Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Voadam" data-source="post: 9511917" data-attributes="member: 2209">That is quite a jump of inferences to get to monotheistic Islam in Greyhawk.The title Sultanate does not override the actual text setting up the setting as polytheistic with an actual pantheon of gods.Religiously and cosmologically all of 2024 Greyhawk is presented as D&amp;D polytheism, there is no monotheism presented. The big 5e change is taking out the explicit ethnicity associations for multiple pantheons and just presenting a list of the polytheistic Greyhawk gods as if they were part of a single polytheistic pantheon.Baklunish Xan Yae worship is as monotheistic Islamic as worship of Boccob the Uncaring is monotheistic Christian.Some of the gods present opportunities for closer references to Islam and Christianity, such as say St. Cuthbert and Pholtus being good ones with fairly christian-esque trappings and tropes to work from for their followers and religious stuff compared to say an Olympian deity model, but they are still not monotheists as written even if Henotheism works well here. I would not say default Greyhawk religious and cosmological setup explores monotheism of any variety.Making it so in your individual campaign is of course fair game.I think Baklunish elements are much more focused on evoking the non-religious specific Medieval Islamic world (also Mongol hordes and steppes people who may or may not be Islamic) tropes and narratives: warriors with scimitars, a place to run Ali Baba and the 40 thieves type of adventures, West versus East border potential conflicts, etc. The biggest departure to me seems to be explicit polytheism and polytheistic cosmology.So more Shem, Turan, Hyrkania, and Afghulistan from Conan where everyone is polytheistic.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Voadam, post: 9511917, member: 2209"] That is quite a jump of inferences to get to monotheistic Islam in Greyhawk. The title Sultanate does not override the actual text setting up the setting as polytheistic with an actual pantheon of gods. Religiously and cosmologically all of 2024 Greyhawk is presented as D&D polytheism, there is no monotheism presented. The big 5e change is taking out the explicit ethnicity associations for multiple pantheons and just presenting a list of the polytheistic Greyhawk gods as if they were part of a single polytheistic pantheon. Baklunish Xan Yae worship is as monotheistic Islamic as worship of Boccob the Uncaring is monotheistic Christian. Some of the gods present opportunities for closer references to Islam and Christianity, such as say St. Cuthbert and Pholtus being good ones with fairly christian-esque trappings and tropes to work from for their followers and religious stuff compared to say an Olympian deity model, but they are still not monotheists as written even if Henotheism works well here. I would not say default Greyhawk religious and cosmological setup explores monotheism of any variety. Making it so in your individual campaign is of course fair game. I think Baklunish elements are much more focused on evoking the non-religious specific Medieval Islamic world (also Mongol hordes and steppes people who may or may not be Islamic) tropes and narratives: warriors with scimitars, a place to run Ali Baba and the 40 thieves type of adventures, West versus East border potential conflicts, etc. The biggest departure to me seems to be explicit polytheism and polytheistic cosmology. So more Shem, Turan, Hyrkania, and Afghulistan from Conan where everyone is polytheistic. [/QUOTE]

Verification