9 replies to this topic

[Cat87]

Am I the only one who has noticed that D&D has used the names of many Greek, Roman, and Norse gods/godesses in the games?

[Ismail]

well, it IS a mix&match puzzle of all the mythologies of the world, plus many made-up stuff.

[NiGHTMARE]

Nope, you're not the only one who's noticed . A post I made in a previous thread:

FR gods, place names and all kinds of other things are taken from numerous real-world mythologies. For example, there's Baal (Semitic god of rain, thunder, and lightening; Christianity turned him into Beelzebub, one of the fallen angels), Oghma (Celtic god of communication and writing), Orcus (Roman god of the Underworld), Selene (Greek goddess of the moon), Silvanus (Celtic & Roman god of stags), Tyche (Greek goddess of chance and fortune) and Tyr (Norse/Germanic god of law and war).

Then there's Baldur (Norse god of peace and innocence) and Tethys (Greek goddess of the oceans), both of which sound remarkably similar to places in Faerun. Balors are probably named after Balor (Celtic god of death and King of the Fomorians).

[Garumn]

WOW Nightmare some nice and fascinating info here.You are quite a master in all this FR lore as I see

[fallen_demon]

I knew baal was a God, but I had always been told that is Christianity Baal and Beelzebub were names of Satan; are they seperate entities?

[NiGHTMARE]

I'd guess that in some branches of christianity, Satan was the only fallen angel, whereas in others there were several.

Edited by NiGHTMARE, 21 March 2005 - 02:00 AM.

[fallen_demon]

Oh

[Cat87]

baal was mentioned in the Old Testament as a god of one of the peoples that the Jews led by Moses ousted from the Promised Land

[Ismail]

Everything is satanic for christianity, including AD&D.

[Cat87]

Everything is satanic for christianity, including AD&D.

that just depends on how extremist that person's views and ideas are, for there are some denominations that will like you said, call just about anything satanic and then there are ones that are rather tolerant