1446

## **Apostles to Apostates: *Changing the Divine Frequencies***

### **1446****DR: Light Be With You...**

Two years after arcane healing, nonsecular suffering was enflamed. Arcane magic, through most of Toril, was subject to instability. Divine magic, however, didn’t show up *at all* (unless a believer was within a mile of the incarnate god). Handy for Stonehearth clerics of Oghma (in Baldur’s Gate), but not so much for anybody else.

Divine and nature-based casters had been powerless for 88 years. It was time for a change…

Perhaps it was Oghma himself that guided subversive insights on the nature of the Great Wheel cosmology. In particular, from the Durham *Academy of Light*, were insights about the Positive Energy plane and the Negative Energy plane, with the associated positive and negative energies.

After the 1385 Spellplague, most of the the positive energy plane collapsed into the plane of Elemental Chaos – *most of it*. If it had stayed there, it would’ve annihilated the inner planes; fortunately for everybody there, there was a hot moment then its phase shifted back to where it was supposed to be. That very shift, though, opened insights on connecting to it.

No matter what divine filter clerics or druids prayed to, the source of healing or decay was ultimately the positive and negative energy planes. This had disenchanted holy folk huddling around Oghma for these theoretical discussions.

Former clerics and druids alike, powerless for three generations, were making realizations: Ultimately, it didn’t matter what personified crybabies were in charge of a given existential portfolio, it all boiled down to what energies were flowing into the world.

### **Where the divine took cues from the arcane…**

The Stonehearth secret of the arcane prowess was to bypass the weave and tap directly into the underlying raw magic. Learning to access raw magic was more complicated and more hazardous, but ultimately far more powerful and flexible. Hidden within clerical skills, though, was an ability to open and channel energies.

Starting with what they already knew, and adding a dash of the arcane insights – along with some flavor from elemental invocation – clerics were able to re-attune to channeling energy into spells directly from the Energy Planes.

Learning spells was similar to how sorcerers worked, not as academic as wizards (on average), but with flexibility that they didn’t have before if they knew how to channel it.

There was also a possibility of being able to use negative energies without necessarily being evil – it was more of a yin/yang balance ratio. There was some research into this (and application), but effectively these repurposed divine casters were tapping the positive plane for 99% of their casts. What didn’t work: *communing with a deity*. What worked spectacularly well: *healing and radiant energy spells*. Given the trolls and undead, this couldn’t have come at a better time.

This led to a sudden growth of the ***Church of the Light***. It had no particular deity, it had an ethic that was reflected in life’s place in the world. It was compatible with any existing deity or portfolio that wasn’t evil. It not only worked for clerics and druids, it led to the rise of casting *priests*. These were essentially ethically-motivated sorcerers: same glass cannon, different activation procedures.

It wasn’t a mad rush into a homogenous Church, either. People were creatures of habit, no matter what specific kind of creature they were. In this case, the “portfolios” were still important. It shaped the way they formed their conduit. It also helped shape their communication with other divine casters.

### **The Secular Holy Pilgrimages...**

Within a year, the return of the divine-like would cause another stir through Toril.

After nine decades of being ignored by deities, apostates and heretics were the rule rather than the exception. This new Church of the Light was able to do good in the world outside traditional divine channels, and that created a huge amount of interest.

That alone caused another surge of refugees and immigrants. It was also a wake-up call to divine entities that if they didn’t clean up their act, it was quite possible they would lose their portfolios once and for all.

For those few who still had divine access, and those who had heard of Stonehearth, this hubris may have even exceeded that of Karsus and the Netherese...