Attention Faith Managers

[Raona]

I think the more information available on a deity in the helpfiles the better! However, I also agree that a short, standard format would be best for the base deity helpfile. So, something like the initial Mask entry for each deity, with links to all the amazing goodies like symbol, dogma, and so on for those faiths with someone dedicated enough to put it together.

It's important that a player can easily and quickly find out who Talos is (more important still, perhaps, that HELP Stormlord and HELP <other aliases> bring up his helpfile), so that they can RP an appropriate IC response when first confronted with word of him. But for a follower, or one keen to know more than the basics, having it available is a real boon.

In short: Writers - please put together as much information as you have time and information for! The richer the content available in the helpfiles, the better! It'll be the helpfile team's job to see to it that this information is (eventually) made available in a format that is easily accessed and convenient. We will make an effort to make the base helpfile for each deity relatively concise and consistent, but that's editorial work, best done after the information collection itself. As an author, just try to answer the questions you think people in the faith should be asking...what's most important may well vary from faith to faith - certainly the length of the content for a given sub-topic will vary from deity to deity.

[Selveem]

Actually, Raona, you bring up a good point. I had never thought about how this may adversely affect new players when Selveem refers to Tempus as "Lord Victory."

A new player who is not keen on the FK deities may not easily be able to figure out what Selveem may mean by 'Lord Victory' and is thus doing his own deity a disservice OOCly.

Now, I've had a discussion with Tempus regarding this and Selveem's version of a goodbye. Since then he's stopped. But this does make it clear as to why this may have been problematic.

I really appreciate your post.

[Raona]

Actually, I think it's fine (perfectly IC, too) to refer to Tempus as Lord Victory...we just have to make sure that
HELP Lord Victory
brings up the Tempus helpfile! I certainly can't keep straight which one is the Black Hand versus the Black Lord, or what have you...but ICly people wouldn't be bandying about the true names of (at least the evil) deities, for fear of calling down their attention. But this is on the help team radar screen now, and we'll work on making it easy for folks to use the helpfiles to figure out who an alias reference to a deity refers to.

[Selveem]

Also, just so I can be certain, can you or Tasha please clarify as to whether you guys want the ascii art, special dates, and such? I can provide these for Tempus as well. I just felt they'd be far too big to fit.

[Layna]

Just a random thought (apologies for the tangent), but would it be an idea for the followers of uncoded deities to write up a short paragraph about their own chosen gods?

These would, of course, be nowhere near as detailed as the coded gods' entries and should probably include a line about the fact that they have no coded benefits, but might be helpful for any players unfamiliar with the setting.

[Mariela]

*whistles loudly*


Everyone relax.
Goal number 1 to the help files of deity was to improve the information contained within. Go through EVERY Deity and make sure the alignments were there, and also basic information that any goon walking Faerun would know. I did not give a format out about how I wanted it to look, because I did not know originally.

However, the Mask template I posted in here was the basic format I wanted. Lately, I have hit a pocket of VERY creative people who have given me ASCII art and other things for the help files. I think they are beautiful but I am still in teh process of loading the information and deciding if I like that, or if I like the basic outlook.

I am planning on continuously updating the helpfiles for deities. It is an ongoing project. Submit to me the basic information and make sure it includes...

a)Alignments of your gods
b) faith enemies and allies
c) what your holy symbol looks like including color codes
d) the name of your FM and any other important members of the faith that have helpfiles somewhere else in the helpfile system so I can cross link it.


Everyone. Slow down. Take a breath.
Talos's help file looks darn impressive. I will give you that. However... don't worry about it. You will get a chance to re-edit once ALL the helpfiles are done. The next round is more individualized focused.

[Mariela]

I am not 100% certain what "uncoded" deities are out there.

I am not to them just yet, Layna.. so please be patient and do not submit any deities to me that were not on the original list presented as of yet.

[Lathlain]

Ug? I've not seen any not-relaxedness here - we were just after a little clarification as to what was expected of us, as the guidelines seemed to have been expanded since some of our earlier submissions! Thanks for wrapping that up - I'll wait on a standardised format to be released before I do any re-writing.

Submissions from uncoded deities would make a nice touch to boot. Definitely something to consider for future if you'd rather get this under your belt first.

[Orplar]

Can we get a list of what deities still need to have help files submitted?

[Hrosskell]

This topic lost a little thunder. I was wondering if there is in fact
a list out there of what help-files need to be submitted, as well.

[Japcil]

I will assemble an up-to-date list if no one else does by Sunday.

[Selveem]

I'm willing to help with some, as well.

[Vibius]

Working in wauk's

[Lea]

I am so very sorry been busy with work and kids that I kind of forgot to work on mine. I have to work the next couple of days but I will try and squeeze time in to work on it and hopefully get it done before the end of next week.

[Nedylene]

Mine are all /almost/ done. Was hoping to finish them in my time away from online, however, I am still at home right now in between places. Looking like instead of moving in this past weekend I will be moving in next weekend and delayed an additional week before my computer it set up and I am back online

[Mariela]

I basically slowed down and stopped the update. I am goingtosit down in this next week and figure out what I am stillmissing and what has been done and what format I have been liking, ect. Srry about the grind down to stop. I got a real life and thus.... well.... I have been super enjoying that.

[Aveline]

WARNING: This is going to get lengthy!

Hey guys! This project has sort of fallen off of the radar so I'm going to
do what I can to pick it back up. Mariela did a wonderful job and most of
the work is done, so all we have to do is get it finished up for her.

The last couple of days I have been studying the faith helpfiles and the posts
on this thread to get an idea of where we are and what we want done. I'll list
what faiths we still need info on at the end of the post. When going through
this thread a few things I have seen people commenting on is that we want a
consistent look to the faith helpfiles. I agree with that. So after going
through all of this thread and looking at the helpfiles online I've come up
with a basic little template that I'd like to shoot for. Basically I'd like
to list some of the more basic things that are commonly asked about a faith
at the top of the helpfile. Things like the symbols/alignments/what members
of that faith are called (No more Tormites ) Then we'll have a really basic
blurb that describes what the faith is about. And then anything that gets more
into the nitty gritty of the faith will be given its own link and helpfile.
Trying to keep the main helpfiles down on length and give them all a more
uniform look that people were wanting. After looking at the template...if you
can think of anything, that you think just HAS to be on the main page of
the helpfile, let me know.

Again, we still want people to send in as much stuff about the faith as they
want. We encourage it. It just may not be all on that front page. Any and all
info welcome.

Let me give you a little breakdown of how I was planning to go about this, so
you guys know what I am up to and if it takes me just a bit, you know I'm not
ignoring you.

I'm going to take it faith by faith, and update the helpfiles one at a time,
in order. For each helpfile I am going to:
1. Reformat it so that it fits the template that we have (unless someone absolutely
hates the template I am going to post)
2. Add in additional links needed. These will include things like the Dogma, and
other topics that people have given information on that won't be included on
the main faith page. Also in line with this, I'm going to be going through
the famous character helps, and the faith manager helps and linking them to
the faiths they belong to. I'll also be hounding the current faith managers
to write up bios for themselves to be included.
3. I'm going to work on the keywords for each faith's help, so that if someone
like Selveem calls out Lord Victory, people can look that up and pull out the
Tempus helpfile.
4. Once I have all of the above done for a particular faith, I'll post that
I am done with it and let people nitpick it for mistakes, and move on to the
next.

I might have left something out, but that is basically what I'll be doing.
Here is what I was hoping for the helpfiles to look like:

God's name
==========
God of Godiness, Lord of Lordiness
Holy symbol: tiny godly looking holy symbol
Followers are called: Lordians
Cleric allowed alignments: LG, NG
Follower allowed alignments: All
Current faith managers (where applicable or wanted): Mr. Brown-noser

Here will be a blurb about the basics of the faith. Just a basic
overview of what the deity is all about. Nothing will really be
explained in depth right here. We'll put a light mention about some
things and if they need further explanation, a link and separate
helpfile will be added. This is to give all of the helpfiles
a uniform look, and to keep them from being too lengthy. Everything
that people sends in will be added, you just might not see it
in this main help section for the deity.

A) Domain 1 B) Domain 2
C) Dogma D) History
E) Order 1 F) Order 2
G) Mr. Brown-noser H) Famous Character in faith

And here is a list of faiths I still need info for. If you are not sure of
what we are looking for, take a look at Mask, Torm, Lathander, or Garl's
helpfiles. That will give you an idea. If you want to include more, go for
it, but those are the basic things we'd like to have. Also, no one has
to jump up and volunteer for a particular faith. If you feel up to it,
go for it, no matter what level in the faith you are or even if you have
a character in that faith. If someone beats you to posting about a faith
check their post to see if they made any mistakes or to see if you have
any information they didn't include and post it. Some of these may have
been sent in already, but if they were they were PM'd to Mariela and
never got into actual helpfiles.

Beshaba
Chauntea
Gond- We have a good start here, but we need a bit more. Dogma and such? Or perhaps what is there is the dogma...I don't know anything about Gond, but a little more here?
Kelemvor
Loviatar
Mielikki
Oghma -eep! That one was partly me..I guess it didn't go through
Shar
Talona
Tymora
Yondalla

[Kelend]

Beshaba
============
The Maid of Misfortune, The Lady of Doom, Black Bess
Holy Symbol: Black antlers on a red field
Followers: Beshaban(s)
Cleric Alignments: CE, CN, NE
Follower Alignments: Any, primarily evil
Enemies: Tymora
Allies: None
Current Faith Managers: ????

Beshaba is worshipped largely out of fear, and it is the task of her clergy to spread that fear by starting talk of Beshaba's power and latest wickedness and by instructing all in how to make offerings to her or in how to join her clergy if they would prefer to be protected from all mistfortune.

Along the way, the members of her clergy take care to indulge their tastes for random cruelty and sadism. They enjoy acting mysteriously to manipulate simpler folk into serving them in matters both great and small, from providing them with food, luxurious shelter, and companionship to giving them weapons to wield against their rivals in the Church of Beshaba and against the clergy of all other faiths.

Dogma: Bad things happen to everyone, and only by following Beshaba may a person perhaps be spared the worst of her effects. Too much good luck is a bad thing, and to even it out the wise should plan to undermine the fortunate. Whatever happens, it can only get worse. Fear the Maid of Misfortune and revere her. Spread the message across Faerun to to obey Beshaba and make offerings to appease her. If she is not appeased, all will taste firsthand the curse that is spreading throughout Faerun: "Beshaba provides!"

Beshaba has a secret society of assassins dedicated to her name called the Black Fingers. It is comprised of male members of her clergy and evil thieves and fighters.

[Aveline]

That looks great! But remember if anyone finds corrections or feels something was left out, don't be scared to speak up.

[Gwain]

Kelemvor
============
Lord of the Dead, Judge of the Damned, Master of the Crystal Spire
Holy Symbol: A Skeletal Hand Holding Silver Scales
Followers: Kelemvorite(s)
Cleric Alignments: LG, LN, LE
Follower Alignments: Good and neutral aligned followers
Enemies: Cyric, Talona
Allies: Mystra
Current Faith Managers: Rynn and Hrosskell

Kelemvor is the god of death and the dead. Unlike previous gods of death, he
is not evil. In fact, he only accepts good or neutral aligned followers. He
exhorts his followers to respect the dead and favours those who return undead
to their resting place.

Clergy tend to the last wishes of the dying and provide burial services to those who die alone. They also set out to cure diseases and defend people from monsters so that folk do not die before their time. Their most important task is the destruction of undeath in all its various forms as it is an affront to Kelemvor. Elite priests of Kelemvor are known as Doomguides.

Dogma: Recognize that death is part of life. It is not an ending but a beginning, not a punishment but a necessity. Death is an orderly process without deceit, concealment, and randomness. Help others die with dignity at their appointed time and no sooner. Speak against those that would artificially prolong their life beyond natural limits, such as the undead. Do honor to the dead, for their strivings in life brought Faerun to where it is now. Forgetting them is to forget where we are now, and why. Let no human in all Faerun die a natural death without one of Kelemvor's clerics at her side.

Kelemvor has a small restricted order of paladins called the Knights of
Eternal Order.