Implied Setting: The Powers

In trying to be all things to all people, 5th Edition D&D has somewhat a hodgepodge of overlapping powers: gods, old gods, faerie lords, devils, and eldrich abominations from outside the planes themselves--and those are just the powers that give magical ability to the PC classes. There are also demon lords and other powerful denizens of the outer planes, powerful elementals and titans, the Lady of Pain (if you happen to be wandering Sigil), and countless others. Basically, if you can imagine a divine or infernal entity, it's here.

But that's not to say that there isn't any organization at all. There are certain implications in the way the various powers seem to relate to the standard classes. Some of these are spelled out in the fluff text, but in some cases, the rules themselves give information that isn't in the fluff--or which even contradict the fluff! One friend suggested to me that the people who developed the rules and those who wrote the fluff may have had very different visions for the classes. It's a possibility I find intriguing.

As I look at the classes, I can see several distinct religions form:

You have, of course, the hierarchical church of the Seven Domains (if, like me, you don't like the idea of just assigning a few dozen gods the seven domains in an attempt to make old polytheistic concepts, like that found in the Realms, fit). Paladins of the Oath of Devotion and most of the Oath of Vengeance would fall under this category. For the most part, these gods would seem to fit the more lawful and good alignments (though one could easily imagine exceptions, such as a chaotic good Thor-figure as the Lord of the Tempest).

Since the Seven Domains are the principle religion of Callain and the lands around the Elenion Sea that are under Callainer control or influence, there are many of all classes (barring those who hold to the Old Faith) who pay at least lip-service to it. Fighters pray in churches for victory before going into battle. Bards of the College of Lore sing its hymns along with their epics. The rangers who stand guard at the borders of civilization honor the Seven in their own ways, even if they are misunderstood by most common folk. Even rogues may offer a tithe of their thefts in the churches and have their children ritually immersed in the name of one or more of the Seven. (Obviously the Domain of Trickery would particularly appeal to such.) There are even some monks who serve the Emperor of Callain who are within the fellowship of the Church of the Seven.

You also have the Old Faith, exemplified by the druids and the barbarians, especially those who take the Path of the Totem Warrior. For the most part, these would fall into the neutral category, though various Circles might lean towards good or evil. I can't imagine that Law would have much appeal for the Old Faith, but the temptation of Chaos would likely be ever-present, especially if the Old Faith saw the Law of civilization as being the greater threat.

The Old Faith is closely aligned to Faerie (the Feywild--why did they change this name?). Paladins who take the Oath of the Ancients are aligned with the Old Faith, even if they demonstrate great personal discipline, honor, and beneficence. Warlocks who have arch-fey as their patrons would be honored and even revered within the Old Faith. Others, like those who follow the fiends, might live on the outskirts of the villages--feared and distrusted, but sought after in times of great need.

Monks would comprise a third religion divided into three distinct Ways: The Open Hand, the Shadow, and the Four Elements. By their nature, monks would tend towards Lawful Neutrality as an idea (which is why they seek the plane of Nirvana--and I'm sorry, but Mechanus is a stupid name to replace Nirvana with), but of course individual monks would be all over the spectrum: The Open Hand would tend towards Lawful Neutral and Lawful Good, the Way of the Shadow towards Lawful Evil, and the Way of the Four Elements might have an ideal closer to that of Balance, even if their personal discipline puts them more naturally on the side of Law.

Not all who follow the Ways are monks by class. Most lack the personal aptitude and discipline to gain the nigh-supernatural abilities that full monks have. Such lay-people revere the monks, bringing them gifts of food and clothing and bringing too their children to be tested in the hopes that they too might become monks. Indeed, full monks represent something of a Brahman class, the belief being that they have reincarnated many times to reach the apex of what it means to be human. (In Newold, such beliefs are more common to Ma-La-Kai-Tsu than in Callain, though cultural cross-pollination has indeed occurred.)

Warlocks don't represent a single religious faith, but are dedicated to powers at the dangerous extremes of the universe, whether fiends from the very lowest depths of the lower planes, chaotic and dangerous (though not necessarily evil) arch-fey who dwell in the Feywild, or the eldrich abominations who dwell without the Great Wheel. Most warlocks in a campaign would be dangerous foes to the benefits of both civilization and the Old Faith, and become more so as their masters corrupted them. A PC warlock would constantly face the temptations of their patron to sink further and further into evil and/or chaos.

Warlocks are generally the ultimate "outsiders." They are frequently the targets of extermination by all of the other religions--and not without reason, for they are the heralds of things best left alone--but are tolerated in many backwater communities as sources of protection, guidance, and vengeance.

Finally, we have the bards, who "say that the multiverse was spoken into existence, that the words of the gods gave it shape, and that echoes of these primordial Words of Creation still resound throughout the cosmos." That sounds like a religious faith to me, and it's interesting because bards bridge the gap between the "civilized" Seven Domains and the "pagan" Old Faith: Bards of the College of Lore would be more likely to align with civilization, while the College of Valor is clearly based on the idea of Nordic skalds roaring (or piping) barbarians into battle.

The paths of magic--sorcerer and wizard--aren't really religions per se, but let us comment on them here. Sorcerers have an inborn magical power, whether from a draconic heritage or something else (usually fey). They may be of any faith, but if their powers are known, they are usually forced into the outsider role like warlocks. Many become adventurers simply because there is no other choice for them.

Wizards, by virtue of many years of long study, are in a different category. They will usually pay at least lip service to the major religion of their culture, if only to be left alone, but they consider themselves guardians of a deeper, secret lore. Many are the fantasy equivalent of "rationalists" and "humanists"--they obviously believe that the gods and demons and so forth are real, because they interact with them. However, they seek the higher principles on which the multiverse is based. They respect the powers of the world, but they don't worship them in the conventional sense (except where it is convenient socially).

They need the "comforts" of civilization for their studies, so while they respect the Old Faith and the powers it represents, they don't want to tear down their own foundation. A few wish to extend their power and rule it, but if they are insufficiently subtle in their ambitions, other wizards are likely to take care of the "problem" once it becomes known.

In the cities of the world, wizards tend to create and guard vast libraries of old lore, as they seek to uncover the secrets of the ancients. Some take service in the courts of kings and emperors, though most find that the necessary politics interfere with their studies. Some retreat to towers in the countryside. Local lords respect those of arcane power, and usually make sure they are unmolested and even give them gifts. After all, one never knows when it would be good to have a wizard on your side.

In this way, we find religions that cover all of the alignments except one--Chaotic Neutral, or Pure Chaos. But this only makes sense, for how could Pure Chaos organize itself into a religious organization?!

Very few published D&D campaigns have recognized that not every god needs a cleric, or that the gods might be organized into specific pantheons depending on the cultures they influence. For the most part, DMs have been content to create a list of things they think need specific deities (almost always including all of the character classes), give names to the gods who control those domains, and then leave it at that. The only exceptions I can think of are Greyhawk (where the gods were organized by cultural origin) and Eberron (which I've never played). This "hobgoblin of little minds" leads to such absurdities as armored, mace-wielding "clerics" of the god of thieves in the Realms, for example.

While I remain skeptical about the proliferation of magical classes and races in 5th Edition D&D, I do think that the number of magical classes does give us an "out" to the foolish idea that every deity needs a cleric. It's been fascinating to look at the classes of 5E and how they might view the world religiously--and how that effects the worlds that we, as the DMs, create.