Celebrim
Legend
Look at this way - the Nine Hells draws a lot from Dante's Inferno - but do we think that Gygax (or Ward) ever read it?
Is it possible to get a college education without reading Dante's Inferno?
Look at this way - the Nine Hells draws a lot from Dante's Inferno - but do we think that Gygax (or Ward) ever read it?
I coped perfectly well without it.Is it possible to get a college education without reading Dante's Inferno?
Is it possible to get a college education without reading Dante's Inferno?
To start off the Archon Celestials are clearly inspired by Neoplatonist sources
Gnostism
Any other insights?
I don't think a lot of people realize the Neoplatonist influences on D&D mythology and so I thought I'd point it out and start a thread on it.
To start off the Archon Celestials are clearly inspired by Neoplatonist sources, because in Gnostism Archons are seen as what can best described as Lawful Evil, while in Neoplatonism and Hermetism the Archons are Lawful Good.
Also in most forms of Gnostism and Heremetism there are only Seven Celestial Archons. In Neoplatonism you have the both the Seven Celestial Archons and the Hylic Archons (Archons of Matter), D&D Archons Paragons came in the form of God-like rulers of the seven levels of heaven, and then you have the rest of the Archon race.
Also in earlier editions that faithful eventually merged via Henosis into their God.
Any other insights?
Gary says that was the derivation (which surprised me).Look at this way - the Nine Hells draws a lot from Dante's Inferno - but do we think that Gygax (or Ward) ever read it?
Col_Pladoh said:As a Christian I stayed well away from basing any of the D&D game on scripture.
The Deva, Solarm and Planatar are benign and rather angelic in their purposes.
No Milton, but I did use a bit of Dante's Inferno is developing the denizens of the Nine Hells.
Thanks for the clarification. I've always wondered where the D&D archons came from, as they weren't from the hierarchy I know (Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels) or any other I've heard of. And while I have some knowledge of Neoplatonism, it's as it stands filtered and Christianized through [Psuedo-]Dionysius, Augustine and Aquinas.
Thanks for the clarification. I've always wondered where the D&D archons came from, as they weren't from the hierarchy I know (Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, Angels) or any other I've heard of. And while I have some knowledge of Neoplatonism, it's as it stands filtered and Christianized through [Psuedo-]Dionysius, Augustine and Aquinas.
I imagine they were filtered through - in order - Early Christian polemics, Renaissance magic, Theosophy, the Western Occult Tradition and various pulps from the 20s to the 60s.
It's not as though the game designers were consulting Origen.
Gnosticism is a very fuzzy word.
Nobody can agree about what was happening with religion in the first couple of centuries CE.