#cyric dnd

[third-thoughts]

Spoilers for Prince of Lies...

I know Cyric gets a lot of flak for the whole Cyrinishad incident, but I sympathise with him because if I'd just written my Awesome Autobiography that makes me look super cool and makes anyone who reads it think I really am that awesome, I also would not be able to resist reading it myself.

Like, I think "As the creator of this artifact, surely I'll be immune to its effects" is not an unreasonable assumption. Thing is, though - even if I knew there was a risk, I would STILL be tempted. Like before the compulsion ever had a chance to take hold.

Like if you've gone to the effort of writing a novel, you're gonna want to read it! He's only been dictating, what, a chapter or two at a time? If that were me, you can bet I'd want the experience of reading it start to finish. No way am I gonna be the only one who's not read my own Magnum Opus.

So yeah, everyone's going "Haha look he read his own magic book" and I'm just like, "Yeah no that would be me".

[greensleeves-redhead]

faerun hates them (they hate each other)

[pepto-bismolfan]

What I assume Prince of lies is gonna be like

[ratscrap]

cyric rolls "worst joint known to toril" forced to leave pantheon

[scarila]

So hm. that bg3 withers epilogue note was definitely to cyric was it.

Take these three formerly-mortal-turned-gods in the category of doodles that got out of control

[darija-morgan]

I can't help but adore that there are not one, not two, but six gods of death in FR lore!

Like...

God of Death

In pretty okay grim reaper way

God of Death

In bloody stabby stab way

God of Death

In dominant daddy bbc way

God of Death

In chaotic stupid bullshit way

God of Death

In fair unbiased judge way

God of Death

In insidious alien insect mummy way

They warms my dark soul in an inexplicable way :3

[deer-with-a-stick]

"Oh Jergal gave up his portfolios so his power level is like that of a demi-god lol"

I am a firm believer that if Jergal had the motivation to, he would absolutely fuck up the Dead Three, Kelemvor, and Cyric's shit all at once. Just yoink the power back. Dude just doesn't give a fuck. Sure, he hates Cyric and the Dead Three, but no matter what kind of bullshit they get up to, they a) can't kill him and b) really won't interfere with his paperwork. The whole non-interference thing is very Death God of him. The guy's Lord of the End of Everything, but killing everything at much was too much work and actively holding the power was too boring for him lmao

[third-thoughts]

Oh, I won't be dissuaded in the slightest from worshipping him, and I wouldn't dream of ever betraying him 😊

But thank you for taking the time to write this!

Hi! I've seen your D&D deity spotlight posts and I don't know if you take requests or what you're planning, but is there any chance you could do one for Cyric? I'm always after more information or studies on him, and the way you share your thoughts and go into detail on the deities is really interesting and good to read.

Oh! Well. Thank you, firstly. I’m glad you enjoy them.

The deity spotlight posts are mostly me talking about published deities that I personally enjoy, so I hadn’t planned on Cyric, since I haven’t paid too much attention to him. But we can have a look:

The worship of Cyric derives directly from the story of his ascension to godhood. Cyric was a mortal during the Time of Troubles and the key to how that chaotic period resolved, but he was also a selfish traitor and a murderer. When he became a god, Cyric continued to work various plots of deceit and murder - the most famous of which is that, according to legend, Cyric murdered Mystra and thus caused the Spellplague over a century ago.

Those who don't worship Cyric see him as a god of madness, strife, and deceit, although his priests consider such claims to be heresy. Their Prince of Lies isn't a twisted madman, but a god of dark majesty who proves that, ultimately, all bonds between folk corrupt and wither away.

Cyric's church works openly in Amn, where the citizens espouse the principles of ambition, self-reliance, and "buyer beware." Those who take Cyric as their patron tend to be sadists, con artists, power-mad connivers, and worse. Other folk pray to Cyric when they want to do wrong but don't want others to find out about it.

"The Dark Sun," originally one of Cyric's epithets, has become a metaphor for strife in the Realms. "A Dark Sun has risen o'er this court" might be spoken as a warning that intrigues and infighting have gotten out of hand in a noble household; and married couples know to seek advice from others if "a Dark Sun shines through the window" in their relationship.

--- Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide (2015)

Cyric is a tricky deity to deal with if you don’t have a lot of background in the Forgotten Realms. I mostly came to D&D via 5e, which means that a lot of this bounced off me a bit. I had to go read up what the Time of Troubles was, and the Spellplague. As his SCAG entry says, Cyric as a deity is very bound up in his personal history and lore. Now, I don’t mind going back to read older lore, as you can see with Savras, but Cyric is, shall we say, deeply involved. Like Mystra and the Undead Three, there’s a lot of the history of how D&D has handled divinity that has to be unpacked to engage with Cyric. How he ascended, his history of variously gaining and hemorrhaging domains/portfolios, his atypical and contentious relationship with his faithful, how he often didn’t seem to function as a deity at all, but rather simply a mortal hero who’d become immortal.

But. Leaving that aside for a minute, and looking at what we’re presented with here. That second paragraph I think is the core of what Cyric is. He’s seen as a god of madness and deceit, but that’s mostly as a result of either things he’s done or things that have happened to him. It’s his own priests that give the core of him: Cyric believes that all bonds between people inherently corrupt and degrade. That’s the guiding principle he works from and espouses. His mortal life proved that to him, and nothing he’s seen or done since ascending has proved otherwise. His truest core, his true domain, is strife. Deception and madness are merely tools and symptoms of it. Cyric believes that everything crumbles, that everything degrades, that there are no true bonds and no true cooperation. You’ll win more by working with that rather than against it. Take advantage of it, take what you can for yourself, because it’s all going to crumble anyway.

Which might be where the madness comes in. Because sooner or later he’s going to crumble too, and he knows it all too well. He’s less a god of madness and more of a mad god, even after being cured of his more debilitating delusions. Running ahead of his own demise, scrambling to snatch what he can as he goes. The part his priests can’t acknowledge, because they’re emulating him, and so foretelling their own doom too.

It’s telling that the thing that canonically drove him mad was essentially reading his own propaganda, the mind-warping book he’d commissioned to glorify himself, because the fact that that resulted in madness means that on an inherent level he knows it can’t be true. It goes against the fundaments of his own belief system. Glory isn’t real, power isn’t real, genuine adulation isn’t real. Sooner or later it all corrupts and crumbles. All his goals will erode themselves, the same as he has undermined and eroded everyone else’s. No matter how compellingly he wrote that glorious illusion (and he wrote it powerfully enough that it’s mind-fucked several other gods), it was still slamming up against his core inherent cynicism. He was, and still is, fighting himself, his own domain. And he’s losing.

The obvious comparison here is Petyr Baelish from Game of Thrones, but I suspect Cyric is slightly more self-aware than old Littlefinger. He’s not … He’s not a god anyone worships out of faith, or in expectation of help, because he sure as shit doesn’t tend to help his followers. He’s worshipped as something to emulate. A cult of personality. If I believe as my god believed, if I follow his example, someday I’ll climb as high as he has. Whereas Cyric himself, locked in his prison having fought exactly those same delusions of grandeur, knows somewhere fundamental at the base of himself that it will never happen. It isn’t true because it can’t be true. Because sooner or later everything crumbles. It’s all a lie, a lie he sold himself as much as anyone, and he disdains himself as much as his followers for believing it.

So if you can’t rise, if you can never truly glorify yourself … then all you can do is make sure your enemies fall faster and harder than you do.

He is the god of strife. Madness and deceit own him as much as he owns them, but strife he truly embodies. Even within himself. The gyre is widening, and if he can do nothing else, he will make sure that the centre cannot hold.

I would say maybe don’t worship a god who’s going to betray you, who by his inherent nature has to betray you, but I mean … if you’re planning to betray him first and better. Or even just ride the advantage as long as you can. Then sure. Take your chances, champ. It’s exactly what he himself would have done.

[dishesorder]

If gods were in the 21st century....

[third-thoughts]

Erasure poetry on "The True Life of Cyric", is this anything?

"Hail Cyric, woo!"

[greensleeves-redhead]

[third-thoughts]

VICTORY

[ratscrap]

sorry man i'm too busy having weird toxic yaoi shit with my evil sword that tells me to kill people rn

[emrowene]

do you ever just design a woman so toxic

[third-thoughts]

You would not believe how much I envy that sword.

Cyric be like me and the bestie!!! And it’s a sword pretending to be a sexy woman so she can drink people’s blood

[sauronpilled]

thinking about Zhentilars and their unhealthy desire for companionships. how they had to rely on each other no matter the personal feeling, because everyone outside of Zhentil Keep could careless about them. thus creating an almost obsessive dependency between one another once they've become attached.