Gnosticism - So What?

Good morning, folks!  Here's where my lack of a philosophy degree, and my complete rejection of meaningless gobbledygook, will come in handy:  Playing the Devil's Advocate.

Recently, your GM threw out some ideas about Gnosticism, and its role in the fantasy worlds of games.  I will be the first to admit that the idea of a game where the protagonists have acquired an ability to tear through the illusion of the world and enter into the "real world" sounds really interesting.  I think we all have the desire to see "through" what can sometimes be a turd of an existence we've been dealt, to see the "real" world, because this one just sucks too hard sometimes to be all we've got.

There's the rub, though.  In the real world, the Gnostics would never be able to truly see Reality.  They would spend what little time they have on this planet rejecting what is around them plainly out of fear, while questing madly and convincing other innocent beings to join their hunt for the Better Reality.  I think we all know what happens when we spend our entire lives looking for Something Better.  (Hint: You don't generally find it)

Enter the fantasy realm, then.  Sure, it would be neat to have a Matrix-type game (with more a fantasy element than the technological element, if I may be so humble as to make a request).  But while there would be battle sequences against whatever embodiment The Archons take in that setting, most of your game would be focused around trying to get other people to join you.  The Preaching Game.

I can see it now:
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Player1: I roll to convince the Tavern Wench that I have seen The Truth and she should come with me tonight so she may see it, too.

GM: Hm.  All right, what's your Proselytize score?  Make a check.

Player1: I have a 7 in it.  And I rolled a 12, so 19.   Good enough?

Player2: Don't forget, he's been drinking, so he's going to have a Reputation penalty.

GM:  *snorts* Oh, yeah, and this is the same wench from the night before when you tried to convince her that the ale was all a sham, so she might as well give it to you for free.  Yeah, sorry, not good enough.  The wench rolls her eyes and mutters something about alerting the local parishioners about your heresy and poor taste in pickup lines.
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The battles would be inconsequential except to keep living.  Unless you set it up in such a fashion that you battle the Archons and eventually the False Creator and manage to make the whole world fall apart around the innocents who had no idea they were being lied to.

...And then what?  Do you think they're going to be happy?  You'll have to run for your frickin' lives because you will have ultimately created a mob scene and ruined millions of livelihoods with your "help."  And I find that truly hilarious, so maybe it should be looked into, after all.

All things considered, you're going to find that the Gnostics were kind of a wacky fringe-cult of Christianity for a reason:  Most people are pretty content accepting what's in front of them.  Sure, they may want a better job, more money, a hotter wife, etc., but very few people are so paranoid and upset with how things are that they would be willing to drop everything and seek out the Really Real Reality with you.  And even if you could prove that the RRR was true and the False Reality was what everyone in the world was experiencing, I would wager that the majority of people would tell you, "That's all well and good, but I've already got my life figured out in this reality and would rather not start over in the new one."

That's my 2cp.

~The Wife~

Even More Old Time Religion: Gnosticism!

As far as I can think, gnosticism is untouched in the wonderful world of sword and sorcery. While you can do a search and find enough about gnosticism to choke a heretic, I'll go over a nutshell version for the post.

1. There is a remote divinity.
2. This divinity emanates the divine, creating other lesser divine beings.
3. A lesser god, called the demiurge by some (and by me), is the creator of the world and all matter. Depending on whom you talk to, it can be either
1. Well meaning but stupid.
2. Insane.
3. A tyrant jerk.

Now, this demiurge guy is probably gonna create himself some henchmen. Archons, they call 'em. They're basically angels/demons . . . servants of his will that set out to keep mankind in the dark.

     4.  The world, therefore, is the flawed product of a fake god and a sad replica of the true reality. Kinda like a painting compared to the real object. Maybe the fingerprinting of a five year old, say.
     5.  Some of the divine element (ooh, that's an idea...) fell to earth, lodged in us poor humans. That divine spark can be returned to the truly divine through a divine awakening.

I'm guessing that you've seen the Matrix. The Matrix is a pretty spot on piece of science fiction gnosticism.

The Really Real World is hidden, with the world everyone is familiar with is a construct.
The Machines are the demiurge.
The Agents are the Archons.

Neo is a gnostic hero, aware of both worlds and trying to show folks the way to regain the Truth and ditch their material world. Jesus could be said to be a gnostic hero.

Gnostic themes show up all over the place in Hollywood, not least of all The Matrix. Think about it. How many films have you seen that involve a big phony covering a greater truth? Artificial environments and the hero struggling against them? Pan's Labyrinth? Dark City?

I think these ideas can see a great deal of use within a campaign, or even as a central idea of a campaign. You could have all manners of factions who are basically after the same thing but using different methods . . . just like reality. Man, gnostic cults were awesome.

The cult of Pythagoras divided things between the material and the mathematical. The universe is mathematical harmony and the material world is merely an expression of ratios, geometry, etc. What if the Truth was mathematical? Imagine a number cosmology. The modrons come to mind.

The Ophites worshiped the serpent in the garden of Eden, normally seen as an evil entity, as a bringer of knowledge.

Cainites worshiped Cain, as well as Esau and the Sodomites. Indulgence in sin was key to salvation, since the body, being matter, is evil. One must throughly defile it through immoral activity.

Borborites were bizarre libertines, didn't acknowledge God as supreme (though they were into the Old and New Testament). They believed in 8 heavens, each ruled by a separate Archon. Their rituals were highly, highly sexualized, sometimes to the point of high creep factor.

The possibilities are endless. What is Truth in your world? Who/What is the False Creator? What roles do the Archons play, and what are they?  Going from that, imagine the different ways your gnostic style followers could seek the Truth of the Divine Spark and how they would all differ from one another.

Imagine the basic D&D cosmology using this system. Making the prime material plane slightly analogous to our world, consider that these gods would be worshiped as normal, but there are also dozens of heretical organizations that view them as pretenders to the throne.  I guess that's basically how 4e would do it, actually. The Primordials are the real gods, the known gods their flawed, perhaps accidental, creations. Hm.

More Old Time Religion

In further discussion of the nature of RPReligion, how's about ancestor worship? This particular brand of religion comes up every once in a while, maybe as a single race or otherwise small population (eg: the dwarves of Iron Kingdoms). When you get down to it, you could very easily make an entire campaign out of such a religious view.

Come to think of it, you could probably use any of these alt religion ideas to create a campaign. I'll go reexamine the atheist version, sometime . . . maybe make a post to collect all the alts and create settings around them. Hm.

So, let's go ahead and say there's either no gods or no known gods. Maybe they ran off for somewhere nicer. Maybe they just don't interact with the world . . . like a really bad game of Populace.

In a world where the only beings worshiped are one's ancestors:

• Would they grant divine power to your clerics? Is that power dependent on the potency of your ancestor, ancestors, or your house?The most powerful houses having the greatest share of magic prowess?  Could anyone draw such power (albeit weaker) from a lesser house?  This would mean that being dead in and of itself grants some measure of power.
• Would they really be clerics? Wouldn't they be more like temple guardians, or some sort of special attendant that enforces your household's honor, since the idea of standard churches don't really factor into things, anymore.
• Or do they? Would especially great families have whole churches dedicated to their ancestors?
• The Underworld would certainly become a factor.
• Would such a place be an "As Above, So Below" situation (like Exalted), where the Underworld is a bizarre carbon copy of the Really Real world. Perhaps the Underworld would be a place where the dead themselves are powered by the honor that their descendants bestow upon them? That would make the above ideas a circular system.
• Would there be an Underworld at all? Perhaps The dead dwell upon the world itself, "living" in cemeteries and family mausoleums (and temples), just kinda hanging out? Imagine a singular place where all of your ancestors sit around and chat with each other for eternity.
• Can't fathom them all liking one another...hell, I don't even like everyone in my immediate family, I can't imagine liking everyone in my family throughout all time.
• This also paints a sorrowful vision of folks who don't get themselves a proper burial. 
• Perhaps, instead, ancestors dwell in family artifacts? Maybe your family founder dwells within a special weapon that has been wielded by every male member of your family since time immemorial. (Pressure!)
• Such a place would have a special relationship with the undead.
• These worlds would basically be haunted by a vast number of ghosts, when you think about it. These would not be scary ghost, really, what with everyone being quite used to them. Unless, maybe, you did something to piss one of 'em off. 
• Sucks to be you.
• I like to think of the undead as either Cursed, Created, or Pissed Off. In this setting:
• Creating undead abominations intentionally, stealing the spirits of loved ones and using their holy vessels as zombie work horses would be a particularly heinous crime. Blasphemy of the highest order. 
• Going back to the poor sods who manage to get offed far away from home and otherwise improperly buried, such spirits could rise to walk the earth as deadly apparitions of horror and badness, cursed to wander the world/area in which they died until such a time as their proper burial. The Hungry Ghosts of Asia come to mind. Perhaps a potent curse could tear oneself away from the ancestral cycle, cutting you off from your family for all time unless a certain condition was met. All sorts of ideas could arise, here. 
• Heh. Arise.
• Getting your family pissed off at you would be a bad, bad deal. Poltergeisting could be a problem. Also, good grief do you not want to cheat on your spouse in such a setting. Oiwa of Japanese legend comes to mind. Yeesh. 
• Getting someone else's family pissed at you could blow, too. Maybe your slight must be avenged, death be damned. I can see 
• Grave robbing would be a risky, risky job, man.
• Sucks to be you.

Atheism in Gaming?

A few nights ago, I had a writing fit within my moleskin, mulling over the nature of religion and how it functions in fantasy settings. I've been trying to come up with a structured method to present this information. I've come to think my frenzied midnight notes should suffice.


"Religion in a fantasy setting.

• Necessary?
• Overdone
• Like Earth's gods of myth, they often interact with/war with one another. 
• Unlike RL, fantasy gods are often demonstrably real.
• Grant keen powers.
• Walk the earth like they own the place.
• Dirt common in fantasy. Too common? 

What are the benefits of gods in a fantasy setting?

• Adds richness to the world
• Interesting creation myths
• Conflict!

Hell, what would the Vikings be without such awesome gods as Thor and Odin? Without Loki to ruin things? What 

kind of warriors would they be if the warrior didn't care to earn his way into Valhalla?

I'm not saying fantasy religions are bad. Far from it. But, how about alternatives?

Worlds Without Gods.

• Not very common in fantasy gaming. Athas (Dark Sun) is the only example I can think of.
• But, even then, people still worship. The elements themselves are revered, as well as the sorcerer kings that rule the various city states.
• This supports my idea that "if there are no gods, men will create them."
• The Star Wars Universe, other than a few local deities that are rarely spoken of, has no major gods.
• Still, they have the Force, which practically replaces gods in terms of religious faith.

In closing, I think a setting without any gods or faith is missing out. I don't necessarily think that such a setting would be worse, but I think it'd be lacking a fair amount of color and conflict. Why remove something that adds so much difficulty (and aid) to day to day life? Could you imagine if the gods of Forgotten Realms were just abstract constructs?"

Not very clean, but to the point. I'll get this whole blog writing thing down, eventually.