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.

 

[Helldritch]

If there are six gods controlling the sun, how does that work. How is it both Apollo on a chariot and Ra at the same time?

If it is multiple pantheons fighting over parts of nature, is it a lot more like fealty to mortal lord's fighting over land than devotion to a single undisputed eternal power controlling something?

Warning! This is for fantasy world only.
1) Gods... just that is an answer in and of itself. But more to this? They might cooperate. Not all pantheons are at war. Some are allied. Just like real world politics, gods might "negotiate" with each others.

2) Who really cares? We should not try to apply mortal's logic to that of the gods. They work in ways we can not comprehend. One thing is for sure, when angered, you know it quite fast.

3) In a monopantheon world, then gods might and probably work against each other for control of the souls of mortals? These souls might represent a power source quite powerful. Evil deities might only require fear or those that die under its portfolio goes to it. Whatever the explanation you use, it is more than enough a reason to justify the gods.

Again, real world logic do not apply to a fantasy setting. A cleric can simply ask for a miracle and he can get it! Think of it this way. A 20th level cleric asks his deity to strike down an invading army. And a Meteor swarm just strike the main elite force of the enemy's side. No casting involved. No dispel possible. Just a flashy, destructive and lethal effect that all worshippers can see. That meteor swarms might look like angels going at the enemy forces and exploding in muticolored light (and those colors might be those of the deity if any) that everyone can see.

If a real world priest could do this, I would become a believer for sure. He'll, just raising someone dead for a single year, decomposed and what not would make me a believer. And clerics in D&D do a lot more than that.

 

[Oofta]

There are many ways to represent different gods with overlapping pantheons.

One is that they are simply different representations of the same power. There are many gods of storm and thunder. Maybe Thor and Perun both represent the same being just different representations that people can relate to.

All gods are really just proxies for a higher power. Much like the parable of the blind men describing an elephant, people see aspects that they want or need to see.

Different gods can influence aspects of the real world but don't really control it. Thor doesn't control all thunder storms although he can cause or prevent some.

People who accept other religions with conflicting explanations are just good at handling cognitive dissonance. Perhaps gods are like quantum physics, both real and not. Schrodinger's deities.

Gods are distant and unknowable, so people are just doing their best. People are flawed so their understanding is flawed, thus differences in representation.

There are no conflicting deities in a specific campaign because it's a fantasy world not based on the real world. The names may vary slightly from region to region but to anyone who really understands both realize they're the same.

For my campaign I bypass it by having different religious systems. The region my campaigns primarily follow the Norse pantheon, but there are many gods including many that are not Aesir (Odin, Thor, et al). There is some overlap of pantheons, but the gods influence the mortal world they don't control it.

In other regions there are other belief systems such as ancestor worship. In one region the dwarves revere more elemental aspects of the celestial, believing that Moradin is just a label other dwarves have put on the elements of fire and steel. It's not that Moradin isn't "real", it's just not as accurate as what they believe.

Of course there's also a (so far) immortal wizard NPC who's an atheist and thinks everyone else is deluded and gods are just complex spells held together by people's worship. Which, as far as he is concerned, makes him an atheist.

 

[Oofta]

Warning! This is for fantasy world only.
1) Gods... just that is an answer in and of itself. But more to this? They might cooperate. Not all pantheons are at war. Some are allied. Just like real world politics, gods might "negotiate" with each others.

2) Who really cares? We should not try to apply mortal's logic to that of the gods. They work in ways we can not comprehend. One thing is for sure, when angered, you know it quite fast.

3) In a monopantheon world, then gods might and probably work against each other for control of the souls of mortals? These souls might represent a power source quite powerful. Evil deities might only require fear or those that die under its portfolio goes to it. Whatever the explanation you use, it is more than enough a reason to justify the gods.

Again, real world logic do not apply to a fantasy setting. A cleric can simply ask for a miracle and he can get it! Think of it this way. A 20th level cleric asks his deity to strike down an invading army. And a Meteor swarm just strike the main elite force of the enemy's side. No casting involved. No dispel possible. Just a flashy, destructive and lethal effect that all worshippers can see. That meteor swarms might look like angels going at the enemy forces and exploding in muticolored light (and those colors might be those of the deity if any) that everyone can see.

If a real world priest could do this, I would become a believer for sure. He'll, just raising someone dead for a single year, decomposed and what not would make me a believer. And clerics in D&D do a lot more than that.

There was a miniseries on Netflix we watched a bit ago, Midnight Mass. The plot was that a new priest comes to a small fishing village and miracles start happening. It's revealed that he's the old priest that has been rejuvenated by some kind of vampiric demon and is slowly turning his congregation into vampires. People heal because they are starting to be transformed, it has nothing to do with god. So, yes, if someone started raising people from the dead I would believe there was something I didn't understand going on, not necessarily that it was from a god or God.

 

[Cadence]

2) Who really cares? We should not try to apply mortal's logic to that of the gods. They work in ways we can not comprehend. One thing is for sure, when angered, you know it quite fast.

I'm pretty sure we all know what Zeus was thinking when he turned into a swan, but right, we probably shouldn't talk about it too loudly out here under this lone pine tree...

Again, real world logic do not apply to a fantasy setting. A cleric can simply ask for a miracle and he can get it! Think of it this way. A 20th level cleric asks his deity to strike down an invading army. And a Meteor swarm just strike the main elite force of the enemy's side. No casting involved. No dispel possible. Just a flashy, destructive and lethal effect that all worshippers can see. That meteor swarms might look like angels going at the enemy forces and exploding in muticolored light (and those colors might be those of the deity if any) that everyone can see.

If a real world priest could do this, I would become a believer for sure. He'll, just raising someone dead for a single year, decomposed and what not would make me a believer. And clerics in D&D do a lot more than that.

Is this harder in a full MM D&D world where there are a bunch of extra-planar beings that sometimes have the title god and sometimes don't? I have certainly made campaigns where I doubt many people in the world had any questions about them being real -- but they didn't have great wheel cosmology and no one on the world ever went extraplanar.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I'm pretty sure we all know what Zeus was thinking when he turned into a Swan, but right, we probably shouldn't talk about it too loudly out here under this lone pine tree...

Is this harder in a full MM D&D world where there are a bunch of extra-planar beings that sometimes have the title god and sometimes don't? I have certainly made campaigns where I doubt many people in the world had any questions -- but they didn't have great wheel cosmology and no one on the world ever went extraplanar.

Even in a DnD setting, the question of when something stops being a "powerful outsider" and starts being a god is a bit fuzzy, at least to anyone who isn't already a god. The lore for Orcus implies a distinction beyond Hit Dice, but never spells out exactly what the difference is.

I can imagine in-universe debates about this being pretty common in seminaries across the world.

 

[Helldritch]

There was a miniseries on Netflix we watched a bit ago, Midnight Mass. The plot was that a new priest comes to a small fishing village and miracles start happening. It's revealed that he's the old priest that has been rejuvenated by some kind of vampiric demon and is slowly turning his congregation into vampires. People heal because they are starting to be transformed, it has nothing to do with god. So, yes, if someone started raising people from the dead I would believe there was something I didn't understand going on, not necessarily that it was from a god or God.

Question: A person close to you die. You see that person die in an accident. (Do not add gory detail but you see the point).
Then during the funeral, a week or so later, comes a woman claiming to speak for the Aliuvatar, Goddess of Light and Truth. She goes to the coffin, and in front of your eyes, the body rebuilds, your relative rises up and asks what happened and why is he/she here? And not only does that woman does it to your relative, but proceed to do the same with everyone that "unjustly" died in the cemetery. Would you believe?

This is the kind of power that a cleric has in D&D. Imagine the gods then.
Would it be so hard to believe that fanatics would rise to fight for that cleric and her god? When death is no longer feared...

 

[Oofta]

Question: A person close to you die. You see that person die in an accident. (Do not add gory detail but you see the point).
Then during the funeral, a week or so later, comes a woman claiming to speak for the Aliuvatar, Goddess of Light and Truth. She goes to the coffin, and in front of your eyes, the body rebuilds, your relative rises up and asks what happened and why is he/she here? And not only does that woman does it to your relative, but proceed to do the same with everyone that "unjustly" died in the cemetery. Would you believe?

This is the kind of power that a cleric has in D&D. Imagine the gods then.
Would it be so hard to believe that fanatics would rise to fight for that cleric and her god? When death is no longer feared...

I would believe that something happened that I thought was impossible. Was it a miracle? Technology so advance that it appears to be magic? Some kind of hoax? Am I just dreaming or having some kind of hallucination?

I've seen things that I cannot explain, including a UFO. I don't believe that the UFO was a visitor from another planet because space is incredibly vast and there's probably no way to travel faster than the speed of light. Heck it's highly unlikely we'll ever be able to travel at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Could it have been aliens? It's possible, just highly improbable.

As far as my own beliefs in spiritual matters, that's not something I'm going to discuss here.

 

[Helldritch]

I'm pretty sure we all know what Zeus was thinking when he turned into a swan, but right, we probably shouldn't talk about it too loudly out here under this lone pine tree...

Is this harder in a full MM D&D world where there are a bunch of extra-planar beings that sometimes have the title god and sometimes don't? I have certainly made campaigns where I doubt many people in the world had any questions about them being real -- but they didn't have great wheel cosmology and no one on the world ever went extraplanar.

Yeah... the swan thing... but we need the demi-gods don't we? And they must come from somewhere...

As for the second part.
You do not need to travel the planes to meet the gods. In 1ed the clerics meets their god everyday they pray for 5th level spells and up. There is no:" I do not know what my god want" at high level. It is more: "I know exactly what my god expects from me". And the clerics have the mean to back up their claim. The "miracle" aspect of the cleric class can come in handy. No casting, no dispelling.

 

[Helldritch]

I would believe that something happened that I thought was impossible. Was it a miracle? Technology so advance that it appears to be magic? Some kind of hoax? Am I just dreaming or having some kind of hallucination?

I've seen things that I cannot explain, including a UFO. I don't believe that the UFO was a visitor from another planet because space is incredibly vast and there's probably no way to travel faster than the speed of light. Heck it's highly unlikely we'll ever be able to travel at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Could it have been aliens? It's possible, just highly improbable.

As far as my own beliefs in spiritual matters, that's not something I'm going to discuss here.

Personal spritual belief questions off. 5 on 5 on that good sir.

Now. Faster than light.
The Caern in Beligium might have done it with a particle. It is not a space ship, granted and we're far from that. But so far, calculations seems to back up their claims.
It seems that the God's particle, the graviton has been observed but not registered. We might finally get some results sooner than later as more and more scientific teams are now actively searching for that particle.
As for the warp bubble

Did scientists discover a warp bubble? Crunched up space-time, explained

This summer, scientists discovered how to create a warp bubble in a lab, but that doesn't mean warp drive is around the corner.

www.inverse.com

A theory so far but combined this with a possible discovery of the graviton and its reverse and... Engage!

 

[Oofta]

When it comes to clerics does anyone require that healing is only for followers of the same deity or pantheon? If, say the cleric is a dwarf and the person needing healing is an elf, they probably worship different gods. Does it matter that the elf doesn't revere Moradin? Isn't it enough that the dwarven cleric decides that the elf needs healing?