Forces and Philosophies

The mystical history of the world is somewhat different if it is driven by a force or a philosophy.

As we'll discuss in more detail next chapter, a force is a mystical power which strongly affects the world . . . but which probably is not a sentient being like gods are. It has drives, it has a goal, but it probably does not have a mind.

On the other hand, a philosophy is a compelling idea or set of ideas which can capture the imagination and influence the actions of communities or whole civilizations. It might exert enough popular appeal that it can support magical powers for priest-philosophers. But it is still not precisely a god, for it has no independent mind.

If your campaign world is driven by a force or philosophy, its mystical history is going to be somewhat different. It will mostly be a history of men or other sentient races and their relationships with the force or philosophy: How they came to recognize it or create it, how they came to believe in it, how they introduced it to others, and so forth.

In short, the DM won't have to create an entire separate history as he would have to do for distinct pantheons of gods. He will, however, have to decide for himself what effects these forces or philosophies have had on the human and humanoid histories of his world, and take these factors into account for every part of those histories.

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