D&D General IRL nominations (historically classic ie religious, pantheonic, folkloric, no newer than 1600) for mythical cosmologies you enjoy including in d&d.

[Son of the Serpent]

Further clarification

1600 is merely the line drawn for how recent the origin/beginning of the over all core mythos in the general body of myth can be. So for instance, the origina of judaism's mythological core dates back to ancient sumeria before there are generally any jews and before ideas like michael and people like jacob and all them were born. It predates abraham but you couod call this the origin of the mythological core that would form abrahamic faith.

 

[generic]

Honestly...

1. Judaism
2. Aztec
3. Korean (broadly, in the traditional spiritual canon)

 

[Legatus Legionis]

.

 

[Mercurius]

Hard to narrow it down to just three, but I'll side step the good old favorites (e.g. Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Greece, etc) to give a nod to some more obscure ones:

Zoroastrianism
Platonism/Neo-Platonism/Hermeticism
Gnosticism

 

[gyor]

Hard to narrow it down to just three, but I'll side step the good old favorites (e.g. Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, Greece, etc) to give a nod to some more obscure ones:

Zoroastrianism
Platonism/Neo-Platonism/Hermeticism
Gnosticism

Now that is interesting. I'm not sure how you'd fit Neoplatonism into D&D Cosmology, but adding Neoplatonist elements would super enhance the D&D setting in a host of ways. This deserves a second nomination.

Gnostism is a thing in Planescape were one of the factions is basically Gnostic, viewing the Gods of D&D as Demiurges and false gods and seek a higher God.

Bringing these faiths into D&D would give D&D a good reason to bring back Celestial Archons. I'd draw deeper onto Neoplatonic, Heremetic, and Gnostic lore for the Archons, giving them a more distinct place in the setting, and a bit of a darker edge in the case of Gnostic influences.

 

[Mercurius]

Now that is interesting. I'm not sure how you'd fit Neoplatonism into D&D Cosmology, but adding Neoplatonist elements would super enhance the D&D setting in a host of ways. This deserves a second nomination.

Gnostism is a thing in Planescape were one of the factions is basically Gnostic, viewing the Gods of D&D as Demiurges and false gods and seek a higher God.

Bringing these faiths into D&D would give D&D a good reason to bring back Celestial Archons. I'd draw deeper onto Neoplatonic, Heremetic, and Gnostic lore for the Archons, giving them a more distinct place in the setting, and a bit of a darker edge in the case of Gnostic influences.

I agree that Neoplatonism would be difficult to incorporate into D&D cosmology. It would probably require some kind of cap-system to allow for higher level play, or an alternate level system of spiritual development. Maybe port over some ideas from yogic philosophy, or someone like Sri Aurobindo. Chakras as untapped power sources for PCs?

The Gnostic Demiurge would make for a great uber-villain in a dystopian campaign. The gods of the pantheon are actually extra-terrestrial and/or extra-dimensional beings who the PCs gradually realize are parasitic to their world. They have to save the earth goddess "Sophia," and cast out the evil archons. It could incorporate elements of the Matrix film, albeit in a fantasy form (no simulated reality, but rather mass enchantments that keep people from seeing the true nature of the gods).

 

[Son of the Serpent]

NOMINATIONS ARE CLOSED

 

[Yaarel]

[Edit: Heh − didnt get to the last post yet.]

I nominate:

Norse/Scandinavian - shamanic/animistic - including Sámi and Suomi
Saxon/German - polytheistic/Roman-Empire, S Celtic landspirits, Holy Roman Empire, Renaissance plate armor
Medieval Jewish - kabala, sages, international communities
Native American - especially Northeast and Northwest
Australian Aborigine
Diverse Buddhisms of Sri Lanka, Tibet, Japan, and Southeast Asia
Hinduism (Brahman as transcending unchanging monotheistic God beyond space-time, Devas as variegations within space-time)

British Isles that focuses on the separate cultural influences: Irish Celtic, Welsh Celtic, Scottish Pict, Germanic Saxon, Viking Norse. Latin+Frankish French with Anglo-French, with Fata/Faie, Fay, and Fairie and Fairiefolk. For Celts, maybe as much as possible, a mythologically accurate Druid (priestly caste like Brahmin, pacifist in the sense of no weapon wielding, sages of nature brewing potions, creating magic items, cloud divination). Three branches of Celtic government: bards (sages), druids (priests), warriors (knights). Plus mythologically accurate Celtic Sidhe (Shee, Sith) races, including Scottish Elf Fairy and Shakespearean childlike landspirit Fairy.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this (had a lot of unexpected irl stuff come up) but the results are in for this segment of the nominations poll. The next section will be posted shortly. For any nomination idea, the time frame in history of which was not perfectly clear but was plausibly during the window specied, nominatioma for said examples wont be considered during later sections. Example: hawaiian was counted for pre 1600. Therefore, it will not be a valid nominatiom for later sections. It already made the cut during this segment though so it is inconsequential. It none the less illustrates a point i needed to make, hense my referencing it. The results from this segment are in and as there are 10 from this segment alone i dont think there will be any danger of not reaching 12 once all segments of the nominations are in.

The results are:

Nordic
Celtic
Egyptian
Greek
Roman
Slavic
Sumerian
Hawaiian
Japanese
Zoroastrian

Once all three sections are done voting will begin shortly after.

 

[Todd Roybark]

Can a moderator please explain how this thread did not run afoul of the “No religion” policy?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Todd Roybark]

I will be. Meta thread is forthcoming .Making it easier to see.

 

[Undrave]

EDIT: Dang, didn't see how old this was

 

[Beleriphon]

While I use norse mythology as the primary religion in my campaign I think there are a number of religions that don't really fit "a religion" but could also have examples animistic, shamanistic, ancestor worship.

If that's not specific enough I'd nominate Bhudism and Confucism.

They do kind of. Buddhism has enough saints/post-death beings it can work. Confucisum is philosophical examination of how rulership and the universe works in context of traditional Chinese taoist belief. It also has enough non-mortal beings/beliefs that it could work well.

As or my votes: Aztec, Japanese and Polynesian.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Nagol]

Bah, less than a decade! It still has remnants of flesh unlike some of the lumbering monsters of late.

 

[Beleriphon]

@Beleriphon

pls. check dates on thread.

Good lord.

 

[Tonguez]

* interesting read

 

[Undrave]

Bah, less than a decade! It still has remnants of flesh unlike some of the lumbering monsters of late.

Less than a year even!

 

[CleverNickName]

I hope someone isn't preparing for an "But other people got to talk about religion on ENWorld, why can't I?" argument with the moderators. I'd strongly advise against that.

Back in 2007, I wrote a whole new pantheon for D&D, based on real-world Maori folklore and religion. Other people chimed in to help, including people from New Zealand. That's right, I once collaborated with others online to create a pantheon for D&D, right here on ENWorld. No arguments erupted. No warnings were issued. Nobody was kicked out. The thread was never locked.

I won't be commenting in the upcoming meta thread, as exciting as it sounds. But consider that maybe this "issue" has less to do with the word "religion," and more to do with disrupting discussion and antagonizing others?