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<blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 3220754" data-attributes="member: 1879">I don't mean &quot;Can I run a D&amp;D campaign with one god?&quot;, that's been done to death and the answer is obviously yes.I am interested in discussing the ways in which our predjudices in coming from a monotheistic society have shaped the D&amp;D game in ways that are contrary to D&amp;Ds own nature.For example, Good people go to the upper planes after death and are rewarded. Bad people go to the lower planes and are punished. Demons are evil incarnate. Angels are good Incarnate. Good and Evil as cosmological principles is pretty much a stand in for God and the Devil.The entire Arcane/Divine magic split is pretty much a monothestic concept. In Monotheism there are two types of magic, White magic is the miracles granted by divine intervention and the powers given to Saints. All good magic flows from God. Black Magic is magic worked by demons in trade for services and the soul of the Black Mage. The 3rd sort, Grey magic, is when the tools of a Black magician are used by others for their own ends without making an pact and is need not be evil but it's a fine line to walk. An example of this is the Mage Prospero in the tempest whose powers come from his dominion over the spirit Ariel, who had been trapped by the Witch Sycorax. So his powers, while neutral, and used (arguably) for good, still originated in Black Magic. Outside of Monotheism the Arcane/Divine split makes a good deal less sense.What else springs from our monotheistic principles and what do you think of this?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Andor, post: 3220754, member: 1879"] I don't mean "Can I run a D&D campaign with one god?", that's been done to death and the answer is obviously yes. I am interested in discussing the ways in which our predjudices in coming from a monotheistic society have shaped the D&D game in ways that are contrary to D&Ds own nature. For example, Good people go to the upper planes after death and are rewarded. Bad people go to the lower planes and are punished. Demons are evil incarnate. Angels are good Incarnate. Good and Evil as cosmological principles is pretty much a stand in for God and the Devil. The entire Arcane/Divine magic split is pretty much a monothestic concept. In Monotheism there are two types of magic, White magic is the miracles granted by divine intervention and the powers given to Saints. All good magic flows from God. Black Magic is magic worked by demons in trade for services and the soul of the Black Mage. The 3rd sort, Grey magic, is when the tools of a Black magician are used by others for their own ends without making an pact and is need not be evil but it's a fine line to walk. An example of this is the Mage Prospero in the tempest whose powers come from his dominion over the spirit Ariel, who had been trapped by the Witch Sycorax. So his powers, while neutral, and used (arguably) for good, still originated in Black Magic. Outside of Monotheism the Arcane/Divine split makes a good deal less sense. What else springs from our monotheistic principles and what do you think of this? [/QUOTE]

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