Re: Planar Churches and Polygot faiths

From: "Thatotherguy" <spellj@??????????.com>

> > Take for example the plane of Olympus, that you mentioned. It is home
> > to the Greek
> > Pantheon,
>
> Some Greek gods reside elsewhere, IIRC.  Since the Greeks had an
> underworld in addition to Mount Olympus for their gods to live on.

<thinks - scratches head - gives up>

What does "IIRC" mean?

The Greek underworld is an interesting thing to look up. I just reread my copy of L&L (2nd
Edition) looking for it, and it says that the Greek gods fought against Chronus and
defeated him. It then says that they then fought the rest of the Titans and confined them
to Tartarus (the Greek underworld).

My copy of Manual of the Planes (1st Edition) says that Tartarus is the home of evil
powers in Exile, such as the Greater Titans who were driven out of Olympus. L&L also
mentions Hades, which MotP tells me is the home of Hades. (Doe! Did I really look that up?
<changes fuse in brain>). As the lower end of Mount Olympus is found in Hades, I suppose
that plane might also be thought of as the Greek underworld. L&L says that Tartarus is
underneath Hades, but that doesn't match the "maps" of the outer planes in MotP.

L&L also says that Artemis lives in Arcadia.

Is this what you are referring to when you say that some gods reside elsewhere?

I don't think it is logical for polygots to worship both (Olympian) gods and Titans. In my
opinion, clerics of the Titans would work against all the other Greek gods (and the
Olympian polygot church) whenever they could. On the other hand I can't see a problem with
polgots also venerating Artemis.

I also think that it is unlikely that a polygot priest worshiping the Greek gods would
worship Uranus. L&L says that he now is in hiding and that the other Gods don't know he is
still alive. His clerics are described as a secret sect. I think this means that he would
be unknown to the polygot clerics of the Olympian polygot faith. L&L also says Uranus
hates the Titans and tries to stop any attempt to free or reach them. I think that he
would avoid involvement in either pantheon and *insist* on having his own clerics.

I think that it could be argued that a Spelljamming cleric from a Greek culture would have
two pantheons to choose from if he/she became a polygot:

* The Olympian pantheon containing all the gods that won the war and now (mostly) live in
Olympus or
* The Titan pantheon containing all the Titans that lost the war and now live in Tartarus
(but not their children the Lesser Titans).

And that Uranus (a sky god with symbol of stars) would make a good third option for a
Greek spelljamming religion.

The Titan polygots would probably have some sort of problem gaining spells because their
gods are imprisioned. They could be limited to 2nd level spells in all spheres and forced
to use the Contact Home Power spell to get higer level spells. (The lesser Titans
shouldn't really have a polygot church, because they don't have organised churches by
themselves, but could have a few worshipers in crystal spheres using the Greek culture.)

I'm glad that you brought this up, because it means that a crystal sphere based on Greek
mythology can be home to 2 polygot religions that openly rival each other across known
space, with the secret sect of Uranus also getting involved behind the scenes.

It also means that clerics worshiping the Planar Church of Olympus would not gain spells
from all the Olympian gods. They would only venerate and gain spells from the ones that
actually lived in Olympus (so gods like Artemis would not be part of their faith).

I was talking about the rule for bringing gods into a new sphere recently and I can
imagine a Olympian polygot outpost being constantly attacked during its first year by the
Titan polygots and any Titan polygot outpost being attacked all the time by both the
Olympians and clerics of Uranus.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/