D&D General Neoplatonic Influence on D&D

[gyor]

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.

Well we know that Theosophy was an influence because Planatars and Solars Angels are borrowed from Theosophy, while Devas and Asuras are borrowed from Hinduism.

Of all the major Celestial races in D&D I'm not sure what mythological origin of Guardinals and celestial Eladarin are?

 

[Parmandur]

I wasn't thinking of Christian Saints like Origen, but rather polytheistic Neoplatonic Philosophiers like Iamblichus and Proclus.

Origen was not a saint, but he was a Christian Platonist philosopher, and a more direct influence on Gygax & Co. (Though still fairly remote).

 

[Parmandur]

Of all the major Celestial races in D&D I'm not sure what mythological origin of Guardinals and celestial Eladarin are?

The Eladrin seem like the Eldar in Valinor in the Tolkien Mythos. Guardinals feel like Egyptian figures.

Theosophical aesthetics were big with Sword & Sorcery Pulp writers.

 

[Charlaquin]

I use the concepts of the Platonic Solids, and Hermetic ideas about maths (especially geometry) and astrology in my explanations of dnd magic, but...idk I think DnD is a definite hodgepodge.

We also use Platonic Solids to resolve actions in D&D

 

[Charlaquin]

Cheer!
dnd is the only place where you can explore high philosophical concept while gaming and having fun.

I love D&D, but it is far from the best place you can do this, let alone the only place. In fact, as RPGs go, D&D is pretty light on the philosophical exploration front.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I love D&D, but it is far from the best place you can do this, let alone the only place. In fact, as RPGs go, D&D is pretty light on the philosophical exploration front.

I find it’s better for it than games that try to go into philosophy, exactly because it doesn’t try to make it part of the actual game.

But I also hate actually playing so-called “narrative” games because narrative mechanics are nearly always utter useless garbage IME, that actively detract from ya focusing on narrative. So...I might be an outlier.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gary says that was the derivation (which surprised me).


His claim that D&D isn't based on scripture doesn't seem quite right tho - the cleric spells Sticks to Snakes and Lower/Part Water frex.

It may well be that those stories where so ingrained that he felt he was drawing on his own cultural background, rather than say, looking through the bible to loot for ideas.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Eladrin seem like the Eldar in Valinor in the Tolkien Mythos.

Perhaps with a bit of Midsummer Night's Dream faeries mixed in, especially in later versions?

 

[Tonguez]

It may well be that those stories where so ingrained that he felt he was drawing on his own cultural background, rather than say, looking through the bible to loot for ideas.

Those two are pretty explicitly biblical though - though Gary may have been directly referencing Charlton Heston rather than the source material

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Those two are pretty explicitly biblical though - though Gary may have been directly referencing Charlton Heston rather than the source material

Sure, and so is Water Walking and Create Food and Drink. But if you know something so well you may not think about where the idea originated.

Alternatively, it might not have been Gygax who came up with those spells.