In a fantasy world filled with magic and miraculous beings, will the religious concepts of the locals be completely different from the human of Earth?

[Sepulchrave II]

Let's assume the following scinario:

In a fantasy world like Faerun, two gods engage in war and command their mortal worshipper to fight each other.

In the end, this war ended with the death of one god and the victory of another, and the worshippers of the loser either converted to other gods or accepted reality, pledged allegiance to the conqueror who killed their god and accepted him as their new god. Only a very handful of most fanatical worshippers would continue to fight, and usually their fate would be very tragic.

So, what is the essential difference between the war between these two gods and the war between two mundane kings on Earth?

It really depends on your divine ontology.

Maybe if the war god is killed, people can no longer commit acts of violence. Maybe if the Sun god is killed, the world is plunged into darkness. Maybe if the storm god is killed, it stops raining etc.

Maybe another deity will step into the deceased god’s place. Maybe the triumphant deity will absorb the portfolio of the dead god. Maybe some other metaphysical remedy is necessary.

Maybe the god can only be killed on its home plane. Maybe the God was killed on its own plane.

D&D in its various iterations has tried to address some of these ideas. The mythic logic of the campaign setting may offer other ideas. But without knowing what that mythic logic actually is, then there really isn’t a single answer.

If the mythic logic is “Gods are just like very high-level characters,” then treating them as such would be consistent.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

A god is transcendent, immanent and a cosmic sovereign. A god is the The Ultimate Concern is that which demands complete surrender of the person who faithfully accepts the Ultimate.

Alterately, his name is Jim and he lives in Mumbai.

There are a lot of interpretations of what a true god is.

You dismissed nymphs as gods, but ancient gods wouldn't fit this definition either (importing Cybele or Sol Invictus alongside the traditional pantheon isn't a sign of complete surrender and acceptance... neither is negociating with the civic god of the city you're besieging to offer to honor them in exchange for their neutrality in the upcoming fight -- a civic god that isn't transcendant nor cosmic, he's just running the city). Actually, your definition sounds specifically abrahamic.

If your stuck in the game rules:
*Always save: Gods don't fail a save on a roll of "1"
*Portfolio:Every deity has at least limited knowledge and control over some aspect of mortal existence. Deities automatically sense any event that involves their portfolios.
*Multiplicity: A deity can create Avatars, Manifestations and Aspects of itself.

Sounds like Epic Simulacrum, Epic Foresight and Epic Legend Lore. Or, if you're playing 3.5, the first is the default rule for anyone for the first item. If Karsus Avatar is a spell that one can use to seize the portfolio from a god, I wouldn't say this constitute a big divide between a powerful wizard and a god. Sure, you can no longer cast Karsus Avatar on Toril after -339 DR, but that's why there is a time-travelling device in Icewind Dale, isn't it?

 

[Baron Opal II]

this question is: in a fantasy world (such as Toril) filled with magic and miraculous beings, will the religious concepts of the locals be completely different from those of the human of Earth(which a magicless world)?

No, not in the Ancient or Classical time frames as divine action, or interference, was widely believed along with subsequent actions.

Faith would not be "I believe that god(s) exist and act in my life" but rather "I believe that if I act in this specific manner I follow the precepts of [god] and will gain their favor". Many magical or religious writings and artifacts exist where efficacy was demonstrated and failure attributed to improper execution, incurring the displeasure of the empowering entity, or interference by sinister forces or other sorcerers.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Indeed. If we, human from Earth, developped divine concepts oriented around rituals, despite them not producing any actual result, it is only logical to imagine that the same could hold true in a world where the outcome is repeatable and demonstrably true (if you sacrifice a 10,000 gp diamond in the proper way (ie, casting the Resurrection spell) and you're pure enough (ie, you're 13th level cleric or succeed your roll when reading it from a scroll), then the dead will be resurrected by the power of the god).

The fact that it is demonstrably true might just lower the number of people disbelieving that gods are responsible for the natural order of things, but atheism was extremely niche (and a topic that mattered to a handful of philosophers) so it would simply be indistinguishable from our ancient world.

You might have less people mocking the rituals, though (unlike Cicero's famous Vetus autem illud Catonis admodum scitum est, qui mirari se aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex, haruspicem cum vidisset. -- he didn't (openly) disbelieve the gods, he disbelieved the ritual of divination as operational).

 

[Shades of Eternity]

The main thing I usually get from most fantasy worlds is that the gods are just as petty as any mortal, and the fewer of them, the better.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are nihilist cults explicitly designed to remove gods and usurp their powers.

Afterall, if they have stats, you can kill them. <evil grin>.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The main thing I usually get from most fantasy worlds is that the gods are just as petty as any mortal, and the fewer of them, the better.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are nihilist cults explicitly designed to remove gods and usurp their powers.

Afterall, if they have stats, you can kill them. <evil grin>.

That's a very interesting take on atheism, but such cults would be misguided if the portfolio isn't indissociably linked to a god. If you remove the God of the Sun, POOOF, another being is promoted Sun God. Or worse, if removing a god prevents natural order from functionning. I am now tempted to have a campaign where the problem starts with the assassination of the Water God, and the world starting to convert into an uninhabitable desert, and where water refuses to flow downward because the local water droplet god is no longer coaxed into submission by the Water God.

 

[Voadam]

That's a very interesting take on atheism

That's not atheism, the disbelief of gods, its kind of a version of maltheism/misotheism, the belief that gods exist but are bad.

 

[Tonguez]

Tuck was as violent as the rest of the Merry Men in the legends. More so in more modern retellings. Blessing the men to go and do political violence in the lip service of giving to the poor.

If there was a real friar Tuck, the good friar, by taking up with declared outlaws like Sir Robin of Locksley (the most likely historical namesake), broke his vows, abandoned his community of Clergy, was violating the Benedictine and/or Franciscan Rule (Dominicans follow the Benedictine, just for reference, so the Black, White and Brown friars of legendary use are all covered.) - no friar is to be alone away from the house; always a fellow friar with him. Also, that he gives blessings implies ordination to the deaconate... if not priesthood.
The only possibility for an exception would be if he were master of a chapter of the third order of St Francis, and a number of the Merry Men were Third Order Franciscans. (The Third order are clergy living a simplified version of the rule of St. Francis. Third Order Benedictines and Dominicans live two different flavors of relaxed Benedictine rule.)

The Real Friar Tuck: a Royal Writ was issued 9th February 1417 for the arrest of "one assuming the name of Frere Tuk and other evildoers of his retinue who have committed divers murders, robberies, depredations, felonies, insurrections, trespasses, oppressions, extortions, offences and misprisions in the counties of Surrey and Sussex, and bring them before the King and Council".

(it appears that he and others were guilty of hunting the royal deer and pheasants, then threatening the wardens and burning down their lodges)

A later writ of 12th November 1429, was issued for ‘Robert Stafford, late of Lyndefeld in the County of Sussex, Chaplain, alias ‘Frere Tuk’, for not appearing before the King to answer Richard Wakehurst touching pleas of trespass"

Robert Stafford was never caught but after the 'hue and cry' he was declared an Outlaw.

Friar Tuck was added to the Robin Hood story in 1475

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

In a world where fantasy supernatural beings exist as gods and they empower people to create miracles of different power level, I wouldn’t call it religion anymore, since that include faith and belief in beings or powers that can’t be proven to exist - and one doesn’t usually believe in existing objects and beings.

So the relationship between gods and people would transactional and uneven, with a leaning toward divine fascism over the whole moral pantheon spectrum. I may have read too much Pratchett, but fantasy gods are all naughty words to a greater or lesser degree.

 

[Anonym]

I came up with a world setting like this:

1.In this world, for the vast majority of mortals, Gods exists——but unlike Earthlings (strictly speaking, Westerners who believe in Abrahamic monotheism), for them, any powerful being can be considered and worshipped as Gods, whether they are powerful beings come from the outer planes(any kind), powerful undead creatures such as vampires or liches who possess high class level, Fey or Genius Loci， legendary mortal heroes,or just a not very powerful 18th mortal human Wizard.
simply put, you can refer to ancient Japan, where anything can be worshipped as gods, even those that are not powerful.

2.There are countless gods of the same portfolio, such as millions of water gods run on the world, and even powerful mortal spellcasters who specialize in controlling water will be regarded as a water god. they sometimes compete with each other, sometimes form cliques, and can be worshipped both as a whole and as individuals.
mortal people dont care about the specific definition of what the 'god' is. to them,if a powerful individual is very good at controlling water, then he is a water god, no matter what he is specifically.

3.For them, it is a rare event for mortals to kill a god and seize its power (and then become a new god), but it will not cause them great shock, just like how humans on Earth hear that a king of a country has been assassinated or usurped.

4.Missionaries are required to demonstrate real miracles to prove the power of their god, rather than just talking. If they cannot demonstrate miracles stronger than their competitors, no or few one will donate or convert to the new god. and if their competitors don't want to be taken over for market share, they have to show more powerful miracles to prove who is more worthy of worship.
of course, violent force is one of the common ways, but it's better to demonstrate a miracle of being stronger than the opponent when using violent, because the opponent clearly won't just drive a group of peasants to fight for their faith with forks in hand (unlike medieval Earth peasants, they definitely won't).