Dungeon Modules B1 In Search of the Unknown, B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, and T1 The Village of Hommlet do not reference the pantheon of deities that were introduced in "Gods, Demigods and Heroes" or in "Deities and Demigods". Instead, there is an oblique reference to a Church and a singular religious figure, St. Cuthbert.
In B1 the only references are in the names of the pregenerated Cleric characters, one of them is a devotee of the "Great Church", another of the "Secret Church", and one of "St. Cuthbert". In B2 there is a chapel inside the Keep, the Curate who maintains it, a duplicitous priest who lives in his own house, and the Temple of Chaos, but there is no mention of which deities any of them serve. In T1, the Church of St. Cuthbert has a strong presence in town and causes tension with devotees of the town's Old Faith.
These modules give us a fragment of a glimmer to how D&D was played in its early days, and to me it seems that instead of using a strict pantheon of gods, early campaigns relied on a loose interpretation of Christianity and pagan faiths from British medieval history. I think the addition of a strict pantheon of gods to the worlds of Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, or any other, is a mistake and actually divorces the game from its inspiration and restricts the kind of stories you could tell. I find a looser interpretation of religion more to my taste, as something that's closer to historical reality than the mess of fictitious deities that everyone plays with. And, I think a proper implementation of religion into D&D can help explain some of the more incongruous aspects with the game, such as the cleric and paladin classes or the effect of resurrection on elves, and the lack of demihuman PC clerics.
Here's how I would remix it:
There is a Great Church in the land and its patron saint is Saint Cuthbert. (From the modules above, there is no indication that St. Cuthbert is a deity, rather than just a venerated saint.) The Church represents the totality of organized religion, and all human settlements have at least a chapel or some place of worship around which the village has grown. The Church is humanocentric, and only admits humans into its highest ranks.
The Great Church allows members of its clergy to wander the world as missionaries and enforce their mission by force of arms. These Clerics still follow precepts of the Church such as the restriction against shedding blood, and through prayer and knowledge of scripture they are able to perform miraculous works such as healing others and stopping harm to the body through disease or poison. Clerics can travel the world dressed and armed as Fighting Men, but choose to carry blunt weapons because they are trying not to kill their opponents.
The Paladins are an Order of Fighting Men who swear loyalty to the Great Church, and through their faith can perform some miracles. These men are not part of the Church hierarchy but can also heal, cure disease and are protected from evil. (Interestingly, OD&D Paladins cannot cast Cleric spells). Any deviation from their code of ethics results in an immediate loss of their powers, and they must atone and perform penance under the guidance of a Church hierarch to get it back. Only human fighting men, so devoted and charismatic, are admitted into the Order.
The language of the sacred texts of the Great Church is considered the Lawful alignment language, and it has become the de facto language for legal documents and academic documents in Universities of higher learning.
Outside of the monolithic human church, the spirits of nature and natural phenomena are worshiped by the intelligent races such as Elves and Hobbits, and even some humans are devoted to this worship they call the "Old Faith". Like everything humans do, they've created a high structure of wise men called Druids, who worship Nature and strive to keep a neutral balance among all things. Elves and Hobbits generally stay away from the circles of the druids, though some individuals may join. The language used to commune with Nature is considered the Neutral alignment language.
Hiding from open engagement with the other two is the Secret Church. This is made up of people who use the sacred texts and teachings of the Great Church and reverse its meaning. Those who speak the reversed language can cause the opposite effect of miracles to take place, such as harming instead of healing, cursing instead of blessing, and damning instead of saving. Wandering militant devotees of this Secret Church are evil Clerics, well versed in the teachings of the Great Church who must also follow its stricture of behavior, such as the ban on shedding blood, otherwise they do not have access to the miracles they wish to misuse. The reversed language is called Chaotic, and speaking it attracts demons, devils, and other fiends from the lower planes, and also grants command of evil spirits and the undead.
Apart from the main religions there are many discrete Cults and Temples, all devoted to their own deities and beliefs, who may or may not be a real creature from a higher or lower plane.
A final note about Clerics and Paladins - In AD&D certain demihumans can multiclass as fighter/clerics, such as the Half-Elf and Half-Orc from the PHB, and an expanded list including Dwarves and Elves in Unearthed Arcana, which gives them all the weapon, armor and health bonuses of the Fighter class and the spellcasting ability and saving throws of the Cleric class, thus creating a very potent combination at the cost of a halved rate of level advancement. Humans gain no such multiclass ability, and so the Paladin is the only way Humans can gain such bonuses. The Paladin generally speaking has better abilities than the Fighter/Cleric but his spellcasting is weaker, and must maintain a very high charisma and a strict adherence to Lawful Good, or lose all his abilities and be demoted to the level of a standard fighter. In this way the Fighter/Cleric has it easier, but a Paladin played well is much stronger.
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