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

[Phantasm]

Permit me to explain how I handled having a monotheistic religion coexisting (for various definitions of the term) alongside a few polytheistic (and one atheistic) religions in my own setting:

First, I have the Greco-Roman-inspired polytheistic religion, with a Roman-inspired bureaucratic hierarchy. The various gods are worshipped both individually and as a group, and their clerics are commonly dedicated to one specific deity (priests - that is, those who lack divine magic - are commonly dedicated to the pantheon as a whole, but sects for individual gods exist). Their deities are generally a "hands-off" group, though they speak to their clerics and other chosen in dreams and omens. These gods may either grant spells (ala the various spell lists in DF7: Clerics) or various Powers (including but not limited to Divine Favor) that pertain to their portfolios. This religion is the primary religion of the nations that were once the Great Empire of Man.

Next, I have the monotheistic religion, which claims their god is the One True God. These guys are the official religion of one of the nations that was once part of the Great Empire; the Church of the One True God holds that arcane magic, the gods of the other nations, and non-humans are inherently Evil and are acting to eliminate them. The One True God, however, grants a wide range of spells (never necromantic spells, though, which some of the polytheistic deities occasionally grant, and only rarely nature-related ones) and/or Divine Favor (never other Powers) to a select few, usually those lower in the hierarchy* (and sometimes to those outside the church hierarchy, much to the priests' consternation). (I originally intended these guys to be antagonistic in the setting, but I've got players that see them and say "I want to be a reformer inside the Church!", which has led to good times.)

The nominally atheistic religion holds that all of the deities of the other religions - including the One True God - are merely aspects of what they call the Divine All. Their religion is focused on becoming a god rather than worshipping any in particular.

So which is correct? As far as the setting is concerned: all of them are, and yet none of them at the same time. It is this uncertainty in the setting that lets players say "hey, this is neat" and choose which religion suits them without worrying about things like, "Hey, why is the One True God's cleric so much more powerful than me? Is my god a fake? Then I'm converting!"

This way, I can have a cleric of the nature goddess (who has spells that control aspects of nature, including several types of fae) alongside a cleric of the One True God (who has Divine Favor but geared more for healing and combat buffing) and not have the One True God cleric overpower the nature goddess's cleric or vice verse.

Does this help put things in perspective? If you start giving the monotheistic clerics powers that the polytheistics cannot do but want to keep the mono and the poly active in the game world, it helps to specify what the poly can do that the mono cannot. Otherwise, your players will always go mono as there is no reason to consider poly.




* For both the polytheistic and monotheistic Churches, the higher up in the hierarchy you are, the less likely you are to be able to cast spells or get powers from the deities, due to those being political appointments, not actually determined by the deity in question.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

It's not about the gods. It's about the religion which will eliminate the religions of the false gods both actively because they pose a more insidious threat (by appealing to some well intentioned people and tricking them into damnation, whereas the followers of blatantly evil cults were damned anyway just for being the kind of people who would want to join such a thing.)

Isn't this monotheistic god supposed to be Good? Damning somebody for following a different but reasonably moral faith looks like it violates those alignments.

Yeah, I know. But it's worth keeping in mind it isn't a necessary component of monotheism. Nothing about monotheism requires the one true god to punish non-believers, or to bother judging people at all, or even for their to be an afterlife, which is usually when this sort of thing matters.

Well as I said, to survive the polytheistic religions need to have their own unique marketing niches. Unless you're playing in the tiny window when the true religion hasn't finished demonstrating its superiority in every way to the public.

Perhaps the most likely niche is polytheistic religions are easier to get help from. Certainly if you are using definitions of good no other supernatural thing can meet, they're probably out of reach for anything natural either . Which suggests it may be quite difficult for anybody to stay holy enough to be worthy of divine aid.

[(E)]

My personal take is to make things even more complicated. I have pantheons of gods that are worshipped through a church similar to the medieval catholic church. "Evil" and "good" gods are in the church. There are also gods who are not part of the church (lost, forbidden, banned, demon and just plain unlucky deities)

A priest may be high in the church but not highly ranked with their deity. The pope equivalent has huge amounts of power(above and below).

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by malloyd

sn't this monotheistic god supposed to be Good? Damning somebody for following a different but reasonably moral faith looks like it violates those alignments.

Yeah, I know. But it's worth keeping in mind it isn't a necessary component of monotheism. Nothing about monotheism requires the one true god to punish non-believers, or to bother judging people at all, or even for their to be an afterlife, which is usually when this sort of thing matters.

It's inherent in monotheism that it is unacceptable to worship other gods or even acknowledge that they really are gods and the OP was quite unequivocal that as far as the religion is concerned the polytheistic religions are all evil and worshipping them is no different from worshipping Satan. Except that as I said, they are more insidious because they pretend to be good. A religion that holds "other gods exist, but they are inferior to our god" is henotheism, not monotheism. In order to be monotheists they have to define all other "gods' as being something other than gods. Such as for example, demons, or witches, or fairies. Or of course alternate "aspects" of the one god.

Perhaps the most likely niche is polytheistic religions are easier to get help from. Certainly if you are using definitions of good no other supernatural thing can meet,

Well no. The definition of "good" is serving the god. If the supernatural thing _converts_ and becomes part of the religion then it will meet the standard. Monotheism does allow for good supernatural things other than that god. They just have to be servants to the god and not gods in their own right.

[panton41]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

No they aren't. They're evil. In a monotheistic setting, the one god is the only good.

The monotheistic Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda has a dual nature where one aspect is essentially creation and broadly good (Amesha Spenta) while the other aspect is destruction and broadly evil (Angra Mainyu). Shikhism is monotheistic, rejects the idea any religion is the Absolute Truth and doesn't seem to have a concept of supernatural evil.

Those are both a bit of an oversimplifications, but monotheism can be more complex than how modern Abrahamic faiths present it.

[The Colonel]

Might it help if we referred to the "monotheistic" religion as monolatrous instead? That would still allow for a single deity and rejection of all others as false gods, but might ease some of the terminological confusion.

Compare Judaism (monolatrous):
"Know, oh Israel, the Lord your God is one ... you shall worship no other gods beside Him".

and Islam (monotheistic)
"There is no God but Allah"

...Christianity, but comparison, weebles about uncomfortably between the two, preferring monotheism but based almost completely on Jewish scripture.

[simply Nathan]

My setting has a Catholicism with the numbers filed off religion of worshiping a dragon with crystalline scales and transparent flesh, a pantheon of fewer than 20 lesser divinities that serve him and are more likely to grant powers to a select few chosen mortals, and four of these who became evil rebels in their own various ways.

There is in-universe debate amongst theologians as to whether the Crystal Dragon is not a god but something more than a god, or if the Crystal Dragon is the only God and all these other good-aligned supernatural powers should have a different title. The gods, interventionist as they may be, don't consider the semantic argument worth weighing in on; they're too busy dragging the sun across the sky or fending off demons.

[Celti]

Originally Posted by simply Nathan

My setting has a Catholicism with the numbers filed off religion of worshiping a dragon with crystalline scales and transparent flesh

Wait wait wait, you've got a literal Crystal Dragon Jesus?

[safisher]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Might it help if we referred to the "monotheistic" religion as monolatrous instead? That would still allow for a single deity and rejection of all others as false gods, but might ease some of the terminological confusion.

Compare Judaism (monolatrous):
"Know, oh Israel, the Lord your God is one ... you shall worship no other gods beside Him".

and Islam (monotheistic)
"There is no God but Allah"

...Christianity, but comparison, weebles about uncomfortably between the two, preferring monotheism but based almost completely on Jewish scripture.

I mostly see this as a discussion between henotheism and monotheism. Biblical Israel struggled with polytheism and henotheism, likes it neighbors, but the scripture is clearly monotheistic. Henotheism is the claim of one god above all other gods, like in Zoroastrianism. All of these are historical Christian heresies that could exist in a fantasy monotheistic cosmology.

[b-dog]

The ultimate goal of this is to have a pseudo medieval world where there is a monotheistic god that people worship and opposes the Infernal and other supernatural beings like fairies and pagan faiths even though they may be good. Thus the town part of the adventure is pretty normal without many supernatural beings but outside of town is where the pagan gods are worshipped and fairies roam free. It makes things more complex because good fairies oppose evil ones but good monotheistic clerics oppose good fairies.

Maybe law vs chaos makes more sense than good vs evil. Law wants order but it may be very selective about which type of order. An order based on one faith may be opposed by the order of another one. Thus law can easily lead to sectarianism.