Steve Jackson Games Forums - Clerics and deities

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Re: Clerics and deities

Quote:

Originally Posted by benz72 (Post 2513996)

Why exactly would the elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, various tribes of humans, &c. all worship the same god of X? Is that in the sourcebooks somewhere that I missed?
My instinct is that most cultures would have divinities that were tailored to their needs, abilities, physiology and interest. I expect the shark man god of war looks very different from the dark elf god of war and both are also very different from the human god of war. Same for sun, sky, magic, food production, family, justice/law or whatever other anthropomorphized concept one might imbue with divinity.

Of course if they are that different, they may not in fact be gods of the same thing. The human god may actually be the god of loyalty, while the shark man god may be the god of battle frenzy serving the same basic function but with noticeably different spell lists. Similarly travellers may involve a different god of "travel" but one of them is actually the god of fair winds, while the other is the god of protection from attack. It all depends on how much you want to stack your pantheons.

Then again, you could go with the Roman perspective. There is only one sun god, one god of war, one god of the harvest. One god for each concept. They just have different names and appearances given to them by mortals.

Re: Clerics and deities

Quote:

Originally Posted by benz72 (Post 2513996)

Functionally in game terms for DFRPG they are equivalent. The spell lists will be the same or rather close. That's my point. A Sun god and a Moon godess evoke very different aspects. Using the names listed an all being transport gods would lead to similar aspects and evoke similar spell lists. All of the names listed were for cars. So the spell lists would evoke things pertains to ground transportation.

Now let's say we have three deities:

1. godess of Luck - randomness, fate, luck, etc

2. Volcano god - fire, earth, stone, metal, forging

3. godess of nature - plants, animals, healing

The spells natural follow from the deities aspects. Give them whatever names are appropriate to the setting.

Re: Clerics and deities

Quote:

Originally Posted by benz72 (Post 2513996)

Why exactly would the elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, various tribes of humans, &c. all worship the same god of X?

Because there is just one god of X, who is objectively real and comes round and sets your house on fire if you try to deny the fact?

Depending on the setting.

Re: Clerics and deities

Of course, the same god may appear differently to two different cultures, for reasons beyond human understanding.

Re: Clerics and deities

...Or for reasons not at all beyond human understanding, if one assumes that gods basically farm humans for belief, and keeping different congregations happy by meeting their divergent cultural assumptions is just good stock management.

Sorry. I tend to let too much Discworld seep into my DF.