How folk worship

Most people in the Realms embrace a patron (pri¬mary) deity, and carry a token, a holy symbol, or a remembrance of that primary god. Adventurers usually pray briefly to this deity in the morning, when they aren’t under attack or in some emer¬gency, as well as at moments of crisis, such as healing a wounded friend or trying to keep a sick or poisoned person alive. They offer lengthier private prayers following evening meals or upon retiring to slumber. Such prayers are usually re¬quests for protection and direction, and deities or their servitors often reply with guidance in the form of dream visions, or more rarely in sud¬den mental visions received while awake. Each of these visions is usually a snapshot seen only by the worshiper, and it usually comes tinged with a feeling of favor or disapproval.
Rarely, a divine response to a worshiper comes as a sign visible to everyone present. Lathander, for example, might manifest as a rosy glow around a weapon, a person, a keyhole, or a secret door. Lurue might send an image of a unicorn that guides by movement or by touching persons or things before glowing blue-white and fading, to make its divine nature clear.
Upon arriving in a town or village that has a formal shrine or temple to one’s patron deity, most Realms folk attend a service and give an offering. The offering is customarily coin, but sometimes food or trophies from fallen foes, or something appropriate to the deity. For Malar, hunted game makes a good offering, and for Tem¬pus, the weapons of defeated foes are favored gifts. Empty-handed worshipers usually offer in¬formation about their deeds and observations to priests—but paltry or verbal-only offerings often result in a request from the clergy to do a service. This service can be something as simple as “Help move this temple furniture” or “Confess in full to the superior priest tomorrow” or “Help guard the temple doors tonight.”
A traveler who comes across an untended or desecrated shrine of one’s patron deity is expected to cleanse it and pray there using one of the more elaborate prayers of that faith, usually involving a chanted or sung ritual. Wayfarers who encounter holy hermits or traveling priests of their patron deity are expected to share food and drink with those personages, and offer to encamp with the priest and provide any protection they can render.
Those residing in a locale that has a temple usu¬ally attend services at least once every two days. Priests of many faiths do a lot of “influencing the laity” work by dispensing news and gossip slanted to promote the importance of their god as well as the creed and the aims of the faith. At the end of formal services, sometimes while blessing departing wor-shipers, priests also try to motivate the laity to do certain things that further the work of their god.
Every settlement in the Realms has private family chapels as well as public shrines to most deities, even if it lacks a temple. So, the lack of a temple to a particular deity in a community does not mean that deity is not venerated locally. Tem¬ples, in contrast, are permanent buildings staffed by live-in clergy, each dedicated to one deity.
Folk in the Realms also pray and make of¬ferings to deities other than their primary one. They often make these offers in the hope of ap¬peasement, such as “We’ve got to cross the Neck in a boat, so Umberlee, please don’t sink us, and Talos, send no storms . . .”
It is not acceptable to treat any gods disrespect¬fully. Their worshipers and clergy can be resisted, yes, and sometimes, for followers of good-aligned deities opposed to human sacrifice, their altars can be shattered, too. However, the gods them¬selves are known to be very real, so while you are thwarting their mortal servants, it’s always best to not personally defame the god. Mocking their holy sayings is about as far as most folk dare go. For example, a man slaying a Stormsender (priest of Talos) in battle might snarl, “Send a storm— now reap a storm!”
Only clergy, paladins, and fanatics specialize in the worship of certain deities. Everyone else in the Realms is constantly poised between the gods, making offerings, participating in rituals, and seeking guidance as they see fit from among all of the gods, as the situations and necessities of their personal lives suggest is most appropriate.