I thought Anubis weighed the heart, but the feather he weighed it against belonged to Ma’at.
(Though according to Neil Gaiman, they cheated a little to give mortals a break. “It was a really heavy feather. We had it made special. You had better be pretty damn evil to tip the scales on that baby.”)
And the ancient Egyptians themselves had some cheats of their own. There were all sorts of scrolls and tablets and prayers that proclaimed you to be the most righteous of souls.
In one book I read, set in ancient Egypt, a character asked whether a man who had been buried with all the honours and paperwork really had been that righteous. The answer was that it did not matter whether a man was righteous, but that he had all the spells and paperwork that proclaimed him to be such, for them to get to the nice parts of the Duat.
I wonder: how do LLCs handle conflicts between their constituents’ alignments and personal agendas? Can Clerics choose freely from among their domains?
If only one god matches the alignment, they take responsibility for them.
If two or more gods share the alignment, they share the responsibility (as described).
If no god matches the alignment, but at least one god is within one alignment step, the “nearby” god(s) take responisibility as above.
If no god is within one alignment step, they cannot be granted spells (to pick an obvious example, no-one who worships Chaos can have a Lawful alignment and get spells, since only Chaotic gods are involved).
I would think that the individual deities in the LLCs can deny personal involvement with worshipers who are particularly offensive to their sensibilities. So someone who worships War for the “Rape, Kill, Pillage and burn” aspects won’t be getting spells from or supplying faith to any War Gods of Honor, Discipline or Mercy.
Okay, cool. But I meant more, “How do the deities handle problems that arise because they, the deities themselves, operate the same LLC but have opposing alignments”?
Because it seems to me that mortals might actually have a slightly easier time of dealing with such problems, since they – unlike the deities – are not their alignment brought to life.
I think the individual gods are simply not required to honor request they don’t agree with, but are blocked from punishing worshipers that violate their requirements. At best they can push to get that worshiper’s agreement terminated.
Yep! And the obsession with having everyone pick a single deity from the multitude as a focus of their worship is a hilariously innacurate monotheistic intrusion on polytheistic religions.
Usually, when you have many gods, you offer your worship/direct your requests to the one whose particular domain you need in the moment. Also, historically, deities’ domains are typically very broad, varied, and vague.
I’m also a bit mystified by the typical good/evil god divisions. Having a god particularly associated with negative concepts is quite ordinary, but a whole pantheon of them? And “good” gods just… don’t typically exist. That’s why you always are begging and bribing them to be good to you, in the moment.
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Dangerous, too. Ma’at weighs your heart in the afterlife.
I thought Anubis weighed the heart, but the feather he weighed it against belonged to Ma’at.
(Though according to Neil Gaiman, they cheated a little to give mortals a break. “It was a really heavy feather. We had it made special. You had better be pretty damn evil to tip the scales on that baby.”)
And the ancient Egyptians themselves had some cheats of their own. There were all sorts of scrolls and tablets and prayers that proclaimed you to be the most righteous of souls.
In one book I read, set in ancient Egypt, a character asked whether a man who had been buried with all the honours and paperwork really had been that righteous. The answer was that it did not matter whether a man was righteous, but that he had all the spells and paperwork that proclaimed him to be such, for them to get to the nice parts of the Duat.
Yeah, but if Ma’at remembers you. . .
Aww, poor Ma’at
It actually sounds rather sensible, and less likely to cause a godswar than some other systems.
Exactly; I’d totally sign up for this plan, to be honest.
I wonder: how do LLCs handle conflicts between their constituents’ alignments and personal agendas? Can Clerics choose freely from among their domains?
If only one god matches the alignment, they take responsibility for them.
If two or more gods share the alignment, they share the responsibility (as described).
If no god matches the alignment, but at least one god is within one alignment step, the “nearby” god(s) take responisibility as above.
If no god is within one alignment step, they cannot be granted spells (to pick an obvious example, no-one who worships Chaos can have a Lawful alignment and get spells, since only Chaotic gods are involved).
Cool.
What about alignment clashes between the deities within the LLCs, though?
I would think that the individual deities in the LLCs can deny personal involvement with worshipers who are particularly offensive to their sensibilities. So someone who worships War for the “Rape, Kill, Pillage and burn” aspects won’t be getting spells from or supplying faith to any War Gods of Honor, Discipline or Mercy.
Okay, cool. But I meant more, “How do the deities handle problems that arise because they, the deities themselves, operate the same LLC but have opposing alignments”?
Because it seems to me that mortals might actually have a slightly easier time of dealing with such problems, since they – unlike the deities – are not their alignment brought to life.
I think the individual gods are simply not required to honor request they don’t agree with, but are blocked from punishing worshipers that violate their requirements. At best they can push to get that worshiper’s agreement terminated.
Chaotic Stupid generally wins the most acolytes.
Yes but they keep dying off as fast as they can pop new ones out. Lawful Smart is best at making efficient use of a regular supply.
That’s…an interesting take on a fantasy religion for RPGs. I need to think about this.
RPG religions and gods are generally badly designed beyond the usual poor world-building of RPGs.
Personally, I rather like the concept of the Dragonstar setting’s Unification Church.
Yep! And the obsession with having everyone pick a single deity from the multitude as a focus of their worship is a hilariously innacurate monotheistic intrusion on polytheistic religions.
Usually, when you have many gods, you offer your worship/direct your requests to the one whose particular domain you need in the moment. Also, historically, deities’ domains are typically very broad, varied, and vague.
I’m also a bit mystified by the typical good/evil god divisions. Having a god particularly associated with negative concepts is quite ordinary, but a whole pantheon of them? And “good” gods just… don’t typically exist. That’s why you always are begging and bribing them to be good to you, in the moment.
You know, worshipping an ideal is in fact kind of optimized for most practicioners of divine magic