On the Origin of the Divinities

[Hobbit4Hire$]

Hello everyone.
I was thinking about having a character in my campaign world, sort of like a wizard version of Darwin, who was writing a natural science on the origin of divinities. The title of the book would be On the Origin of the Divinities. However, I realized I am still working on a sort of "scientific theogony."

I was wondering, in your world, what do you think are the origin of the D&D-esque divinities? Bear in mind, I am not talking about the deities of real-world metaphysics or theology. Rather, the D&D divinities, sort of like what you would see in a setting like Pathfinder, Planegea or Dawnforge, or the "Powers" from the setting Planescape, or the gods of Glorantha, essentially physical beings that have the ability to grant magic spells upon their aligned followers.

Bear in mind, I am really hoping to avoid the whole "God's Born of Belief" shtick, like you see in Terry Pratchett's Discworld or Neil Gaiman's American Gods. To me, the whole "power of belief" thing seems like a bit of a cop-out. Not to mention, it is not very scientific.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for the replies.

 

[aco175]

Gifted members of the first tribes who gathered enough power and wisdom were able to escape death and become divine. Some think that they were part dragon but some tales talk about slaying a dragon and performing a ritual using its blood. More have tried to become divine since then, but all have failed.

 

[GMMichael]

I was wondering, in your world, what do you think are the origin of the D&D-esque divinities? Bear in mind, I am not talking about the deities of real-world metaphysics or theology.

That depends on whom you ask. The dominant culture is going to put its deity on top, often as the source of creation and the other gods.

Rather, the D&D divinities, sort of like what you would see in a setting like Pathfinder, Planegea or Dawnforge, or the "Powers" from the setting Planescape, or the gods of Glorantha, essentially physical beings that have the ability to grant magic spells upon their aligned followers.

I don't treat any gods as physical beings. They're not made of matter. They make matter.

To me, the whole "power of belief" thing seems like a bit of a cop-out. Not to mention, it is not very scientific.

I wouldn't expect any other religion explanation to be very scientific, either.

 

[ichabod]

Dome of Heaven players please ignore.

Spoiler: My source

On a hidden fifth moon, there is the First River. It is the source of divinity, and when it came into being it spawned the Elemental Deities by being water, then touching earth and air, which sparked together to make fire. Those who bathe in it's waters become gods.

 

[Hobbit4Hire$]

That depends on whom you ask. The dominant culture is going to put its deity on top, often as the source of creation and the other gods.


I don't treat any gods as physical beings. They're not made of matter. They make matter.


I wouldn't expect any other religion explanation to be very scientific, either.

Thank you for taking the time to reply.
I fully understand the notion of each cult making it's own deity at the top. If my reading of Ancient Near Eastern deities is correct, then, for example, when Babylon became the capital of the Neo-Babylonian empire (c. 626 BC–539 BC), then the creation myth of the Enūma eliš was composed depicting Marduk as the head of the pantheon, displacing the previous head Enlil.[1]

I respect your treament of the gods. My attempt was to have an in-universe character who was trying to create a scientific theory of the divinities. It would be similar to the Athar faction from Planescape, or the God Learners of Glorantha from RuneQuest. I am looking for inspiration about that.

[1] Erika Diane Johnson, “Stealing the Enemy's Gods: An Exploration of the Phenomenon of Godnap in Ancient Western Asia,” (PhD diss. University of Birmingham, 1994) 82.

 

[Hobbit4Hire$]

Dome of Heaven players please ignore.

Spoiler: My source

On a hidden fifth moon, there is the First River. It is the source of divinity, and when it came into being it spawned the Elemental Deities by being water, then touching earth and air, which sparked together to make fire. Those who bathe in it's waters become gods.

Thank you very much. I assume that your cosmology is such that the "moon" is similar to the moons of our own universe?

 

[MNblockhead]

You could look into the lore of Warhammer Fantasy, where an ancient, hyper-intelligent, and near-omnipotent starfaring species embarked on journey to spread intelligence across the cosmos and create a new world whose people were capable of resisting and combating the temptations and threat of the metaphysical force of Chaos. However, a great catastrophe caused the their warp gates to collapse, their most powerful servitors among their created races managed to reduce but not completely close the rent in reality. This realm of chaos is where magic comes from and also where the chaos gods reside, which can be seen as highly advanced entities in warp space seeking to increase their influence in our PC's reality.

The lore of subsequent elvan, human, dwarven, etc. gods, probably veers away from what you are looking for. Dwarven gods arose out of their practice of ancestor worship. They are basically ascended being powered by their peoples ancestor worship. Most elvan and human gods are also warp beings, with lesser aspects and power than the main chaos gods. Though some great individuals (such as Sigmar) are said to have ascended to godhood.

I'm not that steeped in Warhammer Fantasy lore and the cosmology gets rather vague and mushy, which really doesn't impact how the game plays. But you could simplify it and basically have two races of powerful elder races in conflict like the Vorlons and Shadows in Babylon 5.

In my Warhammer Fantasy campaign, I don't really worry too much about the cosmology. I was a little turned off by the "aliens" did it explanation, but whatever the "old ones were" there was a catastrophe in very ancient times that let to the old ones being cut off from the universe, the initial infusion of chaos led to the first gods, but the closing (mostly) of the rent in reality cut off the creation of new gods--or at least made it nearly impossible for new gods to arise.

Personally, I like my cosmology to be a bit vague. I don't feel that I have to know if every god is its own entity or if one god may have different aspects in different cultures. I don't need the provenance of every god detailed. What's important is what the societies the PC live in believe.

 

[Hobbit4Hire$]

Gifted members of the first tribes who gathered enough power and wisdom were able to escape death and become divine. Some think that they were part dragon but some tales talk about slaying a dragon and performing a ritual using its blood. More have tried to become divine since then, but all have failed.

Kind of like Planegea. Interesting.

 

[Aldarc]

Hello everyone.
I was thinking about having a character in my campaign world, sort of like a wizard version of Darwin, who was writing a natural science on the origin of divinities. The title of the book would be On the Origin of the Divinities. However, I realized I am still working on a sort of "scientific theogony."

I was wondering, in your world, what do you think are the origin of the D&D-esque divinities? Bear in mind, I am not talking about the deities of real-world metaphysics or theology. Rather, the D&D divinities, sort of like what you would see in a setting like Pathfinder, Planegea or Dawnforge, or the "Powers" from the setting Planescape, or the gods of Glorantha, essentially physical beings that have the ability to grant magic spells upon their aligned followers.

Bear in mind, I am really hoping to avoid the whole "God's Born of Belief" shtick, like you see in Terry Pratchett's Discworld or Neil Gaiman's American Gods. To me, the whole "power of belief" thing seems like a bit of a cop-out. Not to mention, it is not very scientific.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for the replies.

Gods were born in the Astral Sea as the embodiment of abstract concepts, platonic thought given form. As those various abstract concepts and ideas grew, so too did the number of gods.

 

[aramis erak]

Hello everyone.
I was thinking about having a character in my campaign world, sort of like a wizard version of Darwin, who was writing a natural science on the origin of divinities. The title of the book would be On the Origin of the Divinities. However, I realized I am still working on a sort of "scientific theogony."

I was wondering, in your world, what do you think are the origin of the D&D-esque divinities? Bear in mind, I am not talking about the deities of real-world metaphysics or theology. Rather, the D&D divinities, sort of like what you would see in a setting like Pathfinder, Planegea or Dawnforge, or the "Powers" from the setting Planescape, or the gods of Glorantha, essentially physical beings that have the ability to grant magic spells upon their aligned followers.

Bear in mind, I am really hoping to avoid the whole "God's Born of Belief" shtick, like you see in Terry Pratchett's Discworld or Neil Gaiman's American Gods. To me, the whole "power of belief" thing seems like a bit of a cop-out. Not to mention, it is not very scientific.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for the replies.

my homebrewed world, the gods are former mortals, affected by the side effects of the Dragon's gates. The process can remove their own memories, tho'.