What if the higher powers vanished? [Archive] - Wizards Community

What if the higher powers vanished? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
pallen_97
07-15-07, 10:28 PM I was talking with my gaming group about the Midnight setting. One related concept seemed to generate a lot of conversation, and I'd like to get some more feedback on it. It seems like it could make for an interesting setting:

Take a generic D&D setting with deities who grant divine powers to clerics, paladins, and the like. They provide guidance (either directly or indirectly) to their favored mortals. Now imagine that, in one otherwise unremarkable moment, the entire pantheon of deities went silent. They (and their agents) didn't respond to any prayers, didn't communicate in any way to the mortal realm. Divine powers stopped working. Even the most powerful arcane divinations showed no sign of the deities' existence, what had happened to them, or if/when they would ever return.

What would happen? What would the immediate impact on common folk? Kingdoms/nations? Churches?

And if this were the status quo for years, what would the long term effects be?
d24478667
07-15-07, 10:34 PM Lets see; preachers and stuff would probably be hanged for 'refusing' to help save lives like they used to, and the mortality rate would jump up.

During this time, necromancers would be invaluable when they figure out how to get the whole 'interfering with death' schtick to stop working only post mortem.

After divine magic returned, practitioners of such would be burned at the stake for witchcraft, probably.
d24478667
07-20-07, 12:56 PM :bump:
tn320
07-20-07, 02:06 PM Read this The Avatar Trilogy- Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep. Great Forgotten Realm series and it partially covers this.
Forfeit
07-20-07, 03:25 PM Yes, I dont think the idea is that new.

Well, considering the cost that clerics charge for spells, I guess they would need to find a diferent way of income. Mages would become much more powerfull (unless, like I saw somewhere I dont remember, the Goddess of magic vanishing made all the spells highly chaotic and umpredictable, so much that casting even a first level spell could endanger your life).

Religious organizations would lose a lot of power. Science would develop much more trying to fulfill the void left by magic (mainly health and war). Probabily many magical creatures (like undead) would be destroyed or weakened.

Clerics and paladins would lose most of their power, so they would have to adapt and advance on other classes. Druids, depending on your setting, could lose their power if their spells come from gods, or become more powerfull if their powers come from nature.
pallen_97
07-20-07, 09:19 PM Read this The Avatar Trilogy- Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep. Great Forgotten Realm series and it partially covers this.
I've read those, and the problem there is that just about everyone knows what happened to the gods. I'm more interested in a setting where they just disappear and no one knows why.

Actually, the Midnight setting sort of inspired me to ask this question. The setting focuses more on the fact that evil has taken over, well, everything. But there's some flavor text that addresses holy men and women and their reaction to the Sundering (or whatever they called it).

Anyway, thanks for the responses.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
pallen_97 07-15-07, 10:28 PM	I was talking with my gaming group about the Midnight setting. One related concept seemed to generate a lot of conversation, and I'd like to get some more feedback on it. It seems like it could make for an interesting setting: Take a generic D&D setting with deities who grant divine powers to clerics, paladins, and the like. They provide guidance (either directly or indirectly) to their favored mortals. Now imagine that, in one otherwise unremarkable moment, the entire pantheon of deities went silent. They (and their agents) didn't respond to any prayers, didn't communicate in any way to the mortal realm. Divine powers stopped working. Even the most powerful arcane divinations showed no sign of the deities' existence, what had happened to them, or if/when they would ever return. What would happen? What would the immediate impact on common folk? Kingdoms/nations? Churches? And if this were the status quo for years, what would the long term effects be?
d24478667 07-15-07, 10:34 PM	Lets see; preachers and stuff would probably be hanged for 'refusing' to help save lives like they used to, and the mortality rate would jump up. During this time, necromancers would be invaluable when they figure out how to get the whole 'interfering with death' schtick to stop working only post mortem. After divine magic returned, practitioners of such would be burned at the stake for witchcraft, probably.
d24478667 07-20-07, 12:56 PM	:bump:
tn320 07-20-07, 02:06 PM	Read this The Avatar Trilogy- Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep. Great Forgotten Realm series and it partially covers this.
Forfeit 07-20-07, 03:25 PM	Yes, I dont think the idea is that new. Well, considering the cost that clerics charge for spells, I guess they would need to find a diferent way of income. Mages would become much more powerfull (unless, like I saw somewhere I dont remember, the Goddess of magic vanishing made all the spells highly chaotic and umpredictable, so much that casting even a first level spell could endanger your life). Religious organizations would lose a lot of power. Science would develop much more trying to fulfill the void left by magic (mainly health and war). Probabily many magical creatures (like undead) would be destroyed or weakened. Clerics and paladins would lose most of their power, so they would have to adapt and advance on other classes. Druids, depending on your setting, could lose their power if their spells come from gods, or become more powerfull if their powers come from nature.
pallen_97 07-20-07, 09:19 PM	Read this The Avatar Trilogy- Shadowdale, Tantras, and Waterdeep. Great Forgotten Realm series and it partially covers this. I've read those, and the problem there is that just about everyone knows what happened to the gods. I'm more interested in a setting where they just disappear and no one knows why. Actually, the Midnight setting sort of inspired me to ask this question. The setting focuses more on the fact that evil has taken over, well, everything. But there's some flavor text that addresses holy men and women and their reaction to the Sundering (or whatever they called it). Anyway, thanks for the responses.