formally end its ties to Oghma and embrace the mysterious Voice of Tomorrow as its patron. They were nearly thwarted by the deva Demascus, but Demascus himself became the sacrifice.

Connections
Oghma