Not intirely sure how the druids of Rillifane and clerics of Silvanus should be handled 4E wise. The new druids ties to the greater primal spirits has devided their devotion to a single god into a lesser aspect of their faith. Unless Silvanus greater god status has made him a steward of some sort for the primal world, getting his council from the greater spirit of animals and the forests, the gods of fury and several archfey such as Lurue and Rillifane.
*as in him being an actual deity.
From all apearances, the designers have gone 'back to basics', and have down-sized nearly all pantheons, to the point of making the demi-human ones much more like their 1e counterparts.
While I don't mind this over-much for D&D in general (I pretty much only used the gods from 1e's DD anyway), it did bother me somewhat in FR, if only because of FR's rich history concerning all of it's gods.
Anyhow, my point is this - Rillifane Rallathil is an ORIGINAL - along with Corellon, Deep Sashelas, and Lolth. He was one of the original Elven gods, and if the designers were consistent, then he should have made it into 4e along with the other three.
Those four gods covered the original four sub-races; High Elves, Sea Elves, Drow, and Wood Elves. Without Rillifane, Wood Elves have no god!
Edit: Thinking more on this, and taking FR history into account (not core), it would make sense if Rillifane is an Archfey, since Green (Wood) Elves worshipped 'Fey Powers' prior to being introduced to the Seldarine.
An Archfey of his level of power can easily replicate the blessings of divine beings anyway. There might be subtle differences in the way a cleric of Rillifane and one of Silvanus channels their power. The Rillifane cleric would have acces to more fey rituals and abilities, and the Silvanus one might be slightly more intersted in primitive divine and primal rituals and powers.
I think the earlier elves and their Fey Powers had a growing respect for the primal spirits they encountered on Toril. This can be seen in Aglarond, where the fearie green elves of the Yuirwood came into contact with the human tribal Yuir Totems. Eventually these tribes began to fade and their totems with them. The Seldarine and some Fearunian dieties took pity and embraced their ideas and energies. The archfey Rillifane absorbed Relkath of the Infinite Branches and might have attained divine status eversince.
I hear what you're saying with this Suin, but Relkath is listed in Brian R James' article on Sarifal as one of the Faerunian archfey along with Sarula Iliene and Verenestra, among others. I think Rillifane would have to be an archfey in his own right, or instead a divine aspect of another deity (i.e. like how Hanali Celanil was revealed to be an aspect of Sune, he would most likely be an aspect of Silvanus). I can't say that I agree on him not being a deity, mostly because it screws with a lot of the previous canon, but this is 4e.
For example Gruumsh being Talos still doesn't jive well with Talos history beginning by his creation during the start of the War of Light and Darkness. It's highly unlikely Gruumsh already knew about Toril before the Seldarine did.
Given the Seldarines origin in the plane of Fearie its even likely that all the Seldarine were archfey in ancient times. Their ascension to divinity has likely occured when the wars between orc and elf on Fearie reached their climax and Gruumsh and Corellon clashed in Olympus. The divine apotheosis followed and changed the elves into todays Seldarine blessed eldarin. Corellon was then able to demote several of his archfey brothers and sisters into the divine forms they hold now.
The blessings of Corellon and the providence of Arvandors domains he gave them we're embraced by most of his brothers and sisters (especially Araushnee) and the Seldarine was born fully. Rillifane never really had much changed when he embraced Corellons blessings, taking much of his feylike powers and philosophies into Arvandor.
For example Gruumsh being Talos still doesn't jive well with Talos history beginning by his creation during the start of the War of Light and Darkness. It's highly unlikely Gruumsh already knew about Toril before the Seldarine did.
-It's quite possible. We know that an Orc Horde destroyed Occidian and almost leveled Sharlarion in -24,400 DR. In order for there to be an Orc Horde, Orcs needed to exist. So, we can date them back to at least -24,400 DR. Given that Elves hadn't existed on the planet for that much longer, relatively speaking, and the general fogginess of the era, it certainly is a plausible hypothesis, that Gruumsh existed in Realmspace before Corellon Larethian. Linking Talos and Gruumsh isn't a concept that I like, or agree with, but I object to it on other points, not this one.
). Gruumsh was a notoreous tracker and aggresive conquerer and could have tracked out Selune and Shars world early. But I prefer Gruumsh orgin not mingled with that of Talos, he can't have been created by Shar and Selune and he certainly shouldn't have ousted Talos awesomeness.I think I am even more likely to follow MT's ravings I saw a few years back on Gruumsh and Corellon being fey brothers on Fearie who ascended in a war to devide the lands.
But my points on the transistion of the Seldarine from archfey to divinities still stand. It only needs to be adapted to proper Fey source book. :P
To add to that, and make it consistent with 4e and the GHotR, we can say that in that early 'god war' (whatever you want to call it), the Fey powers were aligned against the Draconic ones, and that the Draconic powers gave Grummsh and his kin (who were merley twisted Elves back then) certain... divine.. abilties (meaning Grummsh started-out as an Exarch of the Draconic Powers).
That means the Fey would have had to create champions of their own - empowering Corellon and the other Seldarine with much the same power as the draconic deities did with Grumsh and his family/pantheon.
Eventually, both groups would have grown into powerful gods/pantheons in their own right, but if we say they started-out as mere generals in someone else's war, then we cover all the weirdness that blurb in the GHotR brings to mind.
Obviously, the Fey Powers thought that sending Elves to Toril to work against the Dragons was important, and we can work with that.
If we elaborate further, and say that the Fey are cosmic beings aligned with 'creation' (Life, nature. 'the Balance', etc...), and that the Dragons are cosmic beings aligned with the forces of entropy - greed, destruction, corruption, etc... we can establish both a pattern of behaviour and some intersting proto-lore for the D&D multiverse.
This would mean that the Dragonborn are sort of the antithesis of the Elves (Elves being born of the Fey, and Dragonborn... well... you get the idea). Both would be 'mortal emissaries' of the groups that created them, but that happened so far in the distant past, and that war being pretty-much over, that they have 'lost their way' and have taken-up their own goals and devices.
I follow Corellon and Erevan, so I'm really not all that concerned.
my elven characters mostly worshiped
corellon
erevan
angaradh
waukeen
other races worshiped others.....
Eh.
I follow Corellon and Erevan, so I'm really not all that concerned.
-You should be. I hear that it's going to be revealed that Corellon Larethian is actually a pumpkin, and that Erevan Illesere is actually a midget albino Dwarf.
Last I heard, he was working as an Elvis Impersonator and doing 'quicky marriages' on the side (everyone knows the Ruler of an Enclave has the ability to perform marriage ceremonies).
Personally, I think he should have hooked up with Ziegfried and Roy, but what do I know? :P
Last I heard, he was working as an Elvis Impersonator and doing 'quicky marriages' on the side (everyone knows the Ruler of an Enclave has the ability to perform marriage ceremonies).
-If Lord Shadow/Telamont Tanthul and his wife though it was good enough for them, it's good enough for eloping couples in Vegas.
Personally, I think he should have hooked up with Ziegfried and Roy, but what do I know? :P
-Eh, it doesn't have the "lasting power". Ziegfried and Roy just sounds right. Ziegfriend and Roy...and Karsus just doesn't. It's kinda like Pinky and the Brain...and Larry. It just doesn't flow too good. :P
Some day I'll grow up... :embarrass