D&D 5E Eberron versus Multiverse

[MonsterEnvy]

The Norse goð are not ‘gods’.

The Norse meaning of the word goð literally means ‘invoked one’. In other words, a helpful nature spirit.

Or a god. Invoked one sure sounds like a god to me. Along with everything else that was derived from it that relates to gods.

 

[Yaarel]

Or a god. Invoked one sure sounds like a god to me. Along with everything else that was derived from it that relates to gods.

Yes, an ‘invoked one’ sounds like a ‘god’ to you. That is because Western Culture has been brainwashed by Hellenism, and is culturally ethnocentric, assuming that every culture views the world in the same way that Continental Europe does. It goes back to Romans and Greeks identifying ALL other religions to be as if specific Roman and Greek gods.

 

[Salthorae]

The Norse goð are not ‘gods’.

Ok, I'm not going to play into your Norse digressions, sorry I brought them up.

What about the Greek gods? They are much gods as the forgotten realm gods or greyhawk gods.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

What about the Greek gods? They are much gods as the forgotten realm gods or greyhawk gods.

They brought them up in an edit.

 

[Yaarel]

Anyway, the KEY is ambiguity.

The solution is religious ambiguity that embraces multiple interpretations.

The solution is Eberron.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It goes back to Romans and Greeks identifying ALL other religions to be as if specific Roman and Greek gods.

To be fair syncretism long-predates the Romans and Greeks. However it has been used as a tool of empire-building for a very long time, and deep into the modern era.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Yaarel, I think your getting too deep into the YHWH type of god and thinking that applies to everything.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Anyway, the KEY is ambiguity.

The solution is religious ambiguity that embraces multiple interpretations.

The solution is Eberron.

And the Eberron point of view has to be explicit and official. And Core.

Yeah. No. For someone who bitched and whined that the Forgotten Realms had gotten into their Eberron, you sure have no problem going the other direction.

I'd prefer to keep my Greyhawk still Greyhawk. And the cool Eberron still Eberron.

Keep your real world faith issues outta my game of make believe.

Though, if we're being honest, there is no way in hell it would go the direction you're proposing. So I don't have any fear that it would actually do so.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Keith, I appreciate you commenting here and your specific comments. My disappointment that I express in this thread is because I love the Eberron setting that you pioneered and continue to develop.

The Eberron setting successfully achieves the difficult task of approaching religion in a way that is both authentic and suitable for gaming. Premise of ambiguity allows a great diversity of kinds of spirituality and philosophical ideas, and embraces multiculturalism, granting diverse points of view comparable dignity.

I feel the Eberron approach to religion is the ‘correct’ approach that the 5e Core must model.



In my view, the 5e designers took the beauty and profundity of Eberron, and then shat Forgotten Realms gods all over it. The damage is enormous and deep.



I find your comment here helps me feel a little better.

‘This doesn't mean that "Gods definitively exist", because as others have pointed out, the people of Eberron wouldn't identify the "gods" of FR as gods. The Vassals of the Sovereign Host believe that their deities are omniscient and omnipresent. The idea of one of them taking a physical form is pointlessly limiting; that's not a GOD, it's a powerful angel or an overlord.’

And similarly.

‘Those beings don't qualify as "gods" by the definitions used in Eberron, and the gods worshipped on Eberron do not follow their model. Eberron has always had beings that use the same rules as gods of other settings: those beings are the overlords, and rather than being worshipped, they were imprisoned.’

The same reason why I hate the Forgotten Realms polytheism, seems the same reason why the inhabitants of Eberron would reject the Forgotten Realms gods. Divinity is inherently omniscient and omnipresent, while the Forgotten Realms gods are ‘pointlessly’ finite.

And the Eberron point of view has to be explicit and official. And Core.

The gods of very many real world cultures are not omniscient and very very not omnipresent.

The blanket statement that divinity is inherently those things is offensive and ignorant.

 

[Arnwolf666]

The Norse goð are not ‘gods’.

The Norse meaning of the word goð literally means ‘invoked one’. In other words, a helpful nature spirit.



The Greek θεοι are ‘gods’ in the sense of being formally worshiped by priests.



But again, being open to a multiplicity of cultural philosophical interpretations is key.

or maybe just a different type of god. Or a different perspective of what a god is.