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Message: <blockquote data-quote="s/LaSH" data-source="post: 328081" data-attributes="member: 6929">Well, here's my two cents:I'm Catholic and also run a campaign set in pseudohistorical medieval Europe, so I've had to deal with this too. Here's how I put it:The world isn't ours. There are differences, especially in the way things work down at a basic level. For example, the world really is made up of four elements in varying combinations.More importantly, there are different planes of existance, which the theologians have divided into 'upper' (good) and 'lower' (evil), with Earth in the middle. This isn't strictly accurate, as it fails to account for the elemental planes, and in fact there are plenty of other 'worlds' out there that are neither good nor evil. However, the good and evil planes still exist, and are flooded with energy of the respective types.Clerics have been trained to channel this energy (from the upper planes in the case of Christians, Jews and Muslims). This neatly allows them to follow the game mechanics, while also allowing them to beat up on religions following the same philosophy but different politics, and act outside a mandate of relying on miracles. The energy flow attunes their entire being to a certain alignment, so an evil caster finds good magic abhorrent and cannot handle it.This does require some justification, as divine magic then becomes no different to arcane magic and thus runs a risk of the sin of vanity as expressed in previous posts. There is one important historical change I made that hopefully removes this.Magic (especially arcane magic) fills the role of technology above a certain point. Where traditional Egyptians might have used an acid cell to electroplate their artifacts (and they did), these nonhistorical Egyptians used shocking grasp spells. Where a blast furnace might be used to forge steel (about which I know very little), the dwarves of my world have a mage to do it.Of course, very few spells above level 3 are available to arcane casters in the Middle Ages because they represent high technology, and I ruled that fireball was only available in China (replacing their development of gunpowder weapons) at that time. I don't think a sorcerer would have any such problems, because their magic is instinctive, not learned, under the traditional rules.Also, it never entered my mind that I might involve God or Satan in the campaign directly. They'd be far too powerful. (Infinity and the thing directly below infinity, respectively.) Messengers and representatives of more powerful races is as far as I'd go.This is just my world, and it's more fantastic than you might be looking for; I've replaced whole areas of Europe with elves, got gnolls working for Saladin, and introduced a dragon that once destroyed a Roman legion because they got on his bad side. Check out my webcomic (it's in my sig) for more details.Right, on to some other points:Lucifer, Morning Star, was the greatest of the angels, to memory, even greater than Michael (who nevertheless is prophecied to beat him, I think). Legend and lore gives him (if you can call such a mighty being 'him') powers such as wishes, and the whole malefic witchcraft thing certainly attributes him the ability to grant followers powers. (An important note: English common law distinguished between white and black magic, but Continental law didn't. Also, witches rode their broomsticks with the bristles out the front.) So if you do decide to personify him, he's probably greater than anything else, including Michael (who might have been training, DragonBallZ style, to beat him).Angels themselves are mighty beings. I don't know whether they can die or be killed (probably not), and they don't tend to grant powers. They do, however, have great abilities that they can use directly. This also goes for demons, which are just fallen angels. If you still want the players to have a show in Hell  if they go up against these things, I'd consider using either avatars (the demons they fight are just shadows of the demon's true self) or making the 'rules demons' 'just' native inhabitants of other planes or creations of the true demons.Finally, a word on other religions. I've been reading Gibbon's Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire, which discusses the rise of Christianity at one point, and it seems that early theologians decided that these gods either didn't exist or were demons trying to co-opt the souls of mortals. If I may, I'll suggest a further alternative: They're simply beings far greater than us, immortal or nearly so, and wielding incredible powers. Again, there are few records of powers granted to followers, although some created artifacts that could be wielded by nearly anybody (Aphrodite's girdle of irresistability was sometimes borrowed, although I can't say the same for Mjolnir).Of course, there is no place in the Bible for such 'third-option' gods; they're greater than humans, but live on Earth, not Heaven or Hell. Personally, I believe that the Universe began in the Big Bang, and if humans try to say we're the purpose of creation, better than anything else in the Universe, we're guilty of sinful arrogance, but if a gaming universe began in the biblical fashion, then these 'gods' couldn't have arisen in that fashion, so they're either demons or tricks.Well, exchange rates considered, this was actually worth less than one US penny. Oh well. Hope it's useful.</blockquote>

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