Where do campaign ideas come from? Sometimes their plots are ripped from the pages of books or are inspired by That Movie (that movie, all too often, being Star Wars). There’s a lot to be said for transplanting plots across different genres – imagine, for example – playing a scenario based on Speed, using Eberron’s Lightning Rail system. Or running The Matrix in the Forgotten Realms (“There is no wand,” muttered Elminster under his breath).
Many campaigns have no over-arching plot, and that’s not a Bad Thing. Our own superhero sessions are all based in the same multiversal reality and is a shared setting with no particular long-term thread running through it. Some storylines can take many sessions to resolve (if at all), but there’s nothing particularly to tie them all together, by design.
Endday is different. There’s a campaign plotline running through it from beginning to all too destructive end.
And it all began with me asking myself two questions.
Where do Demons come from? and Where do Angels come from?
The answer to the first question is easy: Demons are Fallen Angels who rebelled against the heavens and were cast out. So: Demons are Angels with a difference of opinion.
It’s the answer to the next question which shakes things up. Where do Angels come from? According to one theory all the major religions have subsumed the beliefs of faiths they’ve conquered, adapting their ceremonies and holy days into themselves to better convert the people to their way of thinking. Hence Christmas and Easter, among others.
Also – and here’s the important bit – the major religions have often taken the gods of the other religions and demoted them, making them lesser beings but subservient to the True god or gods (whichever gods that happened to be at the time). This is how Ra rose to supreme power in Ancient Egypt and how the Cult of Zeus afforded him the title of Father over all the other gods.
This is where Angels come from. They are gods, demoted. They are the ancient spirits of the wood and tree and brook and forest and glade. They are the gods of the early winter frost and the garden pond. They are the spirits of the hearth and home, of the harvest, love and hate. They are animism, ancestor worship and the mythos of countless forgotten peoples.
Which means that Demons, by extension, are also gods, demoted then cast out for wanting their power back.
Truth be told, who can blame them?
*blink, blink*
I don’t agree, of course but that’s just a disagreement.
I find disagreeing with a work of fiction pretty pointless, personally :D
Nice header on this web page. I love the orange and black–the full moon, the bats, the cauldron. Cheery yet spooky. Could you do one for Trollhalla? Not for Halloween, but for the whole year?
On the blog topic: I read somewhere that angels are God’s Thoughts made manifest. Using that logic then demons would be God’s evil thoughts. The Holy Book tells us that Man was made in His Image and Likeness. Man has plenty of evil thoughts. Where would he get them except from his Creator?
Ack! Theology! Run, run!
.-= Ken St. Andre´s last blog ..Greyhounds Aren’t Grey =-.
@Ken Lol!
I generally find that running away is the best thing to do when it comes to Theology. The problem is that it’s very good at finding where I’m hiding.
I remember reading about 13th century monks going to battle due to an argument about whether God has a navel. He did, after all, make us in his image (or, more accurately “Let US make man in OUR image” – the Bible confirms polytheism shock!).
Told you we should have just run away. Gaaaaaah!
When it comes to website design, I have no talent though I know someone who does. I’ll ask her nicely for you :D
Normally, I love to debate theology and philosophy, but I’m confused. I thought your post was discussing fantasy-world theology. Then it seemed to flip to real-world theology. I take it your incorporating one into the other in your game. If so, I think you’re a brave man. Most of my gaming friends are (unfortunately) rather religious and if I started mixing the two, I’d catch all kind of hell. (pun intended) For instance, we’ve had heated discussions over the “God made Man in his own image” thing.
Interesting post though. And I’m with ya all the way on the subject matter.
(”There is no wand,” muttered Elminster under his breath). LOL! Love that one, in particular.
.-= Rook´s last blog ..Of Wishes and Wizards =-.
@Rook The Endday campaign is set in the modern day so it draws it’s theosophical roots from the here and now. That’s one of the charms of running a modern campaign for me – the chance to explore modern mythos and play with them in interesting ways.
If that happens to offend anyone I make no apologies. My fiction is not your reality :D
unless, of course, by INCREDIBLE RANDOM NIGHTMARISH CHANCE, it is.