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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 8550499" data-attributes="member: 58172">I want to see the core Cleric class handle the prominent sacred concepts around the globe. A sacred tradition organizes daily experiences in a meaningful way. The sacred part is the deep structure that holds everything together, the essence of reality.In some sacred traditions ethics is the fundament of reality. For D&D this can be an alignment. Or something specific, like love, compassionate actions, hospitality and welcoming the stranger, a just society, and so on. In animism, it is actually the community that is sacred, and both humans and other nature beings are members. Relatedly, concepts such as "the glory of Rome" can in itself have a sacred force for its adherents, likewise other political ideologies such as capitalism and socialism can.In some traditions, the stuff we are made out of is the essence of reality. In Hellenism, the five substances are sacred: earth air fire water, plus ether understood as an immaterial physical element relating to consciousness and force, whence spirit and soul. In Daoism, there are the five ways of moving: water and fire, expanding tree and contracting metal, plus motionless soil. Yin and yang are likewise fundamental elements. Likewise, in modern contexts, fate and timelines, fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism, and nuclear), light and energy, quantum entanglement, the evolution of simple to complex, and so on can feel sacred in a nontraditional religious way.In some traditions, persons are sacred, and the adherents engage reality in a social way, by means of personifications. In animism, a human body is a natural object that comes with a mind, and similarly, a rock, tree, river, or other object of nature is also a kind of physical body that also comes with a mind. In animism, it is the community of all of these nature beings including humans that is sacred. Relatedly, in theism the personification is a master who demands servants that are obedient for the sake of order, and it is the order that is the fundament of reality, opposite chaos. In mystical traditions of noncoersion and modern traditions of law, the free individual is the sacred fundament, existentially, and human rights and personal freedoms are the essence of reality.There is a historical distinction between the cosmic and the transcendant. The cosmic is experiences that can be put into words, while transcendent is experiences that evade word, inherently moving from the finite known into the infinite unknown. A helpful methodology is to distingush between the cosmic "sacred" and the transcendant "holy". The sacred is the exclamation mark that can point at fundamental features, such as life, family, patriotism, tradition, work ethic, duty, dharma. The holy is the question mark that moves from the known into the unknown, such as ethical questions, scientific discoveries, paradigm shifts, freedom of speech, respectful debate, welcoming the stranger, imageless monotheism, enlightenment of nirvana, moksha from illusion.By definition, every sacred tradition relies on sacred finite concepts that are the fundament of reality. But most sacred traditions also develop a holy infinite concept that is a dialectic of them. Some tribes among the animistic Indigenous of the Americas have Great Spirit. Even Norse animism that is extremely this-worldly, has Ginnungagap as an ineffable mystical encounter. Daoism has the Dao transcending either Yin and Yang. Celtic polytheism has the sacred magic of paradox. And so on. In D&D, this holy infinite is beyond any and every multiverse.5e surprised me, because the Xanathar formulation of a "cosmic force" is excellent. It puts the finger on what all of these reallife sacred traditions share in common. The cosmic force is the institutional essence of any religion. It is also worth mentioning the transcendental force that makes most sacred systems a "holy" open system, that continues to grow and learn.I want the "cosmic force" to be exactly what the core Cleric class is about. Then give a brief example of animism, elementalism, ethics, monotheism, polytheism, enlightenment, freedom, and philosophical worldview, as an example of a cosmic force that a player might want to choose for their character concept. Note, a single religious institution normally has several cosmic forces and trancendental forces in play. An individual can feel affinity with one of them and prioritize it over the others. The Cleric is about a sacred community and the concepts and symbols and customs that the community employs to engage the sacred and the holy.</blockquote>

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