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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Indagare Nogitsune" data-source="post: 9849089" data-attributes="member: 40018">So while there are settings where the absence of deities tends to cause issues (Athas most notably and Ravenloft to some degree), there seems to be no reason deities actually have to exist in a setting; besides giving Clerics spells, divine beings seem to do very little else. Unlike in RL religions where the divine were literally responsible for various natural phenomena (and were supposed to be in charge of some Human-made things too), the D&D deities tend to be very aloft, even to the detriment of the world they're attached to (I'm looking at you Krynn).There are usually reasons given for why this is the case (generally amounting to some sort of treaty between them and powerful infernal beings), but it often feels like they'd not intervene even if there were some world-ending crisis. Of course, the other side of this is that it's to empower the PCs to really help shape events--no matter how bizarrely one-sided it may be. A problem I am facing as I try to develop my setting is that I want a closer connection between the divine and mortal realms. This is partly because I imagine the deities to be archfey (a concept explored in the <a href="https://gargoyles.fandom.com/wiki/Children_of_Oberon" target="_blank">Gargoyles tv series</a>). Some of my thoughts running thus:1) Where the Other World touches the Prime, various types of circles form. Most common are fairy circles. Larger and less common are crop circles. And, finally, there are henges. The henges are sites of worship, and I could easily imagine some <a href="https://emuseum.vassar.edu/internal/media/dispatcher/10766/preview" target="_blank">round temple</a> forming in its center or somewhere close by where the resident archfey resides (when it so desires).2) There's no technical reason Archfey can't have Clerics given <a href="https://dungeonsdragons.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_fey_deities" target="_blank">fey deities</a> do exist. However, it still leaves unresolved what the difference would be between a Cleric and a Warlock in terms of worship vs pact.3) If the Fey are involved more in the Prime and even responsible for various natural phenomena (if the Spring Sprites don't show your area gets literally stuck in winter; the Fey in charge of the sea can literally save your ship or sink it, etc.), then how is best to work this all in without it becoming too much? It's one thing to imagine a world not too dissimilar to that of Disney's The Nutcracker Suite combined with The Pastoral Symphony; it's another to figure out how that sort of thing works in practice (having house-hold protectors would make thieves have issues, but also PCs who need to get into a stronghold). How do deities figure into your campaigns? If they are an engaging bunch, how do you keep things interesting? If they're not, why not?</blockquote>

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