Gods, Forces, and Philosophies - Creating A World
3Part 1 in my world building series. The First chapter of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition Dungeon Master's Guide starts off with a chapter called A World of Your Own and presents us with some Core Assumptions for a fantasy world and some common tweaks.
The chapter then proceeds to elaborate.. somewhat on each. The first Assumption, Gods Oversee the World:
"The Gods are Real and Embody a variety of beliefs, with each god claiming dominion over an aspect of the world, such as war, forests, or the sea, Gods exert influence over the world by granting divine magic to their followers and sending signs and portents to guide them..."
There are many options for god systems in a world setting, most commonly used in official D&D settings is a loose Pantheon (Multiple gods). The section continues to offer other suggestions like Monotheistic (single deity), Dualistic (two opposing deities or forces), Animistic (revering spirits), and Forces and Philosophies (Not centered on Deities).
Knowing I wanted a low fantasy like setting I agreed with the tweak suggestion for the gods to be remote and make limited contact.
After reading the Dualistic approach. I got my first inspiration for what may be the system for my world, opposing forces Good vs Evil Law vs Chaos... and what if I could include all four?
My second source of inspiration came from this line in the Forces and Philosophies section: "A person can.. ..revere the force of Nature and also pay homage to the gods of nature, who might be seen as personal manifestations of an impersonal force."
Personal manifestations of an impersonal force. This idea really stuck out to me. Given the low fantasy like setting and remote gods feel I mentioned I was looking for this gave me some ideas.
What if my world had a layer of uncertainty? Are there actually gods? or is it forces and philosophies of the universe enabling and granting magical powers?
Additionally if there are gods, were gods, or might be gods in the future are they a product of mortals pure force of will in philosophies and or their need?
After discovering this approach and wondering what other world builders have done in this space I did as any good little researcher does and opened Reddit. I learned the world of Eberron follows some of these principles for forces and philosophies.
I plan to read more about the world of Eberron but for now I think I have a great starting point, and if I have done it correctly left enough intrigue for years to come.
What do you guys think? is this an approach to the system of gods you are interested in for your game worlds? What is your favorite system? leaves some comments down below I am interested in what ideas other people have.
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