God, Force, or Philosophy

For each faith you establish in your campaign world, you have to decide what it is that's being worshipped and venerated: A God, a Force, or a Philosophy.

A God is a powerful being, usually of human or greater intelligence, usually desiring to impose its will or characteristics upon the world. A god is often devoted to a single attribute or set of attributes (e.g., warfare, love, agriculture, marriage, etc.) and so most of his interactions with the world will deal with the god's promotion of that attribute among humankind. Gods do not have to be anthropomorphic (i.e., manlike in form or personality characteristics), and so one faith's god is often another faith's monster. However, most of the gods worshipped by player-characters are likely to be anthropomorphic and not monstrous.

A Force is some sort of natural (or unnatural) process which influences the world. It isn't necessarily intelligent, but it is magically powerful . . . and humans who accept the dictates and goals of this force can become its priests and use spells based on that magical power. Some Forces which can be so worshipped include Entropy, Nature, the Life-Death-Rebirth Cycle, and Magic. Druids tend to be priests of the Force of Nature, instead of specific Gods of Nature. (There are exceptions to that generalization, of course.)

A Philosophy is an idea, or set of ideas, which (in these magical worlds) is so compelling that it attracts magical energy and faith to it, much as a Force does. Philosophies are usually created by man or other sentient races, spread throughout cultures, and gain such widespread acceptance and belief that they do become much like Forces. When no one believes in a Philosophy any longer, it can generate no magical power and support no priests, so the priests' duty is to embody its attributes and to teach the philosophy so that it will never die. Sample philosophies include Oneness With Nature, Peace, the Divinity of Mankind, the Sanctity of Life, Nihilism, and so on.

In the AD&D® game, the God, Force, and Philosophy are identical in the way they are treated by the game mechanics. All three provide spells and powers to their priests. All three demand personal requirements and services of their priests and of their non-priest followers. And all three, to a lesser or greater degree, shape the world, both through their own powers and through their agents, the priests.

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