Religion in Forgotten Realms - praying to other race's god

Question

I play dwarven paladin sworn to Haela Brightaxe (dwarven goddess of war luck). Now, our party is travelling and there are no dwarven settlements, we encounter human ones instead. So, obviously, there are no Haela's temples. Trouble is that my paladin should attend temples, pray and pay homage to the goddess.

So, should he attend some "compatible" deity's temple in absence of Haela's one or would it be blasphemy? In general, do peoples of Forgotten Realms treat foreign gods like Romans - as versions of their gods? Or perhaps each people's regards it's pantheon in opposition to others, perhaps only grudgingly acknowledging their presence but not equality?

Of course, I expect there are peoples and peoples so dwarven stance could be very different to elven one and there could even be cosmopolitic, inclusionist dwarves and backward, insular ones. But are there any guidelines? Or particular nations/tribes with their viewpoints known?

Answer 1

In all my reading of Realms material over the years, I've never seen the “Roman” approach to other pantheons practiced or even referenced. Other pantheons are generally acknowledged as real, just foreign—a natural effect of living in a world where the individual gods regularly and undeniably manifest in person.

Instead, what you tend to see mentioned while reading Realms campaign materials are small shrines to individual gods or to pantheons as a whole. Where there are even a few worshippers of a god or pantheon, there will be a shrine somewhere where they can pay their devotions and tithe for its upkeep. Not all gods are represented publicly everywhere, since a public shrine to a hostile god would not last long facing the wrath of a local mob (and adventurers!); but such things tend to be either personal and private, or pop up in “underground” or black-market areas where they're overlooked—or better appreciated.

So if you're in human lands, you'll have to seek out some dwarven expatriates and find out where they worship their traditional gods. Failing that, you're on your own—you'll have to pray in this “wilderness” as best you can with your own devices, possibly constructing temporary, poor, personal shrines as you need to. After all, a paladin is a travelling sword of their god—it may be necessary to go to places forsaken or inaccessible to your god at times, as your god charges you to, and you can only do your best to honour them in such places.

Answer 2

One answer to this question I have seen implemented is that the gods will begrudgingly accept prayers at "foreign" shrines and altars, since there are simply too many deities to have a dedicated altar for every deity in the Forgotten Realms in every city's temple, or even in a temple to begin with!

So your dwarven paladin would still give prayers to Haela, simply likely alongside the Triadists praying to Torm or Tyr -- everyone involved, gods included, just puts up with it as a side-effect of having deities all over the place.

(Very imperfect RL analogy: it's like being a Methodist and having to attend services at a Presbyterian church while on extended vacation because there are no Methodist churches at your vacation destination.)