Divine inner conflict

It pays to draw on the real world for your campaigns. Yeah, you’re talking about wizards fighting towering, fiery lizards amid the ancient ruins of the elven capital, but you’re still dealing with real human experiences.

You know, like striving to overcome an enormous obstacle.

At least, you should be.

That’s why I like studying history and applying what I learn. It grounds your tale of star-flung spaceship captains overseeing alien crews in sweet, sweet reality.

Here’s a lesson from history that gets weird when you map it across to fantasy:

Folks can believe the same things and still go to war.

Even a casual glance at history shows that. Yeah, in the ancient world, many kingdoms worshipped different gods. Almost every war was a crusade of sorts.

But take a look at what Ireland went through in recent times. Protestants and Catholics believe in Jesus Christ, but that wasn’t enough to stop them warring. Of course it wasn’t. There were issues of sovereignty and territory on the table.

What if we apply that to your campaign?

Two warring tribes both worship Apollo. What does Apollo do?

Well, that depends on what the gods do.

If your gods are just ideals, then Apollo never does anything directly.

If gods want prayers (like how I describe in Call of the Gods) then Apollo might not care. He got the prayers, he granted the blessings in return – what the mortals do with them is their business.

Fighting might even be good, in his opinion. It strengthens his followers, sharpening their talents for battle.

Apollo might not want his people to fight, but he might have limited means to intervene. Maybe the prophets of both armies have to endure terrible nightmares while the conflict rages, ignoring their god’s calls for peace.

He might be able to intervene... but should he? Say he deploys a host of angels to fight for the village he likes the most. Or maybe he rains lightning down on the other village.

What if his chosen village loses? It’s possible. You aren’t a GM for long before you learn that no fight is unwinnable.

Especially if Apollo’s rival gods secretly support the other side.

Being a god is complicated. Intervene too little and no one has any reason to worship you. Intervene too much and it leaves you vulnerable to your schemes being thwarted.

But given the gods are so complex...

Maybe one aspect of Apollo sides with one village, and another with the other. That’s possible for an abstract, divine being. Who says it isn’t?

Now, that’s probably fine for a couple of villages. But what if two continents both worship Apollo while warring against each other? What if millions of souls and billions of prayers pull him in two directions?

Does this weaken him, given his fractured fanbase? Does it strengthen him, because all that matters is the amount of worship coming in? Could it split him into two gods – and, if so, is this how the gods reproduce?

Such questions won’t come up in most campaigns, but they’re worth considering. It adds to the richness of your world.