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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WalterKovacs" data-source="post: 4809083" data-attributes="member: 63763">Just a bit based on my admitedly limited anthropology experience. Once you start dealing with worshiping gods you have three forms: Pantheism, Polytheism and Monotheism. The distinction between Pantheism and Polytheism is whether you accept 'outside' gods. The Romans, for example, were Polytheistic. They had the Pantheon that they worshiped, but when they conquered new areas, they accepted that other areas might have their gods, and thus would worship gods in those areas. They were fine with other people worshiping their own gods, as long as when in Rome, they did as the Roman's did. A Pantheistic religion is effectively a Monotheistic religion, the only difference being that their is a group instead of just one. However, in both cases, any 'outside' gods are 'not real' and should not be worshiped or even considered to exist. The reasons there would be few monotheistic religions in a D&D setting would be the same reason it would be unlikely for their to be agnostics or atheists in the setting. When there is actual contact with gods, and divine intervention, etc ... it's harder to 'not' believe. Some groups could believe in a system of "One god, many saints/angels/demons/etc" that basically puts the "one god" one step above all the existing stuff that goes on. In a 4e setting (as the OP said this would be), it's possible that during the heroic tier at least, a monotheistic religion could exist. Divine power in 4e is a bit more vague, with the 'defy your god -> lose your power' equation from Paladin's gone, for example. The god would likely be unalligned, giving the followers an explanation of why the god would seemingly give anyone that 'asks' divine power. Some sort of balance/ying-yang based god would make sense.</blockquote>

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