I was just looking up Jergal and came across this bizarre tidbit.
My question is: why?! This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
Simple. They're three demigods who can't compete with the attention most other deities get, so the designers threw them a bone (think of it as killing three birds with one stone). Sharess and Jergal, are, incidentally, pretty decent foils for Garagos. Garagos is a reaver and a berserker. He's as chaotic as they come, and his fury is matched by few. Sharess is chaotic, but in a sensual, relaxed way. She gets the blood pumping in a whole different way than Garagos, and through her proclivities, she finds a tranquility of sorts. While one can look at Garagos' battle frenzies as an inner peace for him, they only spur him on to spill more blood. In other words, whereas Sharess knows when to take a break, Garagos has difficulties keeping himself composed. As for Jergal, well, Jergal is as cool and calm as they come. He's not afraid of the blustering ways of others, and embodies an unflappable lawful nature. He sees someone like Garagos, who swings swords and roars til his throat's raw, and gets a chuckle out of it. Garagos sees Jergal chuckling, finds his refusal to give into caprice loathsome, and resents him.
It's also mentioned in Powers&Pantheons but it doesn't give any reason why they appear there either
I was just looking up Jergal and came across this bizarre tidbit.
My question is: why?! This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
Heh. I don't think it will be easy to deduce the questions without some help.
I'll ask Ed at Candlekeep.
Gomez
Interesting article. I like that map. Most of the other realms articles just used the Realms map that came with the FRCS, but that one looks like it was made just for that article. As for why Garagos, Bast, and Jergal would all be hanging out together, I agree with Manshoon's theroy.
I was just looking up Jergal and came across this bizarre tidbit.
My question is: why?! This makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
Heh. I don't think it will be easy to deduce the questions without some help.
I'll ask Ed at Candlekeep.
Gomez
Here is the answer:
Originally posted by The Hooded One
[br]Hi again, all. Ed tells me that he's NDA-bound not to answer Pamela's question (brought to this thread by gomez, and second/thirded [] by Zandilar), but says it's all right from me to reveal what my character learned during play - - which admittedly isn't all that much.
At certain times, "when the stars are right" (about once a year, or once every two years, or so; we Knights were never able to learn precisely how often these certain times happened, though there ARE celestial "signs" linked to them) the ruins of the Keep become the place of release of magical energy and memories from elsewhere (I'm guessing from beings who have died on other planes or parallel "Prime Material Planes," but that's just my guess, and various deities, powerful divine servitors, and long-lived individuals (Larloch, Elminster, etc.) come to the ruins to acquire the energy/feed off of it/revel in being in its presence (hence the dancing).
Formerly many creatures came to the ruins at these special times, including nagas, illithids, and other psionically-gifted creatures, but over the years Garagos and other rapacious attendees have slain so many arrivals that very few come to the ruins (or still survive, to come to the ruins), that it's down to those three deities and a few other lurking creatures who hide from the deities (for some reason not known to us, because Ed hasn't so much as hinted why, only those three deities were ever drawn to the ruins). Apparently the energies can be used for healing, recharging magic items, and restoring/fixing magics, by those who know how (and written procedures for doing so are hidden at Candlekeep, somewhere in a library controlled by the Zhentarim, somewhere in a tome possessed by a noble family of Waterdeep, somewhere "ditto" in Halruaa, and somewhere "ditto" in Thay).
So the three deities aren't meeting up out of friendship, or in some sort of pact, or as lovers; they're each there independently, "after the same thing."
Hope that helps!
love to all,
THO
To my way of thinking those three deities are simply after more power. Not, perhaps, in the rapacious "more more more!" way but rather because they wish to ascend to become stronger deities and Godswalk Keep is a place perhaps where this can be done.
In my home Realms campaign I chose to use Garagos in a similar way, except that it was he versus Kiaransalee and Orcus.
I love reading about deities interacting in ways that are mysterious and that don't seem obvious at first. Helps to shake up the feeling that we all have a sound understanding about the gods of the Realms and causes us to put our thinking caps on too.
Im wondering about that NDA, Is this going to come into play in a future novel or something? Its got me even more intrigued now.
Im wondering about that NDA, Is this going to come into play in a future novel or something? Its got me even more intrigued now.
Well, that would be sweet. But since this was already mentioned over a decade agon (in Powers&Pantheons) I have the fear that it will never be revealed (aka the NDA nowadays being one of so many aces kept up in the sleeve that the chance of any particualry ace actually seeing play is very small).
Thank you, gomez and Delta, for respectively posing the question and bringing the answer back here.