Thomas Bowman
First Post
There was plenty of war in polytheistic times, the Romans even had a god of War. I still maintain that its no coincidence that the borders of the Roman province of Gaul approximate the borders of modern France. Britain has natural borders of its own, there is a good chance that island would have been united anyway regardless of whether there was Christianity or not. Christianity by the way is a middle eastern import, Europeans adopted it, but Christianity didn't make them into the people they were, they were already those people. Germans were Germans, Brits were Brits, their languages may have ended up different, but we allow for that in a role playing game. Whatever language is spoken at the gaming table, we assume is translated into whatever languages our characters speak in their setting. I posit that the Roman Empire would have still fallen even if there wasn't Christianity, so 1500 years later would would still have a bunch of nations in Europe, some not getting along too well, they would be pagan nations perhaps.I will judiciously avoid references to the role of Christianity in WWII and would recommend that others do likewise; this thread will have a very short life, otherwise.
The reason that I asked where the “separation” date between our own history and this parallel history lies, is that – after, say 30 CE as you suggest – it becomes increasingly difficult to justify subsequent structures (e.g. the Eastern Roman Empire) which are predicated on complex systems which include religion. The further removed in time a system is from this initial bifurcation point, the more implausible it becomes that a “parallel” system which resembles it comes to evolve. And the length of time involved – you are suggesting almost 1500 years – would, I submit, be long enough to change the shape of the world completely beyond recognition.
Monotheism – when employed in the service of an imperial philosophy – is a very effective tool for consolidating power and homogenizing culture; it is uniquely suited to creating an “us” (those who believe and practice as we do) and “them” (those whose religious practices differ) justification for war and conquest. Where polytheism prevails and absolute truth claims do not hold this kind of weight, different mechanisms also tend to drive the justification – bear in mind that whatever the justification, resource control and population pressure are invariably the actual motivators for war.
To suggest that an entity (say Britannia) retains its cultural and linguistic identity after such a time is unlikely, given what we know of human migrations, invasions and annexations. To say that many or all former Roman provinces have retained their identities is highly implausible; you are describing small polities that have effectively remained static in their culture and borders for over 1000 years. This simply doesn’t happen.
The Classic Roman Pantheon did tend to absorb other pantheons over time, they did that with the Greeks for example, the Norse Deities have their own parallels. The reason one avoids Christianity in an RPG is because there are many Christians today, so just as we need pagan deities in the Forgotten Realms, we could use some historic pagan deities in this setting, and if these gods in this setting are more than just some people's beliefs, then the gods themselves will personally have a role to play. It is Dungeons and Dragons after all.