Religion in Blackmoor

[leon]

In FFC we have a brief mention of religion. It appears to be monotheistic and somewhat of a parody of the medieval catholic church.

In the D20 Blackmoor we have a fully developed pantheon which is clearly influenced by the Norse gods.

So does anyone know what happened? Did Arneson over the years gave up on the Church of the Facts of Life and developed the northern pantheon? Was it created from scratch for the Zeitgeist products?

[aldarron]

Oh boy. To answer that properly is to write a history report. To start, Daves approach to gaming was collegial. He worked with players and later with other writers, often happily accepting the ideas they wanted into the cannon of Blackmoor. "The Church of the Facts of Life" was Mike Carr's creation as the Background for his character. Other characters developed other ideas, such as Stephen Rocheford and the Temple of the Frog. So, the later pantheon, specific gods, is largely, if not completely a creation of folks Arneson worked with at one time or another. Have a look at this thread (page 2 particularly) where we discuss the Temple of the ID. blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=549&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
You might also find the Afridi thread interesting:
blackmoor.mystara.us/forums/viewtopic.php?t=596

As mentioned there, Arnesons early Blackmoor is definetly not monotheistic, but the cosmology is dualistic, divided between unnamed "Great Gods" and "Dark Lords", no doubt along the lines of Law and Chaos.

[havard]

Great question Leon! Hard to say how this developed. Aldarron has provded some good answers. Most likely more and more elements were added over the 30+ years that Arneson was running his campaign.

[leon]

I see. This method of development is not bad at all. Not everything for the campaign has to come from high above (the DM). If players and other writers contribute to the project the results might be more "organic".

But from what I understand in the first two campaigns (Blackmoor and Greyhawk) the religions and pantheons developed gradually. Which is more logical than the DM coming one day and saying "Well, about your cleric who prayed to some unnamed god...Now have a looksie at my mint 120 gods pantheon and choose one".

[havard]

Oct 31, 2010 13:43:05 GMT -6 leon said:

I see. This method of development is not bad at all. Not everything for the campaign has to come from high above (the DM). If players and other writers contribute to the project the results might be more "organic".

But from what I understand in the first two campaigns (Blackmoor and Greyhawk) the religions and pantheons developed gradually. Which is more logical than the DM coming one day and saying "Well, about your cleric who prayed to some unnamed god...Now have a looksie at my mint 120 gods pantheon and choose one".

Exactly! In fact, Arneson seemed to apply this principle not just to religion, but to all aspects of the game. While some things were planned in advance, he seems to have been constantly open to his own whims and player input. Things that did not need to be defined were kept vague intill they became important in the game.

-Havard