Forgotten Realms Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Forgotten Realms Wiki

Demipowers or demigods were immensely powerful entities. The term had multiple meanings. In some cases, it referred to true immortal deities who were capable of granting spells,[1] who were considered the first rung on the ladder of the gods.[2] In other contexts, the term referred rather to exarchs[3] or to the weakest of the quasi-deities, usually those having been birthed—directly or indirectly—by a true deity.[4][note 1] This article details those true gods and goddesses who were of the weakest power in the divine hierarchy.

Personality[]

Demigods were the weakest, and often the most inexperienced of the divine. This inexperience often came with a degree of shortsightedness that led many to challenge more prominent deities that were far more than they could handle. More often than not this ambition would lead to their destruction.[5]

It was mostly those who were capable of assessing divine politics, and recognizing their own inferiority, who remained out of the purview of stronger deities.[5]

Because they were limited in power, they were unattractive to clerics, and those with grand ambition avoided pledging their service to a demigod. However, when demigods themselves gained worship, they would often imbue their followers with all the powers they could muster in appreciation.[5]

Abilities[]

A demigod owned all abilities of a quasi-deity[6] including the immortality[7]

Unlike quasi-deities,[8] demigods were capable of granting spells and other abilities.[7]

A demigod could take the form of a regular animate object.[1]

A demigod had complete immunity against acid, cold temperatures, and electricity. Unlike hero deities, a demigod was completely immune to disease, poison and other problems like stunning, paralysis, or being put to magical sleep. It became also impossible to kill a demigod right away with magic or by disintegrating it. In fact, altering the form of a demigod became only possible if the magic originated from the demigod or another deity of equal or stronger power.[6]

A demigod could speak any language including non-verbal ones. They could speak to creatures within a range calculated in miles of themselves in a direct manner but also send telepathic messages and manifestations to their followers or people around dedicated sites to themselves.[9]

A demigod could inherently cast greater teleport as often as they wanted.[10]

A demigod projected a field of divine energy that protected them from physical attacks.[11]

A demigod had Remote Sensing and Portfolio Sense. Even without these abilities, their senses extended to a range that was counted in miles. They could block the sensing abilities of inferior gods.[12]

A demigod was surrounded by an aura that made enemies fear, break their resolve while elevating the morale of allies, or make people cease to conduct any action in awe.[9]

A demigod could conduct actions that concerned its portfolio very fast, in fact almost in an instant. They could also create magic items without having the theoretical knowledge how to do so as long as the items in question concerned the deity's portfolio.[13]

A demigod had some control over its own realm. It could set the temperature in there and fill it with smells and sounds of their choice.[9]

On the condition that the demigod's avatar or a holy relic dedicated to the demigod was present, a demigod could cause the revival of a dead creature.[1]

Society[]

Due to their very natures, demigods represented a very narrow and restricted ideal or aspect of existence. This meant only a certain group of mortals would consider the demigod suitable for worship, until either the ideals that the demigod embodied become more popular or the demigod was given or took the portfolios of other deities. They had some hundreds to thousands of followers.[14]

There were a total of six categories of demigods. First, there were the ones whose veneration that was limited to a certain ethnicity, like Uthgar from the Uthgardt people, or to a certain region, like Shiallia in the High Forest. Second, there were the ones who were formerly mortals and were raised to godhood. These people's initial divine stage was that of a demigod.[1] Finder Wyvernspur fell into this category.[15] Third, there were the ones who returned from the dead. Their initial stage as a deity was that of a demigod.[1] Moander was an example of a once powerful god who returned from the dead as a demipower.[16] Fourth, there were those deities who shared portfolios inside the same pantheon and were weaker than the strongest member.[17] Garagos was the demigod war deity alongside Tempus, the greater deity of war.[18] Fifth, there were those demigods who simply did not have enough worshipers to have a higher rank.[1] Hoar fell from the rank of a lesser deity because he lost too many worshipers.[19] Sixth, there were freak cases. For example, Garagos and Jergal were greater deities at the time of Netheril[20] but reduced to the level of demipowers, the latter willingly.[21]

Faerûnian Demigods[]

Appendix[]

See Also[]

Notes[]

  1. In the first three editions of D&D, demigods were the lowest rank of power of the divine god scale. They were true gods, just the weakest of the true gods. In 3rd edition, this was represented by them having a divine rank of 1 to 5. They could grant spells and do anything a god could do, just of a lesser power than other more powerful gods 4th edition brought in the idea of exarchs and calls them "demigods", but actually they were only powerful servants of a (usually) god. 5th edition followed more closely to 4th edition, in this case, where demigods are not true gods but rather quasi-deities.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Julia Martin, Eric L. Boyd (March 1996). Faiths & Avatars. (TSR, Inc.), p. 17. ISBN 978-0786903849.
  2. Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), Running the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 45. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
  3. Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims (August 2008). Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide. Edited by Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 78. ISBN 978-0-7869-4924-3.
  4. Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Christopher Perkins, James Wyatt (2014). Dungeon Master's Guide 5th edition. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 11. ISBN 978-0786965622.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Colin McComb (October 1996). On Hallowed Ground. Edited by Ray Vallese. (TSR, Inc.), p. 36. ISBN 0-7869-0430-5.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 26–30. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Julia Martin, Eric L. Boyd (March 1996). Faiths & Avatars. (TSR, Inc.), pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-0786903849.
  8. Eric L. Boyd, Erik Mona (May 2002). Faiths and Pantheons. Edited by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 5–6. ISBN 0-7869-2759-3.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 29. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
  10. Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 30. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
  11. Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 26. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
  12. Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 28. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
  13. Skip Williams, Rich Redman, James Wyatt (April 2002). Deities and Demigods. (Wizards of the Coast), pp. 27–28. ISBN 0-7869-2654-6.
  14. Eric L. Boyd, Erik Mona (May 2002). Faiths and Pantheons. Edited by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, et al. (Wizards of the Coast), p. 6. ISBN 0-7869-2759-3.
  15. Eric L. Boyd (September 1997). Powers & Pantheons. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 15. ISBN 978-0786906574.
  16. Ed Greenwood, Julia Martin, Jeff Grubb (1993). Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting 2nd edition (revised), Running the Realms. (TSR, Inc), p. 58. ISBN 1-5607-6617-4.
  17. Julia Martin, Eric L. Boyd (March 1996). Faiths & Avatars. (TSR, Inc.), p. 4. ISBN 978-0786903849.
  18. Eric L. Boyd (September 1997). Powers & Pantheons. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 18. ISBN 978-0786906574.
  19. Eric L. Boyd (September 1997). Powers & Pantheons. Edited by Julia Martin. (TSR, Inc.), p. 29. ISBN 978-0786906574.
  20. slade, Jim Butler (October 1996). “The Winds of Netheril”. In Jim Butler ed. Netheril: Empire of Magic (TSR, Inc.), p. 40. ISBN 0-7869-0437-2.
  21. Julia Martin, Eric L. Boyd (March 1996). Faiths & Avatars. (TSR, Inc.), p. 32. ISBN 978-0786903849.
Advertisement