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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 264937" data-attributes="member: 3146">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.</blockquote>

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