 Oghma
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|---|---|
| Alias(es): | The Lord of Knowledge, Binder of What is Known |
| Power: | Greater deity |
| Pantheon: | Faerûnian pantheon |
| Symbol: | Blank scroll |
| Alignment: | True neutral |
| Cleric alignment: | Any |
| Portfolio: | Bards, inspiration, invention, knowledge |
| Worshippers: | Artists, bards, cartographers, inventors, loremasters, sages, scholars, scribes, wizards |
| Domains: | Knowledge |
| Favoured weapon: | Longsword - "Mortal Strike" |
| Allies: | Deneir, Milil, Gond, Lliira, Mystra, Azuth, Lathander |
| Enemies: | Talos, Bane, Mask, Cyric |
Followers of Oghma (pronounced: ogg-mah) tell an interesting tale regarding the earliest days of existence. Not long after Shar and Selûne created Toril and gave birth to Chauntea, the world's animating spirit, a traveler ventured to the world from a distant realm. He came upon a chaotic landscape of indistinct, shapeless concepts yearning to be given solidity. To each of these concepts he gave a name that would define it in the aeons to come. Such was the power of these names that the concepts transcended their elusive existence bound to physical form in the material world. Thus did Oghma, the Binder of What is Known, give order to chaos and claim an honored place among Toril's oldest deities.
The Church
Clerics of Oghma are known as Namers. The church welcomes members of all races and philosophies, provided prospective clerics swear to the doctrine of the Binder of What is Known and dedicate themselves to acquiring, administering, and protecting knowledge. Members of the church might remain cloistered in temples (usually academics or sages more at home among stacks of books and scrolls than among their fellows) or travel the land, recording their experiences and periodically reporting to the temples they encounter on their travels. Wayfaring clerics and bards within the church tend to be adventuresome and curious, bon vivants who occasionally come into ideological conflict with their academic counterparts. The two branches need each other, however, and such reprobation seldom escalates beyond mild disapproval.
Far more common in cities than the wilderness, temples of Oghma resemble libraries filled with acolytes huddled over desks covered in books, maps, and scrolls: Many support themselves by selling writing implements, services, or maps, often to adventurers. Most temples include extensive binderies to aid cloistered clerics in producing religious tracts and volumes that will form the basis of future temple libraries.
Dogma
Spread knowledge whenever it is prudent to do so. Keep no secrets for their own sake. Curb and deny falsehood, rumor, and deceitful accounts and histories whenever you encounter them. Write or copy some lore of value and give it away freely at least once a year. Hide some writings away while distributing others widely so that the written knowledge of Faerûn is larger when you leave life than when you entered it. Sponsor, assist, and teach minstrels, bards, scribes, and recordkeepers whenever you encounter them and perceive a need. Spread truth and knowledge throughout the Realms so that all folk may know more. Never deliver a message falsely or incompletely, but always just as you receive it. Teach any folk who ask how to read and write or as much of these crafts as time and tasks permit—and charge no fee for this teaching.