Monotheism

[tleilaxu]

Can't resist...

[Begin Hijack]

In fact, Bhakti - devotion to a personal Deity (usually Shiva, Kali or Vishnu) - is much more widespread. Bhakti can be Monotheistic - although often it is Henotheistic.

Henotheism is "One-God-at-a-time-ism" - i.e. today Kali is God, tomorrow Shiva is God, next week Kali is God again, RIGHT NOW Vishnu is God. Etc. etc.

This is a quote from "The Philosophy of Religion" by Yeager Hudson; 1991 Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View
(Pg 35)

"An interesting variation on polytheism can be observed in the historical evolution of Hebrew religion during a phase called henotheism. This is the belief that each tribe or people has its own god, local to a particular territory and responsible for the well-being of its own people. In Hebrew scriptures, these gods are depicted as fighting against one another when the tribes go to war."

To me, this reminds me of mascots. The wolverine is the god of University of Michigan (*snip* please no speculation on the nature of real-world religions. Instruction is all right, so the thread is still staying but speculation is not -- Dinkeldog).

 

[Kareyev]

I'm in the mists of creating a campaign with a monotheistic religion. The campaign is centered around the activities of a Merchant Guild and not the church, but to help players have a reason to player a cleric working for the guild I decided early on that the two would have to have at least neutral relations, if not one of mutual support. As trade requires a somewhat stable environment to thrive I decided that the main embodiment of the church would have generally LN tenancies.

I too wanted the god figure to be able to dip into any alignment and domain so a neutral figure didn't work for me. From the church's public view LN is the standard, but within the church there are those with different views. The Church and Guild use these aspects help themselves grown in power. For the farmer/laborer of the lands they send simple priests who seek to help the meek. This is also a major view the Church promotes publicly. When a dark deed is needed to root out someone uncooperative they may use someone with a darker aspect, but this would be done quietly.

But how do you make a deity that would be ok with this approach? I decided that the Church believes that the power just wants to be worshiped. The Church believes that the Diety is not particular about how it happens and is patient to see what ways mortals will develop to worship. Most of the common folk only know of the aspect the Church uses publicly. Other forms do still exist, but they are hidden from the view of the common man. Druids in their groves, Orcish Shamans in the mountains. Of course the church may be wrong about there view. But that is something for my players to figure out. [insert evil laugh]

Now one other major aspect of this campaign is that the Guild is about to make contact with another culture that is very different. For this different culture I needed another outlook on Religion that would fit into this same mold. For this culture I decided that they see a Diety as a manifestation of their morality. Nullists seeking to reveal that the world does not exist. Platoists believing that everything has a perfect form. Aristotlists seeking to measure and categories things. Spinozains believing in a free will of the individual. I'm sure you get the idea. (Just finished reading Sophie's World so my head is flooded with philosophy at the moment.)

As for a PC changing domains after the initial creation I had not really thought about it. If a character had a major personality change for some reason I probably would go along with it, but there would have to be a good reason why and perhaps a slight disruption in the clerics power during the transition.

Dogmatic struggles within a monotheistic church should be a given. When there is only one power everyone is going to want their view of that power to be right. Especially if it could mean bringing that person closer to their goals, whether they be good or evil. In my own campaign the Guild will be warned if they use the darker side of the Church too much. There will be those in the Church who will question how close should the Guild and Church be regardless of this. And then word of these new religious perceptions will be flooding in from the new culture challenging the power of the Church from within and without. And then there is this monk who keeps nailing questions about the nature of the diety on the front door....

Hope that gives you some good ideas! Let us know what you come up with.

Cheers.

 

[BluWolf]

Kareyev,
Sounds a lot like the Jesuits and the English in Japan!!

Have you read Shogun?

 

[FireLance]

I've also been toying with the idea of having just one God in a new campaign I'm starting, and have decided to play it as follows:

1. The Divine Mind is infinite, and is thus able to encompass an infinity of ideas, some of which are apparently contradictory: Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, Death and Healing, Destruction and Protection, etc.

2. The mind of man, being finite, can hold only a limited number of non-contradictory concepts at once.

3. With special training and dedication to these concepts, mortals can work divine magic. However, God supports all domains and philosophies equally.

4. God Is. He simply exists and He doesn't have to justify anything to anyone, least of all mortal clerics. However, if as the DM you want to ascribe a motive to God, you could try one of the following:

a) God merely wishes to promote belief in the Divine. Any philosophy is acceptable because it raises the consciousness of man above everyday concerns and focuses it on a higher purpose.

b) God is undecided. He promotes a variety of philosophies in an attempt to single out the "best" one for Him to follow.

c) To God, all philosophies are necessary and part of a Divinely functioning whole. He will only be concerned when one philosophy starts to dominate and eliminate the others.

 

[fusangite]

It occurs to me that a number of posts have referenced Deism, the popular Enlightenment philosophy (to which Voltaire was an adherent). Desits saw God as the 'divine clock maker' -- he set the systems of the universe in motion like a great clockword and then withdrew.

 

[Kareyev]

BluWolf - You bet! The lands are going to be much closer together than Japan and Europe, but I am planning to use some of the plot lines from Shogun in the campaign.

fusangite - Good observation. Deism and Monism do seem to be strong themes above. Perhaps to throw out a variation on these two thems perhaps is something like what St. Augustine taught to merge early Christian and Platonic thought. (i.e. the nature of the diety could be that "good" is the presence of of God and "evil" is its absense.)

 

[Jack Daniel]

Monotheism really does present three basic options:

Deism: Clerics draw their divine power from a big cosmic sign that says "God Wuz Here." Good if you want to make a campaign world feel "abandoned" and mysterious, or ripe for conquest by lesser deities.

Monism: God is all, so good and evil clerics alike draw their power from Him; possibly hard to reconcile, but good for a high-philosophy campaign.

Classical: (My personal favorite) God is the #1 promoter of heroes in the great universal battle of good vs. evil; the only reason he doesn't smite Satan out of existence right here and now is because he loves all his creations, even the devil, and because those humans and elves and whatnot deserve their fifteen minutes of fame for whacking demons. Very easy to implement as the basis of any hack&slash campaign because it's not overly complex.

 

[shadow]

Great Thread! I've always had a problem with polytheism in D&D. The standard D&D polytheistic system forces certain assumptions upon campaigns. Moreover, unlike real polytheism (Such as the Greek, Egyption, or Babylonian gods) the gods of D&D have really been pigeonholed to the D&D game. For example you have a god of thieves for the rogue characters, a god of war for the fighter characters and a few evil gods to perform the "villian" role. Yet there is never a god of agriculture, a god of hunting, or a god of fertility, even though such concepts were almost universal in ancient religions.
That is why IMC, I go with a monothiestic religion. My campaign is loosely modeled after medieval dramas such as L'Morte du Aurthor. IMC there is a large monotheistic religion, vaguely reminiscent of the Medieval Roman Catholic Church. IMC clerics are pretty rare, which means that clerics have to follow a code of conduct similar to that of the paladin. Evil clerics exist, also, but they draw power from the "Evil One, a devil type figure. Really, in that regard I suppose that my campaign borders on dualism, but it portrays good as stronger than evil, unlike true dualism. Since it is based somewhat on real Judeo-Christian believes I try not to focus to much on religion and religious tenents lest I offend any of the players.

 

[Jack Daniel]

Don't you mean La Morte d'Arthur?

That is another good point to make regarding a monotheistic campaign: cleric rarity. D&D assumes that every priest in a religion is a spellcasting cleric because the gods of the standard campaigns are very active. That might not be so in a world with one deity.

IMC, for example, the vast majority of the clergy are warriors (the warrior-monks) and experts (the scholar-clerics). When a priest with the power to lay on hands or work greater miracles comes along (PC paladins and clerics) it's a rare thing. Likewise, that talent might go to someone who isn't clergy or a knight at all, but perhaps just some backwater faith-healer or even a member of a "pagan" religion (NPC adept) who lacks the training of a cleric or paladin. With the right combat training, this nature-honoring healer-herbalist might get adventurous (ranger) or scholarly (druid) and grow in divine power. And odds are, word of the miracle-worker will grow and the player will quickly learn that his character is unusual in the campaign world.