I've been working on my own campaign world on and off these last few months, and I've come up against a serious test of my creativity. In the World of Ralum, I've replaced Clerics with Philosophers (they are functionally quite close); deities grant no spells in this world, so "divine" spells are manifested through enlightenment and sheer force of will exerted by the Philosopher. The Phil's conviction actually shapes the world, whether that means healing himself, smiting his enemies, consulting divinations, and so on. I plan on having various set "schools of philosophy" with domain portfolios; a philosopher character can choose thematic domains to represent their outlook, just like a normal cleric can, but these schools would also be available (like normal D&D gods) to grant domains and provide an ethos and alignment that the phil endeavors to live by.
The problem is simply that I'm having trouble thinking of such schools. If you're familiar with Planescape, the Sigil factions are kind of where I want to be headed, but less bizzarely extreme (that works for planescape, but I don't really want a major philosophical school in my campaign that, for example, is convinced that everyone is really dead).
As an example, one school I have is the "Incarnadine Order," essentially a group of soldier-philosophers who believe that the only true virtue is military virtue, and that because the nature of being is conflict, the enlightened individual examines everything through the lens of combat and should strive to approach problems with discipline, force, and - if neccessary - violence. They would probably be lawfully oriented, and their domains would probably include Law, War, and possibly Strength.
I'd love to hear if you have any ideas for a school, comments on this idea, or anything else really. I've found it's quite difficult to think up philosophical schools of chaos, in particular, as it seems like by definition they would tend away from established maxims and teachings.
A philosophical order could embrace something along the lines of chaos theory. Really, that's the illusion of chaos created by a system so complex we cannot understand all its workings. It could be applied to all the universe to get Determinism (this is the main theme behind Kishar, btw).
You could also mirror them after the actual specializations in philosophy, e.g. asthetics, epistomology, ethics, social/political philosophy, philosophy of language, etc.
Actually, an order dedicated to asthetics sounds pretty interesting.
You might also say Entropy rather than Chaos to change the way your mind wraps around the concept.
How about the School of the Unseen Hand? Looking at the spells within the chaos domain, it occurs to me that most of them promote an opposition to order as the guiding principle (as opposed to the Law domain, with its spell selection slightly more varied in intent.) A philosophical statement could be supported that a devotion to Law is irrational and unreasistic since no law propounded by mortal kind could possibly account for the unforseen; thus, spellcasters dedicated to such a philosophy would have an interest in demonstrating such a principle by overturning and nullifying the efforts of Lawful beings.
One other note, just in case it hasn't occured to you. In describing the schools that include domains of Evil, War, Destruction and other traditionally malific principles, I suggest that you resist the impulse to give them Evil Sounding names. In my own campaign, each alignment has its own Divine Philosophy; for Neutral Evil, I chose the name Vision of Clear Truth, and Wise Expression for Lawful Evil. The reason is straightforward enough - those who hold such philosophies do not think of themselves as anything other than nice guys, the ones who know what to do next despite the namby-pamby altruistic good-guy types. Just a thought.
Quote from: Phoenix KnightA philosophical order could embrace something along the lines of chaos theory. Really, that's the illusion of chaos created by a system so complex we cannot understand all its workings. It could be applied to all the universe to get Determinism (this is the main theme behind Kishar, btw).
This is a really interesting idea that meshes well with what I'm after; one of the major schools I have is called the Celestial Hierarchy, an ancient order that believes all the world is ordered like clockwork and that everything is thus eminently predictable and knowable if you can only grasp the minutiae of how the earth and heavens function. It would be a great counterpoint to that to have a school that, like you said, would dismiss such things as unknowable - but with such an outlook, how would they think people should act? I suppose if such things are too great to understand, one acts without thought for the larger picture, and instead concentrates on what seems good now...
DeeL, I too was thinking about the idea of a choatic school that was essentially anarchic, working to overthrow authority, but I had trouble with how exactly a philosopher from that school would act, say, in an adventuring party. All these outlooks have to be not only concerned with a global sense, but with personal dynamics - how should the philosopher do things in her everyday life? Would an "Unseen Hand" philosopher, for example, insist that the party should have no leaders? Would that even work?
Your point on naming is well taken; so far I haven't designed any truly evil schools (the Incarnadine Order is not evil, just militaristic). I'll keep that in mind when I do create them.
If you don't mind the shameless self-promotion, you might look at the conflict between proteans and archons in my setting (see sig). Archons were created to maintain order, while proteans have embraced chaos. Rather, they appear to embrace chaos as a means of promoting evolution, but are, in fact, accepting that it produces circumstances that will result in semi-predictable developments. (not really like the D&D concept of chaos, but more like embracing chaos theory, but also trying to use it).
Maybe a Philosopher of the Unseen Hand would work with others quite well, occasionally doing something overtely erratic or suggestive just to keep doubt and attention alive. He might feel that his true duty was not to challenge authority in every circumstance, but to produce an environment in which such a challenge could be freely made. That, I think, would be the difference between a true philosophy and just 'bein' crayzeh.'
School of Self-Perfection: The goal of life is to improve and perfect oneself. One does this through meditation and self-examination, and/or through the perfection of some skill. They often believe in a form reincarnation in which your future incarnations will in some way reap the benefits of your progress in this life.
Gnosticism: The material world is a facade, that only hides or disguises the true nature of reality. The enlightened can learn to see through that facade and learn the true secrets of the universe. The unenlightened are enslaved by their reliance on their faulty physical senses.
School of Self-Determination: All people strive to increase their own freedom and self-determination. Social conventions can be useful, but ultimately serve only to limit your mind and your freedoms. There is no legitimate form of authority of one person over another. (Or alternately, one person only has authority by the willingness of the other to submit, or by the ability of the one to exert control over the other.) Tend to be anarchists. May be splintered into different sects based on their answer to this question: Is it right for one person to exert control over another, simply because they can?
School of the Silent Fist: Many people believe that this school is evil. More, the School of the Silent Fist believes in strength over all else. Helping a peasant in need will merely harm him in the long run - the peasant will come to depend on people, and become weaker. In the same way, the Silent Fist believe that they should not expect help from their fellow school-members, or depend on any other to assist them.
Quote from: snakefingSchool of Self-Perfection: The goal of life is to improve and perfect oneself. One does this through meditation and self-examination, and/or through the perfection of some skill. They often believe in a form reincarnation in which your future incarnations will in some way reap the benefits of your progress in this life.
:) This describes basically every philosopher in my campaign world, because reincarnation is an almost ubiquitous belief. The idea of a profession leading to enlightenment is an interesting one, and already part of my plan for the Celestial Hierarchy (see above), which believes that as a matter of course and obedience to the natural order, everyone should excel at their specific role in life and not complain about station, rank, or fortune.
Quote from: GolemSchool of the Silent Fist: Many people believe that this school is evil. More, the School of the Silent Fist believes in strength over all else. Helping a peasant in need will merely harm him in the long run - the peasant will come to depend on people, and become weaker. In the same way, the Silent Fist believe that they should not expect help from their fellow school-members, or depend on any other to assist them.
If the philosopher shuns help and doesn't give it either, what are his motivations for action? I assume he would do things only for his own gain; thus any party he would be in would be merely a means to an end, and his participation would only be to secure their help for whatever ultimate goal he had in mind. If they don't help each other within the school, how does the teaching spread? What motivation do they have to initiate new disciples into the school of thought?
They are intent on self-reliance, in a way. They don't have many recruits, because they only teach those willing to put the effort into learning. Otherwise you are correct.
The original Gnostics were an early Christian sect that believed in direct revelation as the only path to "true" knowledge. I'd imagine that in a D&D world they'd be really into dreams and visions. There'd probably be different sects or followings that followed the dreams and visions of different founding philosophers. But there'd be a lot of illusion and true sight involved here.
My school of self-determination was actually intended to capture one aspect of LaVeyan Satanism. (Golem's Silent Fist seems to capture something similar on a different vein.) As I wrote it, I realized it was coming out more and more like chaotic alignment, but that wasn't the intent.
As far as that goes, I think that this kind of thing would split into subschools. A more "good" aligned school would acknowledge the importance of self-determination for all - and they might focus a lot on protection and dispelling abilities. A more "evil" aligned school would focus on expanding one's own personal freedom even at the expense of others, focusing perhaps more on domination and intimidation abilities. A more abstract school might focus on self-knowledge and ridding oneself of unnecessary attachments a la Buddhism.
As for the Silent Fist, they'd be something like the "evil" version of self-determination. They'd adventure to gain strength and influence. The relation between a master and disciple would be rather complicated - the master hopes to gain something from his disciple, and the disciple hopes to one day exceed and throw down the master.
Anyway, that's the way I see it.
You might want to think about a philosophy of Naturalism to replace the druid class - center it around that all living things are part of the larger web of nature and everything from the most powerful humanoid to the lowliest plant has its place in the world, etc, etc...
There are examples of real-world schools of thought that embrace chaos. I'd particularly look into Zen and Discordianism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discordianism). Koans, paradoxes, and rules that are logically impossible to follow might be central to such a school in your setting. Although the school would not shy away from absurdity and would have great potential for humor, it could still have a place in a serious campaign world. After all, if every belief system can bring divine power in this world, even consciously self-contradictory belief systems, isn't embracing chaos the only rational response?
I guess the closest Planescape analog to Discordianists would be the Bleak Cabal. Bleakers see the danger in taking philosophy too seriously, and they paradoxically turn this awareness into a new philosophy.