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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8568687" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Personally, I find that a very boring approach to divinity. If the gods are just superheroes, then just make them superheroes and skip the spiritualism.In my home game, religion is a personal matter. No one--not even the One Themself--can prove to you their religious claims beyond a shadow of a doubt. Divination magic doesn't work for viewing events that long ago, and everyone old enough to have any kind of first-hand knowledge is definitely biased. The Safiqi Priesthood claims their deity, the One, is the infinite and eternal creator of all things, but it is a matter of faith if people believe this. Even if the One actively engaged with mortals (which the Safiqi claim They do, but only with Their chosen priests, of course), a couatl pointed out to the party Druid that there is no test that a created being could invent which would unequivocally prove that the One is indeed the creator of all things, since They could always just be a very powerful non-corporeal being. That lack of provability is perfectly fine by Them, though, because They don't want (or, rather, Their celestial servants claim they don't want) slaves or automata, They want children who will grow and create and enrich the tapestry of existence.In a more "traditional" D&D pantheon, one where there are several gods of approximately equal authority/weight, I very much prefer the "living concept" perspective. Bahamut is not simply a superhero that can give other people goodies. He is very literally a living manifestation of what Hope and Justice and Mercy and Courage are, as abstract pillars of reality. That does not require that Bahamut be omniscient or omnipotent, nor that killing him would destroy these things. But killing such a...confluence of these things would dramatically weaken them for a time. Eventually, things will equilibrate again. But the interim will suck for a lot of people as injustice and despair run rampant.To reduce gods--implicitly incredibly weighty beings--down to mere superhero tribalism cheapens the D&D experience for me.</blockquote>

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