NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 8839060" data-attributes="member: 7023887">Okay. Given [USER=19675]@Dannyalcatraz[/USER]'s clarification of site rules on religion in discussions of this matter, I think I can write this without crossing a line. I grew up Mormon. I fairly recently left the church, but I've spent more than 90% of my life a member of the same religion that influenced some of Dragonlance, notably how it treats its gods and religions in the setting. The parallels between The Great Apostasy and Dragonlance's Cataclysm are obvious to anyone educated in the topics.  [SPOILER="Similarities between the Great Apostasy and Cataclysm"]The Great Apostasy according to Mormon doctrine - "A period of hundreds of years where the true religion was lost and the Priesthood, a divine power that can heal people, was taken from Earth by God until the world was ready for their religion to return. Eventually, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed prophet found records from an ancient, now-destroyed civilization carved into metal that held the texts of the 'true religion' and restored it to the Earth and brought back the Priesthood."The Cataclysm according to Dragonlance lore - "A period of hundreds of years where all true religions were lost and Clerical Magic, which can heal people, was taken from Krynn by the Good Gods until the world was ready for their religions to return. Eventually, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed prophet found records from an ancient, now-destroyed civilization carved into metal that held the texts of the "true religions" and restored them to Krynn and brought back the Clerics." [/SPOILER]Dragonlance's Cataclysm wasn't "inspired by Mormon theology". It is a huge part of Mormon theology that's transplanted to the setting. The disaster that caused Dragonlance's "Great Apostasy" is also clearly "inspired" by the Great Flood from the Bible. It's so obvious that it comes up basically any time someone wants to talk about Dragonlance's take on religion on this site.  Tracy Hickman is Mormon. His religion influences the books he writes. I'm no longer Mormon, but the stuff I write is definitely still influenced by my previous religion in some way. I can't change that, even when I want to. And we can't debate religion on this site or the morality of the Great Flood, but The Cataclysm is still a problem. It would probably be less of a problem if it didn't make its source material so obvious. There's nothing wrong with "the true religion was lost, but brought back through metal plates" as a plot device in a fantasy novel or setting. But the backstory is problematic and could be easily avoided through "No one knows what truly caused the Cataclysm. Every person that did know died in the event, and the gods haven't been around for the last 350 years to answer the question." Do an Eberron and don't give an explanation behind the Mourning. That way you don't cross into controversial topics like divine collective punishment. Or if you do really want the gods to be the ones that threw that mountain on Istar, have there be a Rapture of all innocent people before you kill all of the wicked.</blockquote>

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