“Equinox 2194645” by Pixabay.com/Comfreak

Or, “Dwarves are from Marz, Elves are from Venusia”, which was almost the title of this article!

I was thinking about another post (that you will hopefully see in a week or so) when an idea for a completely original D&D/Pathfinder cosmology occurred to me. In a matter of minutes, it had become a fully-fledged Campaign Setting.

You could view this setting idea as adding science to fantasy, or covering science with a load of fantasy and imagination. Unfortunately, the local presentation sequence masks that mostly-ubiquitous theme because the beginnings are almost completely Fantasy in nature. Oh, well.

There’s more than a little Flash Gordon in this campaign setting – travel between worlds may not be routine but is easy for those who know how, and migration between those worlds is a regular, if unpredictable, event. One can quite literally turn the corner and find yourself somewhere else, caught between two hostile armies – or almost anything else you can imagine.

There’s also lots of scope for GMs to further develop the setting to suit themselves. This is the barest beginning.

The layers of reality

All of existence is contained within a number of layers of reality. The bottom-most – depending on who you ask and the prevailing wind on the day – is the Earth. Above the Earth is the Air domain followed by that of Water, and above that, the Fire. These four are known as the Inner Planes. Beyond the fire are the Astral Reaches, which contain the Many Worlds, and beyond them, the Outer Planes. The most distant of those planes are The Abyss and Hades, a shared domain, and beyond them once again lies the Earth.

Many who are less precise in their speech identify the Many Worlds as planes in their own right. Some consider The Abyss and Hades to be elements of the Earth Plane, and not planes of existence in their own right, and – truth to tell – definitions get a little fuzzy when you look to closely at the details.

Issues Of Alignment

Some layers align more closely with one specific alignment, others with another. This influences who feels at home there, but there are exceptions to almost every specific rule you care to nominate. These alignments are, therefore, more in the nature of guidelines than they are of laws, but humans were ever wont to over-simplify.

The Layer of Earth

The Earth is home to sub-layers of light and dark – referring to the alignments that are comfortable living there, and not to any mere physical property. Parts are pro-chaos and others, pro-order. These energies leech their way to the surface over time; for a race to stay comfortable, it must attune itself to their surroundings, or morphically challenge the shape of the energies by actively pursuing a philosophy conducive to a particular alignment, transforming their realm into one of the few fixed points.

Humans are native to the surface of the Earth, and they have grown adept at transforming the earth beneath their feet into bricks and mortar and stone, which they use to envelope themselves in the protections of Earth. In the shallows and deeper places, Water gathers into seas and oceans, fed by rivers when chaotic conditions within the Water Plane deposit some of its substance upon the Earth as rain.

Many races and species from elsewhere have found comfortable existences in the near-Earth. Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, and more abide there, close to the surface. Deeper still is the Underdark, whence fled the Drow to join other creatures both friendly and hostile. Life is more primal in these regions, and forces extremes of perspective on those who abide there; think of it as ideology turned up to 11.

Beneath the Underdark lies the Deeper Stone, where dwell Elementals of Rock, Stone, Soil (Earth), Sand, and Glass. Little is known of their domain, save that they no longer require pockets of Air in which to reside; instead, they swim through the Deeper Stone as though it were water, in the process creating ripples of light and darkness that propagate through to the surface above.

The Layer of Air

The natural domain of many creatures that fly, and adopted home to many more, most races require a little Air in which to abide unless they be water-breathers. As one ascends in height above ground, the creatures who reside their increase in size and power until one reaches the Upper Air where dwell the Elementals who are native to this realm. Creatures of Wind and Gas, they have many distinctive sub-forms.

Air is naturally chaotic in small things but orderly and even stately in more serious matters, Implacable but difficult to move. They tend to look at the big picture and the long term.

The layer of Water

This is a relatively thin layer, only 5 or so miles deep, but is home to all manner of great sea creatures. Go Big or Go Home might well be a motto, at least of the Near Waters, those closest to the Air. The Far Waters are home to the Elementals of liquid, steam, and ice.

Water is similar to Air in its alignment – chaotic in the smaller details but orderly in the greater – but tends to focus on short-term gains, even if these are only temporary. The operating philosophy of this realm is therefore the complete opposite of their atmospheric neighbors.

There are those who claim the Moon is a location within the layer of Air, while others call it a location in the layer of Water. In truth, it wanders back and forth between the two in a regular cycle, the mysteries of which have not yet yielded to intelligent inquiry.

The layer of Fire

Uppermost of the inner layers is the realm of flame. Most of this realm is beyond mere vapor, but near to the great floating halls of the ice Elementals of the layer below, the fire congeals into something almost earth-like, providing a surface upon which those accustomed to great heat may reside in comfort.

Conflict in the layer of water is prone to attracting the ire of the layer of Fire, producing a flash of light and heat that – once begun – will rarely stop until it strikes Earth as Lightning. Such conflict also agitates the layer of air beneath, creating dark clouds, and the uneducated believe that these are the origins of the bolts of lightning that strike occasionally; the educated know better.

The layer of Fire is almost a contradiction within itself; naturally inclined toward chaos, it prefers to maintain a completely orderly existence in order that the disruption caused by the inevitable outbreaks of anarchy may become all the more significant.

The great white spot, otherwise known as the sun, is a good example. This maintains an orderly track across the plane of fire, clearly visible from the layers below. At first, appears to be a large speck; closer examination shows it to be a ball. Closer examination still shows that its surface constantly heaves and thrusts, and yet it rarely exceeds the natural boundaries that give the illusion of a simpler shape. Elementals of fire and flame, crystal, lava, and gem, are native to this realm.

The Astral Reaches

Location of the Many Worlds, of which more will be said anon, the Astral Reaches are a place of emptiness, where there is neither air nor earth nor water nor fire, and yet it is filled with those things (and more) in constant transit. Astral Corridors connect everywhere with Everywhere else – until they collapse, leaving those traveling within in an environment that is almost certainly profoundly unnatural to them.

Distance may be said to have no meaning here, though it is truer the mark to say any distance has all possible meanings at once, and the traveler has no say in which of those meanings he will experience. Twins may set out to travel from A to B, each holding the other’s hand; to one, mere minutes may have passed, while the other experiences the passage of days, weeks, or even years.

Since distance is measured by the time it takes to transit it, the term itself has little or no meaning within the Astral Reaches.

Similarly, alignment has little significance in the Astral Reaches, though pockets here and there may “lean” this way or that. Statistically, half of it trends orderly, and the other half to chaos – but which half is which is not something that is permanently fixed.

Some creatures, such as Beholders, are believed to be native to the Astral Reaches – no-one knows for sure.

The Many Worlds

Within the Astral Reaches may be found the Many Worlds, locations of substance congealed by the droppings left behind in semi-stable pockets and eddies.

Mercurus

The closest to the Fire is Mercurus, native home of the Gnomes. One face of Mercurus constantly faces the Sun, aligned thus by great machines constructed by the Gnomish Ancestors; most Gnomes live in constant service to the great underground machines, which are forever breaking down and needing repairs. These repairs are carried out as rituals and by rote; the nature of the machines is long forgotten.

Entirely distinctive ecosystems have grown to exist within the worlds of shadow and light which lie naturally side by side, and great pillars of stone and metal have been erected to manufacture environments conducive to the farming and maintenance of these ecosystems by the Gnomes.

These two pursuits have made natural miners and engineers of the Gnomes, who live underground in the managed environments created by their ancestors. Because there can be little expansion of living space, population pressures mount until terrible wars become inevitable. To control this tendency, there are harsh restrictions on the number of young permitted, and excess population are “encouraged” to resettle elsewhere.

No-one can be sober and straight-laced all the time, and the Gnomish outlets for pent-up needs of self-expression are wild parties and childish pranks. The latter makes them welcome visitors in most places, the latter ensures that permanent residence is not welcomed anywhere. Many are vagabonds, endlessly traveling through the Astral Corridors to this place or that. Hidden colonies have been established almost everywhere.

Some resent the way their race is treated by others, and a Gnomish Cell is frequently part of any resistance to established authority (and prone to create such a resistance if none already exists). Nevertheless, most Gnomes are easy-going and friendly folk.

Venusia

Next most distant is Venusia, native home of the Elves. Half forested and half swamp-like, Venusia is green and lush, and many species beyond the Elves derive from it.

Altitude is a measure of status amongst them; “high-born” is meant both literally and figuratively. Over the years, these statuses have been reinforced to the point where they may be considered sub-races, but the potential for all paths lies within each and every elf, from the most common farmer and tender of roots to the owlish habits of the grand masters in their lofty residences. Gregariousness and Isolationist at the same time, at least in potential; practical and studious and artistic; romantic and hard-nosed. Individual preference and the opportunities provided by society shape these potentials by restricting those aspects of the Elven character to which the individual can give expression. Elves are always a study in contradictions. “What is good for you may not be good for me, thus I can council you to do that which I could never contemplate in conscience clear” is an Elvish proverb that sums up the race remarkably well.

Marz

Third most distant from the earth is Marz, native home to the Dwarves. Marz began to die an incalculable time ago, following the great War Of The Worlds with their neighbor, Phaeton. Phaeton was destroyed, but the victory was a Pyrrhic one; the Martian ecosystem was devastated in the process. The Dwarves were forced to relocate underground, where they cling to existence rather than become like Gnomes, who they disdain. This stubbornness and pride forces them to refuse to admit that there is anything wrong with their home or the way that they live; nevertheless, there are more expatriate Dwarves living just below the Earth and in the upper Underdark than there are survivors on their native home.

Of necessity, they have learned to be efficient and effective excavators, though they would rather be artisans. Because they are deemed more reliable than Gnomes, they are generally thought of as being more skilled than the latter by Humans. Dwarves are intolerant of Elvish culture because it reminds them too much of what they would rather be doing but – pride once again – that they can’t admit to.

“Boots and all” is a popular Dwarfish philosophy that succinctly sums up their race. Once they set their minds to something, it is almost impossible to turn them aside; they will dedicate their lives to accomplishing it, even if the need to do so has long passed, or if it will no longer achieve the goals initially set for it.

A secondary trait is a ruthless pragmatism – even if the end-product of a Great Work is no longer useful for the intended purpose, Dwarves are adept at finding some way to use it to their advantage. At the very least, they will find someone to sell it to for hard currency.

Underneath the surface, Dwarves are hot-headed and passionate, likely to fly off the handle at any provocation, though they will often mask these discontents. Only those whom a Dwarf trusts implicitly are permitted to see his temper when one gets really upset. “Time withers the mightiest branch and renders to loam the hardest rocks; be ye therefore like unto the passing of days, patiently grinding down that which opposes ye,” is another telling Dwarfish proverb.

In terms of alignment, Dwarves are naturally inclined toward order, but the objectives of their potential to dedicate whole generations to a Great Task are dictated by a Chaotic Fractiousness. It may be six generations before a Clan can get around to seeking revenge for an insult, but when they do, the entire clan will focus obsessively on that task until it is complete.

Phaeton, the shattered world

Phaeton was the fourth of the Many Worlds until it’s native Orcs offended the Dwarves. Orcs are the type to build up towering resentments and blame others for their own misfortunes, and they breed like rabbits; once entrenched, they are almost impossible to dislodge. Populations are controlled through violence, either toward each other, or toward the outside world. There are as many survivors infesting the earth today as there were living on Phaeton at the time of its destruction.

Despite outward appearances, the most powerful social force amongst the Orcs are their women, who do as they please regardless of the edicts of male Orcs. Thus, despite the unrelenting population pressure, restrictions on the number of offspring are unacceptable to the Orcs.

Phaeton was unrelentingly pro-chaos in alignment, and many who know of it’s fate consider the current state of the Shattered World to be an entirely appropriate expression of that alignment.

Jove

Jove is one mighty world surrounded by smaller ones in a tight cluster. The outermost places in that cluster are the native home to Halflings and Kobolds, the former aligned to order and the latter to chaos. Native to the innermost places are creatures that can be considered “supersized versions” of those races, Hill Giants and Trolls, plus the Bugbears of G’mede. Native to Jove itself are the True Giants, whose nature depends on the ascendancy of a particular point within the cluster relative to their place of birth, at the time of their birth. The True Giants include Stone, Fire, Frost, and Storm varieties, but it is rumored that there are more varieties than just this dominant set of four.

Giant society is strictly hierarchical in some ways according to the sub-race into which an individual is born, by virtue of natural ability, but in all other respects, the races are strictly egalitarian, measuring all Giants as equals. Unfortunately, they are also very protective of their privacy, so specifics are hard to come by.

Only when gathering in expatriate enclaves do Giants tend to socially discriminate amongst the other sub-races, seeking out environments and circumstances more closely matching their racial preferences.

Saturnus

Saturn is home to another great cluster, and a ring that surrounds the plane of the world at an angle. It is considered one of the most beautiful worlds in the sky as a result of this phenomena.

Half the world (the half on the leeward side of the rings relative to the sun) is chaotic in nature, the other half is orderly – but the term “half” is misleading in this context. Chaos is in fact natural only to 25% or so of Saturnus – but, since the World rotates clockwise relative to the point at which the rings rise, which “half” is variable over time.

Saturnus is the native home of the Dragons, and – like the Giants – whether or not a hatchling is metallic or colored depends on the alignment of the hatching place at the time, relative to the rings – the offspring of Brass Dragons may be Brass or Blue.

Some say that there are a few who hatch at the exact moment of transition and are Neutral in alignment; this writer can neither confirm nor deny this claim.

Despite the natural disagreements in philosophy and nature, all Dragons are respectful of each other and avoid conflict with other Dragons. This is the result of a dragon-wide treaty negotiated eons ago that was founded upon, and forces recognition of, one basic fact: Dragons are so powerful that any conflict between them costs the aggressor almost as much as it does the party who is the focus of the aggression. The only rule even the Chaotic Dragons will always obey is that Dragon does not fight Dragon.

Not on Saturnus, anyway. Unlike many other species, Dragons do not permanently relocate to elsewhere, such as Earth; though they often tour around and may establish a “summer home” or equivalent. They are tourists, and some tourists are obnoxious and/or decadent.

All breeds of Dragon tend to fall victim to an addiction if exposed to it whilst away from Saturnus – “Gold Fever”. They can quite literally become addicted to hoarding wealth, fondling it, playing with it, even bathing in it. The way this wealth is acquired tends to be filtered through the sub-racial philosophy of the individual – colored Dragons kill, loot, and steal to enlarge their hoards, metallic dragons hire themselves out for various endeavors to earn the gold to add to their collections.

Neptunus

Little is known of Neptunus, the water-world, save that many of the creatures native to the realm also reside in the plane of Water and occasionally escape to the seas and oceans of the Earth. The generic description “Great Sea Monsters” describes them, by all accounts.

The outer planes

Each plane has its own nature. Several are naturally connected to one another by some means, effectively daisy-chaining groups of related planes together. Many are inhabited by either natives or inhabitants who have emigrated from elsewhere. More are being discovered all the time – for example, none know which of the outer planes is the original home of the Rakshasa or the Ilithids.

Residents tend to be extremely powerful and disinclined to tell tales – not verifiable ones, anyway.

Hades and The Abyss

Although given different names, these are really two different names for a single location which shares some characteristics in common and several distinct points of differentiation. Whether these are natural, or a side effect of the inhabitants that populate these distinct sub-realms is not known.

Both consist of “bubbles” that drift through the deepest reaches of the Earth – sometimes in solid form, sometimes liquefied into magma by heat – either randomly or at the direction of the ruler of each sub-domain “bubble”. Sub-domains are linked and connected to form “planes” of similar natures, and several of these planes are daisy-chained together through further tiers of linkages to form complex relative structures. The individual constituent sub-planes may be neighbors or remote from one another, and it can vary from one day to the next; however, the distances between them is abolished by virtue of the portals that link one to another, creating what is effectively a “virtual plane” greater than the scope of any individual plane.

Inhabiting Hades are the Devils and their servants and subordinates. Creatures of a dominantly orderly nature, they believe in promotion through merit and strict observations of hierarchy, and spend their time plotting, planning, and scheming – then putting those plans into action when they have been polished and perfected. Hades is also named the “Nine Hells”, describing the “sub-planes” of which the virtual plane is constructed. The population is slow to grow, and it is a rare honor for a new Lord Of Hell to be enthroned – and, since such are always the former lieutenants of an existing Lord, who knows (many of) their secrets, this represents an announcement of power by the new Lord’s former master. Of course, this constraint is intolerable to the new Lord, a tool to be manipulated and discarded as soon as possible – so it is to that end that the new Lord immediately bends his plots and schemes.

Just to confuse matters, Hades is also the name of one of the individual Nine Hells.

Inhabiting The Abyss are Demons and their slaves. Creatures of dominantly chaotic nature, they believe in the dominance of force and the constant challenging of unruly subordinates to weed out the unfit. Population growth is higher than Devils, but so are “losses” along the way. Demon Lords essentially reach their station by slaughtering the rest of their generation. Loyalty is forced through might and intimidation, punishment and bribery. This inherent tendency to chaos is tempered by the individual desires of specific Demon Lords, which biases what would other be pure chance.

Other Races, Places, and Phenomena of note

There are a few other points of interest that should be noted.

Positive Energy

Mention has been made of waves of energy, alternately positive and negative, rising through the Earth from unknown sources.

The positive energy is channeled through their belief structures by Druids and Clerics to empower the class, and is also manipulated by Elves to shape their abodes. These two character classes have also learned to store such energy for later use.

Negative Energy

The negative energy can be harnessed by Necromancers. If present in sufficient quantity in the vicinity of a corpse, it can transform the dead into Undead – an unfortunate result, given human propensity to bury their dead. Divine energy can disrupt the flow of negative energy that sustains the Undead – if enough Divine energy can be directed toward the problem, which is not as easily done as said.

Burial at sea produces the same effect, though the corpse will almost certainly have been reduced to bones by the time silt sufficiently covers the body to convey the Negative Energies into the remains.

Some cultures burn their dead, the only sure way to avoid this problem. Elves wrap their dead in leaves and leave them at the feet of trees to decompose; this makes Elvish Undead very rare (it usually works) but the few who rise again are far more dangerous than most.

Drow

Some elves have proven receptive to the Negative Energy, distorting their characters and personalities after exposure. Accepting this source of personal power begins the transformation of an Elf into a Drow.

Drow are hunted and killed by the Elves if they can, but all too often the nascent Drow escapes into the Underdark in search of like-minded radicals, having performed as much mischief as they can manage without being detected prematurely.

Indeed, the Drow maintain Menzoberranzan and other strongholds as focal points of Negative Energy that they might serve as beacons to the newly transformed. It is therefore a truism that the more trouble society is likely to have from Drow, the less it will be troubled by Undead, and vice-versa.

Arcane Energy and Astral Streams

As the corridors of Astral Existence (also known as Astral Streams) move through the other planes of existence, the friction between states of reality generates Arcane Energy, which is harnessed by Mages, and upon which many creatures rely for sustenance or harness for additional abilities, such as the Draconic ability to Fly (their wings have insufficient span to support them unaided; the wing shape acts as a living focus for the Arcane Energies. Hence, if the wings are damaged, the flight ability is impaired, a fact that hid this process for centuries).

This also means that Arcane Energy is readily available throughout existence.

Some Astral Streams (statistically, half of them) flow upward from the ground; if conditions are exactly right, these can serve as carriers of Positive or Negative Energy, such that anywhere that conduit touches will observe a release of that energy for as long as it lasts – minutes, days, weeks, years.

Some connection between this phenomenon and the Drow “Negative Focal Points” is widely believed to exist, but has never been proven; the Drow have been uncooperative and the Elves close-mouthed.

Passage between worlds

When an arcane spell is miscast, or is sufficiently powerful, it diverts nearby Astral Streams toward the focal point of the energy (i.e. the caster). If one is sufficiently bent so as to come into contact with the Arcane Energy release, it opens an unstable and temporary passageway into the Astral Stream; any matter or creature entering this Unbound Portal is swept from it’s native realm, to be deposited an unknown span of time later somewhere else.

Astral streams cross infrequently, but regularly, and some travelers have learned to navigate the resulting “network” – though that term implies a stability and permanence of structure not present in reality.

Some locations seem to attract multiple and reliable intersections, creating Astral Nexi, great switching points within reality. Arcane Schools and the like frequently occupy such locations because they provide a convenient power boost to those who know how to harness it, and because the concentration of miscast spells by inept apprentices inevitably creates one at such locations anyway.

There is an inverse relationship between a nexus, and the probability of emergence; it is as though these were special Astral Places, no matter where they may be located in another realm. In fact, more isolated the stream being used as a conduit between worlds (voluntarily or otherwise) is from other Astral Streams, the more likely it is to serve as an emergence point.

Some areas have been identified that seem to deter the presence of Astral Streams in the same way that an Astral Nexus gathers them, and thus are more reliable destinations than others. Some means of enhancing this trait, such as circles of standing stones, magic circles, pentagrams, etc, have been devised over the millennia.

One fact remains consistent, however, as a deterrent to the development of cross-world trade and tourism: such points are inevitably a long way from the easiest points of access to the Astral Network.

Ethereal Flows, The Afterlife and The Wall of Death

When mortals expire, their spirits (unless trapped Necromantically) travel along another set of transitory conduits to an Afterlife. These conduits are NOT the same as the Astral Network, and have been dubbed Ethereal Flows.

Some flows lead to a particular outer plane, part of the Afterlife Cluster; these are said to be positive in nature. Others lead to Hades; these are said to be negative. Convention describes the outer planes as “up”, visible only as Stars in the night sky from the Ground, while Hades is described as “down”, defined as the directions of these flows.

The terms come from the determination that positive Ethereal Flows are attracted to those receptive to positive energy, i.e. those who have lived good lives, while negative flows are attracted to those who are more receptive to negative energies. It is theorized but unproven that Ethereal Flows share a relationship to Clerical Magic that is analogous to that of Astral Streams and Arcane Magic.

A third group is neither positive nor negative; some theologies claim that this occurs when one of the “wrong” type of Ethereal Flow captures a Deceased Spirit. Because their hold on this Flow is more tenuous than if they were strongly bonded with it, they are near-certain to be cast off somewhere as a disembodied spirit; these have natural access to the Astral Streams and can eventually make their way to a location of significance to them – place of birth, place of death, place of dishonor, or place of residence – where they can attempt to gather enough of the spiritual energies appropriate to their natures (positive or negative) that they will eventually be granted a more secure grip on an Ethereal Flow.

Legend states that if the Spirit believes strongly enough that they have an unfinished task to complete or is sufficiently agitated at the time of death, they will thrash around in the Ethereal Flow and may break free in a similar fashion.

The Spirit who is carried by a Positive Flow to a “happy” afterlife (the definitions of which vary widely) eventually passes through The Wall Of Death. Prior to this event, the spirit can be restored to the body through various Spiritual (or sometimes Arcane) spells and practices; there is an Ethereal Cord connecting the body with the spirit.

Passage through the Wall of Death severs that Cord. Thereafter, even response to various means of communications with the Dead is completely voluntary on the part of the Spirit; they can be supplicated and importuned, but the choice is always that of the Spirit. Beyond that, the only way to contact an uncooperative Spirit is to employ Arcane abilities to travel to the Afterlife without first having died and then to search out the Spirit. Almost every Theology actively discourages and even seeks to punish this practice.

It is widely known that beyond a certain interval, spirits of the Deceased can no longer be contacted at all by any means. It seems certain that the Afterlife itself is merely some form of staging point to a further existence of some kind.

The Gods

Positive Spiritual Energies are gathered and stored by Clerics after filtration through the Cleric’s theology, his Faith. You may be wondering, what happens to the energies that they accumulate beyond their capacities to store that do not get liberated as Clerical Spells?

The answer is: the same thing that happens to Positive Energies that pass through the Pious who do not have the capability to manifest it as Divine Magic, according to the strength of their Belief. It takes a hundred or more non-clerics to so “shape” spiritual energy to the same extent as a first-level Cleric.

If there is sufficient belief, the object of that belief spontaneously manifests into existence, usually somewhere in the outer planes (simple statistics, there are lots more of them than there are other locations). The % probability, per day, of this occurring is 0.001xW+0.1xTCL, where W is the total number of non-clerical worshipers and TCL is the grand total of all clerical levels. Only worshipers of the exact same Theology count. 1000 levels of cleric gets you to 100%, even without worshipers, as does 100,000 Faithful. Neither are probable nor easy to achieve, but a lesser number will be sufficient, given enough time. The threshold is 0.1% per day, or 1% every 10 days – which has a cumulative probability of success of 99.9% in a mere 6904.3 days. But 60% might be enough, or 30%, or 5% – you only need to get lucky once!

If necessary, any trappings – even an entire plane of existence – will manifest as surrounding environment for the Deity, who will match the understanding and sophistication of the Worshipers at the time. The God will know what the worshipers believe he knows, will have the personality they think is his, will have the imperatives that they believe in, and will believe any tale of origins that they do. He will conform in every respect to the Deity they believe in at that exact moment.

Deities are a mixed blessing to a Theology. Visible manifestations of divine Force help gather new believers, some Spells may come more easily, and – in a pinch – a Cleric may be able to draw directly on the power of the Deity, or of the congregation.

But, because they can never change from that initial conception, they tend to lock the Theology in stone as well; Deviation from Doctrine leads to a loss of benefits, at the very least, if not prosecution and punishment.

If the faith nevertheless changes, or the church is overwhelmed by a schism, the chance of divine death is 100 minus 2x the chance of spontaneous manifestation. So if the followers ever fall beneath a critical number, the God is in trouble. But that’s not necessarily the end of the story.

Imagine the following: A deity manifests after a couple of hundred years of being worshiped by a fair number of Believers. There is almost certainly a great chance that the God will disappear equally spontaneously a day or so later. He may come and go a number of times before he is able to stick around, each time with no memory of not having existed for as long as the worshipers think he has been around.

As faith in the Deity grows stronger, the day comes when his existence is relatively secure, and he no longer risks spontaneously not existing on a daily basis – well, not very often, anyway, and even if he does, he can be certain of re-manifesting shortly. It’s like having a night off from Divine Duties and drinking too much.

But, one day, he or one of his worshipers responds to a change in the surrounding cultural situation by revising an Article Of The Faith. He convinces another, who convinces another, and before you know it, half the Faithful believe in a different God, or a different version of the same God. Suddenly, the old God’s head is back on the chopping block, and should he ever fall, there is an unknown danger that the Deity to manifest will not be him, but the version of him believed in by the rebel faction.

And, should that deity ever manifest, his knowledge, beliefs, and reality will conform with the revisionist beliefs, even to the point of remembering always being this way, and doing all the things ascribed to him by the revisionists.

Meanwhile, the original faithful are left without a deity to reinforce their beliefs. It seems clear that the revisionists had it right all along, because THEY still have a God to support them. The old faith collapses completely, and the population converts to the new way of thinking.

Gods evolve, then, not continuously but in fits and lurches that occur eventually after the Faith of which they are at the center, changes. The Gods are always out-of-step and lagging behind the times.

Which is why they vest so much trust and authority in their priesthoods. Interpretation of Doctrine can change without changing the Doctrine itself, essentially translating the modern world into terms comprehensible by a simpler entity. Should they ever fail to do so, or should they change Doctrine too much, their faith is on the path to extinction. The safest solution is to keep converting new populations to the “True Faith”.

It’s a LOT easier to gather and persuade 10,000 ordinary people than it is to accumulate 100 levels of Clerics who believe. The combination yields a 20% chance of manifestation (and a 60% chance of extinction). But the beliefs of those 10,000 are going to evolve as the society develops in sophistication and in response to outside events. A conservative approach to evolving theology is both mandated by the need to preserve and sustain the God they believe in, and something that will eventually condemn that deity to the scrap heap of lost religions, supplanted by something newer and more sophisticated. The only option: ultra-conservatism, forbidding any sort of change in culture and society until you are rejected as out-of-touch.

Being a God in this universe is never more than a temp job..

The Wrap-up

The above may have taken hours to write up and explain, but almost all of it was the result of ten minutes inspired thinking in, and after, my shower the other day. Think about the consequences in terms of the adventure potential, and I think you’ll see why I was excited by it.

You’ve got the fact that Aberrations or other exotic creatures can spontaneously manifest anywhere. You’ve got waves of Undead, with whole cemetery rows potentially rising from the dead – when things take a bad turn. You’ve got Deities scheming to sustain their own existences, and Devils scheming to gain power, and others scheming for the sake of scheming. You’ve got Demons stirring up mischief because that’s how they measure rank amongst themselves. You’ve got a whole new cosmology to explore, and whole new relationships between races. At any turn, any failed spellcasting roll, you may find yourself in a whole new bundle of trouble. You’ve got new races and new variations on many old favorites. You’ve got Gnomes as something more akin to Palestinians who were forcibly relocated to the West Bank, and a deeply-held Dwarfish secret shame. And you’ve got the age-old confrontation between progressives and arch-conservatives, a battle that neither side can afford to win – or to lose.

If you can’t get an adventure or twenty out of that lot, hang your dice-bag in shame.