Monotheological game world in 3.5

In our own history, polytheist cultures managed to have wars within themselves and not take it to mean that they all didn't worship the same gods. Likewise, both sides of a war might sacrifice to the same deity for success in battle. As for "granted powers", once again there seems to have been little idea that all "priests of Apollo" had one set of abilities while all "priests of Zeus" had another--indeed, the priests all stayed at the temples and didn't go out being adventurous.

The idea of a "priest militant" was mostly a Christian invention in Western culture. These militant clergy saw little trouble going to war against each other--cf Norman invasion of England. The British Isles are a case history in how sharing a religion and even a religious hierarchy (at least in theory) was little to no brake on warfare.

As for apportioning spheres in D&D, I recommend "package deals". They don't even have to "make sense" from a player standpoint. They would have been developed gradually, over much time, and trying to play mix-and-match would be considered most disrespectful.
 

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Take a look at the Palaestra website...

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Wayne (and his crew) have done an excellent job with Logos, the monotheistic deity worshipped by Iconium. He uses orders of saints to make divisions within the clergy in a believable way.

~ Old One
 

Old One said:
Take a look at the Palaestra website...

Palaestra

Wayne (and his crew) have done an excellent job with Logos, the monotheistic deity worshipped by Iconium. He uses orders of saints to make divisions within the clergy

But isn't that just a simplistic relexification of vanilla D&D? That's far from noteworthy.
 

I run a monothesitic game. I chose a somewhat large set of domains; the clerics can choose from them. I tried to choose some "good" ones, and some "ok" ones.

I think my list is: war, protection, good, sun, community, music, and knowledge. (The last two are only available to clerics who choose to play the cloistered cleric option from Unearthed Arcana - they can play either cloistered or normal but not both).


I figure if It is the only god in the setting, It's pretty powerful, and can grant access to a wide variety of domains. But I don't want them taking destruction and strength, and such, because that isn't what this god is about.

I haven't had any complaints.


Of course, this is a setting where arcane magic itself is illegal, wizard is not an allowed PC class, and sorcerers are hunted down and stilled.

YMMV
 

I like the idea of a monotheistic church... and dissenting factions are going to make it interesting and varied. However, I like the idea of having the dissension based in the heavens:

Basically the god almost never gets directly involved or communicates with his worshipers (he may be uncaring, incomprehensible, asleep, alien, dead, whatever). He leaves the interpretation of his will to his planetars and solars... These guys issue instructions and answer contacts, divinations, etc.

Of course they may not agree about what needs to be done and their specific agendas may colour their advice. After all, you can bet the Angel of Death and the Angel of Singing and Dancing have different approaches to problem solving. :)

Think it could make for an interesting church. And the 'guys on the ground' all are really doing the 'right thing', even when they're fighting with each other.
 

Hmmm...

Dogbrain said:
But isn't that just a simplistic relexification of vanilla D&D? That's far from noteworthy.

Maybe I am just feeling paticularly peevish today...since it is Friday and it has been a very long work week, but"

(1) The original poster was asking for alternative ways of handling a monotheistic game world religion.

(2) The work referenced, IMO, does so in an elegant manner.

(3) Your comment strikes me as particularly snide.

Have a lovely weekend.

~ Old One
 

I'm running a campaign world in which there is only one 'god.' Here's the part where I ramble on and on about how proud I am of my campaign setting. Ignore if you wish. ;)

Aunathor is the One True God of the Kethian Empire. He is the only god that is legally venerated by the empire, although cults to other powers exist. It is important to note that none of these other powers are actual gods at all. The Archomentals, Demon Lords, Arch Devils, Celestial Champions, and the Slaad Lords are merely powerful outsiders. Other cults exist that revere concepts such as Nature and The Void, but most readily accept that there is no entity behind the worship (some would argue).

This god Aunathor is served by the Seven Champions (basically take the Archon Lords from the BoED and make them servitors and champions of different concepts).
Aunathor is a deity of Goodness, Justice, and often wacky portfolio of Law. Clerics who worship under Aunathor can be LG, NG, or LN and have access to the Creation, Glory, Good, Healing, Law, Nobility, Purification, Renewal, and Sun domains. Usually clerics follow one of the champions as well. This affords them access to special domains of the concepts that the champions represent.

Barachiel serves as a a champion of warriors who spread words of peace and goodwill to the downtrodden. Clerics can be LG, NG, LN and have access to the Herald, War domains.

Domiel serves as champion of those who actively seek out evil... and stop it, usually using more 'clandestine' methods. Clerics can be LG or NG and have access to the Celestial and Retribution domains.

Pistis Sophia is a champion of those who seek both physical and mental perfection, usually monks. Clerics can be LG or LN and have access to the Celerity and Celestial domains.

Erathaol serves as champion to seers and mystics, those who seek out knowledge to better the world. Clerics can be LG or NG and have access to the Oracle and Prophecy domains.

Raziel is the crusader, the warrior who takes evil by the throat and throttles it. Clerics can be LG, NG, or LN and have access to the War and Wrath domains.

Sealtiel is the protector of the innocent and those two weak to fend for themselves. Clerics can be LG or NG and have access to the Endurance and Protection domains.

Zaphkiel is the watcher. Those who follow Zaphkiel detach themselves from the world in order to better understand their god and the world around them. Clerics can be LG, NG, or LN and have access to the Celestial and Knowledge domains.

Now despite the fact that Aunathor is a 'good' deity, many things that have been done in his name have not been good. The Long Silence was endured when all Clerics of Aunathor were stripped of their divine powers during the bloody crusades against the jungle Empire of Pomara.

The followers of the Champions also agree on very little. Raziel and Barachiel's followers get along rather well (usually), but there exists enmity between them and others like Domiel, Zaphkiel, and Erathaol. This usually doesn't result in violence although there have been incidents in the past.

The next major problem results from the fact that no one knows whether Aunathor actually exists or not. Spells that attempt to contact him are mysteriously redirected to either one of his many Solars, or one of the Champions. His worshippers know that they get there spells from *somewhere,* but they don't know where exactly.

Now, let it not be known that Aunathor is the 'only' god in the world. The Jungle Empire of Pomara worships the Creator Serpent Zul, who is served by four Couatls, the Serpents of Time, Death, Life, and Chaos respectively. Zul itself is said to be a Couatl of titanic proportions, one who created the world and left it in the hands of his four children.

The Kethians claim that Zul is a heathen deity with a heathen religion and bring into doubt its actual existence. Knowledgeable scholars, however, claim that in some of the more ancient texts surrounding Aunathor, that he was once closely associated with the couatl, but now no longer is.
 

Old One said:
(1) The original poster was asking for alternative ways of handling a monotheistic game world religion.

(2) The work referenced, IMO, does so in an elegant manner.

(3) Your comment strikes me as particularly snide.

And how does any of that, in any way, mean that the product in question is NOT just a relexification of the vanilla D&D approach? A mere relexification of vanilla D&D's approach is rather far from "alternative".
 

I regularly run monotheistic games and play in a 3rd. Each campaign had a different ways of handling this.

In my first attempt, worshippers of God venerated the various avatars sent to mankind over the eons. These avatars all revealed some "truth" about God. Each of these avatars was associated with a some significant event in the history of man and the church. For example, the avatar Paelin was a great general in man's war against the Northern Barbarians and invented the Flail. Paelin was the Avatar of War and priests who venerated him gained the war domain.

Not all domains were represented as all truths had not been revealed to mankind so there was a restricted list based on race. Gnomesm for example, had different truths revealed to them. This also made for a cool story point and the church began to fracture over different positions on arcane magic and one side of the church believed that an Avatar of Magic was coming.

The second campaign, I just let the characters picked the domains they wanted, but made them tie them into their backstory. This has worked very well. I have a human ranger/cleric with Luck & War who is considered a blessing to his people as he was the first child born in the new world. The Half-Orc war-priest took Destruction & War as he is a military leader among his people. The human cloistered cleric took Water,Knowledge & Travel since the humans are great sailors and came across a great ocean.

In the third game, the DM associated Domains with the various factions and angelic representatives. Therefore, domains tend to be grouped in a similar format. Both clerics are cloistered clerics in that game and has community, , protection & knowledge while the other worships the Angel of Death and has the Dead (custom domain), the Moon (custom domain) and Knowledge.
 

I once (in 2nd ed AD&D with all the PLayer's Options boooks) thought of doing something like a monotheistic world (LG god, all wizards get their powers from demons, etc.). Never got it off the ground, though.

One thing is you need to explain "the problem of evil". If your God is all powerful (the only kid on the block), all knowing, and good, why is their evil in the world? One answer is free will, but you still have to ask why that god allowed natural disasters to happen, etc. There are people that profess answers to these questions, I just thought you should have something ready for your world.

Mind you, nothing says the god HAS to be good...look at the Midnight monotheistic campaign setting. :)
 

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