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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
 Posted - 28 Dec 2007 : 06:13:38
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I know, another Green Ronin related thread. Its what I got for Christmas, so bear with me. 
In The Book of the Righteous there is a section on the gods and how they think and view things, and one of the sections is the Two Aspect theory, which goes something like this:
Just as gods have avatars that let them be in various places at once, and to appear in different worlds at the same time, gods might have separate aspects to their being that allow them to be "on duty" and "off duty" at the same time.
The example given was a god that has an aspect that might require them to be stern and unfeeling, versus the god's "personality" which is how the god acts and thinks in their own domain, and which may be more relaxed than their "business" aspect.
A couple of Realms deities spring to mind when thinking about this. The first one is Mystra, in that I can see her "on duty" aspect being more overcome with the memories and "echoes" of Mystras past, and being the LN side of her, while her "personality" aspect is more of Midnight's NG mortal side. In fact, you could almost view the events of The Crucible as Mystra and Kelemvor learning to keep these aspects separate from their personalities.
The other god this put me in mind of was Lathander. It could be that his aspect of change and rebirth is more active and reactionary than his core "personality." It even made me wonder if Lathander himself wasn't actually a more benevolent aspect of Amaunator that the sun god left "on its own" to long, to the point of Lathander just drifting away from his "core" being.
The point of the aspect thing is that the "personality" aspect won't be radically different than the "business" personality (for example, an aspect won't seem to be the opposite alignment than the other component of the god's being), but it does help to reconcile situations where a good god might have to remain aloof, and thus seem uncaring, a neutral good seems a bit more chaotic, etc.
Just something that I thought was an interesting discourse. Its nice to read a discussion of divine theory (in perusing The Book of the Righteous) that is more about philosophy in the game world and less about mechanics and simplified roles.
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Rinonalyrna Fathomlin
Great Reader
USA
7106 Posts |
Posted - 28 Dec 2007 : 14:45:08
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quote:
Originally posted by KnightErrantJR
The point of the aspect thing is that the "personality" aspect won't be radically different than the "business" personality (for example, an aspect won't seem to be the opposite alignment than the other component of the god's being), but it does help to reconcile situations where a good god might have to remain aloof, and thus seem uncaring, a neutral good seems a bit more chaotic, etc.
I think that can work, yes. |
"Instead of asking why we sleep, it might make sense to ask why we wake. Perchance we live to dream. From that perspective, the sea of troubles we navigate in the workaday world might be the price we pay for admission to another night in the world of dreams."
--Richard Greene (letter to Time) |
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 28 Dec 2007 : 15:29:16
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I guess this just struck me as interesting, because I've been in positions before when I know something needs to get done, but for one reason or another (I don't want to hurt someone's feelings, etc>) I haven't wanted to be as stern as I needed to be, or what have you.
In this case, the god, once they know what they have to do, can kind of separate the part of them that doesn't want to have to do what they need to do from themselves, and sort of let part of them do it.
I just thought it was kind of an interesting psychological way of looking at this. |
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Book of the Righteous Two Aspect Theory
