Selune a Nature Goddess?

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Beauty is the Beast
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Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by Beauty is the Beast » Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:48 pm

Is Selune a Nature goddess that Druids can use as a nature deity? I know because she is the moon and the moon controls the tides, I believe that's one of the reasons that Umberlee and her are enemies. (Probably wrong as I'm not an expert in FR.)

I know she is the Goddess for Good aligned lycans much like Malar is for evil Lycans. She's also obviously the Goddess for nocturnal animals like Owls etc.

I might be wrong so I thought I would ask.

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Rei_Jin
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Re: Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by Rei_Jin » Sun Jan 16, 2022 11:24 pm

All the "Nature" gods and goddesses are listed here (http://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Category:Deities_of_Nature), and Selûne isn't listed there.

Furthermore, under the listing for Selûne on the wiki (http://wiki.nwnarelith.com/Selune) it does not say that druids can worship her and still access their spells (some deities have exemptions like this).

So, the Wiki seems to indicate no.

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Re: Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by MissEvelyn » Sun Jan 16, 2022 11:39 pm

It seems a bit odd that Selûne isn't included as a druid deity, given that the 3.5 supplement Player's Guide to Faerûn let's druids (as well as rangers and clerics) pick the feat Initiate of Selûne.
Player's Guide to Faerûn 3.5, page 81-82 wrote: Initiate of Selûne [Initiate]

You have been initiated into the greatest secrets of Selûne's church.

Prerequisites: Cleric, druid, hathran or ranger level 3rd, patron deity Selûne.

....
In contrast, only Clerics can pick Initiate of Mystra, along with most of the other feats. Only the nature deities allow druids and rangers to pick those feats as well. Which includes Selûne.


Distant Relation
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Re: Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by Distant Relation » Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:54 am

Seems like an odd oversight.

Druids needing to worship nature deities is actually a custom Arelith thing. Its not an element of core 3.5. In 3.5, druids must 'revere nature', which is nodded to in Arelith by the 'nature spirits' deity available for selection.

Selune should probably be a nature deity in Arelith, especially as she controls/influences one of the two primary druid circles in canonical lore.

Failing that, you can always worship Nature Spirits and then attune to Selune, but I can understand that from an RP perspective it would be far more comfortable to actually be able to claim to *worship* her as your primary deity.

This is one for RedRopes to adjudicate on I imagine.

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Rei_Jin
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Re: Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by Rei_Jin » Mon Jan 17, 2022 1:44 pm

The "Druids needing to worship nature deities" is a FR thing, actually.

Core D&D 3.x characters don't need to worship a deity.

In FR, all characters who access divine magic need to worship a deity, or they don't get access to said divine magic (with very rare exceptions).

But yes, this is a situation where a DM decision may be needed, and I would recommend such be sought.

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Red Ropes
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Re: Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by Red Ropes » Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:04 pm

Distant Relation wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:54 am
This is one for RedRopes to adjudicate on I imagine.
Hey.

Initiate of Selûne can be disregarded by errata in so far as it's already established that if a deity is not on the list of nature gods then you can't be a druid of it. Arelith has an expanded list of nature deities because I've scoured of the vast piles of antiquated information and the various dragon magazines to bring them forward so you the consumer do not have to.

Selûne is a goddess of the natural forces of the moon but largely is a goddess of benevolent magic, virginity, motherhood, feminity,
and benevolent lycanthropes. Much of her "as nature aspects", if it can be believed as pieces of history, were bequeathed to Chauntea in Elder Days - for unlike her vile sister Shar - she has seen sharing and giving up her power as a way to triumph over evil. Many gods in the pantheon owe their existence to her up-jumping mortals or just splitting pieces of herself off.

However - in this cycle of sharing and caring she has perhaps literally spawned a deity in the Farsea Marches of Cormyr named Bright Nydra who has always been an aspect of her or has recently rejoined her mother due to a decline. Gods are weird so we'll probably never actually know.

But she is a completely druid accessible, many of her followers among the Marsh Drovers are outright druids. Anyway - the article is a good summary of her but the better lore is found in the two sources at the bottom. Bright Nydra is located in "Other Powers" - and is a power in a local pantheon rather than broadly the whole of the Realms.

Anyway - good aligned druids probably will honor the Moon goddess and the moon and druids, while priests in a sense of whatever nature power are not beholden to ignore all other gods. They just have one... above all... that resonates with them!

Trivia: Bright Nydra's avatar beat the shit out of Bhaal's avatar during the Time of Troubles and shortly thereafter he was killed by Cyric wielding Godsbane.
🤡

Distant Relation
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Re: Selune a Nature Goddess?

Post by Distant Relation » Mon Jan 17, 2022 4:54 pm

I went and dug up my old books, and while druids are not required to worship a nature deity in core 3.5 rules, they are in the Forgotten Realms setting specificaly. Source: FR Campaign Setting, Page 23

I stand corrected :D

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