Monotheism?

[RingXero]

I have used in my campaign civilizations that were monotheistic, in that the people of that area believed that only one diety existed. The world as a whole was not monotheistic though, and other dieties existed.

Diety and Demigods puts forth two instances that are 'not traditional d&d' One is a Monotheistic diety, and the other is a set of two dieties, which I guess could just be combined for a two aspects of one diety thing for a monothiestic religion, similar to the 'holy trinity' thought line of the Catholic Church. (Catholic, not all christians, and not saying its wrong, or that Catholicism is a poly religion, etc...)

Anyway, it worked well, the group/land mass of peoples that were monotheistic eventually declared a holy war against the other land mass/countries, as they (believers of a poly system)were seen as tainted by evil demons, liars, thieves, descievers, etc...


RX

 

[the Jester]

My campaign world's primary religion, Galadorianism, is allegedly monotheistic. There are other, mostly underground and historically persecuted, religions as well.

I say "allegedly" because there's Galador, his Son (Dexter), Dexter's descendant God-Emperor Prayzose, and of course Bleak, the devil figure.

Galador ignited the sun one million years ago in the moment of Solurnustice. Dexter was actually a pc who started off as a (2e) psionicist who revered Bleak, was captured and tortured by the inquisition til he renounced Bleak and changed alignment to N from NE, started having visions and eventually dual-classed into cleric. Prayzose is his descendant; he is actually MIA right now. All three of them have different "branches" of the faith attached to them, but are considered roughly interchangable (God/Jesus type of thing).

 

[willpax]

The major religion of my campaign world is monotheistic: there is one creator deity who started the universe into motion, and built into that design certain moral precepts, but does not otherwise interfere in things. This religion is even more like some earthly ones in that it is based in a set of ancient holy writings, and many sectarian squabbles within this faith concern differences in interpretation of these holy writings.

There are other kingdoms who do not share this faith: animistic tribes in the remote woods and hills, and a very materialistic polytheistic mercantile nation to the south (their basic tenets are: might makes right, our gods are mighty, so must be appeased through the proper rituals, wealth is a sign of the favor of the gods, and only your fate in this world matters).

I also have a race of lizardmen who worship dragons as totem figures.

I sidestep some of the issues of clerical power by understanding clerical spells as being powered by the collective belief of the followers rather than directly from any particular deity, and by claiming that most priests can't cast spells--only a select few have been given divine gifts.

 

[Seraphael]

I have toyed with the idea of having a single, monotheistic, deity worshipped by a single culture (something like a generic cleric from 2e), but there needs to be something to religiously differentiate different cultures. Religious differences are traditionally an important source of conflict (at least in european history).

The two things that I considered was the creation of semi-divine servitors that acted much like demi-powers (all would have access to a single domain that defines the true god - good, for example - and one or two others that define whatever they have dominion over) much like saints or angels. Hinduism does this on a much grander scale, with each god being viewed as an aspect of a more powerful god so that everyone is actually worshipping the same god in different aspects.

The second idea would be to have the domains (and possibly dogma) vary between sects or groups. Again, drawing from a christian example, the Knights Templars and Franciscan monks were both priests of the same religion, but they would be following vastly different ideas about what their god represents. The same thing could be applied to branches of different religions.

And, of course, you'll likely want to set up rival deities or religions in other regions. Since you say that fiends will play a major role in your campaign, maybe you could consider having the foes of your characters homeland worship the most powerful of those fiends. It certainly would create tension between the two groups.

Diety and Demigods puts forth two instances that are 'not traditional d&d' One is a Monotheistic diety, and the other is a set of two dieties, which I guess could just be combined for a two aspects of one diety thing for a monothiestic religion, similar to the 'holy trinity' thought line of the Catholic Church. (Catholic, not all christians, and not saying its wrong, or that Catholicism is a poly religion, etc...)

Just to clarify what seems to be a misconception, I know of at least three protestant denominations that also use the holy trinity concept. Until you mentioned it I assumed it was universal among protestants as well (I also assumed the same of the eastern orthodox churches, although I have much less experience with their theological positions). Anyway, I guess I learned something new today.

 

[Azuretiger]

There have been some excellent answers so far, and the homebrew sounds top notch. To be honest , I have also been toying with the idea of monotheism in my world.

However to pull off the idea that I have (basing the major religions of the world on Dogma derived mainly from different monotheistic prophets) I feel I need a better definitioin of Divine magic than the one presented in the core books. [As in divine magic being either channelled through Deities or coming from nature]

The problem also is not to complicate things to the point that I start to lose my players interest

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The world that I'm running a campaign in has a monotheistic region. There is also an empire to the south that is polytheistic, a republic that is atheistic (well, actually they believe in the gods of the polytheistic empire--they just reject them and preserve their souls when they die similar to the Soul Hunters from Babylon 5). There are also a number of orc and human tribes which mix polytheism with animism.

I imagine it would be rather difficult and probably not workable to create a monotheistic religion that didn't bear a resemblance to real world monotheistic religions (although I guess D&D has done a pretty good job of creating a bunch of polytheistic religions that don't resemble real world polytheism so it might be possible). I have based my monotheistic religion on Judaism with a mixture of early Christian and medieval catholic structure and a theology that is probably as much Islamic as it is Christian or Jewish. (Actually, I haven't really gotten down to the nuts and bolts of its soteriology which is really the key difference between the three faiths; it's not as internally consistent as I would like).

Regarding clerical magic: priests of all faiths cast spells. Priests of the monotheistic religion cast spells from different domains based upon the angel or saint who appeared to them in the vision calling them to their God's service. It would also be workable to simply say the Most High simply granted different gifts to different people so that they could perform the different tasks that were set before them. (That's not to say that they necessarily view their God differently--just that they have different functions in His service. For example, Moses and Joshua both shared the same view of their God but He exhibited His power through them in dramatically different ways). Priests of the other faiths have powers according to what their gods domains are supposed to be.

I don't actually see any problems with the internal consistency of my world even though all the priests cast spells almost as well as each other (there will have to be some significant limitations on summoning spells and Raise Dead/etc. type spells but none of the clerics in my campaign have been using them. . . .) The priests of the monotheistic region theorize that demons may be answering the prayers of the pagan priests. And the atheists' Keepers of the Dead must draw their power from the imprisoned souls of their magically powerful ancestors. The polytheistic priests have no trouble explaining why the monotheistic God's priests have spells: He's obviously a local deity of some sort or perhaps they simply worship a member of the Imperial Pantheon by a different name. His priests may have some powers that they can't duplicate but you don't see them animating dead either. It's obvious that his powers are limited to his domains just like all the other deities.

Of course, there is a Truth to the matter, but that's not something that the various PCs and NPCs in the story know.

 

[RangerWickett]

I kinda agree with Elder Basilisk. My setting has as much diversity in religion and magic as the real world has in its history. There are several nations that follow Christianity as their state religion (with a few small changes made to fit the different geography of my world). A lot of roving Orcs are the Herethim, the equivalent to Old Testament Jews who wandered until God would bless them with the promised land.

I also have the various Elvish religions, almost all of which are based upon an eight-faceted structure of reality, with 8 primary gods united in a single essence, and numerous lesser gods handling the smaller details of the world.

Many Gnomish cultures are animists, revering spirits much the same way tribal Africans or Native Americans do, believing that a properly worshipped or appeased spirit can grant a type of magic appropriate to it.

Then there are a few mixed-race nations with general polytheistic beliefs. One distant continent on which magic does not function has a modernized version of Mayan-Aztecan-Olmecan beliefs, complete with ritual executions of criminals, freaks, and the mentally insane, to appease the gods.

And of course Dragons, many of whom either believe they themselves are gods, or who worship the spirit of an ancient, dead dragon whose blood flows through the veins of all living creatures.

Or so they think.

Everyone's magic works fine. A few people do things a little differently, as befits their beliefs, but all magic works just fine. In order to avoid complications, I just don't say who's right, if anyone is. I mean, in the real world, everyone believes what they believe, but they can't prove it. Magic works the same way in my world: even if you see a clear, obvious 'miracle' that someone claims is the blessing of their god, any other person who disagrees with them can easily get away by thinking, "He's using witchcraft," or "He's just a charlatan," or "Big deal, priests of a dozen other religions can do the sam thing."

So yeah, I have a monotheistic religion or two in my setting. In no way do I think it is an unworkable idea for fantasy. Afterall, fantasy is just Earth with spells instead of machines, and if there can be monotheistic religions here, well then . . . why not in fantasy?

 

[Tonguez]

It is interesting to consider that the three major Monotheisitic faiths or Earth (four if you split Catholics and Protestants) all worship the same God and yest have utterly different doctrines and beleifs and a history of animosity which is perfect fuel for game plots!

I use a Monotheist church based on medieval catholicism but with a significant mix of sects, heretical cults and Demon-cuults to add flavour.
My cleric PCs can be drawn from the militant Knights of the Cross, the more friar like Poor Brothers (alt.cleric), the cloistered academic Erudite monks (including some Arcane spell casters!) or the grim Holy Inquisitors.

Angel-figures are active as are various animistic spirits and fey thus rounding out the world...

 

[BiggusGeekus]

The "Big Empire" in my campaign is monotheistic (with some nice pagan undertones).

The way I handle it is to have the one big god, but he has four representatives that are sort of like saints. The cleric of the monotheistic god must choose which saint to follow and picks two domains from that saint's portfolio. BUT! Each of those saints has four "paragons" (kind of like mini-saints). Each paragon represents one of the saint's domains. At the start of every level, the cleric may choose which two of the four paragons he is paying homage to. So, in exchange for following a rigid faith, the cleric gains the ability to swap out domains to a limited extent.

The players seem to like it.

 

[gamecat]

You and gamecat one and the same or what's the connection?

I doubt we are the same, as Rheo lacks my impeccable grammar, perfect spelling and refined, condecending nature. But truly, peewee and I go far back and he is an excellent player.