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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6789483" data-attributes="member: 2067">The issue arises because, unlike in monotheism, "being devoted to a/the God" is not equivalent to "being good." Being good is an entirely separate axis. In a campaign inspired by Viking Sagas, you wouldn't have D&D alignments (you might have a Courage stat instead, and the DM keeps you rolling against it to do bold and courageous things worthy of honor in the halls of Valhalla). What you're rewarded for in the afterlife shows what you care about as a culture. The Vikings didn't care about the D&D concept of good, and their afterlife shows it. They cared about bravery and glory, and their afterlife shows it. It would not be a setting of traditional heroic fantasy, it would be a setting of bold heroes, brave warriors, risk-takers, raiders, etc (like any setting based on Viking myth should be!). In a world based on devotion to deities, you wouldn't have D&D alignment. You might have a Piety indicator instead, and the DM might use it to determine if the gods favor your character due to their pious nature (maybe something like giving EVERYONE a cleric's divine intervention, and you could affect it with sacrifices and the like). What you're rewarded for in the afterlife isn't being good, it's being pious, and that's what the setting cares about. It would not be a setting that really resembles FR (you'd have no dragonborn who mistrust the gods, you'd have a pantheon that was transcendent and not just squabbling magical beings, priests of evil gods would be steadfast allies), but it would be a setting of the religious. In a world with D&D alignment, anything that prevents a Good character from having a Good afterlife is pretty much by definition abominable and cruel. D&D is a game of heroic fantasy (and FR especially so), so being a hero should be what the setting cares about. It's what FR normally seems to care about. It's what alignment encourages you to care about. But it's not what the Wall would have you care about. If the Vikings were right and the afterlife was really and actually Valhalla (which was the case as far as the Vikings were concerned) those that fought bravely against the Vikings would go there. The Christian Englishmen would just be wrong, and that would be shown when they die and those that died in cowardice would be thrown to Hel and those that died in glory would be welcomed in Valhalla to feast with the warriors they just fought against. This would be like replacing Alignment with Courage - the setting cares about your bravery, not your Goodness. The Christians who are not Brave get no reward, those who are Brave get a reward even though they were wrong. They did the right thing. By the same token, if the Christians were right (which was the case as far as they were concerned), those Vikings who realized that God was the source of all love and peace in existence in their moments of death would repent of their slaughter and be welcome in heaven as saved believers (if only in post-mortem). The Vikings would just be wrong, and they'd have good cause to convert (unlike an FR character, who is looking at a galaxy of deities who are only powerful magical beings, even in the Fugue). Because God's love conquers all, those truly contrite souls would now be Christians, welcome alongside their Christian brethren. Those who refused the source of all love and joy in the world would be freely choosing their torment away from all love and joy, even unto eternity if they were that hard-hearted about it. This would be like replacing Alignment with...maybe an "Embraced God" check-box - the Vikings who in death Embraced God get a reward even though they lived their lives in error. Those who did not have Embraced God written on their character sheet don't get their reward until they do. If they were both right, then we're basically at a proto-Great Wheel, which FR could do, rewarding both for being virtuous or not according to their cultural tendencies, but doesn't do, instead sticking a monstrous thing between Good people and their just reward.</blockquote>

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