Religious denominations for pantheistic worship?

So, religions in Dungeons & Dragons fantasy settings usually have some weird "Greek-style pantheism as viewed through the lens of Christian monotheism" thing, with worship of particular deities being fairly "standardized" and big religious conflicts occurring between the worshipers of different gods within the same pantheon. Because you gotta have religious crusades, I guess.

I'm not telling anyone that this is BadWrongFun, but personally I am getting a bit tired of this approach. So instead, how about people worshiping the same pantheons - but interpreting the nature of the gods and the cosmos differently, as well as how to worship them based on their own philosophies and cultural and theological lenses?

As a student of German history and folklore, I can point to the Thirty Years' War - which was one of the longest and most vicious wars in the history of the country, and was triggered in part by religious differences of people worshiping the same God.

Thus, if there is a religious conflict in my setting, I don't want it because people are saying: "You are worshiping the wrong Gods!", but because they are saying: "You are worshiping the Gods wrong!"

Any thoughts on how to interpret the same pantheons in different ways?

Zonetrooper,

The issue in my eyes is less that the "worshipping pool" is so sharply delineated between A and B, and more that the gods are active, present forces which can come down and answer any disagreements promptly. (And yes, this bugs me too.)

Like, it's hard to have different interpretations if you can just ask the local priest to resolve questions of worship by talking to his god directly, and you're pretty sure he's telling the truth because unfaithful priests get stripped of their powers - if not outright smote down - when they misrepresent a diety's actions.

To make this work - and I agree it's a much more interesting approach - the gods can't be a reliably active and predictable force in the world.

juergen_hubert,
juergen_hubert avatar

Yeah, I'd rather have in-character discussions of faith and morality than just having deities (aka the game master) answer such matters directly. Makes for much better roleplaying!

tissek,

Something I agree is a bit weird in DnD religions are they are pretty much all monotheistic in a polytheistic environment, the christian lens. Why wouldn't people go and worship whatever deity is most relevant for them and their current problems? The farmer during planting worships at a temple of earthen fertility and during the growing season prays for good weather and placates the gods of the sky. No, in DnD religions you choose a god and follow them. And only them.

So how to create a "You are worshipping the gods wrong" conflict? It is about power. And control. If you go to another temple that provides the same divine intervention your original temple looses out on the offerings you are giving. Not to mention the spiritual energy you provide participating in rituals. Then your original temple wants you back, perhaps not you specifically, and a competition over worshippers begin. What may start as slander and vicious rumours can end up with brawls and outfight fighting.

This is also how you can introduce subcults. "Approved" deviations of faith and ritual but in a way so that homage (tribute) goes back to the main temple. Take for example of a look at the Greek gods and their epithets for an idea of a flourishing subcult environment (Aphrodite's epithets). Now what if a subcult becomes popular and thinks it can stand on its own legs? Conflict time!

FaceDeer,
FaceDeer avatar

But this is somewhat historically accurate, isn't it? The greeks had temples to Zeus, temples to Artemis, priesthoods dedicated to this or that specific god. Same with the Egyptians - they had a bunch of different gods and pharaohs would sometimes pick their favourite and suppress the worship of ones they didn't like. You can find all sorts of different patterns.

D&D is very flexible as far as the rules go, though. I see nothing wrong with a cleric who chooses a whole pantheon as their patron, and when casting different spells they call upon whichever god is most appropriate (a healer god for curing, a warrior god for combat spells, etc.)

tissek,

I think we would do the ancients a disservice treating the worship of the Greek gods as something uniform. It was anything but. At least during classic times, how it was during the bronze age I don't know as much about. If you go the wiki page of any Greek deity you will find information about local cults, epithets etc. It was varied and living. take for example the worship of our favorite partyboy Dionysus. Wine, tits and party right? Not completely. The partyboy association was a late addition to his myths, something that came about first in the post-Alexandian world. But for the Orphics he is one who can travel to and from the underworld.

But that is about the classic Greeks. When it comes to the Egyptians I am much less versed. But from my understanding of how connected the Egyptian priesthood was with politics I feel it was more centralized. Doctrine much more set in stone etc.

When it comes to drawing inspiration for polytheistic beliefs we don't have to look at ancient times. For example we have both Shinto and Hinduism being practised today. The feeling I get as someone who can barely consider themselves a layman is that there is very little internal religious conflict.

As for DnD the cleric section jumps between having god and gods in the flavour text indicating both is an option. But when it comes to actually creating the cleric there is the line

As you create a cleric, the most important question to consider is which deity to serve and what principles you want your character to embody.

Deity. Singular. So Dnd by default demands the cleric worships a sole deity. I mean they are a professional in the trade with insight into the mysteries of their god. How to worship them and how to receive miracles from them. This is also how it is in Runequest (and Glorantha), a dedicated priest almost always focuses on the worship of a single deity. Branching out is costly, both in time and in work for all the cults. But I am with you, if it makes sense for a cleric to be actively polytheistic then they should go for it.

Hrafyn,
Hrafyn avatar

One approach would be to have different groups interpret a gods portfolio in different ways. Group A could believe the god of war demands constant battles, all that matters is the fighting itself, while Group B believe war is a sacred act and must be conducted in a particular way. One group believes the god of knowledge wants information to be spread far and wide, another believes the god want knowledge to be strictly controlled.

juergen_hubert,
juergen_hubert avatar

That works, though ideally the different interpretations should apply to the entire pantheon, or at least to large parts of it.

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