Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Some days, you feel like the Count in Sesame Street.
Five! Five Greyhawk-adjacent threads! Muahahahahahahahaha!
I was asked very nicely in another thread to post about the mythos of Greyhawk. Which is a fascinating topic that deserves a lot of interest! But in my opinion, the most fascinating thing about Greyhawk isn't just the deities (and the demigods! Ha!), but the nature of divinity itself. Because it has changed in subtle (and not so subtle) was over the course of time as D&D has gone on, and I think it would be helpful to examine the issue of divinity, PCs, and Greyhawk, and why the lines of mortality and immortality were more blurry back then.
Primary source material for those who are interested, organized by date:
Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes (Kuntz & Ward 1976)
C1 Shrine of Tamoachan (Johnson/Leason, '79/'80)
Deities & Demigods (Ward 1980)
World of Greyhawk FOLIO (Gygax 1980)
World of Greyhawk BOX SET (Gygax 1983)
Dragon Magazine (Greyhawk's World Columns & Deities & Demigods of Greyhawk, 64-71, '82-'83)
Following is the organization of this post:
A. General Background on the Literature that Informed the Setting re: Deities
B. General Background on the Historical Development of the Deities of Greyhawk
C. Quasi-deities, and the PC that ascends to deity status
D. Final notes and thoughts on why this matters
A. I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Today, when we look back at the 60s and the 70s, we are quite cognizant of the influence of Tolkien, as his strong influence is seen in many artifacts from the era; everything from the Ralph Bakshi films to Led Zeppelin songs. Moreover, because of the incredibly popular, and more recent, films, most younger people are able to easily pick out reference to Tolkien. Regardless, it quickly becomes clear to most people when looking at early D&D that there are appropriations of Tolkien, and what those appropriations are.
But Gygax was not like the typical person in the 60s and 70s. He was a, for lack of a better phrase, "nerd's nerd." The famous (or infamous) Appendix N is one example of this, as well as Gygax's repeated championing of authors such as Jack Vance (of Vancian casting and Vecna fame), Poul Anderson, Roger Zelazny, REH, Moorcock, and most enthusiastically, Fritz Leiber (who coined the term S&S).
The reason I bring this up is because if you look through the non-Tolkien fantasy works that played such a major influence on the development of D&D, you will see a common theme run through a great deal of it. While a lot of epic or high fantasy (including Tolkien) could often serve as an allegory for real-world religion (and the triumph of good over evil, etc.), the pulp fantasy and S&S that Gygax was reading, to the extent it covered deities, often viewed them in a "Wizard of Oz" sense. Deities were not special. They were not omniscient. They might have extra powers. They might have magic that the protagonist didn't have. But, for the most part, they had the same hopes, fears, and desires we did- just a lot more power.
Perhaps no writer more exemplified this than Roger Zelazny. A great writer, the majority of his oeuvre could be described as, "What if gods were real, but had the same problems we did?" This Immortal; Lord of Light; Eye of Cat; Creatures of Light and Darkness, and even his Amber series all concern themselves with beings that have somehow gained god-like power, and in some cases now act as gods.
But this zeitgeist is also expressed in the works of Leiber in an equally interesting way. The main city in Nehwon (the world of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) is called Lankhmar, and it is a corrupt City notable for the Street of Gods- a place where primacy of a given religion (or cult) is based upon the popularity of the religion. But the gods can be either false gods (monsters or other beings worshipped by a cult) or real gods- and the real gods have a palpable presence, a physical existence on the world of Nehwon itself.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive survey; it is hardly a novel observation that in a fantasy world, high power is indistinguishable from divinity (the fantasy version of Arthur C. Clarke's maxim). But I think it is good to remember that, especially given that these works had a powerful influence on Gygax and early D&D ... as well as Greyhawk.
B. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
The development and use of deities in early D&D was very much ad hoc. It has to be remembered that very early OD&D was an outgrowth of wargaming (exploring the dungeons beneath a castle), and that while rules for exploring and combat began to develop quickly, there wasn't the same emphasis on creating a coherent world, or religions. There was obviously a place for religion, since the very first OD&D book (Men & Magic) had Clerics as a class, and listed crosses and holy water in the equipment. But this wasn't specific; it was just a general nod to the roots of the class (Hammer Horror films and undead) interpreted through generic ideas of medieval Christianity.
As such, very early D&D didn't have pantheons or gods other than what the players themselves wanted (Odin, Crom, whatever). Eventually, Gygax created some gods to populate the world; later on, these deities (Pholtus and St. Cuthbert) would pop up in the published versions of Greyhawk. But the issue of deities didn't really come to a head until the last publication of the OD&D era; Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes. Effectively a precursor to the later Deities & Demigods, it presented eight mythologies (pantheons, heroes) from the real world for use in a game. In addition, some of the deities listed had special rewards for worshipers or those who acted to advance the deity's interests.
This brings us to the publication of Tamoachan (Hidden Shrine, C1) and Deities and Demigods in 1980. C1 is notable because it takes place in Greyhawk, and adopts a mesoamerican mythos for the people of the Amedio Jungle. This adoptation of a real world pantheon into Greyhawk (the "Olman" pantheon) is interesting because of the timing, but it was never later ratified by Gygax; instead, it was an historical curiosity until 20 year later. As such, the Deities and Demigods, which combined real-world pantheons (from Finnish to Norse) with made-up ones (non-humans) and completely fictional ones (Elric, Lovecraft, Lankhmar, Arthurian). Given that the Greyhawk Folio, published the same year, did not have any gods listed, it appeared that Greyhawk used similar "real world" pantheons based on Deities and Demigods and C1 in 1980.
But that changed. Gygax was writing a regular series of articles in Dragon Magazine detailing events in Greyhawk. In August 1982, Greyhawk's World had an article called Redefining the deities of the Flanaess (right after introducing planetars and solars). In it, Gygax hinted at a broad pantheon for Greyhawk, officially sanctioned the non-human deities in Deities and Demigods, and added a deity for the Xvarts (Raxivort). Later, leading up the publication of the Box Set, Gygax published a series of articles in Dragon of Deities and Demigods for the World of Greyhawk. This was later codified (with less text usually) in the Box Set. Leaving us with 60 deities in the Box Set. Sixty! Not including additional non-human deities.
C. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man, you're a Chicken Boo.
This brings us to the meat of this; one of the differentiating features of early D&D and Greyhawk isn't that there are deities. It's not that Greyhawk (starting in Dragon and officially in 1983) began the real move away from the "real world" myths and into completely D&D-specific made up pantheons. It's that Greyhawk could resemble its fantasy antecedents; the difference between mortality and immortality, between the divine and the purely human, was often of degree, not of kind.
The first intimation of this blurred boundary that I am aware of came in an article by Gygax in the pre-Dragon Magazine, The Strategic Review (TSR, get it?):
Alignment does not preclude actions which typify a different alignment, but such actions will necessarily affect the position of the character performing them, and the class or the alignment of the character in question can change due to such actions, unless counter-deeds are performed to balance things. The player-character who continually follows any alignment (save neutrality) to the absolute letter of its definition must eventually move off the chart (Illustration I) and into another plane of existence as indicated.
(TSR Feb. 1976 p. 5) (italics added).
In other words, roughly paraphrased, you could move to another plane of existence ... move into the realm of Godhood ... by being a paragon of alignment. Woah! This idea was furthered by the publication of Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes; while it is common to joke about it in terms of hobomurdering .... "If it has stats, it can be killed," the corollary is also true; "If it has stats, that means it's not that special .... I can be that." Unlike what we've seen so far in 5e, there was already an implicit understanding ... you could both kill deities, and become one yourself. This was made even more clear in Deities and Demigods, in a section titled (for subtlety was not a thing) Divine Ascension. Yes, it was possible to become a god in D&D.
These ideas come into focus when we discuss Greyhawk. Greyhawk is a setting where gods do walk the earth. Some of them are going to be overtly meddling .... Iuz, for example! Gods can be killed. And PCs can become gods themselves.
Dragon Magazine 71 features an article about quasi-deities. Gygax explains that certain personages (Murlynd, Keoghtom, Heward, Daern, Johydee, Nolzur, Quaal and Tuerny) are quasi-deities. In effect, the steeping stone to "demi-god" status when you get removed from play. Powerful adventurers in Greyhawk eventually can ascend to quasi-deity status and then, eventually, to godhood.
So Greyhawk became a place, not just where there was land to carve out your keep or citadel when you reached name level, but a place where the most intrepid and powerful adventurers could both kill deities and become ones themselves. Because the barrier between the divine and the mortal was porous.
D. Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this ... and totally redeem yourself.
So this article is both about early D&D (OD&D, Gygaxian AD&D) as well as Greyhawk. As should be evident in the magnum opus I seem to have embarked on, Greyhawk is, in many ways, inextricably entwined with a great deal of D&D history. This isn't to say that Greyhawk is the only place where the zero to hero to i-will-smite-you-foolish-mortals path existed. Divine Ascension from Deities and Demigods applied to all campaigns. The "I" in BECMI wasn't for the incontinence of elderly adventurers.
But the idea of gods as being fake, as requiring popularity, of being able to be killed, and of adventurers ascending, themselves, to that status; the path from Lieber & Zelazny to Gygax & Greyhawk is there.
Anyway, opening up the subject to discussion.
Five! Five Greyhawk-adjacent threads! Muahahahahahahahaha!
I was asked very nicely in another thread to post about the mythos of Greyhawk. Which is a fascinating topic that deserves a lot of interest! But in my opinion, the most fascinating thing about Greyhawk isn't just the deities (and the demigods! Ha!), but the nature of divinity itself. Because it has changed in subtle (and not so subtle) was over the course of time as D&D has gone on, and I think it would be helpful to examine the issue of divinity, PCs, and Greyhawk, and why the lines of mortality and immortality were more blurry back then.
Primary source material for those who are interested, organized by date:
Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes (Kuntz & Ward 1976)
C1 Shrine of Tamoachan (Johnson/Leason, '79/'80)
Deities & Demigods (Ward 1980)
World of Greyhawk FOLIO (Gygax 1980)
World of Greyhawk BOX SET (Gygax 1983)
Dragon Magazine (Greyhawk's World Columns & Deities & Demigods of Greyhawk, 64-71, '82-'83)
Following is the organization of this post:
A. General Background on the Literature that Informed the Setting re: Deities
B. General Background on the Historical Development of the Deities of Greyhawk
C. Quasi-deities, and the PC that ascends to deity status
D. Final notes and thoughts on why this matters
A. I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
Today, when we look back at the 60s and the 70s, we are quite cognizant of the influence of Tolkien, as his strong influence is seen in many artifacts from the era; everything from the Ralph Bakshi films to Led Zeppelin songs. Moreover, because of the incredibly popular, and more recent, films, most younger people are able to easily pick out reference to Tolkien. Regardless, it quickly becomes clear to most people when looking at early D&D that there are appropriations of Tolkien, and what those appropriations are.
But Gygax was not like the typical person in the 60s and 70s. He was a, for lack of a better phrase, "nerd's nerd." The famous (or infamous) Appendix N is one example of this, as well as Gygax's repeated championing of authors such as Jack Vance (of Vancian casting and Vecna fame), Poul Anderson, Roger Zelazny, REH, Moorcock, and most enthusiastically, Fritz Leiber (who coined the term S&S).
The reason I bring this up is because if you look through the non-Tolkien fantasy works that played such a major influence on the development of D&D, you will see a common theme run through a great deal of it. While a lot of epic or high fantasy (including Tolkien) could often serve as an allegory for real-world religion (and the triumph of good over evil, etc.), the pulp fantasy and S&S that Gygax was reading, to the extent it covered deities, often viewed them in a "Wizard of Oz" sense. Deities were not special. They were not omniscient. They might have extra powers. They might have magic that the protagonist didn't have. But, for the most part, they had the same hopes, fears, and desires we did- just a lot more power.
Perhaps no writer more exemplified this than Roger Zelazny. A great writer, the majority of his oeuvre could be described as, "What if gods were real, but had the same problems we did?" This Immortal; Lord of Light; Eye of Cat; Creatures of Light and Darkness, and even his Amber series all concern themselves with beings that have somehow gained god-like power, and in some cases now act as gods.
But this zeitgeist is also expressed in the works of Leiber in an equally interesting way. The main city in Nehwon (the world of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) is called Lankhmar, and it is a corrupt City notable for the Street of Gods- a place where primacy of a given religion (or cult) is based upon the popularity of the religion. But the gods can be either false gods (monsters or other beings worshipped by a cult) or real gods- and the real gods have a palpable presence, a physical existence on the world of Nehwon itself.
This is not meant to be an exhaustive survey; it is hardly a novel observation that in a fantasy world, high power is indistinguishable from divinity (the fantasy version of Arthur C. Clarke's maxim). But I think it is good to remember that, especially given that these works had a powerful influence on Gygax and early D&D ... as well as Greyhawk.
B. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
The development and use of deities in early D&D was very much ad hoc. It has to be remembered that very early OD&D was an outgrowth of wargaming (exploring the dungeons beneath a castle), and that while rules for exploring and combat began to develop quickly, there wasn't the same emphasis on creating a coherent world, or religions. There was obviously a place for religion, since the very first OD&D book (Men & Magic) had Clerics as a class, and listed crosses and holy water in the equipment. But this wasn't specific; it was just a general nod to the roots of the class (Hammer Horror films and undead) interpreted through generic ideas of medieval Christianity.
As such, very early D&D didn't have pantheons or gods other than what the players themselves wanted (Odin, Crom, whatever). Eventually, Gygax created some gods to populate the world; later on, these deities (Pholtus and St. Cuthbert) would pop up in the published versions of Greyhawk. But the issue of deities didn't really come to a head until the last publication of the OD&D era; Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes. Effectively a precursor to the later Deities & Demigods, it presented eight mythologies (pantheons, heroes) from the real world for use in a game. In addition, some of the deities listed had special rewards for worshipers or those who acted to advance the deity's interests.
This brings us to the publication of Tamoachan (Hidden Shrine, C1) and Deities and Demigods in 1980. C1 is notable because it takes place in Greyhawk, and adopts a mesoamerican mythos for the people of the Amedio Jungle. This adoptation of a real world pantheon into Greyhawk (the "Olman" pantheon) is interesting because of the timing, but it was never later ratified by Gygax; instead, it was an historical curiosity until 20 year later. As such, the Deities and Demigods, which combined real-world pantheons (from Finnish to Norse) with made-up ones (non-humans) and completely fictional ones (Elric, Lovecraft, Lankhmar, Arthurian). Given that the Greyhawk Folio, published the same year, did not have any gods listed, it appeared that Greyhawk used similar "real world" pantheons based on Deities and Demigods and C1 in 1980.
But that changed. Gygax was writing a regular series of articles in Dragon Magazine detailing events in Greyhawk. In August 1982, Greyhawk's World had an article called Redefining the deities of the Flanaess (right after introducing planetars and solars). In it, Gygax hinted at a broad pantheon for Greyhawk, officially sanctioned the non-human deities in Deities and Demigods, and added a deity for the Xvarts (Raxivort). Later, leading up the publication of the Box Set, Gygax published a series of articles in Dragon of Deities and Demigods for the World of Greyhawk. This was later codified (with less text usually) in the Box Set. Leaving us with 60 deities in the Box Set. Sixty! Not including additional non-human deities.
C. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man, you're a Chicken Boo.
This brings us to the meat of this; one of the differentiating features of early D&D and Greyhawk isn't that there are deities. It's not that Greyhawk (starting in Dragon and officially in 1983) began the real move away from the "real world" myths and into completely D&D-specific made up pantheons. It's that Greyhawk could resemble its fantasy antecedents; the difference between mortality and immortality, between the divine and the purely human, was often of degree, not of kind.
The first intimation of this blurred boundary that I am aware of came in an article by Gygax in the pre-Dragon Magazine, The Strategic Review (TSR, get it?):
Alignment does not preclude actions which typify a different alignment, but such actions will necessarily affect the position of the character performing them, and the class or the alignment of the character in question can change due to such actions, unless counter-deeds are performed to balance things. The player-character who continually follows any alignment (save neutrality) to the absolute letter of its definition must eventually move off the chart (Illustration I) and into another plane of existence as indicated.
(TSR Feb. 1976 p. 5) (italics added).
In other words, roughly paraphrased, you could move to another plane of existence ... move into the realm of Godhood ... by being a paragon of alignment. Woah! This idea was furthered by the publication of Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes; while it is common to joke about it in terms of hobomurdering .... "If it has stats, it can be killed," the corollary is also true; "If it has stats, that means it's not that special .... I can be that." Unlike what we've seen so far in 5e, there was already an implicit understanding ... you could both kill deities, and become one yourself. This was made even more clear in Deities and Demigods, in a section titled (for subtlety was not a thing) Divine Ascension. Yes, it was possible to become a god in D&D.
These ideas come into focus when we discuss Greyhawk. Greyhawk is a setting where gods do walk the earth. Some of them are going to be overtly meddling .... Iuz, for example! Gods can be killed. And PCs can become gods themselves.
Dragon Magazine 71 features an article about quasi-deities. Gygax explains that certain personages (Murlynd, Keoghtom, Heward, Daern, Johydee, Nolzur, Quaal and Tuerny) are quasi-deities. In effect, the steeping stone to "demi-god" status when you get removed from play. Powerful adventurers in Greyhawk eventually can ascend to quasi-deity status and then, eventually, to godhood.
So Greyhawk became a place, not just where there was land to carve out your keep or citadel when you reached name level, but a place where the most intrepid and powerful adventurers could both kill deities and become ones themselves. Because the barrier between the divine and the mortal was porous.
D. Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this ... and totally redeem yourself.
So this article is both about early D&D (OD&D, Gygaxian AD&D) as well as Greyhawk. As should be evident in the magnum opus I seem to have embarked on, Greyhawk is, in many ways, inextricably entwined with a great deal of D&D history. This isn't to say that Greyhawk is the only place where the zero to hero to i-will-smite-you-foolish-mortals path existed. Divine Ascension from Deities and Demigods applied to all campaigns. The "I" in BECMI wasn't for the incontinence of elderly adventurers.
But the idea of gods as being fake, as requiring popularity, of being able to be killed, and of adventurers ascending, themselves, to that status; the path from Lieber & Zelazny to Gygax & Greyhawk is there.
Anyway, opening up the subject to discussion.
