Mythology and the World (CSC)

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Upon first consideration, mythology seems nothing more than a dry listing of gods, goddesses, the alignments they represent, and who worships them. After all, what more could be needed for a game? Such a pigeonholing of mythology completely ignores what it represents. Deities may play key roles in legends and folklore, but mythology is much more, being the sum experience of life and history as a people believes it to be true.
In mythology, one finds tales of the universe's creation and the origins of most sentient races. It justifies the war between good and evil, organizes the sides and prophesies of the battle's final outcome. It explains the origins and sources of magic and the needs and fears of the people. Mythology describes the great monsters who inhabit the unknown and the bogeymen who frighten little children. It presents moral lessons to those who will listen and acts as the holy scripture of contemporary religions. In a nutshell, mythology is the history and workings of the world as the player characters in a campaign will learn to know it.
==Building a Mythos==
A world's mythology is a colorful, often slanted retelling of its history. Yet, like world construction, the DM can restrict his initial work load by limiting his design to the folklore of a small locale. Not all deities need to be detailed at first. Thus the player characters' knowledge of the world will be both restricted and biased.
Regardless of whether the DM decides to create the world's mythology all at once, or develop small sections as need~ the process is the same. Read the sections that follow, making notes to answer these questions:
* What is the role of good and evil in the world? Which moral alignment is currently more powerful (has the largest or most influential following)?
* Who are the gods and what influence do they have?
* What is the role of mankind (or elfkind dwarfkind and so on) in the world?
* How do monsters fit in?
* What are the primary religions in the world and how do they interact?
Now, take the point of view of a common person (preferably one who follows a mainstream religion) and begin writing simple tales. Describe the creation of the world and detail the battle between good and evil. Describe how important monsters and character races participated in the war. Whose side were they on? Who were important heroes? Use the world's unique geographical features as settings for battles and tales. Explain history in legendary terms. Describe ancient civilizations in terms of awe or hatred. Explain magic in simple terms that a peasant would understand (and probably fear).
Do all this and the DM will have his mythology, the world and history as the people know it—full of great stories, biased viewpoints, and wonderful misinformation.
==Good versus Evil==
The primal conflict in any world is the eternal battle between the forces of good and the powers of evil. All deities in the world and their followers are involved in this battle to some degree, whether directly or indirectly.
The basic tenets of what is good can be defined as the rights of beings to retain life, have relative freedom, and have the prospect of happiness. Cruelty and suffering are wrong and undesirable. Goodness embodies a selfless desire to do right for others, to improve their quality of life and redeem them through compassion and justice.
Evil then is the glorification of selfish desire with no concern for the rights or happiness of others. Evil holds to the premise that quality of life comes only to those who can take it and keep it.
Moral neutrality, if it can truly be said to exist, is the balance of good and evil within oneself or within the bounds of the universe. Neutrality seeks to satisfy the needs of self, but not at the expense of denying others their own satisfaction.
When combined with the organized thinking of law and the individualized goals of chaos, these three moral paths form the basis of character alignments.
Determine how this struggle between the forces of good and evil will be fought in the world and the importance it may have to the player characters. Do the gods openly battle for control or do they keep a hands-off policy and let mortals act on their behalf? Can followers of all alignments live and act openly or must evil (or good) beings skulk about for fear of being exposed?
==Archetypal Gods==
Since priests in an AD&D® game world must worship a deity to gain spells, the DM must select or create those deities.
In most fantasy worlds, gods (or Greater and Lesser Powers as they are also known) appear to have influence over parts of the universe and often manipulate what comes under their power. What a deity can control is called his sphere of influence. Powerful gods have more influence and often grant greater powers to their followers.
There are several ways to incorporate the presence and worship of gods into a grone. A common trend in world design is to create polytheistic societies.
Polytheism literally means "many gods." The sphere of influence for each god is relatively large and may actually cross the boundaries of another god's sphere. Their worshippers generally pay homage to one or more gods within the pantheo~ but refuse to acknowledge foreign gods. The deities of the Norse religion are examples of polytheism.
Another view is that of pantheism. Pantheists see all aspects of life and existence as being manifestations of gods. For each major or minor aspect of dally life, there is a specialized deity. Each god has clerics, temples, and devoted followers (although it is often common for people in a pantheistic culture to worship all gods and even to acknowledge the existence of gods outside their own pantheon).
Monotheistic religions also exist in fantasy worlds. The god of such a religion is usually the supreme creator and controller of the universe. Followers of this god recognize no other true gods. Despite his or her supreme nature, the god is often aided or opposed by lesser semi divine beings.
Books on mythology and the Legends & Lore Cyclopedia describe a host of gods which the DM can use to design his own mythos. Specific pantheons may be incorporated as presented (a tribe of Viking-like barbarians may worship the gods of Norse mythology) or the referee may wish to "pick-and-choose" gods from various religions to create a unique pantheon. Even if the DM opts to generate a wholly unique mythology, ideas can be taken from these works and used as, if you will pardon the phrase, divine inspiration.
To aid in the design of a unique pantheon, a listing of archetypal powers and spheres of influence is presented below. While these fields are neither good nor evil, guidelines for decadent and evil gods follow. More powerful deities will combine several of these archetypes into their makeup. Minor deities have less influence than described here.
Each people, each race, each country in the world win generally worship different gods (though they may actually be the same god with different names). Choose several to make up the pantheon of gods who are worshipped in the world.
Consider that the culture of a given people will affect their gods. Barbarian and nomad gods often symbolize the forces of nature which must be appeased and worshipped to ensure day-to-day survival. They may be glorious heroes who crackle with vibrant energy which they use in titanic physical strife. Against against the forces of evil (and civilization, which is often the same thing to a barbarian). Civilized gods embody noble or exotic philosophies and patronize skills and professions, rather than symbolizing the forces of nature. Gods who represent ideals like Love Compassion, Knowledge, Kind~ ness, Industry, and Immortality are found among civilized folk. Decadent gods represent unspoken passions, pleasures and cravings. They rarely seek to ennoble the spirit, only to satisfy the body.
Consider whether the gods in the campaign will be openly worshipped and adored, or be mysterious secretive powers whose exploits and true powers are known only to an inner circle of followers. Will they be paragons of their moral alignments, solely dedicated to championing their moral code or beings who serve their own interests first and their alignment last?
Archetypal Spheres of Influence
Agriculture
Ancestors
Beasts
The Earth (as a nurturing mother)
The Elements-air earth fire, and water
Healing
Hunting
Love (also fertility and reproduction)
Luck
Metalworking
The Moon
The Night (and possibly darkness)
The Sea
Storms (and rain)
The Sun (and possibly light)
Thieves
Trickery & Cleverness
Mercantile Trade
The Underworld (or afterlife)
War
Wine
Wisdom & knowledge
Two other general types of gods exist, though they are used to represent the forces in the world that the player characters will eventually oppose.
==The Decadent Deity==
This is any deity who represents a culture's jaded or amoral attitudes. Rather than fulfilling real needs, the deity plays to baser desires. These gods may be nothing more than sanitized gods of evil
==Evil Deities==
Evil deities are a corruption or reverse an archetypal god's expected function or the application of a godly archetype for immoral or destructive purposes. Evil gods are known to champion pain, suffering, disease, greed, and abuse of power. They are often the deities of particularly vile monster races and the foes of the "good" gods. Their works should be opposed, never supported.
==The Role of Mankind==
The attitudes of people towards their gods and their involvement in their religion can add a great deal of personal color to a DM's world. Every culture has an idea of where they fit into the cosmology of the universe and usually believe all other beliefs to be either false or misguided.
The history of our own world reveals that most peoples believe themselves to be the chosen of the gods and that their particular pantheon of deities are the one and only true gods. Anyone who believes differently is not only wrong, but a heretic. How a people deal with heretics is something the DM will have to decide for himself
Do the people have a holy mission to act out (such as spreading their beliefs or building a sacred tower to the stars) or is living a goodly life their best means of devotion to their deities?
Are the people consistently acting on the behalf of their gods (upholding religious codes of ethics evangelizing unbelievers, punishing transgressors) or is religion a social institution, something that they leave at the temple after each holy day?
==Monsters & Mythology==
Many of the original AD&D® game monsters were adapted from the mythology and folk lore of our own world. Would It not be entirely reasonable to find them as a key part of the folk lore of the DM's world?
Writing monsters into mythology is simple folk tale telling. Give standard monster's local or folk names and write a few fantastical or terrifYing folk tales about their exploits and they take on an entirely new aspect. By including monsters in a world's mythology, the DM can accomplish several valuable goals.
First, the monsters become part of the world. They are tied to its creation and development. The DM knows why they exist and what their ultimate purpose might be.
Second, they become more mysterious. A difficulty inherent in adventure gaming is that it is just as easy for a player to buy a Monstrous Compendium as it is for the DM. When the DM says "you see three ores with a bound and gagged prisoner," the player instantly knows what he is dealing with-three low-level monsters.
On the other hand, if the DM says "three bandy-legged creatures squat in the shadows around a bound body. They resemble bogeymen from the dark tales your mother used to frighten you into being good when you were a child", the player is no longer so sure of himself. In fact, what he knows of bogeymen is next to nothing, except that they are really scary. Instead of being simply evil humanoids, ores become the hideous bogeyman symbols of abject terror to those who heard of them as children. In fact, just about any evil humanoid would be a bogeyman.
Even in a world of fantasy, the rarer the monster, the more mythical it will become. Tales of it become even more fantastical In folk lore, a red dragon becomes a "great bat-winged demon, red like a tomato, with teeth like swords, claws like spears, and belching brimstone and fire!
Finally, the DM may find less need for an endless stream of "different" monsters. Unknown monsters with mysterious descriptions suddenly become frightening challenges. It can be said that players are not afraid of what they know, but of what they don't know. 
==Creating Religions==
Religions are not created by gods, but by men to formalize the worship of their gods. The steps that follow, actually groups of questions to ponder, will walk the DM through creating a religion. Don't feel that all the questions need be answered immediately. Initially, it may be enough to know a god's name and that he champions the cause of good.
Give the religion a name. Calling it the Order of Zeus is fine for a straightforward, mainstream religion, but a mysterious cult may have an equally mysterious name, like the Fellowship of Three Secrets.
Next, examine the god and his archetypal sphere of influence. Decide which aspects are most important to his followers. Determine his moral alignment and its relationship to his worshippers. Decide the god's goals, as far as the world and his followers are concerned. Does he have a secret nature known only to an inner circle of believers?
Now look at the folk who worship the god. What is their culture level. How might that affect the religion? What do they want from the god-survival against the elements, protection from the supernatural, eternal life, gain of material possessions, or something else?
Decide what characterizes the religion. Does it constantly seek to convert new believers? Can anyone join, regardless of race, nationality, or social class? What kind of restrictions are placed on believers? What kind of obligations, either in the form of service or money, do believers owe their god? What benefits do believers derive from the religion, if any?
How popular is the religion? Is the religion a political power in the land or are its believers persecuted? Do they persecute others? Are its temples rich, or is all its income spent on good causes?
What magic can the god's clerics wield? Assume that the god grants clerical spells to his priesthood, but only those spells that do not conflict in some manner with his moral alignment or purpose. Some gods may not be able to grant higher level spells to their clerics (as is often the case with tribal spell casters like shaman and witch doctors). Furthermore, a god may give his clerics special powers not available to clerics of other deities.
For example, a god of healing might not grant his followers damaging spells, but might give them more powerful curative spells at lower character experience levels.
Lastly, how do its clerics dress? What icons, animals, symbols, colors, metals, or weapons are associated with the god?
Answer these questions and the DM will have a good, solid picture of the religion.