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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sepulchrave II" data-source="post: 7963932" data-attributes="member: 4303">It seems that a common assumption in D&D is one of characters who practice a form of monolatry. Whilst acknowledging other deities, a character – if they revere a god at all – will typically focus on a single tutelary or patron to the exclusion of other divinities: e.g. my character worships Heironeous. Greyhawk in some ways established this standard, but I suspect that this monolatrous tendency has its basis in pulp fantasies like Conan, where the protagonist has a particular patron deity.In the case of clerics – or other classes with explicitly cultic functions – this single-minded devotion to one deity is cogent (although not necessarily necessary). Outside of a priestly context it seems a little odd, given what we know of how people have behaved historically when a smorgasbord of cults are available to choose from, and when there are no dogmatic controls on the types of worship permitted.In fact, we would expect many individuals to be members of any number of cults, and at the very least invoke a variety of gods for various purposes. In this context, salvific cults don’t so much vie for devotees, as offer an opportunity for a kind of multiple Pascal’s wager; new or fashionable cults are exciting; orgiastic cults – if unrestrained by some other moral voice – are predictably popular.Religious gatherings also offer an opportunity to socialize: an initiate exting a vault after a Mithraic mystery on Monday might plausibly turn to their neighbour and arrange to meet them at the Herculean rite on Wednesday or the Bacchanalia on Friday. Late Classical Antiquity  offers a model for a culturally relaxed form of polytheism, where perhaps some kind of practice might be mandated (e.g. you must offer sacrifices to the patron deity of the royal house, or venerate the emperor), but none is forbidden (otherwise, it’s up to you).Historically, monolatrous practices evolved in Bronze- and Iron Age ethnopolities and city states, where a particular deity had a strong association with a geographical region and/or the tribe or group which inhabited it. They developed and changed as states began to centralize and the machinery of priesthood became more influential; societies came to attach more-and-more power and significance to their ethnodeity.Like many other conceits in a typical D&D-verse, ideas about worship are a mixture of the achronistic, the ahistorical, and pure fantasy.</blockquote>

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