What god would a good dog on the North of the Sword Coast worship?

Question

I have had the heads up that one of my players will be interrogating a resurrected dog about "what God is really in charge". (The players will have to cast speak with animals.)

What God would a good dog, living in the North of the Sword Coast likely worship?

This dog is a mastiff, per the Monster Manual; her alignment is Lawful Good, but all her other stats are the same. I chose LG; G as she is a "good girl", and L because she is obedient to her master.

("Worship" may be too strong a word, but let's assume this dog has a similar experience to a human after dying/resurrection, even if they don't understand it.)

Answer 1

If it can understand morality enough to have an alignment, it can worship whatever deity it chooses to

This is a bit of a strange situation; in comments, you mention how its stats are as per the Monster Manual, so an Intelligence score of 3, but it is also Lawful Good.

RAW, generally beasts with an Intelligence of 3 or less are unaligned, which makes sense because they wouldn't be smart enough to understand morality. It also makes sense to me that they wouldn't be able to comprehend gods either, so dogs wouldn't worship anything.

It sounds like you have misunderstood alignment here, which are to do with morals and principles, I'm not sure that "pack animal instincts" can be thought of as "Lawful Good". The dog isn't moral because people call it a "good dog", and obeying their "master" isn't lawful as that's just their pack mentality, not a choice the dog is making based on its "principles".

However, if, despite that, you decide that this dog is somehow Lawful Good, this implies that, despite its low intelligence, it can grasp the concept of morality, so if you rule that it also understands gods, then at the very least, this dog may worship whatever god you feel makes sense for that character.

Answer 2

Depends on who collects the "soul". Try Gwaeron Windstrom for flavor.

First of all, I believe the following answer already covers your question: Where does an unaligned creature's soul go after death? [Do no focus on the title of the question.] Quoting the relevant parts:

In short, where the souls go, whether they were believers or not, is not an issue of alignment in the Forgotten Realms, it is about which deity collects them.

If you decide that the dead animal had a soul, it is likely be collected by the agents of Silvanus if it was a wild animal, or by the agents of Mielikki if it had been a companion of a ranger or other follower of Mielikki, or by the agents of Chauntea if it was domesticated. A particularly vicious animal's soul might also end up in Malar's domain, some deadly spiders might even go to Lolth's domain, as the DM sees fit.

I could add Gwaeron Windstrom to that list; particularly since he is worshipped by the rangers of the North and because his status as the Master Tracker would fit embracing dogs, animals who contribute to hunting and tracking.

---

Extra Lore: Beast Cults in the FR

Since this is a question tagged "lore" and "forgotten-realms", I will note down some pieces of ancient lore for the sake of completeness.

The very first published appearance of the Forgotten Realms deities is in Dragon magazine issue 54 from October 1981. In an article titled Down-to-earth divinity: One DM’s design for a mixed & matched mythos, Ed Greenwood introduces what would become the FR pantheon. On page 9, there is a table for "Cults of the Beast" which include a number of demi and lesser gods, only few of which would appear in future FR products (Aslan in the form of Nobanion, Lolth and Lurue). This table lists Roofdrak, Master of all Dogs.

Roofdrak itself is from the first and second printings of AD&D 1e sourcebook Deities & Demigods. It is a demigod from Melnibonean Mythos, created by fantasy author Michael Moorcock. Within Melnibonean Mythos, DD states (page 86):

It seems that every species is aware of the need for some sort of deity; therefore in the cases of dogs (for example), all dogs worship their own image, which in turn becomes Roofdrak, "Master of all Dogs".

Despite an agreement with the company Chaosium that would allow TSR to keep on publishing without copyright issues, Melnibonean Mythos would be dropped from further products. So we do not see any further mention of many of the members of the "Cults of the Beast" by name in the FR sourcebooks.

Yet, the flavor is still there. In the AD&D 1e FR campaign setting, we read about Beast Cults:

Similar to and more varied than the sects of the Elemental Lords, the Beast Cults are wild faiths, attracting the worship of savages, nomads, evil humanoids, and those removed from the normal circles of the world.

And later in the 2e sourcebook Forgotten Realms Adventures (page 36):

The beast cults believe in the existence of perfect forms of animals. A dog cult, for example, believes there is a perfect dog, who is leader of all other dogs.

A prominent feature of FR is that it is very much your setting. Feel free to concoct a story from all these pieces of lore as you fit.

Answer 3

Whatever god its owner worships, most likely.

Obviously, it's not going to worship any god that it hasn't been exposed to the worship of. As a result, the most likely god for it to worship is the same god as its humanoid owner, since it would have the best chance of being exposed to its owner's religious practices. Additionally, since you describe it as being Intelligence 3 and extremely loyal, it'd be likely to worship the same deity as its owner out of a sense of loyalty to said owner, since it is unlikely to fully understand complicated theology.

Answer 4

A dog with the normal intelligence of a dog is likely -- in fact, almost certain, if the owner is a kind and reasonable person -- to worship its owner rather than any actual deity.

I'm not a dog person, but my partner has five dogs, ranging from an 8 year old Rotweiler to a newly acquired Jack Russell terrier puppy (a couple months old?). Every one of those dogs worships my partner. A couple of them worship me more or less equally; the others consider me an "aligned deity" who will pet and feed, but they know I'm not their owner.

Any dog that doesn't worship its owner isn't Lawful, IMO, and likely isn't a "good dog" either.

Answer 5

Good Mastiff Deity - Two Choices

While technically the answers above are correct and assuming the dog can make moral choices, I believe you were looking for something more specific. There are two gods from the Pathfinder Golarion setting that would suit quite well.

The deity that most directly correlates with the data provided: Good dog, sacred animal dog (mastiff) is Ragathiel. Lawful Good, sacred animal - Mastiff.

Another choice Cayden Cailean, is Chaotic Good and has a pet Mastiff named Thunder and Caydenites also value red hound rings, magical rings that can summon a red mastiff and transform its wearer into one.