Dungeons and Dragons, "The Five"

Gods of Dungeons and Dragons

            I really liked writing up my unique take on Orcs a while back, that their society has a different take on religion that I think makes them more interesting than the simple brutal monsters they are often portrayed as.

            I also never really went anywhere with my discussion of Religion as an aspect of settings that I wrote about months before that.

            To that end I figured I would write up some of my stranger and off the beaten path religious aspects of my own campaign world and see what people think.

The Five

            The five are a Pantheon of gods that work in concert with one another, they each seen as aspects of a larger concept, the Cycle of Life.  None of them are in conflict and followers of the religion do not acknowledge the existence of other gods/faiths.  The Five are worshiped as a pantheon by most, but there are Exemplars (Acolytes) that specialize in one of the Five and seek to embody that aspect (Exemplars are not always Clerics).

"Is Mother Nature ever a MILF?"
"I guess if you are, like, Zeus or something."

Holy Symbol:

Pentagon (Faith as a Whole)

            Mother Nature: Circle

            Father Time: Hour Glass

            Ladies of Fate: Triangle

            Thousand Faced Hero: Sword

            Grim Reaper: Scyth

Cleric Domains:

When worshiped as a Pantheon, the Life domain is preferred, as it encapsulates the entirety of the religions aspects.  Much like the symbols Exemplars specialize in particular domains.

            Mother Nature: Nature

            Father Time: Knowledge

            Ladies of Fate: Trickery

            Thousand Faced Hero: War

            Grim Reaper: Death

"I have no idea what I set this alarm for.  Why did I make it such a catchy song?  Was that a clue?"

World View & Mythos:

There are five wise and powerful beings that like the facets of a gem, are each a part of the larger whole of Life itself.  These beings help and guide the mortal races, each of these five in turn having domain over an aspect of the mortal realm.

            The first is the life-giving power of Mother Nature, she is the keeper of life, the earth upon which all else rests.

            The second is Father Time, animating the universe, shifting between possibilities, and possessing the great knowledge of the future and wisdom of the ages.  Like the air he is all about us unseen, and like smoke and steam cloud our vision, uncertainty clouds our view of the future and our understanding of the past.

            Third is the Ladies of Fate, or the Three as One, those who weave into their designs a place and calling for all people, they are the water of the tide, to which all inevitably surrender.

            Fourth is the Thousand Faced Hero.  Not one being but all beings who face challenges and thru strength or guile persevere, he is the fire that tempers our souls.

            Last is the Grim Reaper, the final end to all things.  Bringing closure and rest to those who have passed thru the world, the Reaper is the void and aether from which nothing returns.

Beliefs:

The universe is made of many different energies and forces that work in concert.  All of these things play their parts and have place.  Life springs forth, moves thru the ages, facing conflict as it goes, fulfills its destiny, and then passes on.

            While each of these parts deserves its own ruminations and there are innumerable virtues that can be embodied by any one person, it does not change the fact that all of these five parts are necessary for the world to exist.

I have written about this cartoon.  Have I reached a point where I have enough blog entries that I can regularly reference my deeper thoughts on various inspirations?  Maybe?

Practices:

            This faith is most commonly known for its monasteries.  Spotting the map, they serve as way points for pilgrims and travelers form all over the country.  Harvest festivals, historical remembrances, star gazing, tournaments, and funerary services are provided by the faithful, and their monasteries often have large tombs or graveyards.

            As the faith, by their own thinking, has aspects in every facet of life they provide numerous services that tie into community life.

Superstitions and Taboos:

            Being rather disparate, the monasteries have no unifying set of superstitions or taboos.  They are big believers in hospitality, and that everything happens for a reason, so they do not put much stock in luck, but instead in the value of people doing positive things for one another, like feeding the hungry, giving compliments and encouragement, or just giving clear instructions.

I think a better illustration of this concept exists.
I just couldn't find one.

Social Organization:

            There is no single unifying church hierarchy.  While each cloister varies and has its own local flavor, they tend to be broken into two major camps, the contemplative, those that ponder the meaning of life often writing long philosophical treatise, and the communal, those that emphasize working with communities and providing a variety of services in exchange for donations and help around the monastery.

Cults & Heretics:

            While most other religions have a diametric opposite, by simply flipping the dogma from kindness to hate, freedom to tyranny, or life to Death, the Five do not suffer from this.  While they are not the state religion of any kingdom they are also not aggressive with their missionary work, so they are not seen as a threat.  No one persecutes followers of the Five, and they have no equivalent to “Satan worshipers”.

            The closest thing to heresy is that some orders believe that other gods exist and incorporate them into worship in a variety of ways, celebrating their holidays, incorporating the imagery into their burial grounds and structures, or citing their religious texts in their writings.

I liked this image of Death so much from my blog on "Celestial Warlock Patrons" that I am using it again.

Inspiration

            There are three pop culture inspirations for this religion.

The first is the Color Wheel from Magic the Gathering.  I tried to make each of the Five line up to a color, Green (Nature), Blue (Time), White (Fate), Red (Heroism), and Black (Death).  It is perhaps not a perfect line up, and some bleed between the elements because White, Black, and Green tend to not have elements tied to them.  I first started coming up with this idea for a religion when I wrote about Magic the Gathering’s color wheel being a better Alignment system.

Speaking of elements here is the other thing that inspired the Five, “Captain Planet and the Planeteers”.  I think it might be an odd choice for me to replace Heart with Death… I think I need to write something about the Planeteers in the future.  They are easy to mock, but as an adult I have seen new value it what the show was about, and have referenced it before.

Where is my dark and cynical reboot of this?
Where Hoggish Greedly is president and the fucking world is coming to an end?

Lastly, I was inspired by Piers Anthony’s “Incarnations of Immortality” series.  Each of the Five is taken right from that series, except he had War instead of the Hero with 1,000 faces.  While I do feel that conflict makes sense as a key aspect of the Five (his was really 7, as God and Satan are also in there), War just seems to inherently negative a concept.  To me, war is not an inevitable aspect of life, it is an unfortunate event that most people avoid direct contact with.  Heroism, which can be embodied in a number of ways felt like a more universal idea.  (I have mentioned this series before.)

What Do You Think

            Would this religion fit in your game world?  Do you think that the aspects are too generic and require sprucing up?  Would you like to see more detail about each of the Five?

            Feel free to put a link to your own fantasy faiths in the comments for contrast.  I am curious about how other people stretch things in their worlds away from the more common, “chose one from the list” style of pantheons in other games.

            And have fun.

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The Fantasy World of "Xanth"

            Currently they are kicking around the idea of a TV show based on the Xanth books by Piers Anthony.  I am familiar with his work.  When I was in 7th and 8th grade we had a program called "Accelerated Reader".  You would read a book and then take an 8-20 question test (dependent on the length of the book) and get points for doing well. A typical young adult book was worth 5-8 points.

            Somehow the Xanth series by Piers Anthony was on the list, each 400-page novel was worth about 14-16 points and I liked them so much that I read one a week.  All 17 that existed at the time and scored 100% on each quiz.  I had the 6th highest Accelerated Reader score in my middle school of 900 kids that year.  My Mom volunteered at the school running a mini-toy shop that allowed you to spend your reading points on prizes for your hard work.  (I have mentioned this before.)

            I have grown beyond Piers Anthony.  To the point where I just can't bring myself to read anything by him.  It kind of makes me sad, like how I can't really enjoy anything from when I was a kid except in a nostalgic sense.  I just don't get the same rush from Lego, video games, candy... Each day the world is a little colder, colors less bright... Adulthood blows.

 

This book is actually lots of people's introduction to fantasy so the nostalgic looking back is not uncommon.

And Introduction to the Series

            Let’s talk about the first book, “A Spell for Chameleon” and to a degree the earlier stories.  The premise is that in the magical land of Xanth everyone has one magical talent, these are all different, randomly assigned X-gene style to the residents of the continent and ranging in power from “spot on the wall” (powers that are basically the ability to cause momentary discoloration on some surfaces) all the way up to “Magician” having tremendously powerful abilities like controlling the weather or talking to any and all inanimate objects.  The first book starts off with Bink, the only man in a long time to not have an obvious talent, if he is unable to display a magical ability he will be exiled from Xanth into the world of Mundania (Earth).

            Bink goes on a road trip of sorts from the Good Magician Humphrey’s castle to ask him for information on what his talent is, then across the canyon “gap” which splits Xanth in half meeting a strange woman named Chameleon, into Mundania where he meets the exiled Magician Trent who tried to conquer Xanth in ages past.  Bink, Chameleon, and Trent all end up back in Xanth where they discover an ancestral castle of a lineage on kings and Trent eventually becomes king with Bink’s help, with Bink’s talent being revealed as being Magician caliber power but best when kept secret.

            Really, the plot is a background to instead explore the rules of the world and society.  As to whether this was intended to be a series at the start it certainly feels like an introductory read.  Numerous rules, locations, prominent characters, and key locations are all introduced.  Future books would explore the place so thoroughly that there is nary a corner that remains unmapped.

 

If you can't tell, Xanth is based on Florida.
The biggest difference being all the mountains and the canyon.
Magical creatures and monsters are actually too common in Florida for that to be considered a major break from reality.

Strange Authorial Quirks

            The writing is exceptionally skeevy at times.  Nearly all writers of genre fiction let their strange kinks creep into their work at various times (look back at my discussions of Wonder Woman for a good example of that) and Anthony is no different.  Lots of talk about women’s underwear pops up thru the series, one of the titles of the series is just “The Color of Her Panties”.

            This is to say nothing of the amount of nudity, topless centaur women, the origin of things like centaurs, and lots and lots of people being perfectly cool with everybody being naked.  Not to kink shame, this is all just a warning for you if you intend to give the series a whirl.  There are a few angrier perspectives on this topic you can find regularly online.

 

This is the cover of "The Color of her Panties".
I have no idea why that was the title, I barely remember this book.
There are maybe 6 that stick out in my mind and this ain't one.

The Humor

            Most of the humor comes from puns that are so numerous and go by so quickly that they have all vanished from my memory for the purposes of giving examples.  In the later books, there are entire chapters that can be skipped because it is just a literal parade of strange creatures based off of puns.  In the first book things are a little subtler, for instance there are “Cent”-ipedes that are tiny copper colored bugs that take coin sized bites out of people.  Oddly there is a missed opportunity for a pun in the form of a man named Justin who was turned into a tree; didn’t want to make that a “Joshua Tree”?

In Conclusion

            I got a kick out of these when I was in Middle School.  They were more of an introduction into high fantasy settings than anything else I can think of (I am that mutant that never cared for the “Lord of the Rings” books) along with the “Magic: The Gathering” novels, so I do not hate them.  They are just weird in retrospect.

            They are kind of perverted when I view them thru the lens of adulthood, but in a way that is so juvenile and silly that it feels harmless.  The writing is only okay (at best) when I look back on it after having read literally hundreds of books.  The setting is bloated and cluttered, even when compared to everything-and-the-kitchen-sink type fantasy settings like “Warcraft”.

            I do not regret having read these.  I would not heartily recommend them to anyone who has already read a lot of books, not when Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is around, with humor that is far more droll and clever.  I can imagine young readers enjoying this as their first steps into fantasy though, they feel like books aimed at a younger mindset.

            Maybe I am wrong, but that is my take and if you enjoy them more than I do, have fun.

Piers also wrote the "Incarnations of Immortality" series.
In this series the Grim Reaper, Father Time, Lady Fate, War, and Mother Nature work together to stop Satan.
It is better than Xanth because it is tighter, but it is also rather bloated.

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