In a fantasy world filled with magic and miraculous beings, will the religious concepts of the locals be completely different from the human of Earth?

[Voadam]

I think it is going to vary a lot based on the actual cosmology, the specific magics available, the specific gods involved, and the history of the world and its cultures.

D&D afterlife varies - in 4e the gods of knowledge and death do not know what happens to souls after they leave their period in the Shadowfell after death. Afterlives for evil souls could be a classic Dante eternal punishment or they could be rewards for service in the dark lord's realm, or they could be turned into an outsider (would you like to hang out with succubi for eternity or lantern archons). In 2e and 3e FR you go to the afterlife realm of the god you chose as your patron (or the one closest to how you lived as a mortal if you did not choose one, or to the wall of the faithless if you were faithless and nobody picks you up or fiends get you if you were false in your beliefs). I am not really clear on what those god realm afterlives are like even after having read those fantastic 2e god books.

Certain D&D spells give you specific ultimate information, these vary edition to edition on their specifics which makes a difference in what people can know and how certain they can be about the information and when and what the spells might not tell you. Bards having a lot of top tier healing stuff makes a difference in incentives compared to systems where only clerical magic can bring the dead back to life.

Some gods might want worship, in FR post Time of Troubles the gods' powers were tied to worship so they definitely wanted it and competed for it. In 1e Greyhawk the greater gods specifically do not care about worship at all, they are too far removed. In 3e Eberron it is not clear whether any gods actually exist or whether all clerics are actually godless spellcasters with a specific spellcasting tradition.

Eberron is also a D&D setting with different cultures with different religious traditions ranging from polytheism in a pantheon to the monotheisticish Silver Flame, to the philosophies like the Blood of Vol, to ancestor worship, to cults of the Dragons or other stuff. I find Eberron religion very enjoyable and plausible for a fantasy world.

 

[bloodtide]

I sort of wonder how much a typical inhabitant would "know" about the way things work. There are priests of the gods who claim how the world works but most of the followers of the gods would have to take it on faith. Just because priests have magic doesn't mean it is necessarily divine, after all, bards can heal, wizards and sorcerers have miraculous powers, earlier editions had psions who could heal, who is to say that they couldn't come along and declare a new god is risen and their power is justification for its existence.

Not too much.

The big twist too is that The Outer Planes are not Real Material places, not Reality. They are metaphysical concepts and aspects of unreality. Technically no mortal can ever understand this. Go to an Outer Plane and see some happy people floating on a cloud. Well...they are not "people" and are not on a "cloud", nor are they "floating" or even "existing, in the mortal sense". Of course, any mortal just sees people on a cloud.

People can travel the planes and see what's what, but that is a fraction of a fraction of people who can and do. Even in the Forgotten realms during the avatar trilogy when the avatars of the gods walked the earth did the majority even see them and even if they did, they still need to have faith that these are the actual gods; it could've just as easily been something masquerading as them.

Plenty of the Gods went Public and let people worship them. If you read the Avatar Trilogy about this event, it does go into people having and not having faith as a major plot point.

I think Toril is interesting that, even in a world of 'known' deities and pantheons, some people continue to not be Believers, or maybe just donate when they need a special favor - the old Grey Box talked about it, even how people would sacrifice to Umberlee to avert her wrath before a voyage.

This does fit with human nature.

Sacrificing to before a sea voyage Umberlee makes sense to me. If there is a god of the seas that might drag you down to the bottomless depths of the ocean, it wouldn't be surprising for someone to make an offering before the trip. If you're a farmer inland who follows the faerunian pantheon but who hasn't even seen the ocean before, you likely won't be giving her an offering though you will still know of her from the various myths of your people.

This is very common nearly everywhere. There are any number of supernatural entities people offer something too. And it leads right into Superstition and Luck. There is more then one gamer with a lucky d20.

 

[Tonguez]

So what kind of Paladin is Dexter?

Oath of Vengeance? or he could be a Warlock compelled by a blood sacrifice ritual

 

[Anonym]

Very different, but also the same.

It is not. The whole Afterlife is vague, and a bit of a mystery. So are most things. Mortals don't really know hard facts about the afterlife, it's more rumors.

Well, this is not exactly how faith works. Sure the magic tricks were cool, but they are not really what faith and religion is all about.

For a D&D world, even more so one like Toril, Religion is more a way of life: what you think and feel and ARE. And that has a name: one of the gods. It's not so much the god telling you what to do, it's you aligning yourself with the god.

"Very different, but also the same."
LOL！you sure what you said? can you find even just one cleric/priest on Earth who can use even just a 0-level spell 'Cure minor wound'?

 

[Anonym]

Let's talk about Athas' Socerer King/Queens.
They:
1. Possess incredible immense power, at least in their world. even if they are not the most powerful beings, they are at least one of the top ones.
2. They can bestow various spells on their trusted servants and followers (Templars), allowing them to exercise various miraculous powers.
3. They are able to provide protection to their servants and subjects, and in exchange, their servants and subjects must offer loyalty and service.
4.They cannot provide the treatment of the afterlife, but their subjects usually believe in this, so it's actually the same.
5.They are immortal, but can be killed in battle. although over 99.9999999% of people are can never able to achieve this.even if they are killed, they may still be resurrected (as undead creatures,or even literally resurrected).


So let's discuss a question:
are those Athas' Socerer king/queens considered actually gods (although very weak gods)? what is the real difference between them and the god-kings of Mulhorand and Unther?

 

[Tonguez]

"Very different, but also the same."
LOL！you sure what you said? can you find even just one cleric/priest on Earth who can use even just a 0-level spell 'Cure minor wound'?

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina - at least many Italian Catholics believe so and its the beleif that matters

 

[Kichwas]

I don't think I've ever played a D&D game where this was true. Oh, our characters are killers, but the motivation is very different from what we think of for the likes of Ted Bundy, Jack the Ripper, or Dexter Morgan who seem compelled to kill with no clear motivation. In my experience, most players are interested in having their characters fight bad guys.

A lot of serial killers probably have better motivations...

D&D PCs very often kill people to get paid or to steal the stuff of the people they kill. Trying to get a group of players in a fantasy RPG to do something just because it's the right thing to do, and to the minimize loss of life because that's also the right thing to do is often near impossible.

Some games like Pathfinder even penalize you for trying to fight non-lethally.

At least serial killers come up with excuses. The TV ones and the real ones are not the same here... but both share that trait. Their excuses are nonsense. But in their minds we're the Orcs and Goblins so of course we'd think that.

Coming from having spent the first 20 years in this hobby running and playing Super Hero games, my trips into games like D&D have always been a bit of a shock as I've not "normalized" the idea that my PC should be killing the enemy. We didn't even do that when I played Cyberpunk games.

But that's a whole other side topic from this one.

 

[Anonym]

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina - at least many Italian Catholics believe so and its the beleif that matters

But that's just people's imagination, a fictional myth. If you take this as evidence, then there are too many so-called evidences.

Let's talk about John Kennedy,Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, who can also use various miraculous powers (at least, their fans believe in so). can they be used as evidence?

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

But that's just people's imagination, a fictional myth. If you take this as evidence, then there are too many so-called evidences.

Let's talk about John Kennedy,Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, who can also use various miraculous powers (at least, their fans believe in so). can they be used as evidence?

I’m pretty sure that criticizing and being condescending about people’s religious beliefs is going to get this thread shut down

 

[SkidAce]

So what kind of Paladin is Dexter?

He isn't one.