Dualsim for my proposed pantheon

[Lord Dynel]

I'm working on my own, homebrew, setting again. This setting has been on-and-off, lost, recreated, converted to different systems, and (most recently) lied dormant through the ages. But I'm back into working on it and thinking of changing a lot of things for its next iteration.

One thing I'm looking at is the pantheon. In the past, invariably, the pantheon for my campaign setting has been a polytheistic one similar to my own early mythological inspirations and my exposure to certain pantheons early in my gaming experience (Greyhawk, and a little later, Forgotten Realms). My only gripe is that it always seemed more work than reward. Religion was never a focal point of any campaigns and even when I attempted to do such a thing, it got relegated to a secondary status. I'm sure some of that is my fault, but I digress.

I have been wondering, along with drawing inspiration from the D&D 3.0 Deities & Demigods, how Dualism would work for the pantheon. Just two gods - one good, the other evil (along with some minor cults - an earth/nature worshipping cult, and possibly some demon and/or devil cults) rule over all things. All things good thing spring forth from the good, the opposite from the evil. I think it would be "less hassle" to have just two than 12 or 15 (or more). I say less hassle because a large pantheon is not a hassle, per se, but it is compared to two. No one gets lost in the shuffle. I think they could become a larger focus in a campaign as opposed to past campaigns - my homebrew and published ones - where there are many gods and many conditions in which those gods are worshipped. Some gods are geographical, some political, some racial, others tied to a particular sphere that might only barely get attention or focus (like a god of the ocean, assassins, or engineers). I also think that though, technically, Christianity isn't a dualism, I think the struggle of a good force vs. a bad force can be more easily recognized with the players than a pantheon. I think it could lead to the players actually taking a side and caring when there are only two sides.

I don't expect everyone to have these issues, so I don't know others ever have these questions. And I know every table is unique, too. Every table has different reactions and their own points of contention. My table has never put too much stock in the gods of my worlds. I don't want a group of paladins or an overzealous lot, but some bit less levity would be nice! And those who remember some of my posts, I've had questions in the past about pantheons and asked some opinion (like the one god per alignment experiment I was considering).

Anyway...anyone have thoughts on the subject?
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[Kaiser_Kris]

I tend to be a little crazy about inflating pantheons myself, so I'd be really interested in seeing a well-developed dualism. I'm actually seriously considering cutting my pantheon down to one deity per alignment, with their typical portfolios on the side. Some of my evil deities could very easily be made into devil/demon lords, and the good ones as demigods and such.

As a rule, I think it's better to develop a few things fully than to vaguely sketch out a great many things.

[Relaxo]

I agree, in my experience, making up a pantheon isn't worth the time, in my life, in my campaigns, IMO.

so i see nothing wrong with a good god and an evil one.

except for neutral folks maybe? I guess druids can worship "nature" as a thing and it doesn't have to be a god per se.

I say it should work fine.

Now.... using the example of Catholicism with it's one God and the many saints... who's to say you can't add demi-gods or saints or whatever you want to call them if you need a religion for some specific aspect of goodness or evil.

Example: You've lost your favorite d30, do you pray to God? NO! St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost things.

"Tony Tony, come around, somethings lost that must be found..." it's like Locate Object.

So that might work for you , and you can make them up as needed rather than worry about it.
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"Relaxo"

[clavis123]

My high-school AD&D campaign, essentially an alternate 16th-century Europe, had a Dualistic religion as the dominant faith. I was inspired by the Cathars, who practiced a quasi-Gnostic form of Christianity that somewhat resembled Buddhism in many of its ideas. Naturally, the Cathars were brutally suppressed by the Church, but I wondered what it would be like if a faith like theirs had been triumphant.

The obvious real-world models for a true Dualism would be the Manicheans and the Zoroastrians. One school of thought has it that the Cathars essentially were European Manicheans.

One way to go with Dualism is the "Gnostic" or Manichean way, making one of the gods the evil "Lord of This World", and the other the "Good God" of the spirit. The demons who serve the "Lord of This World" would actually be native to the earth, while the angels that serve the "Good God" are wholly spiritual. In such a setup, there is no "Hell" per se, because everyone who is less than perfectly pure reincarnates into the realm of evil - which is the material world itself!

Another approach would be to make the gods truly co-equal, both having equal representation in the material and spiritual realms. So the "God of Light" has both spiritual and mortal servants, as does the "God of Darkness". So you would have both a Heaven and Hell, and the two forces constantly fighting for control over mankind.
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