Building a Religious Cosmology for your Game...

[Cedric]

I was reading this thread and noticed that several posters were talking about finding a resource to assist in building a cosmology not based on the four tenets of good/evil/chaos/law or the four greek elements or the like.

That got me to thinking, I'd bet we could each share some pointers on how to build your own cosmology. Having just recently built a cosmology for my recently developed home-brew...here are my thoughts.

First, some fundamentals. Why are there Gods in the world? I usually go with two types of Gods:

- Gods that exist because the belief of the people gives them power. The prayers of their followers help to make them what they are.

- Gods that exist because they work hard to elevate themselves to the status of Deity.

The Gods who elevate themselves will have to work their way to the top, starting at Demi-God (once they have any divine influence) and working their way up from there. By the time they begin to reach the level of power of the other gods, they will almost certainly have worshippers of their own.

Now, who are these Gods?

Well, in keeping with my first type of God...imagine just about anything a person could pray for (which, conveniently most of which are covered in the Domain list) and ensure that there is at least ONE god to answer prayers for each of those Domains.

From that basic premise, you can add layers of complexity as you see fit.

A mono-deific world could have a single Neutral deity that is able to answer prayers for each one of those Domains no matter who the worshipper is. However, I think that is a little simplified.

So what did I do? I chose a small selection of Gods. Three "good" Gods, related to cover everything from travel, to war, to nature. They have wide areas of influence, so I gave them multiple Domains.

I then chose a single deity that most evil races could respect, in this case a great Black Dragon God.

In the middle, between the two, is the God of Magic and the Balance which is central to my Cosmos and worshipped by all sides.

Now, I chose a young Cosmos...recently developed. My Gods are halfway between the young, developing Gods and the old established Gods. There is a bit of cross-over in both directions. There are still stories ...relegated now to the realm of bedtime stories and wives tales, about the Gods adventures when they were mortal. It's been long enough that Churches dismiss these as just tales, but some still believe the Gods were mortal.

I also chose a single representative for each of the other races, kind of a central Deity to their belief system...I borrowed the flavor for these Gods from the years of published material available.

As you can see, I chose a pretty simple Cosmology. It's not that my players wouldn't have appreciated a complex Cosmology...but I have to ask myself. Honestly...how much does it add to my game to add those layers of complexity?

As long as the religious "needs" are covered (major Domains represented, etc.), the flavor of the Deities works with the world and the Deities have a reasonable relationship to one another...I think my players will be completely satisfied with the Deities and Cosmology. That leaves me time to spend on other parts of the game world development.

Feel free to add as much depth to your Cosmology as you want...just keep in mind the high points:

- A God for Every Need
- The Gods fit together
- The Gods fit the concepts of their Worshippers

Feel free to add your own thoughts to this. I'm sure there are PLENTY of people here who disagree with me.

Cedric

 

[Tonguez]

I'd go along with these general questions

Do god(s) have a Hierachy
Yes - See below
No - Use Animism
What gods? - Mechanistic

Who Started the Process
- Omnipotent Creator - This is the One God who is preexistent
- First Parent - This Being brought other beings into exsistence in a organic process of Cosmic Birth
- First Cause - Not a Sentient Being but a preexitent "Source" from which all else develops
- Mechanistic - Whether a Big Bang or a Gradual expansion there was no First Cause and everything happens by chance

How did the process happen
- Ex-Nihilo The First Cause/Parent/Creator formed all things from nothing by there own power => leads to Monotheism
- Geneaological Evolution The First Parent gave birth to other beings each of whom matured to become a god in their own right => Gives rise to Polytheism
- Deterministic Evolution => The Creator gave form to other beings who are charged with completing the creation she/he started =>Polytheism/Dualism and Pantheism are all possible
- Mechanistic => Things occur because of Physical (and Chemical) processes

What Values/Insights are important to my Metaplot?
- the Battle between Good and Evil is the classic example but what of others?
eg Law, Order and Justice vs Disorder and Chaos
eg Nature vs Civilisation
eg Self interest vs Altruism

then go from there

 

[Dark Seraph]

I'd go along with these general questions

Do god(s) have a Hierachy
Yes - See below
No - Use Animism
What gods? - Mechanistic

Nice work, T, at breaking down to a degree of whats involved with a concept as complex as this, even within the context of RPG.

As you have rightly suggested, it really depends on what it is that GM is interested in having his religious cosmology premised on, i.e. good vs evil or law vs chaos, or life vs un-life, etc, and how he sees the process of creation and destruction manifest within the cosmology that his campaign universe is based in.

For instance within the Hindu faith creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin and do not have a value judgement attached to either. Creation and destruction are necessary for the cycle to continue turning from one age to the next. In this faith, for instance, value judgements are attached to selflessness and self-centredness and how this clouds or enlightens ones perception of certain truths. Thats another basis, that GMs can employ when creating a religious cosmology thats not typically based on the usual good vs evil or law vs chaos basis.

In my games over the last few years I have tried to employ three main deities that represent light, darkness and the balance between both, and have these entities manifest in different forms and under different guises and names for the various sentient races that thrive in my campaign world and thus having varying domains depending on the race concerned, their specific needs and how their relationship with their deity manifests.

DS.

 

[Yair]

I usually go in from the 'ontological' direction - what is reality? What are the god's relations to it? What are the people's?

For example, my latest creation was Tempest's religion (link in sig), where I went for an "idealistic" ontology - all is thought. This led to the idea that as you go down into the underdark you enter the area of nightmares and insanity. That the upper, surface realm is the place of sanity and reason, without monsters, warmed by the light of reason and the sun. The main good god is both light and reason, and battles the insanity and darkness of the underdark. The planes are connected physically - as you go deep into the underdark you mechanically enter new planes of existence successively until ultimately you reach the equivalent of the the Far Realm.

A prior campaign, set in the FR, focused on a 'dialectic' view of existence. Existence was in truth one, unchanging, perfect - the overgod Ao. Gods presented the dialectic process, starting with the Trinity of Selune, Shar, and Mystara being the seperated (Selune), what remains (Shar), and the infinitely-thin barrier in between them (Mystara). Within each seperation partial concepts were represented by the chief deities (such as Plague as an aspect of Shar, or Music as an aspect of Selune), while lesser deities represented subsegments of them and demigods partial aspects of the lesser deities (such as Obad Hai being Nature, Mielikki being Forests, and the Neverwinter Forest being her mount). Planes were united with concepts and gods, so by traveling within the Astral for example you were literally traveling within Mystara (as magic/seperation connects all possiblities). Toril, the world, was the concept of Balance and hence at the fulcrun of all planes, and alone of all planes/gods its children belonged in another plane upon their death as they inevitably fell from balance.

These kind of concepts can serve as a good place to start for a more meaningful and interesting conception of deities and planes of existence, or so I find. Of course, I don't hold myself bound to this method, I just use it to get somewhere interesting and go from there.

 

[wedgeski]

I usually go in from the 'ontological' direction - what is reality? What are the god's relations to it? What are the people's?

Some very interesting ideas there, Yair.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out the option that I took in my most recent D&D campaign design: no Gods at all! The idea is that contemporary society (with its attendant D&D trappings) grew from the remnants of a Divine apocalypse which destroyed the original creators of the world aeons ago. It's been done before I'm sure, and has huge mechanical ramifications for a d20 D&D campaign, but I was too excited about the idea (and its possibilities) to give up on it. The prospect of 'alien' powers seeking to fill the vacuum and gain the worship of the people is one I will definitely explore, and it will allow me to introduce the wierd and wonderful from various d20 sources pretty much at a whim.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

For Urbis, I have come up with with the following distinction:

First, there are the "Lesser Gods", who have relatively few worshipers, and who sometimes actively meddle in the world.

Then there are the "Greater Gods" who have lots of worshipers but don't meddle actively in the world. They still grant spells but don't intervene directly - and disturbingly, any divinations where the priest can ask the deity have a tendency to confirm the prejudices of the questioner instead of representing some "ultimate truth". Some even speculate that these deities are dead.

You can read more about this cosmology here.

 

[Dark Seraph]

Some very interesting ideas there, Yair.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out the option that I took in my most recent D&D campaign design: no Gods at all! The idea is that contemporary society (with its attendant D&D trappings) grew from the remnants of a Divine apocalypse which destroyed the original creators of the world aeons ago. It's been done before I'm sure, and has huge mechanical ramifications for a d20 D&D campaign, but I was too excited about the idea (and its possibilities) to give up on it. The prospect of 'alien' powers seeking to fill the vacuum and gain the worship of the people is one I will definitely explore, and it will allow me to introduce the wierd and wonderful from various d20 sources pretty much at a whim.

Thats a very interesting approach to this subject. Something I might adopt when I get around to GMing again. Sounds like a fresh approach to the usual and certainly opens several doors to plot and design possibilities.

DS.

 

[Yair]

Thats a very interesting approach to this subject. Something I might adopt when I get around to GMing again. Sounds like a fresh approach to the usual and certainly opens several doors to plot and design possibilities.

DS.

Yes. I think I'll adopt it to my upcoming Iron Heroes campaign (which, admittedly, is a long way ahead).

Unless I'll go Midnight on it.

 

[Missywelden]

Whenever I try my hand at making a world I make the Dieties based on how important faith is in this world....especially if Divine forces helped create arcane power (intentional or not).

If the world is not very faithful, I have a few Gods that cover a huge range of needs.
I would make them based on alignment: Good, Neutral and Evil...or something along those lines.
Or I may consider not having Dieties.

However if the world is faithful (I really like this way because I like Divine forces really being active in my worlds), I like to base the Dieties on the world.
If there is alot more focus on the elements (maybe I want even common folk to use weak elementals to do everyday things...like make boats go faster, cool down their house in summer *lol* etc.). If that was the case I would have 8-ish Dieties. Good air,water,earth,fire and Evil air,water,earth,fire.
If it is very focused on Good vs. Evil then I would have two Dieties perhaps...with those that are Neutral simply not having a Deity (I know that is restricting...but if that was how the world worked...they would know that from the start and work around it).

After I decide on that...then I come up with Diety backgrounds and work the into the history of the world.

...yeah...

 

[Cedric]

Whenever I try my hand at making a world I make the Dieties based on how important faith is in this world....especially if Divine forces helped create arcane power (intentional or not).

If the world is not very faithful, I have a few Gods that cover a huge range of needs.
I would make them based on alignment: Good, Neutral and Evil...or something along those lines.
Or I may consider not having Dieties.

However if the world is faithful (I really like this way because I like Divine forces really being active in my worlds), I like to base the Dieties on the world.
If there is alot more focus on the elements (maybe I want even common folk to use weak elementals to do everyday things...like make boats go faster, cool down their house in summer *lol* etc.). If that was the case I would have 8-ish Dieties. Good air,water,earth,fire and Evil air,water,earth,fire.
If it is very focused on Good vs. Evil then I would have two Dieties perhaps...with those that are Neutral simply not having a Deity (I know that is restricting...but if that was how the world worked...they would know that from the start and work around it).

After I decide on that...then I come up with Diety backgrounds and work the into the history of the world.

...yeah...

I can understand your point, but honestly I have to disagree. Religion is one of the most important things in OUR world, and in our world it's based almost entirely upon faith and belief.

I think in a world where "miracles" and the existence of the Gods are Iron Clad Facts (spell-wielding priests are pretty solid proof)...religion would be even more critical, and an even bigger focal point and cornerstone to the world.

If anything, I think D&D de-emphasizes religion too much at times. Huge aspects of your game world should depend on those religious ties and relationships.

Cedric