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Is there any Voodoo culture existing in the FR?

Voodoo isn't a culture, it is a religion that is prevalent in at least three distinct cultures in the world. To my knowledge there is nothing that closely resembles loa worship in FR. The closest I know of is Kara-Turan ancestor spirits, and that's an entirely different thing.

Okay... I maybe expressed me wrong. I mean not the religion more the Hollywood voodoo horror thing whit snakes and voodoo dolls. A kind of witch type of thing

You mean like a wizard?

Slig wrote:

You mean like a wizard?

Wizard/druid thing maybe....

Closest thing would likely be Chultian area religions, perhaps one of the isles around that area of the world. There is sure to be something.

Voodoo in FR is more a different tribal approach to religion as a whole I believe. A shamanistic tribe devoted to a god of the undead may use a very Voodoo like belief system and set of rituals. It's more a belief structure, then a basic religion type.

As I said, I believe it would probably go more in line with a Chultan like god, or perhaps a god of undead. Necromancers could do things in a more voodooish sense. In saying this though, Voodoo actually has more in common with Christanity then cultish figures.

Well, Voodoo came about primarily from early African slaves being forced into following Christianity. So, Voodoo is basically an African tribal religion dressed in the trappings of Christianity.

So, since my FR lore is sorely lacking I can't give you an example. But, I'd say that if you find a region riddled with an enslaved tribal minority and an oppressive, advanced, religious majority. Don't know if there are any places like that, but if there are, then that's your best bet.

Could you be more specific in what you seek? Chult is Sub-Saharan Africa, without the Bantu expansion. But it's got little to do with voodoo. I'm not familiar with the religion/culture myself, so I can't really suggest anything.

Well Im looking for a swamp living char... its not a religion Im looking fore, Its a culture... Dark magic whit bones and animal body parts and voodoo dolls... Spirits and dark rituals. I don't relly know how i would explain it in another way... Anyone know what kind of char Im looking for?

Swamp hag.

Voodoo originated in Africa, yus.

I know it exists in PnP (My old DM was a Mambo priestess of Voodoo for a campaign.) As far as Forgotten Realms I can't find anything.

Uhm.. dark magics, bones, animal body parts, spirits and rituals. Is it just me, or does that sound a lot like a religion? >_>

There are many shamanistic cultures on Faerûn, but they aren't generally very dark. The Durthan of Rashemen, maybe. They live in northern pine woods (at least looks like that in the art, dunno about the lore), though, and aren't partiularly primitive. They want to overthrow the good witches, the Hathran, in Rashmenen's government and expand the power of the native spirits to other lands.

Yossarin wrote:

Swamp hag.

This requires a request and DC for a skin chance right?

Yes. I'm just guessing, though, knowing nothing about FR lore.

ainjyll wrote:

Well, Voodoo came about primarily from early African slaves being forced into following Christianity. So, Voodoo is basically an African tribal religion dressed in the trappings of Christianity.

So, since my FR lore is sorely lacking I can't give you an example. But, I'd say that if you find a region riddled with an enslaved tribal minority and an oppressive, advanced, religious majority. Don't know if there are any places like that, but if there are, then that's your best bet.

I'd say it's more Christianity dressed in the trappings of Tribal African Religion. Ahla Papa Midnight.

Maybe i can make a goblin shaman in voodoo stille... Isn't there some swampliving goblin tribes in FR? I think i have read about them...

KnightOfKelemvor wrote:

Maybe i can make a goblin shaman in voodoo stille... Isn't there some swampliving goblin tribes in FR? I think i have read about them...

Well, in the Warcraft series the Trolls are Voodooish. As such, I've always seen Goblins in that kinda light. Some illustrations seem to show the more monstourous races using the stereotypical view of Voodoo practices in Shamanistic rights.

I'd say if it was going to be used, it would be more the stereotypical disney version then the religious version as seen on Constantine. So I'd also see it as more a monstourous race type thing. Perhaps the Bahgtri of Chult have a matriarchal voodoo thing. They do look rather voodooish in NWN2.

The closest you can come to playing a hag without request is a tiefling descended from a night hag.

I wholeheartedly approve of kobolds, goblins, gnolls and other types of monstrous races using chicken entrails and other nasty bits of critters for material components in their divinations and other shamanistic rituals. Delicious flavor.

Don't constrain yourself too much by canon lore. I rarely let it constrain me. :wink:

SO wizard or druid? or what else is a good Shaman class?

Cleric could also be used to emulate a Shamanistic-type spiritual leader for kobolds.

iron, to me anyways the harthan of Rashaman remind me more of celtic or tribal religons of Europe before the advent of Christianity. It gives me the feeling of being more based on celtic and nature worship then Voodoo.

Anyways, all magic uses components, though personally when it comes to religious stuff I like basing it around the religion/diety my char worships. for example, drow would use lot of blood and all. While, The elves would have say some sort of holy branch. Goblins, and other monsters races would use things that might look a bit barbaric, like chicken's blood and other sort of things voodoo uses in there rituals and stuff.

Sakkran wrote:

Cleric could also be used to emulate a Shamanistic-type spiritual leader for kobolds.

Well im going for a goblin... SO whats best for gobos?

Last edited by Sakkran on Wed, Feb 04 2009, 21:38 PM, edited 1 time in total.

Well, Dictionary.com defines Shaman as:

Quote:

(esp. among certain tribal peoples) a person who acts as intermediary between the natural and supernatural worlds, using magic to cure illness, foretell the future, control spiritual forces, etc.

Edit: So, Cleric or Druid would make the most sense to me. I don't really see Goblins being quite into druidics, so I definitely lean more toward Cleric.

Yes, I'd say Cleric for NWN 1, and obviously the Spirit Classes for NWN 2.
Voodoo is more spiritual related, it also has a lot to do with the dead, so you understand that Cleric would certainly be this area.

Possiably make your characters attire less matarialistic, and do some research into the practices or Voodoo priests and rituals. Can't say I'd ever see a Voodoo of any type walking around in shiny full plate.

If they do gobbo for race, then they are always wearing those wierd clothes, no matter if they have plate or potato sacks on.

Halen_Van wrote:

If they do gobbo for race, then they are always wearing those wierd clothes, no matter if they have plate or potato sacks on.

*hugs his evil gobbo overrides*

Selvec Darkon wrote:

Halen_Van wrote:

If they do gobbo for race, then they are always wearing those wierd clothes, no matter if they have plate or potato sacks on.

*hugs his evil gobbo overrides*

*has a nice gobo override himself that makes the cleric gobo look Evil...*

Goblins are probably the way to go, yeah. There's nothing exactly voodooish among the human cultures.

Like Yoss said, don't let canon lore constrain you too much, but also don't let the real world example do that. Be creative, pick elements from both voodoo, goblin culture and religion, and maybe even some Realmsian shamanistic cultures to add flavour. The theme is the most important.

Goblin sorcerer who believes he needs chickens beheaded and goat brains to make his magic work.

Goblin cleric who's prayers involve using the elements.

Goblin Druid.... not as much.

Goblin pale-master!

Halen_Van wrote:

Goblin pale-master!

This sounds interesting...

Out of curiosity, can a druid get his spells from Nature and spirits instead of gods?

to QPR: not in the FR. in the FR he needs a nature god.

Nope. I was looking into that myself, and there is some suspicion as to whether 2e shamans and 3e spirit shamans gain divine spells from spirits. My conclusion, however, was that they don't. They have a patron deity who grants them the cleric spell list (or druid, if you use druid to simulate it), but they also gain many other powers from the spirits themselves. They are servants of their patron deity in a tribal setting, but their primary concern is the spirit world. For my Rashemi shaman (druid), I used the four Elemental Lords as his patron (Akadi being the one I was forced to pick, in name), his animal companion as a spirit companion, and added lots of spirit stuff to invoking divine spells. At the end of the day, though, it was the Elemental Lords (fine, Akadi, if you must pick one) who granted him his spell list, though.

I kinda got the urge to play a celtic inspired druid in all this talking about voodoo and spirits.. a dwarven one that is, because they have a cool head with hood and beard.

The Moonshavian folk worship the Earthmother, who is a wilder aspect of Chauntea. They're humans (though there are also elves there) but they are the primary celtic-themed culture in the Realms, lead by druids on an island full of sylvan creatures.

The dwarves would follow the dwarven gods, most of the time. but as I said above when it comes to components, prayers, and other things, feel free to rip stuff out of the RL if it helps add to the rp and gives more flavor and immersion. If it is a dwarf, I would look at celtic, but also the nordic mythologies, after all dwarves exist in norse mythology.

Dwarves wouldn't have a particularly refined druidic culture, because dwarven druids are an anomaly. They'd be one of a kind in their home settlement, and would therefore probably train with and adopt traditions from nearby druids of other races. I don't know whether there are Dwarves on the Moonshaes, but I could check if you get excited about the idea.

Iron, perhaps I should have mentioned it, but I was refering to dwarven clerics not druids. but the thing goes both ways, use what you want if it can help create immeseive and good rp, but most of all is fun.

Thing is that I ahve allready created a dwarven druid, and done some fooling around with him. He is still level 4, so barely started. I'll readily admit he is not entirely my own invention, but based alot on a dwarven fruid I enjoyed meeting on my old server. He would be an outcast from dwarven society indeed... for some reason i like to play outcasts, especially half elves. dont know why.

So my question would be, how would I make him as celticish druid as possible? Not the immensly huggly druid who loves all trees, and certainly not a hard-core city hater, but first and foremost a wise, old druid.

As a side note, he will be pure druid unless i find an extremely good reason to do otherwise. (No, monk Ac is not a good reason)

Look into the Moonshaes, perhaps? Their druidic religion is Celtic, and I don't see why the dwarf couldn't have been trained there. If you want, I have the PDF on the place, my MSN's in my profile. Also, see the Ffolk subrace description.

ghostwise hin druids maybe

Halen_Van wrote:

Goblin sorcerer who believes he needs chickens beheaded and goat brains to make his magic work.

That would be perfect. A little research into Voodoo practice and you could have a gobbo sorcerer who, for whatever reason, feels that he needs certain voodoo-like practices to make his magic work.

I would like to mention that clerics need a patron diety, there is one for gobos though I don't know it off the top of my head. But the thing is that these priests I would see as shamans, using these ingredents in his rituals to power the spells of his god.

I do have a question that this thread got me thinking, what type of material components would the normal races use in their rituals? by this I mean, dwarves, drow, elves, and hin.

Maglubiyet

If hill dwarfs existed, I'd say to go with them for a celtic type. You could always just make a sheild dwarf and claim him to be a hill dwarf. Alternatively, submit a form requesting to play that race.

Last edited by herkles on Thu, Feb 05 2009, 4:37 AM, edited 1 time in total.

sheild dwarves are the FR version of the hill dwarves I believe. There are wild dwarvves as well though.

herkles wrote:

sheild dwarves are the FR version of the hill dwarves I believe. There are wild elves as well though.

You perhaps mean wild dwarfs?

yes, I mean wild dwarves *hits forehead*

Voodoo and D&D

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