The Regency: A montheistic setting

[gareth]

I've been working on a setting for 3.5 DnD which has only a single god, who interacts with the world only through clerics and the occasional artifact. I've come up with some more details since my last post and I'd be interested to see what you think of it. It's mostly "crunch" at this stage, writing the detailed fluff background will take more effort.

Deiwos

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Deiwos created the Regency universe, and is the only god in it. Other religions exist in the Regency universe, but their gods do not exist and their clerics have no supernatural abilities. In game terms he is Lawful Neutral, he has all Domains except Chaos and Summoning, and counts all weapons including Unarmed Strike as favoured. Further description of Deiwos is not necessary, as he interacts with the universe in very limited ways. He supplies divine magic to clerics as do more conventional gods in other settings, and he has created artifacts as they have. Unlike other gods he never intervenes in the universe in any other way. He never even speaks to his followers apart from answering the Commune spell. His symbol is a white circle on a black background.

Alignment

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Being the creator of the universe, Deiwos has altered how the alignment system works in it. In order to be Lawful, one must worship Deiwos and obey his commandments and any legitimate instructions from his clerics. Any character with another religion or no religion, no matter how law-abiding or honest, counts as ethically Neutral at best. Any character that consciously rejects worship of Deiwos counts as Chaotic, again regardless of any other behaviour. Therefore the only ethically Neutral characters are "virtuous pagans", ignorant of Deiwos. The moral axis is irrelevant to Deiwos, and unchanged from the standard rules.

The Regency

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The Regency is the human theocratic government based around worship of Deiwos. All government and judicial positions are filled by clerics, and the head of state is an Epic-level cleric known as the Regent. The Regency claims the entire universe, but in practice controls only part of the single planet of the setting. The technology of the Regency is the late-medieval level usually found in DnD settings, but with heavy use of divine magic. In addition to clerics, the Regency commands fighters, paladins, wizards, monks and rogues. Druids, rangers, sorcerors, and barbarians are either unknown in the Regency or heavily persecuted. The Regency has even created a spell which can remove the magic abilities from sorcerors. The Regency is almost entirely human, with only a few half-orc or half-elf citizens.
All player characters from the Regency are Lawful.

The Pagans

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Hundreds of different Pagan tribes and kingdoms exist outside the control of the Regency, all at varying levels of development but none as advanced as the Regency. Even literacy is consistently lower - all Pagan characters must pay skill points to be literate as a barbarian does. All core races are present, as well as dozens of different human cultures. The Pagans collectively can field druids, bards, barbarians, sorcerors, rangers, fighters and rogues. Other classes are often attempted by pagans but never successfully. Most Pagan player characters are Chaotic, some that have had no contact with the Regency may be Neutral.

Summoning and the Planes

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Deiwos forbids all interplanar summoning and travel by his worshippers, except for travel to uninhabited versions of the Astral and Ethereal Planes he created along with the Material Plane. Pagan characters have no such restrictions and can summon whatever they wish. The only exception is that Lawful outsiders will respect Deiwos' rules and ignore any summoning.

Classes

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Bard: Must pay skill points for literacy, exclusive to Pagans.
Barbarian: As standard, exclusive to Pagans.
Cleric: Must be Lawful Neutral. Must not cast interplanar summoning spells. Must not travel to any plane other than uninhabited versions of the Astral or Ethereal Planes. Can take any two Domains except Chaos and Summoning. May chose any weapon for the War Domain.
Druid: Must pay skill points for literacy, exclusive to Pagans.
Fighter: As standard, available to either side.
Monk: Perfect Self does not change the character type to outsider. Exclusive to the Regency.
Paladin: May associate with Evil characters without penalty. Paladin's mount stays in the Material Plane at all times. Exclusive to the Regency.
Ranger: Must pay skill points for literacy, exclusive to Pagans.
Rogue: As standard, available to either side.
Sorceror: Must pay skill points for literacy. Gets Eschew Materials as a free feat. Exclusive to Pagans.
Wizard: Must not cast interplanar summoning spells. Must not travel to any plane other than uninhabited versions of the Astral or Ethereal Planes. Must not cast any spell with a Chaotic descriptor. Must have four ranks each in Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), and Spellcraft. Every wizard owns a lockable spellbook, issued by the Academy of Arcane Magic. If the lock is opened by a Chaotic character, the book instantly teleports back to the Academy Library. Writing a forbidden spell also triggers the teleport.

[Matthew]

Hey, *snap*, my Home Brewed Campaign World is Monotheistic. Have you read what Deities and Demi Gods has to say on the subject?

[puppyavenger]

maby you should make plaidans lawful neutrel as the seem to be crusaders of Deiwos in this setting.

[gareth]

Thanks for the comments. I'm keeping paladins as Lawful Good because the tension between their moral codes and the morally neutral theocracy they serve is interesting. In the setting they have their own almost self-sufficient organisation within the Regency, and the chain of command is set up so they never take orders from Evil characters.