We're looking for new writers to join us!

In D&D's new Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun sourcebook, the number of major deities has changed for the third time in 10 years

by: Randy - posted: 11/8/2025 11:45:00 PM
More On: Dungeons & Dragons

In Dungeons & Dragons, it's safe to assume the gods do whatever they want. Which is a perfectly reasonable assumption, but not entirely true. More accurately, the gods do whatever developer Wizards of the Coast tells them to.

And in 5th Edition (5e) D&D, there's been some movement in the Forgotten Realms pantheon. From the D&D 2014 Player's Handbook to 2015's Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide to the Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun (now arriving some 11 years into 5e), some gods made a comeback and some went on sabbatical. Very little is explained as to why. The new Heroes of Faerun says this much:

The makeup of the pantheon has shifted over the ages, as a result of changes in the Realms and its people (or vice versa, depending on which scholars you believe).

I'm not quizzing you at the end, but these were the Forgotten Realm's major gods at the start of 5e in the Player's Handbook, back in 2014. And by "major" gods I mean that some of these could be minor deities as well—but they were at least important enough for them to be mentioned. Also, take a deep breath: there are a lot of them.

  • Auril, goddess of air
  • Azuth, god of wizardry
  • Bane, god of tyranny
  • Beshaba, goddess of misfortune
  • Bhaal, god of murder
  • Chauntea, goddess of agriculture
  • Cyric, god of lies
  • Deneir, god of writing
  • Eldath, goddess of peace
  • Gond, god of craft
  • Helm, god of watchfulness
  • Ilmater, god of endurance
  • Kelemvor, god of the dead
  • Lathander, god of dawn and renewal
  • Leira, goddess of illusion
  • Lliira, goddess of joy
  • Loviatar, god of pain
  • Malar, god of the hunt
  • Mask, god of thieves
  • Mielikki, goddess of forests
  • Milil, god of poetry and song
  • Myrkul, god of death
  • Mystra, goddess of magic
  • Oghma, god of knowledge
  • Selune, goddess of the moon
  • Shar, goddess of darkness and loss
  • Silvanus, god of wild nature
  • Sune, goddess of love and beauty
  • Talona, goddess of poison and disease
  • Talos, god of storms
  • Tempus, god of war
  • Torm, god of courage and self-sacrifiece
  • Tyr, god of justice
  • Umberlee, goddess of the sea
  • Waukeen, goddess of trade

That's 36 gods. Seems plenty to me! But then, only one year later, came the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. That relatively thin book expanded Faerun's pantheon with 11 more deities.

  • Akadi, goddess of air
  • Aumanator, god of the sun
  • Asmodeus, god of indulgence
  • Grumbar, god of earth
  • Gwaeron Windstrom, god of tracking
  • Hoar, god of revenge and retribution
  • Istishia, god of water
  • Jergal, scribe of the dead
  • Kossurth, god of fire
  • Red Knight, goddess of the moon
  • Valkur, Northlander god of sailors

While the new Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun brings back Eilistraee, god of song and moonlight; Lolth, god of spiders; and Shaundakul, god of travel; it wipes out nine others—almost all of them from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Now gone are:

  • Akadi, goddess of air
  • Grumbar, god of earth
  • Gwaeron Windstrom, good of tracking
  • Hoar, god of revenge and retribution
  • Istishia, god of water
  • Jergal, scribe of the dead
  • Kossurth, god of fire
  • Savras, god of divination and fate
  • Valkur, Northlander god of sailors

In other words, of the gods that showed up in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, only Aumanator, Asmodeus, and Red Knight have made it to the final bracket. Who can keep up? Suffice it to say, as of November 2025, the Forgotten Realms is sitting on a nice, neat pantheon of 40 gods.

Worth noting is that the gods are no longer gender specific: Lolth, god of spiders, is no more female than Asmodeus, god of indulgence, is male. Get used to the gods transcending gender. If they need to take physical form in your D&D campaign, make them whatever they need to be in the moment, and don't limit yourself to binary options. 

Also worth noting is that each god's alignment is gone. They are now associated with their home plane and typical worshippers. Lolth, god of spiders, for instance, is no longer bound to being chaotic evil. Her home plane is the The Abyss and The Abyss is the embodiment of chaotic evil—not Lolth themself. This continues Wizards of the Coast's push away from using alignment as a straitjacket. 

As a Dungeon Master, I've always thought alignment was an extremely efficient indicator of how I could mold a god's behavior. Lolth's followers are "evil drow" and "folk who travel the Underdark." I mean, that's a clue, but it doesn't necessarily clue me into Lolth being chaotic evil.

Oh well. It's hard enough for me to keep track of the behaviors and tendencies of the four players sitting at my table, let alone 40 deities acting as free-roaming vapors across the heaven and earth. But, as Heroes of Faerun makes clear: Some gods die, some never die, some leave, and some come back. These 40 are by no means the entirety of the pantheon. They're just the major ones for now. And all of that can change.

Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun is part of a duology of books due on store shelves on November 11, 2025. (The other book is Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun.)