So I am trying my hand at building my own setting, and of course I want to make a few special setting rules.
1) Similar life-spans. No 800-year old elves or 400-year old dwarves. All races have approximately the same life-span as a human. Maybe elves live a little longer on average because they stay outdoors in lush forests and what not, and maybe dwarves live a little shorter because they toil indoor in their mines all day.
How will this affect a normal D&D/Pathfinder game? Does it really matter at all?
2) Monotheism. More or less anyway, and I'm sure there have been written articles about this in world design. I'm not looking for 100 % monotheism, but rather more of a religious system akin to what we have today, with a handful of world religions.
- Creator god (creator of humans and dwarves)
- Bahamut (creator of dragons, worshipped by elves and dragonborn)
- The Mother (creator of gnome, halflings, goblins and kobolds)
- A death god (so that evil clerics have a default religion)
- A devil (most of the continent is overrun by hellish legions led by an arch-duke of Hell)
- A goddess of freedom (daughter of the creator god, she is followed by those living under the oppressive "hell on earth"-empire).
The game technical side of it is related to domains. With so few gods, I am sure some domains will be left out of the loop. Or do you think it's OK to have the "Creator God" have give access to a lot of domains, meaning that they can have vastly different clerics.
Any advice?
1) The life spans shouldn't have any effect on PCs, and NPCs should be less arrogant and aloof and more relatable.
2) It's fine for the gods to have large portfolios. The important thing is to make sure all of the domains are available to your players. My homebrew world has two gods (neither evil) and they split the non alignment domains between them (clerics may select any alignment domain that matches their alignment).
Or just give the gods the domains you feel they should have and don't sweat the numbers.
So the multiverse is truly polytheistic, but most religions are monotheistic? I'll throw an idea at you: what if there was only one god, but every religion focuses on a different aspect or interpretation of him?
Gods normally have 5 domains, some of them belonging to the god's alignment (if your setting uses alignments). Demigods have 4. Lesser demigods have less than that.
Sounds like what you are describing is less monotheism and more like monolatrism, wherein a worshiper reveres one god exclusively, acknowledges the existence of other gods, but believes that they are not worthy of worship and adoration. Nothing wrong with that, as I have that same concept in my game setting. Like Xenre the Vague, it's perfectly fine for the gods to have portfolios beyond the five that are usually in Pathfinder. In my setting, I have a religion that worships a one-true god, while the other "gods" are merely simulacra created by a Gnostic-like demiurge being. I gave that one true god all non-evil domains and it's worked out fine.
Yeah, it's not strictly monotheism, but as written, too few gods to cover all the domains, at least if I allow for all the new domains in supplements.
The one god idea is interesting. I can see how one god can have created all the races, from humans to orcs to dragons and flumphs. I'm having a harder time envisioning the same god giving spells to both healers of the sick and baby-sacrificing cultists.
And I'm not sure how I can keep the multiverse intact with Hell and other planes without allowing for more gods. At least demon princes that can grant spells.
You could have the one god idea, but the hell is run by a rebellious demigod or something like that. The one god for some reason hasn't stopped this but controls it (behavior determines destination). The demigod grants the boons to the evil-aligned clerics and occasionally the one god sends prophets/clerics to try and disrupt the demigod's plans.
True. Remember, even Christianity with its monotheism still has an accurser being of sorts.
True. Remember, even Christianity with its monotheism still has an accurser being of sorts.
I believe we use the term "accuser" rather than "accurser", but I've a feeling that was a mere typo.
However excellent points from both you and ShallowHammer, allowing a rebellious god to continue about making life horrible for others and being an accuser go hand-in-hand. Or hand-in-cloven hoof if you take some of the more popularly-minded depictions.
The Book of Job opens with Satan effectively accusing that if the good things Job had were taken away (family, his herd, his livelihood, his health and home) that his piety would cease.
The opening "Prologue in Heaven" of Wolfgang von Goethe's work Faust is modelled after the Book of Job, and in it Mephistopheles makes the accusation that man, continually pursuing greater understanding of the natural world and his own intellect, is only becoming more brutish. God holds up Faust, a university professor and doctor (of philosophy), as someone who may yet come to God.
They both make excellent readings if you're looking to gain an insight into how a devil-like character in any setting operates mentally.
Lastly, as regards to mechanics, don't worry too much regarding domains, although it may be a good idea to ensure that some of the popular ones (travel, community, trickery, etc.) have at least one deity with them.
With regards to ages, it'll only affect character motivations and general racial tropes. Half-Elves wouldn't be stuck between worlds if both of their parents live for about the same length of time, so they'd have much more stable lives in all likelihood. This does however mean that magical means of retaining/regaining youth will be valuable to all races as well, so a Thuvia-like locale will have to contend with more creatures painstakingly interested in items like the Sun Orchid Elixir.
So I am trying my hand at building my own setting, and of course I want to make a few special setting rules.
1) Similar life-spans. No 800-year old elves or 400-year old dwarves. All races have approximately the same life-span as a human. Maybe elves live a little longer on average because they stay outdoors in lush forests and what not, and maybe dwarves live a little shorter because they toil indoor in their mines all day.
You can also go the other way and have humans live 500 years. In the Bible humans had very long lifespans at one time. Such length of life could also explain why society tends to change so slowly.
How will this affect a normal D&D/Pathfinder game? Does it really matter at all?
2) Monotheism. More or less anyway, and I'm sure there have been written articles about this in world design. I'm not looking for 100 % monotheism, but rather more of a religious system akin to what we have today, with a handful of world religions.- Creator god (creator of humans and dwarves)
- Bahamut (creator of dragons, worshipped by elves and dragonborn)
- The Mother (creator of gnome, halflings, goblins and kobolds)
- A death god (so that evil clerics have a default religion)
- A devil (most of the continent is overrun by hellish legions led by an arch-duke of Hell)
- A goddess of freedom (daughter of the creator god, she is followed by those living under the oppressive "hell on earth"-empire).The game technical side of it is related to domains. With so few gods, I am sure some domains will be left out of the loop. Or do you think it's OK to have the "Creator God" have give access to a lot of domains, meaning that they can have vastly different clerics.
Any advice?
As Odraude pointed out, this sounds more like monolatrism. You may want to consider a variant of Zoroastrianism/Mazdaism which has one uncreated Creator (Ahura Mazda) and the uncreated Destroyer (Angra Mainyu [source of all evil]). Mazda had created yazatas to help him while Mainyu had created the daevas.
You could have a Creator (who is interested but remains distant to allow free will) and the deities created would be: The Father (creator of humans, orcs, elves, and dwarves), The Mother (creator of gnome, halflings, goblins and kobolds), The Thanatos Nemesis (creator of dragons that is responsible for carrying out divine justice and retribution as well as a general death deity [I am not a fan of death=evil]), The Devil (created by the Destroyer to oppose the Father), The Seductress (created by the Destroyer to oppose the Mother), and The Eris Typhon (created by the Destroyer to bring about natural disasters and oppose the Thanatos Nemesis).
The Arch-duke you mention could be a child of the Devil and the Seductress and be opposed by the Goddess, who could be the child of the Mother and the Father. These two could be lesser deities, but of more importance because of their roles in the world.
Yeah, it's not strictly monotheism, but as written, too few gods to cover all the domains, at least if I allow for all the new domains in supplements.
The one god idea is interesting. I can see how one god can have created all the races, from humans to orcs to dragons and flumphs. I'm having a harder time envisioning the same god giving spells to both healers of the sick and baby-sacrificing cultists.
And I'm not sure how I can keep the multiverse intact with Hell and other planes without allowing for more gods. At least demon princes that can grant spells.
I think if you allow for the six/eight I mentioned you could cover all your bases. The Thanatos Nemesis and Eris Typhon could be Lawful Good/ Chaotic Evil respectively and grant all powers related to nature (air, earth, fire, water, weather, etc) as well as some death and destruction-related ones.
The Father and Mother could fill in the NG and CG areas while the Devil and Seductress could be LE and NE. These four could take up any of the other aspects of reality that you'd need them to, while their kids could have very specific (and limited) powers. As far as the Father and Mother go, each race they created could see them encompassing different aspects and so, when they worship, the Mother worshiped by the Gnomes is slightly different than the one worshiped by Goblins, particularly in terms of domains.