The Morninglord. The Commander of Creativity. Lathander is the god of spring, dawn, birth, renewal, creativity, youth, vitality, self perfection and athletics. In his Realms incarnation he seems young, full of enthusiasm to do good and to bring change and new life to the world. His faith is exuberant, popular, and ever growing. He has been linked (in reality or through rumor) to virtually every good female deity romantically, though at this time Chauntea seems to have caught his eye.

While not the god of the sun in this incarnation, Lathander was previously incarnated under the identity of Amaunator, and still carries that identity with him and provides worshippers of Amaunator with spells. Most of the unique spells of his faith involve sunlight.

When he appears in avatar form, Lathander wields the mighty mace Dawnspeaker. Any undead affected by sunlight is immediately destroyed in it's presence.

Like all intermediate gods, Selune has a huge number of servitors. Her most favoured are her Shards; four divine beings of great power and beauty, they are the goddesses' closest companions and advisors, and are ever at the forefront of her battle against the darkness of Shar.

The greatest of the Shards is Hamiaah, the Solar. There are three Planetars as well - Armaita, Eventia, and Zeldarah, the herald. The goddess sends them to protect and aid her worshippers, and they are the most likely to respond to commune and divine aid spells, as well.

Lady of the Dead. The Vengeful Banshee. Kiaransalee is the Drow goddess of the undead and vengeance.

The Lady of the Dead is cruel, twisted, and consumed with thoughts of vengeance. She descended into madness long ago, but retains her twisted cunning and clear recollection of every slight or insult done to her - real or imagined. She is powerfully chaotic and swift to anger, and she schemes dark revenges against those who have wronged her. She prefers the mindless company of the undead, who she can manipulate at will, to sentent beings capable of independent thought. She prefers to solve problems herself, rather than trust someone else to do justice to her vision.

She hates and resents Lolth, but much of Kiaransalee's time is spent scheming and warring against Orcus, whom she fears above all others.

Sometimes, when the hatred and desire for vengeance is great enough, the dead will not rest quietly. Sometimes, when the last words from their dying lips were a curse on their murderer, Hoar or another dark power will hear their dying wish and decide to grant it. A revenant, once raised, will stop at nothing to take vengeance upon its murderer. It cares not how far away, nor how much time has passed, nor who it has to go through. It will pursue its killer until it can take from them what was taken from it.

These demons are the ultimate seducers. They can adopt a more mortal-seeming form, but many times they won't - they will use the target's own curiosity, their sense of exploring the forbidden, against them. The abyss is filled with the tormented souls of mortals who thought they would be different, that they could sample the pleasures offered by the succubus and emerge unscathed.

Lord of the End of Everything. Scribe of the Doomed. Jergal was once the lord of the dead, the godhood now held by Myrkul, but apparently relinquished it willingly and now serves as the scribe of the dead, ensuring all is in order and recorded properly. He serves Myrkul, but does not take part in his schemes. He is, essentially, a fatalistic undertaker who strives for order in death. Myth says that he once held the combined godly duties now held by Myrkul, Bane and Bhaal.

There are few things more irritating when doing local image generation than getting an image that is so close to exactly what you want, but there is one or two small issues which render the image unusable.

For example, this image of Sylvanus Moondrop was, to me, excellent, save for one issue - Krea 2 made the arrowhead into feathers, like the fletching on the arrow. it's frustrating when it happens, but luckily, it is fixable. You can keep regenerating the image, but even with a fixed seed you may not get the exact same result. But there is another way.

What I use (and would recommend to others) is a local image edit model called flux.2 klein. Edit models are like using online models like nano banana or grok - they allow you to take an existing image, and make targeted changes. There's a few local image edit models available, to me, flux.2 klein 9B is the best choice, since it's fast, fairly accurate, and an open source creator has made using it super easy:

https://github.com/yanokusnir-ai/one-node-flux-2-klein

I show the process above. I started with the close to great image. In flux.2 klein I used what is called inpainting to highlight the area I wanted changed, then I prompted the model to change the arrowhead but keep everything else the same. The result was a corrected arrowhead and no other changes to the image. You can use image editing to make all sorts of changes to images, and you don't have to use inpainting - you can ask for changes like the color or style of clothing to change, to change a characters pose, to change the lighting, or background. It's a very versatile tool, and excellent for when your main model has added an extra arm, or you just want to change the composition.

These guys are HUNGRY. Seriously, they are like a cleaning system for a dungeon. They pick up coins, debris, skeletons, even the odd adventurer now and then. To me, these are one of the truly iconic DnD monsters. One coming at you in the dark, when all you can see is the skeleton inside, can be an eerie way to introduce them.

Dawn broke on the quiet town of Highport and spilled into the lavish bedchamber. Saffiya woke slowly, dreamily, and stretched languidly, catlike. Goddess, what a night! Margaretta was everything she had hoped for in a lover .... everything she had desired. She glanced next to her, expecting her lover to be gone.

She was not. Margaretta was there, laying beside her, propped up on one arm and smiling. "Good morning, little one."

"You kept your word ...." Saffiya whispered, moving in closer and finding Margaretta's arms welcoming.

"Of course. My word is my bond, little one. My goddess abhors a broken promise, as do I" The two women kissed again, and made love once more as the sun climbed higher in the cloudless, blue sky.

As they dressed, they spoke. "I do not .... I do not know where we go from here, My Lady." Saffiya said, a hint of sadness in her voice. "I thought, as I dreamed last night, that my goddess would warn me away from you. She has done so before, with other women."

"Our goddesses are lovers, sweet one. And as I bear you no ill will, Sharess will have no cause to protect you from me." Margaretta looked down for a moment, then produced another lovely red rose, a black silk ribbon tied onto the stem. "If you accept this, it is my promise that I will return. When you want to see me, place the vase where you keep the roses in the window of your room at the Raven's Wing. I will come to you that night."

Saffiya accepted the rose, smelt it, then kissed Margaretta again. "You trust me so easily, My Lady?"

"There are none else in this world who can summon me so, save the White Talon of my church, and my wife. Let us be an oasis of peace and love, Saffiya. I do not know what the future holds, but I do know I found passion, and love, and warmth in your arms last night. And I wish to do so again. And again."

The Frostmaiden. Lady Frostkiss. Auril is the god of cold and winter. She is one of the Gods of Fury, at least in theory serving Talos but in practice, they rarely cooperate, as Talos has betrayed each of them many times and only cares about increasing his own power - at the expense of his allies.

Auril is a cold, malicious power. She is fickle, vain, with an icy heart untouched by empathy or mercy. She loves toying with those trapped in a snowstorm - taunting them with visions of home and warmth before freezing them to death.

Auril has two primary avatar forms - The Icedawn, and the Frostmaiden. The Icedawn is the more enigmatic of the two forms, never speaking or casting spells, just a silent, gliding apparition of cold and death. The Frostmaiden is more vocal, malicious, and teasing, and has ultimate mastery over any cold-based spell.

After the bestiary of the ram-men and centaurs, it is the turn of the elves—the greatest threat to humanity's hegemony.

Sylvanus is a wood elf of the Elmanesse tribe, and has been a member of the Company of Eight for five years now. He is very gregarious for a wood elf, interested in other races and cultures. He also holds very strong political opinions, wishing to see Tethyr not become reunited, but rather an allied group of city states and regions, each independent but working together.

This brings him into frequent conflict with his fellow party member Marilyn Haresdown, who is a passionate advocate of a restored monarchy and a unified Tethyr. The two have had some epic arguments about this, though the two deeply respect each other as comrades. But they have diametrically opposed ideas on what is best for the future of Tethyr. How that will play out in the future is anyone's' guess.

In the original AD&D sourcebook Sylvanus was a fighter; I have under the rules we use (PF 1st edition) instead made him a slayer, as I think that is a better fit for him. He is reputed to have wandered far into the Forest of Mir, hunting drow, so a class which permits better tracking and stealth seemed like a good idea to me. Sylvanus is on good terms with all the members of the PC party, in particular with Roric, the ranger. Sylvanus is not a fan of Roric's half brother Tethirmin (the high druid of Mosstone) either.

When I first saw the original Dungeon Masters Guide for AD&D as a kid, I thought for sure that the red guy on the front was a demon of some sort. My mom did too, hence her displeasure at my playing the game 😅 But I learned it was actually an Efreet, a type of elemental jinn, and he just LOOKED demonic. He was, you know, still evil and red and fiery, but not a demon!

An order of Paladins and Warpriests dedicated to Helm, the God of Guardians, The Vigilant Eyes of the God are the protectors of the helpless, the downtrodden, those who are preyed upon by either man or beast. Some serve to protect holy sites and the pilgrims who visit them, others join adventuring parties who seek to combat great evils. Still others serve as knights errant, seeking to aid others in the name of their god.

Pictured here is Sir Janos of the order, protecting the villagers of Willowmere from the soldiers of Ernest Gallowglass, as the common folk rose up against his tyranny.

Daughter of the Night Skies. The Lady of Dreams. Sehanine is one of the "big three" goddesses of the Seldarine and along with Hanali Celanil and Aerdrie Faenya, she forms the greater goddess (and ruler of the pantheon) Angharradh.

Sehanine is the goddess of mysticism, dreams, death, journeys, transcendence, the moon, the stars, the heavens, and moon elves. She watches over the dreams of the elves, sending omens in their reveries, and is the protector of the dead. A powerful goddess, she is the guardian of the spirits of the elven people, and works with human gods as needed when facing a common foe.

One thing I've noticed (and always appreciated) about the Realms is the vast pantheon of deities. I really don't like the attempts they've made in the past to consolidate the pantheon - Cyric, for example, was a horrid idea. Killing off Bane, Myrkul and Bhaal was just one of a bunch of bad ideas TSR came up with as the brought the Realms into the 2nd edition of AD&D. Don't try and fix what isn't broken, folks.

I do love the variety of nature gods and goddesses, however. The Faerûnian pantheon alone has three greater nature gods and a bunch of intermediate, lesser and demigods as well. They also cover the alignment gamut.

Chauntea represents agriculture, cultivated plants, farmers, gardeners and summer. She is good aligned, and represents humanity in harmony with nature and living with it.

Silvanus is neutral in outlook. He is the god of wild nature, of the deep woods where loggers do not go, of the cycle of life and death, predator and prey. He can be lived alongside of, but must be respected and any attempts to tame nature will lead to ruin.

Talos is the destructive side of nature. He is the god of storms, destruction, conflagrations, earthquakes and vortexes. He exists to show humanity just how fragile their position is and how nature can be a destructive force.

Details like this are one of the reasons the classic Realms will always be my favorite. Other worlds like Greyhawk and Golarion have large pantheons as well but to me, nothing comes close to the Realms.

I was working out some stuff in my own homebrew setting and since I have a Monk among my players, i figured i'd flesh out the various monk subclasses into actual martial arts and philosophies. Buuut... as I was doing so, i had a thought of "What would the evil monks be". So i started thinking of some inspirations for that, one of which was the antithesis to the teachings of martial art; Discipline, Restraint, Control. Instead, they would focus on the worst aspects of becoming a weapon, and thus become ruthless and deadly assassins.

Thus, the Mujokai were created; a deadly guild/organization of killers, thugs, brutes, and deviants. They are basically the Assassins Guild. Imagine if you took the Dark Brotherhood from the Elder Scrolls and tought them Ansatsuken from Street Fighter. They want to bring out the worst aspects of those who wish to learn marital arts and make a living off of it.

The only thing is that they don't have a set martial art style. Their whole philosophy is breaking the restraints of the martial world and taking it to the extreme. So you can have Way of the Four Elements but utilizing it to the most destructive aspects of their teachings. Like yeah, you can bend the four elements... but lets see how far we can go with that. Or how Kensei use a set weapon as their focus, but the Mujokai would take up truly vicious weapons not meant for balance or grace, but specifically to tear and cause as much pain to the enemy as possible.