D&D General Religion in D&D: Your Take

[Charlaquin]

I really like the approach taken in the Theros book. I wish we’d gotten more than a rudimentary 1st level adventure for that setting.

You could fairly easily port Odyssey of the Dragonlords to Theros.

 

[Voadam]

I was listening to a Great Courses on life in the ancient world and in talking about Mesopotamia and especially ancient Egypt

The ones I have listened to have been universally great.

 

[James Gasik]

In my current campaign, the Gods are organized into a loose pantheon, divided into three sub-groupings, the Gods of Law, Neutrality, and Chaos. However, this was not always the case- not all deities have similar origins, and there are minor gods who are not recognized as members of the pantheon (though some might actually be other gods in disguise). Ending about 500 years before the current time, there was a centuries-long war among the gods, when the Gods of Law did battle with those of Chaos, and the Neutrals were soon forced to choose one side or the other. A lot of Gods "died" in the process- either actually dying, or simply having their connection to the world severed (in the case of deities who are worshiped on other worlds, such as Lolth).

Syncretism runs rampant in the setting as well- if different Gods are worshiped in, say, the Iron Kingdoms to the south than in the Bordermarch of the Freeland, they could simply be the same Gods under different (or assumed) names, though most cosmopolitan characters (such as the PC's) can pretty quickly look at the faith of two differently named gods and realize "say, those two are the same guy", even if the populace might disagree.

I also use the 4e term "exarch", where a deity might have subordinate deities as well- to the point that worshiping the exarch is the same as worshiping the main deity. One of the "Gods" of Neutrality are The Brothers, twin deities who are basically exarchs of one another- you can't really worship one without the other, as, despite being two individuals, they are effectively one God.

 

[Voadam]

D&D religion is a weird chimera of myth and history, with mostly bad takes on both (at least as it relates to real world religion).

D&D started out very Conan, some characters swore by a pantheistic god but the adventure was more locally focused and mostly you saw the magical priests of Set and not Set.

Then as Greyhawk developed it got a bit more Lankhmar where you can occasionally have adventures with Death, and you quake in fear when the Gods of Lankhmar come out of their tombs and walk the city streets but often it is a fantasy heist or caper. In Greyhawk you have Iuz ruling a country, the former mayor of Greyhawk ascended, and there are quasi-deities running around but there is a lot of dungeons and cities and politics and wilderness to occupy PCs. Then it got a bit more Moorecock where the Lords of Chaos enter stories directly and the protagonist deals with them, in Greyhawk we got GDQ culminating with facing off against Lolth in the Demonwebs.

D&D has also been a weird mix of Conan and other sword and sorcery pantheism and cults mixed with a magical medieval church structure with crusading knight clerics. So lots of mixing and matching of stuff from the two ideas. Plus real world mythology stuff thrown in to the mix so Greek Pantheon stuff along with biblical miracles of mana from heaven to eat and parting water as cleric powers.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I really like the approach taken in the Theros book. I wish we’d gotten more than a rudimentary 1st level adventure for that setting.

You could fairly easily port Odyssey of the Dragonlords to Theros.

Never been particularly interested in Theros as a setting - it's fine, really, just not big on MtG stuff - so its gods don't do much for me, but as far as I'm concerned, the Piety system deserves to be a core tool for religious characters everywhere.

 

[pukunui]

You could fairly easily port Odyssey of the Dragonlords to Theros.

I’ve already attempted to run that campaign once. Never again! (If only Theros had come out sooner, maybe it would have worked out better than it did.)

Never been particularly interested in Theros as a setting - it's fine, really, just not big on MtG stuff - so its gods don't do much for me, but as far as I'm concerned, the Piety system deserves to be a core tool for religious characters across all settings.

If we’re lucky, we’ll get the fleshed out Piety system in the new DMG.

 

[Distracted DM]

If we’re lucky, we’ll get the fleshed out Piety system in the new DMG.

Considering we have a good idea of each chapter now, that looks to be a vain hope.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

In Jewel of the Desert, I have aimed to include a variety of traditions and avoided any conclusive proof that any one of them is truly "right."

The Safiqi worship "the One," a pre-gender monotheistic deity, claimed to be the creator of the cosmos, omnipotent and omnipresent etc. The Kahina, druids and shaman, perceive the One as "merely" the strongest of city-spirits. Both of these views have complexities to them, flaws that make.it impossible to take their positions exactly as stated. And then there are yet other views, such as the totemic worship of the Eastern horse-riders, or the loa, which are commonly worshipped in several isles of the Sapphire Sea.

The one true celestial the party has met (a couatl, Tlacalicue, "Daylight-Her-Skirt") explicitly told one of the PCs that the One is quite well aware that there is no irrefutable, unquestionable proof of Their claims, and implied that They prefer it that way. Not even magic can truly prove these things; they must always be a matter of faith.

Seeing as how I'm the only openly religious person in the group, I have often solicited feedback on whether I have handled this well, and the players have consistently said yes. So I think I can trust them on that front.

 

[pukunui]

Considering we have a good idea of each chapter now, that looks to be a vain hope.

Oh, I wasn’t aware of that.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Eh, I think a generic version of the Piety system could fit into the DM's Toolkit pretty easily - certainly not a full "here's a detailed list of benefits for every deity" like in Theros, but guidelines for building such a list and an example or two.