Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 252168" data-attributes="member: 2067">It's a valid idea for a campaign....you can, in theory, have social and religious things seperate, but not just because the gods don't meet some human-determined standard of goodness.The US, in theory, has a political and social system mostly distanced from the ties of religion. One can live life almost entirely without having to believe anything. A fantasy world could have this as well.You just should probably remember that "morality" is a rather recent invention. Gods don't have to be Good or Holy, by nessecesity...and they don't nessecarily "force obedience."I mean, if someone popped into reality that could actually, in reality, *do* all of the things that gods were credited with doing, I think a lot of people would worship him. Heck, the ideal of Jesus has a lot of that...this dude who actually could heal the blind with a touch...and he was worshiped for it! Something tells me that if the Hulk was real, he'd probably be a god...same thing with any superhero. If we knew Bill Gates wan't a mortal just like you and me, we may suspect he's somehow higher or greater. Heck, often famous people in the US get acredited a status based on their behaviours in the public eye -- sports stars and actors giving morality lessons about drugs, voilence, and school suffuse any prime time viewing. They're often, at least subliminally, regarded as something more than your average human. People get surprised when they act just like everyone else.What would humanity know of "right" behavior if all our pantheon was built of the stars of Friends telling us not to do drugs? Well, since they're supposedly better than us, they should know, right? So aparently, Drugs Are Evil. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />And in D&D, by general default, the gods rely on the worship of the mortals to survive and power them. This isn't always true, but it is one reason why they might care. Another may be that the people are important, like favored pets, or that they hold some special place in the hearts and minds of the deity...like the humans given a "special role" in the creation story. Basically, it is up to each DM...I mean, take a look at Deities and Demigods for some decent advice on pantheon-building, and a look at why gods may give a crap about their worshipers....most do. Even the evil ones enjoy their fans.A religion, a set of beliefs, doesn't have to have it's moral code followed by the gods in it. Heck, even one god may lay down one moral code and then constantly violate it itself, being not beholden to such mortal constraints. Once again, you can look at a modern moral religion for that -- Christianity. Though the god lays down a code of moral behaviors for his followers, he himself frequently violates this moral code. "Thou Shalt Not Kill," especially.The thing is...people worship what is seen as superior to them. It's human nature, to a certain extent...there are people who are better than you, worthy of your respect and admiration, should be obeyed.In the game, this is theoretically possible...if the mortals have some source of morality outside of the influence of the gods (not a great possibility, but it could work), they could concievably regard the gods as imperfect...in theory, even the common man could be persuaded, if enough of his kings and emperors were.Secular things would crop up for the events in people's lives. Marriage would be legal, having a kid would be a population consideration, courtship based on some idea of romance and love rather than the actions of the gods...Very possible. But you would have to allow the mortals some way of precieving a different morality from the ones the gods enforced, and have it widely accepted.</blockquote>

Verification