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Are "evil gods" necessary? [THREAD NECRO]
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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 9123979" data-attributes="member: 6779196"><p>I’m not sure I have much to contribute about evil gods that hasn’t already been said. I think they’re fine in a Saturday Morning Cartoon world where the conceit of pure black-and-white morality is a thing, but in a more nuanced world they don’t really make a lot of sense. Realistically, an “evil god” is just a god worshipped by your enemies, who in turn probably see your god(s) as evil as well. But we all know what Gary said about realism in D&D.</p><p></p><p>What I might be able to add that hasn’t already been said (unless it has, I haven’t read the whole 15 pages <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="😅" title="Grinning face with sweat :sweat_smile:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f605.png" data-shortname=":sweat_smile:" />) is that the “God of Things” phenomenon is also pretty ahistorical. I can see the appeal of defining gods by their “portfolios” rather than their alignments, but that’s kind of an oversimplification of how polytheistic religions actually work. Maybe there was one god you would offer sacrifice to for a good harvest and another you would offer sacrifice to for a safe journey at sea. But they weren’t The God of the Harvest and The God of The Sea <em>per se</em>. The gods were more like people. Complex beings with many-faceted personalities, interests, and drives, who happened to hold tremendous power. There was also frequently significant overlap in the domains over which various gods held sway.</p><p></p><p>My preference for fictional gods is to first of all make them far more distant than is typical in D&D, <em>a la</em> Eberron. Then I focus less on “what is this god’s alignment and what’s in their portfolio?” and more on “who worships this god and why?” I also generally prefer for peoples to follow <em>religions</em> rather than <em>individual gods</em>. Only Clerics really do the whole thing of devoting themselves to one god within their pantheon, and that’s kind of more like specializing in a certain field or discipline. A Cleric of Pelor is someone who specializes in the cult of Pelor (that’s “cult” in the classic sense, referring collectively to the practices and ceremonies of honoring that god, not in the more modern sense of a quasi-religious following built around a charismatic leader).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 9123979, member: 6779196"] I’m not sure I have much to contribute about evil gods that hasn’t already been said. I think they’re fine in a Saturday Morning Cartoon world where the conceit of pure black-and-white morality is a thing, but in a more nuanced world they don’t really make a lot of sense. Realistically, an “evil god” is just a god worshipped by your enemies, who in turn probably see your god(s) as evil as well. But we all know what Gary said about realism in D&D. What I might be able to add that hasn’t already been said (unless it has, I haven’t read the whole 15 pages 😅) is that the “God of Things” phenomenon is also pretty ahistorical. I can see the appeal of defining gods by their “portfolios” rather than their alignments, but that’s kind of an oversimplification of how polytheistic religions actually work. Maybe there was one god you would offer sacrifice to for a good harvest and another you would offer sacrifice to for a safe journey at sea. But they weren’t The God of the Harvest and The God of The Sea [I]per se[/I]. The gods were more like people. Complex beings with many-faceted personalities, interests, and drives, who happened to hold tremendous power. There was also frequently significant overlap in the domains over which various gods held sway. My preference for fictional gods is to first of all make them far more distant than is typical in D&D, [I]a la[/I] Eberron. Then I focus less on “what is this god’s alignment and what’s in their portfolio?” and more on “who worships this god and why?” I also generally prefer for peoples to follow [I]religions[/I] rather than [I]individual gods[/I]. Only Clerics really do the whole thing of devoting themselves to one god within their pantheon, and that’s kind of more like specializing in a certain field or discipline. A Cleric of Pelor is someone who specializes in the cult of Pelor (that’s “cult” in the classic sense, referring collectively to the practices and ceremonies of honoring that god, not in the more modern sense of a quasi-religious following built around a charismatic leader). [/QUOTE]
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