D&D General Godless Settings

ColinChapman

Longtime RPG Freelancer/Designer
I'm curious, which settings, whether official (such as Dark Sun with its elemental clerics) or unofficial, are godless, in a literal sense? Either because divinities never existed, or they died/were killed, or left their creation, or were banished, or what have you. Note, a lack of actual deities does not necessarily mean a lack of faiths or religions.
 
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In Ravenloft moral and immoral actions have a special power and consequence to them. It is the demiplane of Dread so it has its own rules of reality like other planes.

So I don't see it as The Dark Powers granting the spells in the way that their god would but rather that the nature of the place instills power in their belief.

The Dark Powers were left ambiguous enough that the reader can interpret them as literal conscious beings or a force of nature or something else entirely.
I don't think it makes a difference. It'd be a mistake to think of the "Dark Powers" as a distinct deity or god, if they are indistinguishable from the setting, then it is by definition still them providing a cleric with his powers. (if "the nature of the place" instills power and the "dark powers" are really just "the nature of the place", then the sentence becomes ontologically true anyway.
 

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I don't think it makes a difference. It'd be a mistake to think of the "Dark Powers" as a distinct deity or god, if they are indistinguishable from the setting, then it is by definition still them providing a cleric with his powers. (if "the nature of the place" instills power and the "dark powers" are really just "the nature of the place", then the sentence becomes ontologically true anyway.

There is a distinct difference between an entity choosing to provide something to the character and the character manifesting their power themselves through their belief.
 

It was ambiguous; the writeup for Alfred Timothy in the Black Box says it appears that he's getting his spells from the 'wolf god', rather than Ravenloft itself. (Yagno Petrovna, by contrast, was always clearly getting his spells from Ravenloft/the Dark Powers.)
It is vague and somewhat contradictory.

"Priests fit one of two general descriptions: those who worship a pantheon of gods but no god in particular, and those devoted to a specific deity. Druids belong to the second group; they worship a deity of the forest or nature. No matter which group they belong to, priests obtain spells through prayer. A deity answers those prayers and grants the spells. Unfortunately, in Ravenloft the lines of communication between priests and deities are somewhat flawed. The results of any spell may be altered. Check the chapter on magic for specifics."

The only two statted NPC priests in the Realms of Terror Boxed Set are Yagno and Alfred, although others are mentioned like Arijani the high priest of Kali and various unnamed and unstatted priests.

"Yagno is an 11th level priest of Zhakata and a master of the dagger. (Zhakata is not real; Ravenloft grants Petrovna his spells.) His spheres are all, charm, combat, elemental, healing (reversed only), and summoning."

"Timothy's spells undergo the changes noted in Chapter IX. It appears, therefore, that the wolf god grants his spells, not the dark powers of Ravenloft. (If Ravenloft granted his spells, they probably would work without penalty.)"

This last entry seems less than helpful to me, there is nothing in Yagno's entry specifying whether his spells work like all priest spells in Ravenloft or work "without penalty" as an exception to the spell casting in Ravenloft alterations.

The entry on spells seems to indicate that the spell alterations are just how spells work in Ravenloft. I would expect creatures Yagno summons to be bound by the Ravenloft spell changes not letting summoned creatures escape when the duration is over.

"Ravenloft is insulated from outside forces, particularly the forces of good. Some spells have new effects as a result, especially those involving divination, summoning, and necromancy. This chapter describes changes to familiar spells in Ravenloft. At the end of the chapter, you'll find several new spells, too."

"Spells from the sphere of summoning may be unusually limited. Ravenloft is severed from normal realms, and a given domain may not offer a full complement of animals and monsters. Priests cannot summon an animal that doesn't live in the domain they're visiting. Check the chapter explaining mapped areas. If the domain's description does not state otherwise, you can assume that all normal animals are available."

"The priest spells listed below work differently in Ravenloft."

This ambiguity continues forward in the line.

Later on in Darklords Ankhtepot is a former priest of Ra who after being cursed for turning his back on the gods still has those spellcasting powers but it is not specified where he gets them from now.
 

Elena Faith-Hold still gets her powers as well, even though she's completely fallen from Belenus' grace. I don't think there's a single example of someone in the Demiplane actually losing their divine powers, regardless of their relationship with their god, or whether or not their god is "real" or not.
 




It is specified that it is not from Ra, though.
Does it? I did not see that reference in re-reading his Darklords entry.

"In life, Anhktepot was a 13th-level priest of the sun god Ra. He still retains these abilities. His power to turn undead has been warped and perverted—he now controls undead. As a mummy, he has no fear of the sun and no special attraction to the dark. He has lost the power to shapechange into a hawk, since no living form would accept him. He gains all the normal spell bonuses and immunities due him because of his 23 Wisdom (see Table 5 in the Player's Handbook)."
 

Does it? I did not see that reference in re-reading his Darklords entry.

"In life, Anhktepot was a 13th-level priest of the sun god Ra. He still retains these abilities. His power to turn undead has been warped and perverted—he now controls undead. As a mummy, he has no fear of the sun and no special attraction to the dark. He has lost the power to shapechange into a hawk, since no living form would accept him. He gains all the normal spell bonuses and immunities due him because of his 23 Wisdom (see Table 5 in the Player's Handbook)."

My mistake; it's in his Red Box writeup (Domains and Denizens, pp. 46-47), which rewrites the Darklords entry somewhat: "In life Anhktepot was a 13th-level priest of the sun god Ra, and he still wields the power of that position (although it isn't Ra who grants his spells ...)."
 

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