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Monotheism in a Polytheistic setting?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 4806177" data-attributes="member: 18182"><p>There's a lot of good stuff in this thread, I'll just add a few thoughts.</p><p></p><p>Polytheism and Monotheism have existed side-by-side in the real world for millenia . . . so it shouldn't be all that hard to do in a game.</p><p></p><p>Monotheism is *not* "all gods are cool, but I worship Athena exclusively". Monotheism is either "there are no gods other than the one true god" or "there might be other gods, but none are worthy of worship except for the one, true god".</p><p></p><p>The in-game and mechanics problems of . . . "Well, you say that your god is the one true god . . . but my god also gives me power, and we can go visit him in the astral sea, really, right now!" This is easily overcome too.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You can have the classic D&D cosmology and your monotheism cake too. The polytheistic religions say, "Hey, my god exists!!! We can go visit him/her right now if you want!" The monotheistic religions might say, "Oh, your god exists, sorta . . . but he is only an aspect of my god" or "You god is not a god at all, but a DEMON leading his followers into EEEEEVIL!!!" Which is pretty much what happens in the real world, with the addition of "sorry, but your god doesn't exist at all!"</p><p></p><p>Christian mythology is a good place to look (obviously, I guess). Many of the "demons" and "fallen angels" are actually repurposed pagan gods of other competing religions. Heck, even some of the good angels are derived from older pagan gods!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dire Bare, post: 4806177, member: 18182"] There's a lot of good stuff in this thread, I'll just add a few thoughts. Polytheism and Monotheism have existed side-by-side in the real world for millenia . . . so it shouldn't be all that hard to do in a game. Monotheism is *not* "all gods are cool, but I worship Athena exclusively". Monotheism is either "there are no gods other than the one true god" or "there might be other gods, but none are worthy of worship except for the one, true god". The in-game and mechanics problems of . . . "Well, you say that your god is the one true god . . . but my god also gives me power, and we can go visit him in the astral sea, really, right now!" This is easily overcome too. You can have the classic D&D cosmology and your monotheism cake too. The polytheistic religions say, "Hey, my god exists!!! We can go visit him/her right now if you want!" The monotheistic religions might say, "Oh, your god exists, sorta . . . but he is only an aspect of my god" or "You god is not a god at all, but a DEMON leading his followers into EEEEEVIL!!!" Which is pretty much what happens in the real world, with the addition of "sorry, but your god doesn't exist at all!" Christian mythology is a good place to look (obviously, I guess). Many of the "demons" and "fallen angels" are actually repurposed pagan gods of other competing religions. Heck, even some of the good angels are derived from older pagan gods! [/QUOTE]
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