On Gods and Clerics.
Nov. 28th, 2010 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreStill reading the Kushiel's Legacy series, no into the second trilogy. But the religion of Terre D'Ange and how faith is handled in other lands has got me to thinking about religion in FRPGs.
Religion is a vital part of life for most people, especially in your typical fantasy setting where the evidence for the existence of the divine is right in your face everyday. Clerics can heal wounds, call down the wrath of the gods, and even raise the dead! Faith isn't really a part of the equation, in these settings you worship the gods for the same reason we obey the law - the penalties for failure are very real. But sadly, when it comes to the actual role of clerics, most games and settings fall short. Sure, there are lists of gods and each city has a temple district, but it ends there. What does the faith demand of it's worshipers? What are the holy days? What sacrifices are required? What does the religion teach about dealing with strangers? What is anathema to the faithful? These details can really make a religion live. Especially for the clerics.
FRPGs tend to treat clerics as walking medicine chests. Moderately effective combatants who cast "Cure Light Wounds" after every melee. Order of the Stick has a lot of fun with this stereotype. But beyond carrying a generic holy symbol and probably having the name of their deity scribbled on the character sheet somewhere, rarely is there anything more to indicate that this is a person who has dedicated his life to the worship of a deity or set of deities. What order does this cleric represent? What rules must he follow? As a priest, is he obligated to render service to fellow members of the faith? What are the politics of the order like? Again, these are all details that improve a game. Even Friar Tuck never forgot that his main role in the Merry Men was to serve as their spiritual adviser. D&D Third Edition addressed some of these concerns with Clerical Domains, so each god had specific focus and granted unique spells and abilities to their priests. (I also got rid of the stupid weapon restrictions ages ago.) Religion is as much a part of the setting as the map, it should be as detailed.
Then there's the nature of the gods. Kushiel's Legacy posits that there is one True God, the creator of the universe, but he is removed from his creation. Instead, he works through angels/demigods. Yeshuva was one of these (although his sacrifice led directly to the creation of Elua, see above link for the whole story) and other deities in other places seem to follow the "local focus, limited reign" model. This world's version of Venice, for example, is protected by Asherat-of-the-Sea, an ocean goddess and patroness of the city. Her power seems to be limited to the northern Adriatic; although it might be that her protection would be conferred on ships blessed by her priesthood. So you have a patchwork of local deities of varying scope. Interestingly, there is some evidence that a deity's powers can extend even into lands not consecrated to them (I'm think of the bone priests here). But it does create an interesting scenario for gaming; the cleric is less effective in lands with few worshipers or shrines to his patron god. This gives conversion a new urgency.
There's another model for the gods. In this one there is but one deity for each of the classic archetypes. There is War, Sun, Ocean, Healing, etc,. War is every aspect of war, from bloody slaughter to grand strategy to chivalrous orders. Each culture that worships War puts their own face the god. Thus barbarians see War as a god of slaughter and pillage, while the civilization facing those barbarians might see War as a virtuous shield-maiden, eternally guarding the frontier. War doesn't care, the prayers of both cultures reach him, and all he cares about is the fighting. The same goes for all the other deities. Asherat-of-the-Sea is just the local name for Ocean, Apollo is just another local cult of the Sun. This allows for a more universal use of clerical powers, but has some disturbing implications for the campaign. If all the gods of war are one god, why worship the god who sends waves of barbarians against you? This is far more a setting of immensely powerful beings that see mortals as tools and toys.
No matter what course you take in your game, make the religious world as important as the other details of world building. The campaign will be better for it.
Religion is a vital part of life for most people, especially in your typical fantasy setting where the evidence for the existence of the divine is right in your face everyday. Clerics can heal wounds, call down the wrath of the gods, and even raise the dead! Faith isn't really a part of the equation, in these settings you worship the gods for the same reason we obey the law - the penalties for failure are very real. But sadly, when it comes to the actual role of clerics, most games and settings fall short. Sure, there are lists of gods and each city has a temple district, but it ends there. What does the faith demand of it's worshipers? What are the holy days? What sacrifices are required? What does the religion teach about dealing with strangers? What is anathema to the faithful? These details can really make a religion live. Especially for the clerics.
FRPGs tend to treat clerics as walking medicine chests. Moderately effective combatants who cast "Cure Light Wounds" after every melee. Order of the Stick has a lot of fun with this stereotype. But beyond carrying a generic holy symbol and probably having the name of their deity scribbled on the character sheet somewhere, rarely is there anything more to indicate that this is a person who has dedicated his life to the worship of a deity or set of deities. What order does this cleric represent? What rules must he follow? As a priest, is he obligated to render service to fellow members of the faith? What are the politics of the order like? Again, these are all details that improve a game. Even Friar Tuck never forgot that his main role in the Merry Men was to serve as their spiritual adviser. D&D Third Edition addressed some of these concerns with Clerical Domains, so each god had specific focus and granted unique spells and abilities to their priests. (I also got rid of the stupid weapon restrictions ages ago.) Religion is as much a part of the setting as the map, it should be as detailed.
Then there's the nature of the gods. Kushiel's Legacy posits that there is one True God, the creator of the universe, but he is removed from his creation. Instead, he works through angels/demigods. Yeshuva was one of these (although his sacrifice led directly to the creation of Elua, see above link for the whole story) and other deities in other places seem to follow the "local focus, limited reign" model. This world's version of Venice, for example, is protected by Asherat-of-the-Sea, an ocean goddess and patroness of the city. Her power seems to be limited to the northern Adriatic; although it might be that her protection would be conferred on ships blessed by her priesthood. So you have a patchwork of local deities of varying scope. Interestingly, there is some evidence that a deity's powers can extend even into lands not consecrated to them (I'm think of the bone priests here). But it does create an interesting scenario for gaming; the cleric is less effective in lands with few worshipers or shrines to his patron god. This gives conversion a new urgency.
There's another model for the gods. In this one there is but one deity for each of the classic archetypes. There is War, Sun, Ocean, Healing, etc,. War is every aspect of war, from bloody slaughter to grand strategy to chivalrous orders. Each culture that worships War puts their own face the god. Thus barbarians see War as a god of slaughter and pillage, while the civilization facing those barbarians might see War as a virtuous shield-maiden, eternally guarding the frontier. War doesn't care, the prayers of both cultures reach him, and all he cares about is the fighting. The same goes for all the other deities. Asherat-of-the-Sea is just the local name for Ocean, Apollo is just another local cult of the Sun. This allows for a more universal use of clerical powers, but has some disturbing implications for the campaign. If all the gods of war are one god, why worship the god who sends waves of barbarians against you? This is far more a setting of immensely powerful beings that see mortals as tools and toys.
No matter what course you take in your game, make the religious world as important as the other details of world building. The campaign will be better for it.
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Date: 29 Nov 2010 00:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Nov 2010 00:51 (UTC)1. Is the power of a particular god tied to the amount of veneration it gets in the mundane world?
2. If not, why do the gods care about the goings on among mortals?
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Date: 29 Nov 2010 01:20 (UTC)Nothing on TV?
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Date: 29 Nov 2010 06:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 29 Nov 2010 05:05 (UTC)The reasons for them to care are as varied as the reasons for us to do things, although in most cases, it's for the same reason you might care what goes on in another country when you run your own; things that happen THERE may affect you. All but the most powerful of gods are vulnerable to SOME things the mortal world could do, if they were willing to, and things the mortals do can rebound upon the worlds of the gods.
Some gods are CREATED to be representations of given concepts, species, etc., and thus they care because it is in their nature to do so.
Some (few) gods don't actually give a crap, except when occasionally something happening "down there" really, honestly DOES impinge upon their activities, or when another god asks them for help.
The most powerful also recognize that the mortals are still a powerful force and ignoring them, whether you do or don't get power from them worshiping you, is just plain stupid. It was the mortals, after all, who built Atlantaea, the civilization so powerful that it basically made Kerlamion Blackstar, the King of All Hells, one of the mightiest beings in all creation, PANIC and try to find a way to wipe them out. And the echoes of that panic, and that civilization, are still having an effect now, half a million years after Atlantaea fell.
no subject
Date: 29 Nov 2010 06:36 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Dec 2010 03:28 (UTC)Regarding the archetypes: It may not be sufficient. For instance, the Glorantha setting (RuneQuest) has 2 gods in 1 pantheon who would both be considered War. 1 is the savage barbarian, the other is the strategist.
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Date: 1 Jun 2011 03:23 (UTC)P.S. Good to see you at BayCon! :)
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Date: 1 Jun 2011 03:42 (UTC)1) Good questions! I might add a few more such as: how does the religion interact with and support the culture? Does every household maintain a holy hearth, or are there grandly soaring cathedrals? The former implies a lack of social hierarchy, no need of a religious caste or tithing to support them, reverence towards the women who are the keepers of the hearth, and possibly even no need for the culture to remain settled in one fiercely defended locale. The latter suggests extreme social specialization, strongly or rigidly defined hierarchies, a theocratic government or a ruler by divine right, the requirement of a priesthood to intercede for humanity to the deities, and possibly the existence of cities -- with all the associated disease, poverty, murder, starvation, and slavery which cities often create and unwittingly promote.
2) We live in a society which segregates the secular from the sacred, but this is a relatively recent phenomenon. To earlier societies (I specifically avoid pointlessly judgmental words such as 'primitive' here... :) there was no such separation, however. All of life was sacred and viewed with reverence. It was not until the creation of monotheistic deities believed to exist celestially 'out there' somewhere that the corporeal was viewed with disdain and disgust.
3) From an anthropological sense, deities are often idealized versions of what the culture considered most desirable. Therefore if you can define the culture, you can also by extension define its deities -- and the laws and mores of the culture will be expressed by the deities, in order to give supernatural cachet to the culture's norms.
Hope that's interesting to start with! :)