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General Tabletop Discussion
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How Might D&D Religions Differ From Real Life Religions?
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<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4508985" data-attributes="member: 18280"><p>Agreed, and this was true of 2e as well, where clerics/priests could specifically gain their powers from cosmic forces and/or philosophies.</p><p></p><p>Of course, one of the chief differences between a pre-modern and a modern worldview is that, in the pre-modern worldview, almost everything has some form of animus, can be considered "alive" in a sense, and can be considered to have volition. (In modern times, when one says that a gun "wants to" be shot, we have a sense of a more ancient worldview.) Gods in this sense are not necessarily anything special. The world abounds in spirits that have their own goals and powers. </p><p></p><p>One very common premodern idea was that magic, rather than being a force itself, invoked those spirits to do the magician's bidding....and those spirits could and would skew the request to their own ends. The unpredictability of some earlier edition spells model this, IMHO, quite well.</p><p></p><p>One notes, however, that "prove that your godlaser is divine" might be answered with said godlaser rather than a rational argument, especially if the cleric were far more powerful than the questioner. Abuse of authority is probably no less prevelant in a D&D world than it is in the real one. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p>RC</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 4508985, member: 18280"] Agreed, and this was true of 2e as well, where clerics/priests could specifically gain their powers from cosmic forces and/or philosophies. Of course, one of the chief differences between a pre-modern and a modern worldview is that, in the pre-modern worldview, almost everything has some form of animus, can be considered "alive" in a sense, and can be considered to have volition. (In modern times, when one says that a gun "wants to" be shot, we have a sense of a more ancient worldview.) Gods in this sense are not necessarily anything special. The world abounds in spirits that have their own goals and powers. One very common premodern idea was that magic, rather than being a force itself, invoked those spirits to do the magician's bidding....and those spirits could and would skew the request to their own ends. The unpredictability of some earlier edition spells model this, IMHO, quite well. One notes, however, that "prove that your godlaser is divine" might be answered with said godlaser rather than a rational argument, especially if the cleric were far more powerful than the questioner. Abuse of authority is probably no less prevelant in a D&D world than it is in the real one. ;) RC [/QUOTE]
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