Not necessarily. If you're in 3.5, even demon princes or archdevils can grant divine spells to their worshippers. Worshippers of a monotheistic god can simply believe that all other gods are nothing more than powerful demons or devils.
Monotheism in a Polytheistic setting?
- Thread starter Is_907
- Start date
Not necessarily. If you're in 3.5, even demon princes or archdevils can grant divine spells to their worshippers. Worshippers of a monotheistic god can simply believe that all other gods are nothing more than powerful demons or devils.
My current campaign setting does the one god and many aspects route. The one all powerful deity isn't seen much but sightings of his angels are heavily reported. Because of a major characteristic of the setting, angels can be good, evil, aloof, or completely insane. They constantly disguise themselve as each other so no one truly knows if the angel leading them is doing the deity's will or screwing things up. Every church is claiming to be followers of the diety through the good angels but acting different. Then there are the people who think the diety is fake, the angels are dieties, or the angels are just wizards.
There is always the Groundhog Day explanation to monotheistic worship in a polytheistic continuum: "I'm a god. I'm not *the* God... I don't think."
The object of monotheism doesn't have to be a nice deity either. You could totally have a monotheistic religion effectively worshiping Cthulhu. That'd be very interesting.
- Marty Lund
The Monotheistic Line said:
The object of monotheism doesn't have to be a nice deity either. You could totally have a monotheistic religion effectively worshiping Cthulhu. That'd be very interesting.
- Marty Lund
The object of monotheism doesn't have to be a nice deity either. You could totally have a monotheistic religion effectively worshiping Cthulhu. That'd be very interesting.
- Marty Lund
I think this could work very well. The whole idea of Cthulhu and Lovecraftian horror is based on cosmic horrors that no one, not even the "gods", can handle.
A monotheistic overdeity that doesn't give a damn about the universe he created and could destroy it and recreate a new one on a whim if he gets bored....hello, Haruhi.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
This Man would like some words with you.
Also, look up ancient (as "in the Time of Moses") Judaism, Roman Christianity, the first Muslims, and Zoroastrianism.
Monotheism has existed for most of its history alongside polytheism. Most of the time, they're the minority, and when they are the majority, it's with a vengeance.
I've got a D&D setting where the main characters are mostly monotheistic, but debate on what is the "true monotheism," because although there is divine magic, divine magic, it turns out, isn't much of a proof of a God in a world where 700 other kinds of magic exist as well.
"I see you cast spells by praying. I know a guy who casts spells by reading passages of famous plays. A buddy of mine casts spells by eating junk he finds laying around his house. My grandfather cast spells by getting drunk. I hear the Gnostics cast spells by scarring their flesh. You do it by saying the word "God" over and over again? And that's supposed to prove you know more about the world than my wood-eating buddy or my alcoholic grandfather? Get in line, holy man."
The setting also has angels and devils who run around, and you can go visit Hell if you'd like, and there is a firmament with heavens above....of course, most of what's up there and down there isn't exactly explained well to the mere mortals who scrounge around in the material world. Why doesn't God define himself better? Why do some angels not believe in Him? Why is there a giant fanged monster frozen in ice at the center of the world? All part of the Great Mystery. Maybe those pagans have something after all...
Also, look up ancient (as "in the Time of Moses") Judaism, Roman Christianity, the first Muslims, and Zoroastrianism.
Monotheism has existed for most of its history alongside polytheism. Most of the time, they're the minority, and when they are the majority, it's with a vengeance.
I've got a D&D setting where the main characters are mostly monotheistic, but debate on what is the "true monotheism," because although there is divine magic, divine magic, it turns out, isn't much of a proof of a God in a world where 700 other kinds of magic exist as well.
"I see you cast spells by praying. I know a guy who casts spells by reading passages of famous plays. A buddy of mine casts spells by eating junk he finds laying around his house. My grandfather cast spells by getting drunk. I hear the Gnostics cast spells by scarring their flesh. You do it by saying the word "God" over and over again? And that's supposed to prove you know more about the world than my wood-eating buddy or my alcoholic grandfather? Get in line, holy man."
The setting also has angels and devils who run around, and you can go visit Hell if you'd like, and there is a firmament with heavens above....of course, most of what's up there and down there isn't exactly explained well to the mere mortals who scrounge around in the material world. Why doesn't God define himself better? Why do some angels not believe in Him? Why is there a giant fanged monster frozen in ice at the center of the world? All part of the Great Mystery. Maybe those pagans have something after all...
Is_907
First Post
Thanks for all the input, everyone. I think that, even though I did already know a lot of this information, it helps immensely to hear it talked out (or read it typed out) in this format.
I'll probably be going with one church that believes there are no other gods... they will probably claim that the traditional D&D pantheon is a group of daemons working against the god or a group of angels trying to break away or something like that.
It'll be fun. (=
I'll probably be going with one church that believes there are no other gods... they will probably claim that the traditional D&D pantheon is a group of daemons working against the god or a group of angels trying to break away or something like that.
It'll be fun. (=
The greek myths themselves contain numerous references to things like "a priestess of such-and-such a goddess angred her by doing such and such". IIRC the Sumerian city-states each had their own patron deity with a priesthood dedicated to that deity (I'm not at my library at the moment). In the case of Egypt I recall that the priesthood of Ptah even had a different creation myth from those of Amun. As I recall, the various priesthoods were connected with sacred sites. In fact, you can simply do a google search on "Priests of Amun" and similar things to make sense of this. Basically I think that all of the cultures you mention above had priesthoods dedicated to single deities (obviously I'd need to give you some facts if you remain skeptical)
So I just cast Commune and ask "is Zeus a demon?" and then "is Zeus a devil?" and then "is Zeus chaotic good" and then I probably get a few more questions left over. In that way I've saved thousands of years of misunderstanding. Or I could plane shift to Olympus and ask around. And what cause would a monotheistic religion have to lie about this? Even an evil one? Why would they care what Zeus is? A monotheistic Chaotic Evil religion might say "yea, the other gods are good, big deal, worship with us or die" A monotheistic Lawful Good deity would gain what by insulting the other good deities?
I'm not saying what you're saying can't be made to work, I just would find it very difficult to run in a campaign subject to a certain level of scrutiny.
Herobizkit
Adventurer
The biggest question that needs to be answered here is, "Are they right?"
- If they are right, this means that the other priesthoods at large are in for a serious awakening.
- If they are wrong, you will need to determine what sort of proof (if any) will convince the priests of the truth. Based on your description, it is possible (and likely) that the priests will be fanatics and would rather die than see the truth.
Last edited:
Why would any LG or CE people lies about things. Besides, in a normal, great wheel based planar setting demons and devils are just game terms given to CE and LE outsiders. If the gameworld uses different divine (and maybe alignment) assumptions from a normal great wheel planar structure, polytheistic game, words like demons and devils can mean other things.
It all comes down to what the DM defines as a god. If being immortal and being able to respond to worshippers (whether by granting prayers or divine spells) isn't enough for a being to be viewed as a "god", then the DM must decide what is the criteria of being a "god".
In a monotheistic religion, the monotheistic deity can either do something no other beings are capable of (maybe creating the universe) and make that known to mortals or he's only capable of doing things other powerful beings can but tells his worshippers that the other beings are not worthy of worship because of some reason. Whether those reasons are real or lies may depend on the deity, but the central tenet of a monotheistic religion is that the entity being worshipped is the only one worthy of being worshipped, and one of the best ways of doing that is to deny the divinity of other powerful, spell-granting immortal entities (if they exist).
As someone have said before, monotheism is not "my god is cooler than your god", that's just a normal D&D pantheon. It's "my god is the only god, and what you're worshipping is not a god."
Last edited:
Similar Threads
