Making Religion Matter in Fantasy RPGs

Religion is a powerful force in any culture and difficult to ignore when creating a gaming setting. Here's some things to consider when incorporating religions into your campaign.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Question of Gods​

When we look at religion from a gaming perspective, the most interesting thing about it is that in many settings, the existence of deities is not in question. One of the most common arguments over religion is whether there even is a god of any form. But in many fantasy games especially, deities offer proof of their existence on a daily basis. Their power is channelled through clerics and priests and a fair few have actually been seen manifesting in the material realm. This makes it pretty hard to be an atheist in a D&D game.

While the adherents of any faith believe the existence of their deity is a given fact, having actual proof changes the way that religion is seen by outsiders. In many ancient cultures, people believed in not only their gods, but the gods of other cultures. So to win a war or conquer another culture was proof your gods were more powerful than theirs. While winning a war against another culture can make you pretty confident, winning one against another culture’s gods can make you arrogant. Add to that the fact you had warrior priests manifesting divine power on the battlefield, you are pretty soon going to start thinking that not only is winning inevitable, but that it is also a divine destiny. Again, these are all attitudes plenty of believers have had in ancient days, but in many fantasy worlds they might actually be right.

Magic vs. Prayer​

If a world has magic, it might be argued that this power is just another form of magic. Wizards might scoff at clerics, telling them they are just dabblers who haven’t learned true magic. But this gets trickier if there are things the clerics can do with their magic that the wizards can’t do with theirs. Some wizards might spend their lives trying to duplicate the effects of clerics, and what happens if one of them does?

The reverse is also interesting. Clerics might potentially manifest any form of magical power if it suits their deity. So if the priest of fire can not only heal but throw fireballs around, is it the wizards that need to get themselves some religion to become true practitioners of the art? Maybe the addition of faith is the only way to really gain the true power of magic?

Are the Gods Real?​

While divine power might be unarguably real, the source of it might still be in contention. A priest might be connecting to some more primal force than magicians, or tapping into some force of humanity. What priests think is a connection to the divine might actually just be another form of magic. As such, it could have some unexpected side effects.

Let’s say this divine power draws from the life force of sentient beings. As it does so in a very broad way, this effect is barely noticed in most populations. A tiny amount of life from the population as a whole powers each spell. But once the cleric goes somewhere remote they might find their magic starts draining the life from those nearby. In remote areas, clerics might be feared rather than revered, and the moment they try to prove they are right by manifesting the true power of their deity, they (and the townsfolk) are in for a very nasty surprise.

Can You Not Believe in Them?​

There are ways to still play an atheist character in a fantasy game. However, it does require more thought beyond "well I don’t believe in it." That's a sure way to make your character look foolish, especially after they have just been healed by a cleric.

What will also make things much tougher is having a character that refuses to benefit from the power of religion due to their beliefs. They might insist that if they don’t know what in this healing magic, they don’t want any part of it, especially if the priest can’t really explain it outside the terms of their faith. That this healing works will not be in doubt. So are they being principled or a fool? If the explanation for magical healing isn’t "this is just healing energy" but "it’s the power of my deity, entering your body and changing it for the better" the character might be more reticent about a few more hit points.

When it comes to deities manifesting on the material plane, it’s a little harder to ignore them. But this isn’t always evidence of the divine. A manifesting deity is undoubtedly a powerful being, one able to crush armies and level cities, but does that make them divine? While the power of a deity is not in dispute, the definition of what is actually divine in nature is a lot muddier. This is ironically harder in a fantasy world where lich-kings, dragons and powerful wizards can do all the same things many deities are supposed to do.

What Are Gods?​

So we come back to the question: Whether you are a cleric, adherent or atheist, of what actually is god? What quality of them demands or inspires worship beyond the fact they are powerful? Plenty of philosophers are still trying to figure that one out. While in a fantasy game their existence and power may not be in question, whether they are holy or even worthy of trust and faith might be much harder to divine.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

He thought the gods were magical constructs that were basically complex spells that reflected the society that worshipped them.

The gods were an illusion, a hoax. It was just a delusion people foisted on themselves. Not sure how that doesn't count as atheism.

As you mentionned that the gods were real like a golem or a rain barrel, I underdtood that they existed if only to just be recipient of prayers and maybe granting spells back mechanically anf it wasn't their existence thzt was a hoax but their social role. That would fit (a subset of) deism more than atheism.

While an easier position to hold in many setting, including of course Eberron, it would be an uneasy fit in say Faerun where a simple planeshift can demonstrate the soul-sorting role of the various gods.

 

[MGibster]

What sets a temple apart from a wizard college? Both use magic. Both have books. Both train students.

Indeed. The last time I made my own pantheon and religion for D&D, the people in that world considered all use of magic to spring forth from the divine. Clerics got their powers by being favored servants of the gods, sorcerers by their divine blood, wizards learned to tap into the divine, and warlocks made a deal with the de-, uh, divine powers to receive their abilities. That didn't make the wizard a holy man, only that he tapped into the divine but just did it differently from a cleric.
I also got rid of most religions and kind of took a page from Greek mythology. Everybody pretty much recognizes the same gods though some groups might favor, or have the favor, of one over another. i.e. There's no elf or gnome god. Instead both of them recognize the exact same gods as humans. They don't necessarily worship exactly the same but they recognize the same gods.

 

[Flamestrike]

I question a lot of assumptions in the premise of the thread.

Solipsists and Cartesian Dualists exist at present, that would refute the absolute existence of a God, even if one suddenly appeared and shook their hands, and worked miracles in front of them.

If Neo (in the Matrix) met a 'God'... is that God really a God?

Even assuming someone accepts the existence of 'Gods' as depicted in most iterations of DnD, those 'Gods' are usually not actually Gods. They're just really powerful near immortal outsiders that can affect the material plane (and their own home plane), and whom can be killed, are fallible, answer to someone else, had no involvement in creation, lack omniscience or omnipotence (and many of whom were mortal themselves, such as Bane, Kelemvor, Mystra etc).

The only arguable real 'God' in Faerun for example is Ao (and no-one even knows Ao exists).

In many DnD cosmologies, you could (and would) have a significant number of people who accept the existence of such beings (and acknowledge the power they wield), but deny their divinity, or even actively rebel against their interference in the 'real' world.

 

[Laurefindel]

I also really enjoyed Brett Devereaux's articles on polytheism.

that was a good read

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Um, folks, more of this and we're going to have to close the thread. Real-world religions are not up for discussion.

I think this is kind of an important point. Whatever your take on religion in D&D, there is always the potential to offend the real life beliefs of a player, and therefore it needs to be treated with a great deal of sensitivity.

 

[Bolares]

(I guess that @Bolares and me are now both missionaries of Eberron, trying to convert people to the setting.)

Doing the good work of our Lord and savior Keith Baker.

Btw, @AcererakTriple6 , have you seen his last blogpost? He talks about Eberron and Fizban's. He breifly touches on how he would do First World sutff vs the progenitor myth.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

For my Jewel of the Desert Dungeon World game, which takes heavy inspiration from Arabian Nights stories, and Arabic/North African/Moorish Spain culture in general, I have striven to keep many of these questions very open.

There are two major faiths of this region, though other faiths may also exist: the Safiqi Priesthood, who revere the One, a monotheistic creator of all things whose infinity means mortals can only come to understand facets of Them rather than Their nature in its entirety; and the Kahina, the druids and shamans who revere the old ways and tend to the spirits, great and small, of plants, animals, the dead, places, and even long-standing ideas. (Safiqi moderates consider Kahina magic interesting but ultimately not very enlightening; Kahina moderates are willing to accept that the One is powerful enough as a spirit for independent worship or the like, while hardliners--who do not get along well with any Safiqi at all--insist that 'the One' is merely the most powerful of city-spirits.)

Devils, demons, and other outsiders exist, but they have no real way of proving any claims about the nature of existence. Magic is not capable of viewing the beginning of time, and you'd be trusting individuals who have every reason to tell the story in a way that favors them--or who may simply not know the full truth (like how the Demiurge, in Gnostic theology, genuinely believes himself the uncreated creator, because his creator was ashamed of creating him and thus hid him away from the Pleroma.) So, since the only mortal-like beings old enough to know better have every reason to tell biased stories, and you can never be totally sure that an outsider isn't telling a biased account...it's a matter of faith. What do you believe is true? I will never truly answer any of these questions (though there are answers, technically speaking.)

As a result, even though most of the group is agnostic IRL (I am by far the most religious participant in this game), several of the characters are legit actually religious--some simply believing, others wishing to be the change they seek in the world. Multiple religious groups (actual scary cults, different branches within a singular faith, some heresies, etc.) all play a role in the game, and religious institutions have been shown as both potentially very good and incredibly horrible depending on what they do in the name of faith. Now that I think about it, I should probably add some more enemies from regular Safiqi and Kahina. That is, not evil heretical ones, just actual Safiqi or Kahina who are antagonists. Would add some extra depth...and, now that I think about it, offers some excellent opportunities for distractions and mysteries.

 

[Aldarc]

I would also recommend to everyone this four-part series of articles on Polytheism in the Ancient World: Practical Polytheism. It criticizes D&D Religion and looks in a generalized overview at how polytheism, particularly around Mediterranean cultures, operated as well as how its practitioners thought about gods, theology, and cultic institutions in their societies.

And Eberron has all of those. It has polytheism (3 major variants of it), monotheism, atheism, dualism, animism (and spiritualism/shamanism), ancestor worship (two variants of it), philosophical religions (Blood of Vol, the Path of Light), cults (way too many to list), and so on.

(I guess that @Bolares and me are now both missionaries of Eberron, trying to convert people to the setting.)

One of the reasons why, IMHO, that Eberron religion works so well (at least in comparison with religion in other D&D settings) is that the religions stem from realities and worldviews of the setting. Elven religion (and the Blood of Vol) extends from the idea that "death sucks" and should be avoided somehow. The Silver Flame extends from the sacrifice of the coatals, a person bound to a supernatural flame, and a commitment to goodness against the fiends. The Path of Light extends from the idea of an apocalyptic cycle of the plane of dreams. And so on... Eberronian religion amounts to more than Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors of Gods to pick and choose.

 

[Krachek]

Since I first saw it, I have ported the concept from Primeval Thule into all my D&D games. In PT, the gods are distant and pretty much unknowable. The faiths in the settings are cabalistic. IOW, they function essentially as wizards - a cleric teaches new clerics how to perform spells, along with inducting that new cleric into the faith, but, nothing actually forces that cleric to obey any of that faith's teachings. At least, nothing from the gods anyway. Other clerics of the faith might have something to say.

So, you could worship a LG god, and be a completely evil puppy eating monster, openly mocking that LG god and you'd still have spells and whatnot from your class.

I find it a very liberating concept for D&D. One, it allows for a lot more internal intrigue within given faiths - schisms and suchlike are a lot more plausible when one side can't suddenly stop casting spells because they abandoned their faith. It also makes following a faith a very personal choice - clerics, paladins and whatnot aren't beholden to their deity for their class abilities. And, of course, it goes beyond that as well - things like angels and various other servants of a deity aren't beholden to that deity either. Which adds an interesting wrinkle.

I'm probably not explaining this very well. It makes a lot more sense in my head and I really hope I'm not offending anyone here. I'm certainly not trying to say that this is a better way to handle deities and faith. Just the way that I like to do it.

But I do 100% agree with the notion that clerics and whatnot, particularly in D&D, really need a lot more "religion" than they have. But, I also 100% understand why they don't.

I like to think divine magic as a neutral art or skill that feed on faith, dedication, focus of many people on the same goal, emotions negative or positive. thus a cleric is someone who master this art at some level. It need a god or some ideal to work but the god is not the main source of the magic. A wizard master subtile mechanic, a cleric master subtile relation.

 

[Oofta]

As you mentionned that the gods were real like a golem or a rain barrel, I underdtood that they existed if only to just be recipient of prayers and maybe granting spells back mechanically anf it wasn't their existence thzt was a hoax but their social role. That would fit (a subset of) deism more than atheism.

While an easier position to hold in many setting, including of course Eberron, it would be an uneasy fit in say Faerun where a simple planeshift can demonstrate the soul-sorting role of the various gods.

Deism:

the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe.​

My PC didn't believe gods existed before they had worshippers so therefore they could not have created anything. Obviously clerics get spells, people see things they assume are celestial creatures. Deism doesn't apply.

Atheist:

a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.​

​

My PC denied that gods were sentient independent beings that could have or would continue to exist without worshippers. There were no supreme beings, just advanced programmed constructs and illusions. For that matter, he believed that when people died they were just dead. At the point of death there could be magical residue (life is powerful magic after all) that could create ghosts. Bodies could be given life that had the memories of the person. If someone was raised from the dead, the actual person died and the new person was effectively a clone that

As far as I'm concerned they were an atheist, unless of course you say that any atheist who acknowledges that the natural world exists is really a deist. Feel free to split the celestial hair, I'm done.