Monotheism in Epic Fantasy (Just like DF but with culture)

[b-dog]

The simple way to have a monotheistic faith in DF style high fantasy game world. Just make all supernatural beings be affected as though they are evil. For example, a good cleric in a typical DF game is able to turn undead and resist evil powers from demons and so on. They only have power over those that are violating the rules of the gods or the supernaturally evil beings
A monotheistic cleric would have the powers of the standard cleric but also be able to treat neutral or good supernatural beings the way the standard cleric treats evil supernatural beings. Thus a monotheistic cleric can turn the fey and they can exorcise the temple of a good polytheistic faith (to the monotheistic cleric that was a temple to a false god). What do you think?

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by b-dog

The simple way to have a monotheistic faith in DF style high fantasy game world. Just make all supernatural beings be affected as though they are evil.

So, no supernatural beings can be good? If this resonates with your players, sure, why not? But it seems pretty B&W.

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Shostak

So, no supernatural beings can be good? If this resonates with your players, sure, why not? But it seems pretty B&W.

Yeah, lots of supernatural beings are good, it is just that the monotheistic clerics have powers over them as if they were evil. Say a monotheistic cleric were to encounter a fairy, he could turn it as if it were undead and resist it's fairy powers as if it were evil even though the fairy is good.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Yeah, lots of supernatural beings are good, it is just that the monotheistic clerics have powers over them as if they were evil. Say a monotheistic cleric were to encounter a fairy, he could turn it as if it were undead and resist it's fairy powers as if it were evil even though the fairy is good.

Hmm ... If that's the case, if I were playing in that game I'd want to know why the same cleric couldn't turn evil people (I assume they could not). Or, to put it another way, I'd want to know what it is about the (possibly good) supernatural beings that gives the clerics their power over them when (presumably) the same clerics have no power over demonstrably evil humans (or whatever non-supernatural race is the standard in your game).

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Hmm ... If that's the case, if I were playing in that game I'd want to know why the same cleric couldn't turn evil people (I assume they could not). Or, to put it another way, I'd want to know what it is about the (possibly good) supernatural beings that gives the clerics their power over them when (presumably) the same clerics have no power over demonstrably evil humans (or whatever non-supernatural race is the standard in your game).

The Divine has power over supernatural spiritual beings while over the mundane it does not. I would liken it as the Divine energy interacts with other supernatural energies in a way that allows clerics to use the Divine energy to push away the supernatural energies of say fairies or demons.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by b-dog

The Divine has power over supernatural spiritual beings while over the mundane it does not. I would liken it as the Divine energy interacts with other supernatural energies in a way that allows clerics to use the Divine energy to push away the supernatural energies of say fairies or demons.

So, does your cleric have no command over the mundane at all--just over the supernatural? That would be more satisfying to me cosmologically than a cleric who had both abilities.

[Rindis]

Originally Posted by Shostak

So, no supernatural beings can be good? If this resonates with your players, sure, why not? But it seems pretty B&W.

It's not atypical of later medieval Christian thought. The earlier theology (as I recall) was that fae, et al. were not evil (servants of the devil), but did not have souls either.

Where that goes depends on the metaphysics you want. A thought that occurs to me is that while undead, etc., are powered by diabolic forces (and can be turned), blessings are actually something of a 'booster' to the soul, so they fey can neither be blessed nor turned (nor really affected by any 'divine' power). Which is exactly the type of thing to make theologians nervous in the same ways they were historically.

[b-dog]

To the standard cleric there is good and evil while to the monotheistic cleric there is good and evil and false good (good that is not derived from the monotheistic god)

[Celti]

I've got a setting fairly well described by that thread subject. The primary deity of the setting is the Lord of Light, and as far as most of the civilised and/or adventuring population is concerned, there is no other god. The world is thusly divided up three ways:

• There is Light, which is variously Good and Order. Light comes from the Lord of Light, has power over Substance, and is inimical to Darkness.
• There is Substance, which can be Good or Evil, Ordered or Chaotic, or often none of the above and simply Natural. Humans are of Substance, as are elves, dwarves, gnomes, the plants and animals of the world, fae, elementals, and so on — things that are part and parcel of the natural world (as long as you consider that the natural world has things like magic, and elemental planes).
• There is Darkness, which is variously Evil and Chaos. Current theodicy as the Church of Light has it is that for Substance to exist, there must be Darkness, or else everything would just be pure Light. Demons, undead, and all the standard “unnatural” beasties (as opposed to supernatural beasties) are of Darkness.

The way this works out in play happens to be almost exactly like standard Dungeon Fantasy when using Dungeon Saints/Divine Favour. My, my, imagine that?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by b-dog

To the standard cleric there is good and evil while to the monotheistic cleric there is good and evil and false good (good that is not derived from the monotheistic god)

Nobody cares what the cleric thinks. What you have established is that the polytheistic cleric is objectively wrong. And evil. And inferior in every way so there's no reason to ever become one.