Several years ago, I published an extensive essay on the failings of Paizo’s religious discussion in Gods & Magic (https://owenkcstephens.com/2022/04/21/an-essay-from-matt-daley/). I was very excited about Divine Mysteries since the book's announcement, seeing the breakaway from the OGL as an opportunity to address many of my concerns. In the time since writing my previous essay, I've sought out interfaith discussions with fellow gamers from many backgrounds and have learned quite a bit about how different communities approach and engage with religion. My hope was that the creators at Paizo would engage in similar introspection.
Much to my frustration, the opposite appeared to be true. Divine Mysteries not only reprints the most egregious passages I named in my discussion of Gods & Magic but compounds on them with numerous lore sections that display a condescending, nonsensical, and deeply unfulfilling approach to religion.
The opening chapter of Divine Mysteries is a series of essays by a psychopomp which outlines the functions of divinity within the setting of Golarion. These statements, which in-universe are based on decades of research, betray the authors’ incuriosity on matters of real-world faith and the blind spots of religion in prior fantasy writings. I’ve listed some particularly egregious examples below.
"In fact, I have discovered some mortals erroneously believe their faith is what empowers the gods! I confess, my Lady, I originally laughed off the thought, considering the mortals to be putting on airs. How are mortals to be the genesis of faith, when gods appeared before them? If such a thing were so, we might finally be rid of the accursed Urgathoa or the Rough Beast imprisoned in Golarion’s core, as few worship these beings save the most debased and vile."
This assumption outright mocks the works of other authors and misunderstands them by conflating faith with zealous praise. This completely rules out the possibility of appeasement, placation, or any other interaction with a deity that doesn’t qualify as Christian-style adoration.
"I am mildly distressed to say that most worshippers had not put as much thought into the question as I had! To the average lay worshipper or neophyte priest, the exchange of worship for power seemed to be viewed as entirely transactional, like a traveling farmer buying a lunch from a road stand! Lorminos brusquely reminds me that most mortals have little opportunity to pursue the life of a scholar, so I have done my best not to hold this view against them, even if it does ruffle my feathers."
The problems with this passage are twofold. Not only does this reduce all of the complexities, feelings, and communities of all religions down to “buying power from a deity”, but it reifies the archaic Catholic doctrine that those outside the priesthood are not worthy to understand or grapple with subjects of divinity. Once again, the book takes a narrow-minded conservative Christian talking point and applies it as a rule to Golarion’s myriad faiths.
"Mortals’ relationships with the gods are, fundamentally, transactional. Gods do not require worship to exist, and yet they do benefit from the spread of their belief among mortals, for their will cannot be done on Golarion without devotees. In exchange for worship and faith, gods may tip the scales in a mortal’s favor—evidence of a symbiotic relationship, as it were. It stands to reason that what each god hopes to achieve through the spread of their belief depends on their ideals. A miracle, for some gods, is less about the individual to whom it occurred and more about the size of its audience—that is, a god may strategically fulfill a long sought-after miracle in a highly public setting, or by answering the lofty prayer of a highly visible entertainer, diplomat, noble, or priest."
"Perhaps laypeople find comfort in feeling that the gods care about their followers’ daily goings-on and even influence mundane events. An incorrect presumption, yes, but ultimately a harmless one. I find this points to an inherently mortal tendency toward superstition"
For a book called “Divine Mysteries”, the authors of this chapter seem content to paint the gods as tremendously shallow. These passages together explain divine engagement within Golarion as a simple matter of PR stunts, with miracles existing as little more than cynical bids for power and influence that offer no care, belonging, or purpose to adherents to the faith. In such a world, Gods are not forces of nature or insights into the sublime but are more akin to clout-seeking influencers or revenue-obsessed investors who simply happen to wield godly power.
"Like any mortal, gods have interests and things they care about. Sarenrae is a god of the sun not because she is the sun or must be connected to the sun, but because as an individual, she likes the sun and everything involved with it. Some day Sarenrae could change her concerns, caring less about the sun and more about something like cooking, but it would change nothing about the sun."
While certain parallels can be drawn to specific pantheons in history and folklore, the complete detachment of divine identity from the elements which they seemingly embody strips the theology of Golarion of meaning. Reducing the incarnation of the sun or the ocean or death itself down to “this is just a super-powerful and unkillable entity who happens to like this thing at the moment” cheapens both the role of the god and the value of the force they represent.
Beyond the concerning and thematically barren statements listed above, Divine Mysteries seems to prefer using the notion of inscrutability to paper over poor worldbuilding rather than establish nuance. The section detailing the geography of various gods and the overlapping of their portfolios provides no explanation as to how or why different deities hold the same domain across locations beyond “I suspect some of the gods to be guilty of favoritism.” The authors seem unwilling to critically engage with the exoticizing history of regional and racial pantheons that runs through fantasy, dismissing the connections between communities and the gods they revere as insignificant and isolated incidents.
While some of the mechanics are interesting, I understand that Divine Mysteries is being sold first and foremost as a guild to gods and religion on the world of Golarion. To that end, I can only call the book an unqualified failure. The foundational assumptions of the setting’s theology are incurious, inorganic, illogical, and ultimately not worth your time.
To players, GMs, and fantasy writers alike, I would strongly recommend against using the materials presented within this book to explore subjects of religion in your RPG adventures. The narrow-mindedness which permeates this book regarding the nuances of faith is not only useless but actively detrimental to an understanding of how real-life religions function and how fictional religions can be utilized to convey thematic depth.
A player or GM who wishes to explore subjects of faith in an RPG setting is better off having never referenced this book, and for a text on the “secrets of the gods” I can think of no harsher condemnation.
