[DF] Arabian Nights questions

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

If your metaphysics are "angels, demons, and djinn, representing good, evil, and neutrality", perhaps. But in our world, djinn are almost exclusively an Arabic deal; the Annunaki could be mistaken for djinn, however.

Confusing the issue is the whole "Enlil = El Ellyon = Yahweh" issue that pops up over time when tracing the Genesis timeline back to Uruk (the biblical Ur) in Sumeria. Consider that Enlil, who was later equated with the Canaanite/Hebrew Yahweh, was no friend to humanity (seriously, read the Gilgamesh epic; he sent the flood against humanity because we were too noisy!), while Enki, who is often equated with the serpent (who was later equated with Satan), was in the Sumerian/Babylonian tales was the friend, teacher, and protector of humanity, and you have to wonder which religion got it wrong and why.





I don't mean to offend anyone's sensibilities or faith, but the drift towards "all pagan gods, even the benevolent ones, were demons/djinn/capricious fae/etc." annoys and slightly offends me. Surely there's room in a setting based on Arabian Nights mythology for more than just "One True God, everyone else is a pale imitation" when a reading of the other stuff makes one wonder if perhaps the men who wrote and edited the Bible and/or Quran got stuff wrong - perhaps even intentionally. Even in Genesis, Yahweh admits other gods exist; why can't the Annunaki of Mesopotamia and/or the gods of Mount Olympus be equally powerful as Yahweh, but decided for their own reasons to let Yahweh have his three or four religions that are constantly warring between themselves?

In the Arabian Nights setting Islam is the dominant faith but the adventures are in the ruins of the pagan gods (the DF part). The pagan gods are more active in the world too and they teach many magical spells and powers. I am not trying to offend people, I just want to try to make some sense out of what the older pagan gods came from. To Muslims I think that they would think that the pagan gods were at best djinn and at worst demons. Anyway, how would you have the pagan gods be as powerful as Allah yet interact more with humanity? Why would faiths that have gods that interact with people be defeated by Islam? If you have ideas please share. This is the reason I am posting this, go try to organize the cosmology of Arabian Nights.