I recently watched a video that I’d had on my watch later for a while, so we’re here to talk about religion in fantasy worlds. Well, specifically, religion in fantasy roleplaying games which involve interacting with the gods. Seems like I’m narrowing it pretty hard off the bat, but it’s necessary. See, the video I watched was “Do Fantasy Pantheons Make Sense?” by the YouTube channel The Grungeon Master, and he says that this is common across all fantasy. I’m not sure that’s true. It is common in D&D, however, and in many other fantasy RPG settings that take tropes from D&D, so I want to talk about this in terms of worldbuilding.
There’s a lot that I agree with The Grungeon Master on, and the video articulated a feeling that I don’t think I’ve done a good job putting across before. Specifically, why is it that D&D-style polytheism feels so alien to people who have studied ancient polytheism like that of Greece or the Norse countries, or who are affiliated with modern polytheism like in Hinduism or various folk, regional, and new religions. Grungeon lays out several points (not in this manner, I’m paraphrasing here) which I think are important to fleshing out the dissonant feeling that tabletop polytheism gives.