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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 7600146" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>My impression is that the people in most D&D settings are not exactly polytheistic... rather, are <em>monolatrous</em>. Or even individually monolatrous, which is not generally something we've seen much in our world.</p><p></p><p>That is, a polytheistic culture would worship many deities more or less equally, as the situation calls for (but maintaining some default level of propitiation for all of them just in case - you don't want to <strong>not</strong> give Eris her due). A monolatrous culture would say "There are many gods, but this one's ours." That seems to be what's going on on an individual level in most D&D worlds - in Greyhawk you have followers of Hieroneous opposing the followers of Hextor, but a polytheistic culture would recognize that each of those have their place in the universe. The one D&D setting I've seen that features proper polytheism is Eberron, where the Sovereign Host is commonly worshiped as a group.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the point I was going to make is that monolatry probably leads to a closer attachment to a deity than polytheism - possibly more than monotheism even, on account of a greater likelyhood of there being a god around that's a good match.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 7600146, member: 907"] My impression is that the people in most D&D settings are not exactly polytheistic... rather, are [I]monolatrous[/I]. Or even individually monolatrous, which is not generally something we've seen much in our world. That is, a polytheistic culture would worship many deities more or less equally, as the situation calls for (but maintaining some default level of propitiation for all of them just in case - you don't want to [B]not[/B] give Eris her due). A monolatrous culture would say "There are many gods, but this one's ours." That seems to be what's going on on an individual level in most D&D worlds - in Greyhawk you have followers of Hieroneous opposing the followers of Hextor, but a polytheistic culture would recognize that each of those have their place in the universe. The one D&D setting I've seen that features proper polytheism is Eberron, where the Sovereign Host is commonly worshiped as a group. Anyway, the point I was going to make is that monolatry probably leads to a closer attachment to a deity than polytheism - possibly more than monotheism even, on account of a greater likelyhood of there being a god around that's a good match. [/QUOTE]
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