Libertad
Hero
By this, I do not mean worlds where everyone is some degree of atheist. Rather, I mean one with settings where the existence of gods are either in question or where clerics likely derive their powers from another source.
On the official side of things, Eberron and Ravenloft technically qualify. While prayer and faith grant spells, nobody is really sure if deities such as Ezra and the Sovereign Host exist in the way they're portrayed by religious institutions. In Eberron's case, the fact that people can get spells from non-divine power sources helps reinforce the idea of divine magic being more subjective.
I haven't read much of Ravnica, but from a brief Google search it seems to be a setting where the worship of deities isn't common.
Over on the third party front, I've seen a number of such settings both popular and obscure. In the dark fantasy RPG Grim Hollow the gods used to exist, but were destroyed in a war with eldritch abominations so their angelic and devilish servants are shouldering the burden of attending to mortal affairs. My recently-reviewed Koryo Hall of Adventures has pseudo-Buddhist personal self-improvement and animism in place of deity worship, where in the latter case people broker deals with less powerful localized spirits. The old gods are believed dead and gone, thus causing these two religions to become the dominant forms of faith. Legacy of Mana (currently vaporware) never had gods or god worship to begin with, with paying reverence to the planet itself serving such a purpose. The World of Alessia has an all-encompassing faith known as the Light, although it seems to lack deities and instead focuses more on mortal-focused self-improvement and good works. I'm still in the process of reading this book, so my knowledge may be incomplete.
I don't know how appropriate it would be to include conversions of "D&D but not exactly" products such as Beowulf: Age of Heroes. Such RPGs use 5th Edition D&D as the mechanical chassis, but have worlds that majorly depart from the standard.
Is this merely confirmation bias on my part, or is there a growing number of settings both official and third party where divine influence is less prominent and not taken for granted?
On the official side of things, Eberron and Ravenloft technically qualify. While prayer and faith grant spells, nobody is really sure if deities such as Ezra and the Sovereign Host exist in the way they're portrayed by religious institutions. In Eberron's case, the fact that people can get spells from non-divine power sources helps reinforce the idea of divine magic being more subjective.
I haven't read much of Ravnica, but from a brief Google search it seems to be a setting where the worship of deities isn't common.
Over on the third party front, I've seen a number of such settings both popular and obscure. In the dark fantasy RPG Grim Hollow the gods used to exist, but were destroyed in a war with eldritch abominations so their angelic and devilish servants are shouldering the burden of attending to mortal affairs. My recently-reviewed Koryo Hall of Adventures has pseudo-Buddhist personal self-improvement and animism in place of deity worship, where in the latter case people broker deals with less powerful localized spirits. The old gods are believed dead and gone, thus causing these two religions to become the dominant forms of faith. Legacy of Mana (currently vaporware) never had gods or god worship to begin with, with paying reverence to the planet itself serving such a purpose. The World of Alessia has an all-encompassing faith known as the Light, although it seems to lack deities and instead focuses more on mortal-focused self-improvement and good works. I'm still in the process of reading this book, so my knowledge may be incomplete.
I don't know how appropriate it would be to include conversions of "D&D but not exactly" products such as Beowulf: Age of Heroes. Such RPGs use 5th Edition D&D as the mechanical chassis, but have worlds that majorly depart from the standard.
Is this merely confirmation bias on my part, or is there a growing number of settings both official and third party where divine influence is less prominent and not taken for granted?
