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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36781 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Jun 2010 : 02:04:09
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I can see arguments either way. Having one single pantheon does remove a lot of potential headaches...
But that said, it's also quite logical that people of different genetic and cultural backgrounds will worship their own deities. Many Earth cultures had different pantheons, so it makes sense to have multiple pantheons in a fantasy world, where the differences between races are more than just shading. Elves and dwarves and goblins and humies are different enough that it makes sense for there to be race-specific deities. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2010 : 04:34:06
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The problem comes in when you have to write concrete rules around such beings, or at least their religions.
For instance, two priests of two different storm Gods decide to control the wheather. One wants to send a hurricane at the country of the other priest, but the other priest instead prays for beautiful, sunny wheather. Who wins?
With only one set of gods (with different aliases),it becomes somewhat simpler for a game, even it isn't as 'realistic'. Believe me, when I ran my games I felt the more the merrier - I allowed any god the players wanted to worship, but now that I'm designing my own homebrew world I want to limit the 'powers that be'. I still want many gods, but I don't want gods with duplicate portfolios. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36781 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2010 : 05:27:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
The problem comes in when you have to write concrete rules around such beings, or at least their religions.
For instance, two priests of two different storm Gods decide to control the wheather. One wants to send a hurricane at the country of the other priest, but the other priest instead prays for beautiful, sunny wheather. Who wins?
With only one set of gods (with different aliases),it becomes somewhat simpler for a game, even it isn't as 'realistic'. Believe me, when I ran my games I felt the more the merrier - I allowed any god the players wanted to worship, but now that I'm designing my own homebrew world I want to limit the 'powers that be'. I still want many gods, but I don't want gods with duplicate portfolios.
I think, though, that you can avoid that, for the most part. Some concepts are simply bigger than one race -- like oceans or weather. And/or, each race will have different outlooks on the same concept -- like how one culture may accept death as a natural part of life, where another culture fears it. And of course, other deities are only going to care about their chosen race, and not worry about that same thing in another race.
I'm not really arguing that more or less gods are necessary. I get your point, and if I was world-building, I think I'd go for the simpler approach, myself. I'm just saying that I think both concepts -- one pantheon or many -- have a lot of pros and cons, and I don't see that either is necessarily better than the other. |
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Quale
Master of Realmslore
1757 Posts |
Posted - 03 Jun 2010 : 17:33:14
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
I have to say, I envy Eberron's ability to be free of such stereo-types and tropes.
Yea, not only the religions but the races, monsters etc. everything generic had to be included without any significant twists. In some cases I think it worked out for the better (e.g. look at Eberron halflings or kender), and sometimes it was limiting for the designers.
I think it's possible to make a simple pantheon and that it appears realistic. For example in my Realms the archetypal mother-goddess has these portfolios:
Agriculture, growth, fertility, abundance, fruitfulness, ancestry, home, family, marriage, parenthood, courtship, bees, harmony, cooperation, cooking, weaving, pottery, old age, earth, survival, necessity, needs, hunger, food, warmth, caves, ritual, sacrifice, oaths, sisterhood, birth, blood
and then you pick a few portfolios for a particular temple/''heresy''/culture/land and make e.g. Chondathan Chauntea which is the most spread out and accepted version or you can have a darker, paleolithic version where even a blood sacrifice might be necessary for survival, or any other combination.
This is from an interview with Ed
quote:
Hi! I designed Hoar as a Realms original, but all of my gods are "echoes" of some real-world deities. I put some actual real-world deities (Tyche, for instance) - - or rather their DEITIES & DEMIGODS versions - - into the original Realms pantheon, but the pantheons of Unther and Mulhorand were added to the Realms by other designers.
My original Unther and Mulhorand "echoed" the real-world Asian ancient realms east of the Mediterranean, but in the published Realms, they were detailed by other designers as very close models of real-world historical places (or their Hollywood equivalents).
Here's the real secret: if you read my Realms novels, you'll occasionally "hear" characters swearing by "all the Watching Gods."
Well, unbeknownst to all but a few sages and ancient elves, that phrase, "the Watching Gods," refers to an old, old belief among intelligent races that there are far fewer actual gods than most mortals believe, and that these fewer "Watching Gods" are unwittingly worshipped under several names by clergies and devout lay followers who see them as a variety of different beings. Some sages believe the gods themselves are partially or wholly unaware that they are "split personalities" or "aspects" of the same mighty being, while others cling to the view that this is a deliberate deception (insurance, if you will, on the part of a divine being that they will always be venerated regardless of whether this or that named god falls out of favour). A few sages believe Ao and the goddess of magic best known as Mystra are the only "uber-gods" mortals have glimpsed, and that the others are hidden behind their arrays of names (for example, just one being is behind Silvanus, Eldath, Mielikki, and most of the other nature deities).
No mortal knows the truth behind all of this, mind you, so a DM can decide whatever he or she wishes - - or choose to NOT decide, being as they can arrange matters so that mortals (including PCs) never know.
(Here, I believe, is where I'm supposed to make "Bwoohahahaha" noises.)
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Iyraclea's Rise In the Great Glacier
