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Old 09-27-2019, 03:43 PM   #11
whswhs
 
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

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Originally Posted by b-dog View Post
I guess that is what interests me most about having two religious cosmologies clash, you never know who will side with who. Maybe Loki and Thor will unite to stop the Divine from taking over? Maybe the trolls and evil faerie and demons from the Norse myths will fight against the demons from the Infernal? Or maybe the evil will unite to attack the forces of good of both the Norse gods and the angels and Divine? Maybe they will betray each other too. There are a lot of possibilities for gaming.
Heinlein addresses this in Job: A Comedy of Justice, where the four immediate god-level actors are Jehovah, Satan, Odin, and Loki.
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Old 10-01-2019, 06:46 AM   #12
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

Passing thought - would you place money on the giants siding with the Norse pantheon, or what? And if Ragnarok hasn't happened, there's the World Serpent to contend with as what I would deem a very major actor with no strict affiliations beyond "EAT TREE, DESTROY WORLD".

You don't have to schedule Apocalypse or Ragnarok at the same time as this particular clash, so there's also the interesting thought of asynchronous "end times" and all actors considering bringing about their own end time early in order to settle the issue in their factions favor.
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Old 10-01-2019, 09:22 AM   #13
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

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Passing thought - would you place money on the giants siding with the Norse pantheon, or what? And if Ragnarok hasn't happened, there's the World Serpent to contend with as what I would deem a very major actor with no strict affiliations beyond "EAT TREE, DESTROY WORLD".

You don't have to schedule Apocalypse or Ragnarok at the same time as this particular clash, so there's also the interesting thought of asynchronous "end times" and all actors considering bringing about their own end time early in order to settle the issue in their factions favor.
One idea might be to have the Norse gods be local gods who are attached to the world by the world tree. Maybe the Infernal might play both sides and both corrupt the magic in the world so that the the forces of the Divine are forced to destroy it and also encourage the world serpent to eat the world tree to weaken the power of the Norse gods and also bring the trolls and giants into the world.

The Ragnarok could be the destruction of the Norse cosmology by the new monotheistic faith coming in. The trolls and giants would likely have a choice, side with the Infernal or become powerless. The Norse gods might try to stay neutral though and be subject to the forces of the Divine.
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Old 10-04-2019, 08:43 PM   #14
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Here is a link to a YouTube video about the Viking conversion to Christianity. It sort of says that the Christian Faith was better for the king and state because the king was ordained by the Divine and it set up a powerful allegiance.

https://youtu.be/0q8UM4LKA4s
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Old 10-08-2019, 08:05 AM   #15
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

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Here is a link to a YouTube video about the Viking conversion to Christianity. It sort of says that the Christian Faith was better for the king and state because the king was ordained by the Divine and it set up a powerful allegiance.

https://youtu.be/0q8UM4LKA4s
Religion was used, like marriage, as a way to forge alliances amongst the royal houses of Europe - at least until everyone in an area was basically the same religion. And then it wasn't special any more, because it turns out two kings with the same religion can still hate each other.
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Old 10-08-2019, 08:32 AM   #16
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

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Religion was used, like marriage, as a way to forge alliances amongst the royal houses of Europe - at least until everyone in an area was basically the same religion. And then it wasn't special any more, because it turns out two kings with the same religion can still hate each other.
As far as I know the religions of the pagan gods like Thor and Odin were more like appeasing them so they won’t cause problems while the Christian religion was much more like what think of when we use clerics in Dungeon Fantasy. The church was a real power while the shrines to Odin and Thor were mostly to make them happy so natural disasters and famines don’t occur. Monotheism is a conquering faith that is much better organized for combat and military than the polytheistic faiths. Odin, Thor, Loki, Zeus, and all the pagan faiths are gone now thanks to monotheism. You really can’t more Dungeon Fantasy than that.
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Old 10-12-2019, 09:59 AM   #17
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I am wondering how the Infernal and the evil Norse gods and races would interact. Would Loki, Hel, Fenris, the dragons, trolls, and nordalfar align with the Devil or would they be rivals? Or maybe they would use each other to further their evil aims? Maybe the evil races and gods could work with the Devil and Infernal to overthrow Odin and Thor but then they would fight each other afterwards because Loki would want to stay independent of the Infernal?
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Old 10-12-2019, 11:35 AM   #18
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

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I am wondering how the Infernal and the evil Norse gods and races would interact.
A lot of that depends on the exact nature of the conflict. For example, you can have realm/reality conflicts where the competing entity either cannot exist at all, or must become changed, to exist in the hostile realm.
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Old 10-12-2019, 12:54 PM   #19
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Default Re: How to add Monotheism to the Nordlands?

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A lot of that depends on the exact nature of the conflict. For example, you can have realm/reality conflicts where the competing entity either cannot exist at all, or must become changed, to exist in the hostile realm.
Conflicting cosmologies is one thing I think is really cool. The Divine realm is trying the change the cosmology of the world into a battle between Heaven and Hell and the Norse gods are trying to keep it as the Nine worlds. Or maybe Heaven and Hell and the Nine worlds are planes that all exist but their connection to the mortal realm is based on believers and the faithful. As the old faiths decline the Nine Worlds become less influential and as the monotheistic faith increases Heaven and Hell have more connection to the mortal realm. Competing cosmologies have a lot of possibilities to the game world. Even the way magic works might change as the cosmology changes.
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