The Light, the Dark and the Gray

I'm taking a break from my Z Kit posting to write about something which has taken up residence in my brain and refuses to let go -- religion in D&D.

The panoply of gods in a typical D&D setting has always bothered me on some level, mostly due to redundancy. If there's a god of war that the Humans worship, do we really need an Elf god of war, a Dwarf god of war, an Orc god of war? Why can't we just say that there is ONE god of war, venerated by all races, and if one of them is especially warlike then that god is considered their patron? I toyed with this for a while, but it never really developed because it quickly became so stereotypical that if we were talking about real cultures I'd be accused of racism.

So the general idea languished for a while, until Trollsmyth linked to a series of PVP strips about D&D, and Jade's dialog in panel 3 really grabbed me:

"It's fantasy. It's a new mythology." Indeed it is. Why then do we feel the need to shackle ourselves to the notion of multiple polytheistic pantheons? Why not have something that's a bit more accessible to our Christian friends?

This is how many of my ideas develop: take an existing conceit, add some contrarian viewpoints, and let simmer until fully heretical. Thus was born what I hope is a fully-developed cross-cultural D&D religion:

The Light, The Dark, and the Gray

The Church of The Light

It isn't a church in the typical sense of the word in that it doesn't worship a deity. Instead, its followers worship and revere the Positive Material Plane, although they don't call it that -- to them it is simply The Light. It is the fount of all healing and the source of all souls, and when parishioners die they simply rejoin the glory of the Light. When priests turn undead or heal the sick, they are directly channeling the Light.

The Light, as a supernatural force, has a very simple agenda: Promote life. Healing, fertility (of both crops and animals), bounty; these are what the Light promotes. All "normal" cultures revere the Light. Who would be fool enough to reject a force that wishes to heal everyone, regardless of race or alignment? Even those with evil alignments like to have their wounds mended.

However, all is not puppies and roses. The Light fosters openness; truly, one cannot do harm to one's neighbor if his actions are made plain to all. The Light wants to burn away the darkness, prevent deception, and establish truth as an immutable concept. These are all admirable goals, but as they say, the devil is in the details...

Or in this case, the implementation. Mortals, as is their wont, have screwed things up. If the Light seeks to burn away deception, then it is the purpose of the Church to seek out all deception and expose it for the world to see, and bring it to justice if necessary. This means that "privacy" is often considered a sin by more extreme versions of the Church. After all, if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide, and so you will have no problems if the nice Paladin enters your home and takes a look around. The Light Sees All, and if you try to hide something, then clearly you are a servant of the Dark.

Extreme adherents of the Light -- what other cultures would call hermits or ascetics -- do not live apart from the community. Instead, they are what we would call "naked, raving madmen." They live their lives in complete openness, hiding nothing (yes, nothing, develop that in as much detail as your depraved minds desire) from their community.

Churches of the Light are grand things, full of stained glass windows near the roof that capture the sun's rays from all angles, and large clear windows at the bottom so that everyone can see inside. They provide healing for free, but will not resurrect unless under the direst of circumstances, for that is "pulling a worthy soul away from its communion with the Light." The Church makes a tidy profit selling such things as Everburning Torches, Sunrods, and glass (indeed, they pioneered the art and still possess the finest glaziers around.) They're also excellent scryers.

Priests of the Light receive their spells at dawn.



The Cult of the Dark

You would think that the Dark would be universally hated in this setting, but it occupies a necessary social niche: people like their privacy. If the Church had its way, everyone would live in glass houses, and the entire town would know what you're eating and who you're sleeping with.

The Dark says, "Do what you want. We don't care." And that is very, very liberating.

If you're a young lover who is meeting her beau for a midnight tryst away from prying eyes, you are serving the Dark. If you plot to overthrow an oppressive tyrant in secret, you further the Dark's agenda. If you simply don't have the wherewithal to be honest all the damn time (and deal with the consequences thereof) and instead put on a "game face" when you're out in the world, and revert to who you really are in the comfort and privacy of your own home...

... you're a filthy lying Cultist and you should be ashamed of yourself! For your own good, the Paladins of the Light will kick your door down, drag you out into the street, and make you confess everything. You will feel so much better afterwards. You will.

The Cult of the Dark maintains that while the Church espouses honesty, only the Dark truly embodies it. After all, honesty is who you are when no one is watching, and the Light wants to watch you all the time. It wants you to be something that you aren't, forcing you to live a lifestyle you detest. The Dark doesn't care what you do. The Dark encourages you to do what you want. In the darkness, no one can see you, and no one will judge you...

... and from there, it's a very easy step on the slippery slope from "basic civil liberties" to "deviant behavior" to what is obviously evil behavior. If no one sees you sin, there are no consequences, and therefore you're free to indulge every little twisted desire you might normally repress. People who give in to the corruption of the Dark frequently become necromancers, assassins and blackguards, and those who die with its taint upon their souls frequently become undead. The Dark, of course, is the Negative Material Plane, the source of all destructive and necromantic power and cradle of undeath.

Shrines to the Dark exist in caves, basements, even dense thickets and copses of trees. They aren't blood-stained abattoirs or dens of perversion (though they can be); they can just as easily be a secluded glen where lovers go to escape the prying eyes of their parents. Wherever dimness and privacy reign, so too does the Dark. The Cult isn't organized like the Church, but it manages to flourish in individual cells. Cultists make a brisk profit selling wards and anti-scrying measures, and are the best fences in town. They'll even resurrect you... sort of.

Priests of the Dark receive their spells at dusk.



The Cabal of the Gray

Because sometimes people get tired of all this dogma and just want to be left in peace.

The Gray isn't so much a force or a plane as it is a compromise between the Light and the Dark. Yes, healing is good, but we'd like to keep our family drama private, thank you very much. Is that too much to ask?

By paying obeisance to both forces, they have created a third; a middle path of moderation, a gestalt entity, a "compromise god" if you will. If Light is Yang and Dark is Yin, then Gray is the line where they meet. Gray is the source of all other forces which are neither Good nor Evil. If you're looking for a place to jam elementalism, illusion, psionics, or anything else, this is the place for it.

Believers of the Gray aren't organized in any sense of the word -- there are no "Gray services" for people to attend. In fact, most people wouldn't even consider themselves Gray, just worshippers of the Light with some common sense and no time for dogma. Chores aren't going to do themselves, and while everyone needs healthy crops and livestock, sometimes you have to cut ethical corners to ensure that healthiness because the Church can't be everywhere.

If the Light is Neutral Good, and the Dark is Neutral Evil, then the Gray is just plain Neutral. It's the default belief system of most NPCs, who (conveniently) also happen to be Neutral.

Priests of the Gray come in two flavors: Druids who find all the Light-Dark extremism ridiculous, and wandering philosopher-monks who preach moderation in all things. Needless to say, the Church finds them dangerous heretics, the Cult thinks they're weaklings, and the common people are happy to take whatever assistance is offered as long as the Cabalists don't lecture them too much.

Priests of the Gray choose at character generation when to receive their spells: dawn, noon, dusk, or midnight.



Conclusion

Hopefully I've fleshed these ideas out enough that they make sense and provide multiple uses within a a campaign. I've tried to balance them out, putting a little evil within the good and a little good within the evil, just to make things interesting. It's all in how they are used... the Dark can further good by protecting rebels who oppose an evil (if law-abiding) tyrant, and the Light could seek to expose their conspiracy, while the Gray goes about its business helping (or hindering) both sides as convenient.

Linkdump Monday

Some days, I just gotta go "Fuck it, here are some links, see you tomorrow."

So...

Fuck it, here are some links, see you tomorrow.

• Best Glide Aviation Survival Equipment
• Survival Resources
  
• Survival Straps
• Cold Steel
• Ready America

Transformers ROTF: An Executive Summary

I'd like to point out that I didn't write this summary. I can be found here, as comment #24, written by "Louis".

So, you remember the thingie from the first movie? Well, now its been blows up into lots of little thingies but they just makes the guy go Woo Woo Woo and then the robots who falls down last time get up and make the things BOOM and then girl had the panties and she messed up the room and then big growly bear grabbed the guy but OPTIMUS PRIME fight him and then he fall down and that was sad but now the guy is trouble so he and the peoples go there and they talks about the new thing with the new big thing guy and they runs to the place with the mummy and they find the thing but all the blow ups wrecks the thing but they didn’t really wreck it and they push the button and OPTIMUS PRIME doesn’t fall down no more and punches the ugly and they win.

Sir, I tip my hat to you.

Friday Followup (Z Kit)

Gads, I am terribly unorganized. Anyone who has seen my room (and lived!) can attest to that. That I have created such a hugely organized thing as a Z Kit is almost out of character for me.

However, forgetting things and doing them half-assed is completely in-character. Which is the reason for today's post being a follow up to the food gathering portion of Tuesday's blog.

OK, so you've got your MRE, your granola bars, and your powdered soups. But eventually food will run out, especially if the disaster in question leaves few survivors or devastates the government. At some point you're going to have to forage for your own food. What will you do?

Assuming you don't want to starve to death, you're going end up foraging and hunting. (If you're still in a city by this point, you're a fool.) Using the knowledge stored in the Survival Manual of your choice, you should know what plants and roots are safe to eat. But twigs and berries are only good for a supplementary diet -- if you really want to live and feel good, you're going to have to get some protein in your diet.

If you lack a hunting rifle or a shotgun, you may feel that your options are limited, but this simply isn't true. You can of course always eat insects...

Oh, don't look at me like that. You do it all the time and don't realize it.

Be that as it may, you're perfectly within your rights to choose not to eat bugs, and I won't fault you for that. But where then does it leave us? The answer, my dear readers, is as simple as it is lazy: fishing and trapping.

If you are anything like me, you have forgotten everything useful you learned at summer camps as a child, have little to no wilderness skills, and no inclination to change either of those. But that's easy, because there are two wonderful devices out there that are cheap, easy to use, and practically idiot-proof. Best of all, as they are automated, you can "set and forget" them.

Device one: The Speedhook

So effective that it's been outlawed for non-survival use in Minnesota and other locales and a key part of U.S. Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard survival kits, the Speedhook is the perfect tool for an idiot fisherman. You don't even need a pole! I recommend pairing it with a Survival Fishing kit Basic (or Advanced) to give you a selection of string, bait, hooks, etc.

Device two: The Yo-yo Fishing Reel

According to the testimonials, you can use this sucker to bring in record amounts of catfish. That's great. But what struck me is that you can also use it to trap birds, squirrels, and other small game. Just combine it with some snare wire and you're all set. The best part? It sells for under three dollars.


So there you go. Two methods of nearly fully-automated food gathering that don't require you to know a damn thing about fishing/trapping, are small and lightweight, and inexpensive without being cheap.

Z Mail (Z Kit)

A few questions from my readers!

Do you carry a mora?

I actually had to Google this to find what a Mora is. I assume you mean the knife? I hadn't even heard of one of these before, which is pretty odd, since apparently it's world-famous and favored by knife enthusiasts everywhere. Is it really that good? If so, I'll need to look into getting one.

What's your take on the value of those 'emergency rations' buckets from chain stores?

You mean like this?

I generally view with disdain anything that is "pre-made" because a large portion of the cost is the convenience of having someone do it for you. I think you'd be far better off assembling your own survival pantry using cans of tuna, jars of peanut butter, etc, and you'll be happier with the results. The only reason I could think of recommending this product is its 10-20 year shelf life,
so if you want to buy this for the peace of mind of not having to worry about emergency supplies for the next decade, then go for it. To be fair, though, there's really no reason I can think of for properly sealed canned food to go bad within a reasonable amount of time (2 years or so), and if you speak to anyone who's been in the military, they will tell you that food prepped for long-term storage usually tastes like reconstituted shit.

Here in Florida, we usually stock up on supplies at the beginning of hurricane season (June 1 - November 30) and then use the oldest stuff first. If you think of it as an annual chore, like putting up storm windows or cleaning gutters, then it becomes a dependable routine and you won't go OMG TEH STORM IS COMING and panic-purchase water and batteries.

I've only ever seen them advertised or sold in America and can't tell if they're a handy back up plan or something to keep the populace calm whilst the politicians evacuate :-/

It's fairer to attribute this to gross capitalism and humanity's basic desire to be lazy. "Here, buy this so you won't have to work/worry/think about it!" It's the same reason people buy fast food when it's cheaper and healthier to eat at home.

But there is a substantial "survival subculture" here in the USA (I expect there's one in any country with large wilderness areas) and it bivouacs upon a seductive, slippery slope. It's one thing to stock up on supplies, just in case. It's another to make it a full-time obsession, which is what many of these people do. It's rather like the difference between "I own a gun for self defense. I know how to use it. I keep it cleaned and within easy reach in case there is an intruder in the house" and "I have a gun in every room of the house and I can shoulder-roll to all of them. I have lines of fire clearly marked off and I know which pieces of furniture I can shelter behind. Sometimes I practice, in the dark, so that I'm ready for when the BATF comes to take my guns."

Like this.

I realize I sound a bit like a hypocrite here, but the purpose of my Z Kit is to 1) be a fun hobby and 2) pack the most useful stuff I can think of in an easy to carry container. Nowhere in that mission statement is "I will live in fear" or "I will pay huge amounts of money in order to survive at all costs." At that point it ceases to be practical and becomes a very expensive neurosis.

You may find it interesting in that I don't have a very strong survival instinct. Due to my personal belief system, I don't have any particular fear of death. What I do seek to avoid, however, is discomfort. If I'm the first to die in a disaster, fine by me (as long as I don't suffer). But dammit, I refuse to die of starvation or exposure, because those are miserable and painful.

Hopefully, my Z Kit reflects this belief.

WNW: Literalists do it with their genitals

Title shamelessly borrowed from A Girl and Her Fed.




Link.


"Glee Club of the Damned." Hee! :)

I am an idiot (Z Kit)

I can't believe I forgot to mention an item of critical importance to any Z Kit: the flashlight. I'd actually put this just after the utility knife in terms of importance, though it could be argued that seeing in the dark is more important than a strong tool/weapon. (I'd disagree.) Let's put it like this: the knife goes in your primary hand, the flashlight in your other hand. That's how important they are.

Naturally, this brings us to the question of "What flashlight should I use?" That's an interesting question, and as always, I have several answers for you.

The first answer is, "Pack two," because certain things are important enough that you should always have a backup. I have a small LED flashlight that I bought at my local grocery store -- and when I say small, I mean it's six inches long -- that lives in the cell phone pocket of my pack. I can get to it quickly, and it's very bright. However, it has two large drawbacks: It uses batteries, and the illumination range of LEDs falls off rapidly.

The second answer, then, is "In addition to having one you can grab quickly, have another that doesn't need batteries." Batteries are like the worst combination of food and ammunition: they go bad after time, they're heavy for their size, often bulky, and if you lose them or their appliance, both are rendered useless. I don't care how butch your D-cell Maglite is, when the batteries run out it's just a heavy aluminum club.

My backup flashlight is the Emergency Pro, because it's also a radio and a cell phone charger. (Actually, with the adapters I have, it also recharges my MP3 player, which is of critical importance to me.) As you may have noticed, I like having tools that perform a variety of functions, because it reduces space and gives me a certain cushion of "overlapping backup", i.e. if I lose my Swiss Army knife, I can still open cans with my hobo tool, etc.

Now let me say this as a warning: I have not used this tool very hard. I don't know how durable it is. It might be a fragile piece of crap. (If so, tell me.) But as of right now, I'm happy with its performance, and I don't plan on testing it to destruction.

So, to summarize, get 2 flashlights. That way you have a regular one which is ready for immediate use, and a crank one for long-term use. And if at all possible, get one that does other things, because that multiplies its usefulness.