Philosophy and "Religion"

[tetramorph]

The Central Conceit


Gaming allows us to play out possibilities in an imagined world. We would not play if we felt at home in the world. We long for something greater, more real, more true, more beautiful. Ritual and play are two ways we engage this longing. Ritual translates events into archetypes. Play translates archetypes into events. The central archetypes of the world’s first role-playing game are those of the hero-myth: the protagonist, or, in this case, the campaign party as a whole (and this is important, more, on this, later), descends into the Underworld and wanders in the Wilderness on a Quest to destroy the Monstrous and to recover lost and hidden Treasure. These tropes are archetypal and foundational. The original game engaged these archetypes in the form of “low fantasy,” or “sword and sorcery.” This campaign setting deliberately engages a more “high fantasy,” “heroic” form of these same archetypes, with the central tropes clearly interpreted as those of Christendom.

[tetramorph]

“Religion” and the Central Conceit

I have placed “religion” in “scare” quotation marks because in a certain sense, given the central conceit of the campaign setting, there is no “religion” as we would construe it in our modern context within this game world. The deities that earthly beings worship are real in a much more ordinary and mundane sense. The only difference between a god and a king is their relative power and where their respective thrones reside: on earth or on a visible heavenly sphere or infernal level. All races have kings and lords and those who fight for the universal “Law” have sworn allegiance to the highest king of all, the King of Heaven.

Lawful human characters are baptized members of the church. Their goal is to spread a “good news” of Universal Law under the King of Heaven and the reclaiming of the wilderness and the underworld in the name of the Law of heaven. I intentionally introduce this layer of distance between the actual historical church and its gospel and the goal of Lawful characters in this fantastical Christendom in order to balance enough similarity with medieval Christendom to achieve sufficient “realism,” while avoiding anything that would make players uncomfortable.

Lawful human characters’ religion is therefore that of the church and the gospel – but, as with many Christians in many generations, their personal goals are not necessarily entirely pure. The average Christian peasant, cleric and even noble are slugging it out to live serenely and as much as they are aware, as Christians. But significant characters in this campaign world are also trying to make their way in, and leave their mark on, the world.

There are pagan human beings still living in the wilderness and in far barbarian lands. Fay characters are not exactly “pagan,” as they represent the very fay beings that pagans recognized. They continue in a kind of fading version of the pan-religious non-religion of Tolkien’s legendarium. They maintain devotion to the Powers, but they do not worship them. They are willing to cooperate with the church and her human members with regards to establishing Law and fighting Chaos but clearly understand that the gospel is for “men,” and not for fay – their fate lies with the fate of this world, and not beyond.

We are going for archetypes here. In the real world, human beings need and may expect to receive grace. The goal of grace, however, in traditional Christianity, is to have virtue inscribed upon the heart: an interior law. This inscribing of the law on the heart corresponds to the bringing of Law out of Chaos, in general, at the campaign level. So Dun Kells does involve a certain allegory, but at the highest level of the game. There is no one-to-one relationship between a character in the game-world and an actual human person. The entire game, campaign, adventure are the level at which one might fairly draw an analogy to the human or Christian soul.

This kind of archetype gaming is about these cosmic and inward archetypes getting played out in mythomorphic narrative. Monsters are inner demons. Treasure is the buried talent. Adventure is the work we are willing to engage in to defeat our monsters and regain our lost treasures. Characters are habits, good and bad, which aid or prevent the task of the soul’s adventure. The “gospel,” then, is writ large – over the whole campaign world. Law is what the characters strive for – for this is the inner journey of the Christian to do his or her part to allow the Spirit to write the Law of Liberty on his or her heart. It is allegory. But allegory at such a significant level of analogical remove as to avoid, I hope, being either awkward or preachy.

This level of analogical remove, therefore, means that, during play, invoking the gospel should only happen in moments of conversion – and even there it could all be done in the name of “Law.” “God,” and “Christ,” proper, by their most straightforward names, should be avoided. The safest would be those circumlocutions that focus on the Lawful and “legal” aspects of it: “King of Heaven” probably being the safest. Instead, characters invoke things in the name of “all that is good,” or “the Law,” or “Heaven,” or “the Truth,” and the like. Players of human characters can avoid calling themselves “Christians,” but, rather, call themselves, “men of Law,” “men of the Law,” or “churchmen,” or “Citizens of Heaven,” etc.

Imagine a fantastical church without schism. The Slavic tribes have converted, so the widest panoply of medieval Christendom is now in place. Whatever may or may not have happened in 1054 did not and will not. There is no forced liturgical or episcopal conformity with Rome in the west. So there is liturgical diversity and each major people-group has its own hierarchy, allowing for the multiplication of patriarchs. The semantic shift in the meaning of the corpus mysticum and corpus verum has not yet happened and will not.

Finally, it is possible that characters will encounter “Saracens.” I deliberately keep this term in order to keep direct contact with the French Matter, while avoiding offending any modern day Muslims (I hope) while staying true to the legendaria of medieval Christendom. These folks should always be called “Saracens,” “Dervishes,” “Nomads,” “Moors,” but never any specific historical tribe. Their religion should never be named directly but always merely implied. The medieval church never understood Islam to represent a different religion, but a schism within the church. These characters therefore remain Neutral because they are clearly not Chaotic, but they also no longer willingly share the means and ends of the “Lawful” church.

[tetramorph]

Monsters, Treasure and Adventure

Monsters are our inner demons, buried memories, regrets, resentments, fears, shames, bad habits, addictions, unbridled passions. They are the “skeletons in our closet.”

Treasure is the gold we seek to produce from within ourselves – our dark, unseen bowels, our wilderness wanderings, our meanderings through the dark nights of our souls. The world, like the human soul, is ancient with past ages and civilizations, memories and talents, time out of mind: There is therefore many hidden antiquities and lost treasures buried unclaimed and lost in the hidden recesses and wildernesses of the world, as with every soul. Treasure, of course, is, like alchemist’s “gold,” really about theurgical transformation of the base self into something purer, more real. It is really about self-transcendence. Treasure is analogous to the talents we have buried within us, which our monsters keep us from discovering, using, achieving. “Conquering for Law in the name of the King of Heaven!” is the Christian Quest! “Kill the monster, steal the gold!” really means reclaiming what the monster ought not have kept us from in the first place.

What is literal in the game world is spiritually analogous to the soul’s quest in the real world. Adventure is the work we are willing to engage in, the Quest we are willing to pursue, the suffering, discipline and ordeal we are willing to undergo in order to defeat our monsters and regain our lost treasures. The characters of the adventuring party and their various complimentary “classes,” skill-sets and approaches are those habits, good and bad, which aid or prevent us in the task of the soul’s adventure.

[tetramorph]

Underworld and Wilderness

The underworld is the “bowels” of the earth. It corresponds at the cosmic level to the seat of sensation, passions and intuition in the human being, e.g., “I could feel it in my gut,” or “I made a gut decision.” We are both to doubt and trust our “gut instincts.” To resolve this paradox at both personal and cosmic levels, the “guts,” the “underworld,” needs clearing out! And in fantastical medieval wargame campaigns we do so, one level at a time! That is why there are so many dungeons scattered hither and yon. There is only one underworld, but it has many mouths! The underworld is as massive as “chaos.” It is hell, hades, a Sheol. It is not, however, the Abyss or Tartarus. There is no exploration there: only infinite falling, and everlasting damnation!

The cult of “nature” did not exist in the ancient world. The wilderness was the haunt of jackals by day, demons by night. Safety was only within the city gates, both literally, and culturally speaking. The wilderness was to be avoided or conquered and claimed for civilization. If the “underworld” represents the hidden parts of the self, the gross parts of the body that still need refinement, then the “wilderness” is the unconquered, still chaotic spaces between fellow journeying souls on earth. Old-school gaming in general, and Dun Kells in particular, directly engages this “legendarium” of wilderness vs. civilization. There is no “urban adventure” in this campaign setting. Resonating with the more ancient view of the relationship of being human to the world, city is the goal. Once civilization is achieved, then “game over,” “mission accomplished:” we have established law out of chaos.

[Admin Pete]

Great stuff tetramorph, have another Exalt!

[robkuntz]

Great stuff for your personal campaign for sure! But I believe that the philosophy for the world-game is more general and takes into account pre-ancient views of nature, whereas there are views that would support the notion that civilization is the fall of the natural world, as is demonstrated quite literally by today's abandonment and destruction of the latter. Nice personal takes on a single paradigm, however.

[Necromancer]

It is an interesting world-view in the context of a campaign setting for a game. The metaphorical approach discerns it from most other games and settings I'm familiar with, and proves your well-thought design level. It certainly suits a setting like Dun Kells.

[merctime]

You are a beautiful human being, tetramorph. I really don't know what else to say.

[jmccann]

Exaltation, you are on a roll.

[tetramorph]

In this campaign, I am turning the dial down (but not "off") on the Howard and the Lovecraft. I am turning the dial up (but not to the point of distortion, I hope) on the Tolkien, and that by adding the Lewis. And here I mean more the Lewis of his Space Trilogy (which is really fantasy meets sci-fi) and his non-fiction about medieval literature than Narnia in particular.

[bravewolf]

Well put, Tetramorph. I now have a better articulation for Christianity & Islam's representations in my Arduin campaign. Good stuff.

[mormonyoyoman]

Lots to study here, lots of implications and plot hooks, and lots of rich thick red meat that deserves assimilation. (Resistance is futile.) A strong example of a campaign with roots and structure, it deserves much sharing and further information about the development and actual play experience. Possible shared world ala Glorantha? I want to read more about this campaign and the adventures within.

[Mighty Darci]

Jun 2, 2017 6:43:03 GMT -5 mormonyoyoman said:

Lots to study here, lots of implications and plot hooks, and lots of rich thick red meat that deserves assimilation. (Resistance is futile.) A strong example of a campaign with roots and structure, it deserves much sharing and further information about the development and actual play experience. Possible shared world ala Glorantha? I want to read more about this campaign and the adventures within.

I could not agree more! This is fantastic!

[tetramorph]

Thanks, folks.

More to come in future.

But I can make no promises about the time frame!