Dungeons and Dragons and History Part 2: The Cleric (Part 1) – Man of the Church

29 September, 201917 July, 2023 ~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

This chapter will tackle one of the more iconic classes of Dungeons and Dragons- the Cleric. In this chapter, we will discuss the more common tropes of the cleric, how it ties to the Catholic faith, as well as other fictional representations of the same archetype. In part 2, we will explore some of the sub-classes of the Cleric and try to find a real life connections of these varied archetypes.

The Cleric in Dungeons and Dragons

The Cleric is a magic user, healer and warrior. The power of the Cleric comes from their gods rather than inert magical abilities like that of the Sorcerer, or from intense studies of the arcane arts of the Wizard. This difference gives these magical classes considerably different approaches to what magic is and how it is used. (Wizards of the Coast 2019)

The Cleric is described as more than a mere priest or devout follower. These clerics are mortals that are chosen by their deity to receive some of their divine power. The interesting aspect of this is that the Cleric can as a result lose his power if they anger their patron god, or lose their good graces. (Wizards of the Coast 2019)

The Cleric of D&D is not, as we will see, tied to any one particular faith or creed. The Cleric is very much the catch-all term for individuals that have in one way or another, gained divine powers from a greater godly power 1. These would, in terms of Medieval Europe, might be a parallel to a prophet, soothsayer or other even a saint2.

The Medieval Catholic Clerics and Monks3

The Catholic church is what comes to mind when Clerics are discussed within a western context4. The Cleric, in the context of the Catholic church, usually refers to the priestly office in some capacity. These clerics had a large authority over medieval society, both within and outside of theological matters. These powers came partly from their monopoly of the language of the Holy book5, which was Latin. (Wilson 2018)

When discussing this instance of the Clerical archetype, I will refer to the medieval Catholic Cleric, and his office. It is hard to overstate the importance of these men within the social order of Medieval Europe, for good and for ill. Faith, as in many different places around the world, was both uniting and dividing force. An important factor to keep in mind is that the Medieval Catholic clergy, as well as the clergy of most major religions were part of the privileged part of society. (Wilson 2018)

Prayers and Miracles

In his book A magical world: superstition and science from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment does Wilson (2018) describe the Miracle as the “bread and butter” of the Catholic church. The saints and the miracles they produce are meant to lend legitimacy to the church, as well as be the basis for the divine powers of the prayer. By praying at certain places, in certain ways, a devoted follower would be able to gain certain blessings. (Wilson 2018)

Miracles are of course a major part of other religions, as are prayers, but I believe that the original inspiration from Wizards of the Coast primarily came from Catholic Christianity6. With that said, D&D as time went on, has added more and more influences as the franchises. As a result, their player base grew. We will take a look at this wider source of inspiration and world-views.

The prayer in Dungeons and Dragons, when performed by a Cleric, follows the same general theory. The Clerics prayer is most often directly answered in some way by their deity, in form of a spell, blessing or curse. Purely mechanically speaking, this is similar to a Wizard casting a spell. (Wizards of the Coast 2019)

The tools of the office

The most striking image of the Medieval Catholic priest is that of a stoic man in long flowing robes, carrying books, scrolls or incense. These articles are vital to the performance of the office of the Cleric or priests. These objects are often referred to as symbols of office and serve as a unifying force for the faith in question. The symbols of office also allows the priests to give their prayers a lot more weight and importance than they would have if anyone else performed them. (Bourdieu 1991)

*The attachment of Luther’s 95 Theses, Julius Hübner, 1878. René*

This image of the robed holy figure is one that we can easily find in Dungeons and Dragons, as well as other contemporary fantasy works that take place in a similar time period. Below we have two images, a Cleric from the 5^th edition Dungeons and Dragons and a Priest from the MMORPG7 World of Warcraft. Here we can see clear connections between the visual aesthetics of the Medieval Catholic church and these two gaming narratives.

The office of the Cleric, is in gameplay, the focus of their divine power and the centre point for their magical powers. This is in contrast to the Wizard, who needs to use components, or an arcane focus to cast spells. This magical force, like much in Dungeons and Dragons, is partly left to the discretion of the DM. A number of smaller details are in fact, left rather vague, for the possibility for the DM to modify and better fit their players. The symbol of office, in the case of the Cleric in D&D, is their focus of their power and the tools they use to cast their spells. In other words, the symbolic power of the Catholic cleric becomes a physical tangible power in the case of the D&D Cleric. The symbols of office, or the holy symbol as it is called in game, is vital for the Cleric to perform their magic. These symbols can take many forms- from books, to talismans to swords, but they all have the same function, to let a chosen wielder to be heard by their chosen deity. (Wizards of the coast 2019).

Divinity in the world of Dungeons and Dragons

The pantheon of the D&D world is vast and complex, We are going to give a very brief overview here of the various pantheons. The gods for good or ill have a large presence in the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Deities can be contacted both directly by individuals such as clerics, or by prophets via prayers or indirectly through prophecies and signs. The pantheons and gods that are presented in the official D&D materials are way too numerous to go into detail here. We will go through the general outline of how the pantheons work, and how they are organized. (Wizards of the coast. 2019)

The Pantheons of gods we will discuss today are roughly sorted into two categories. The first category goes by the name of Deities of the Forgotten Realms, or the gods created specifically for Dungeons and Dragons. The second category is the so called Fantasy-Historical Pantheons. The Fantasy-Historical Pantheons are all based on real life gods from the Greek, Egyptian, Celtic and Norse faiths. These gods have a clear grounding in real life faiths, and we will go into more detail with them in the next chapter. (Wizards of the coast. 2019)

The gods are further sorted into categories based on their domain of influence as well as their alignment. These alignments inform a lot of how the character in question are predisposed to act. These guidelines help role-play, as well as keeping the characters consistent, between sessions and campaigns. (Wizards of the coast. 2019)

These different gods all have a realm of power or responsibility. Note that these areas often overlap. This makes sense, since not every culture in D&D worship every deity. As with real life pantheons, several gods of life for example exist within the same geographical area. In terms of D&D, we have for example we have the god Ilmater, god of endurance, who is a lawfully good god, with reign over life Life and his symbol is a pair of hands bound at the wrist with red cord. Another god with reign over Life is Chauntea, goddess of agriculture, a neutral good goddess of Life with her symbol being a sheaf of grain or a blooming rose over grain. It is up to the DM to use these gods how they see fit, as well as in which configurations they are used. As I mentioned before, much of D&D meant to be modified and transformed to fit the players and DM the best. (Wizards of the coast. 2019)

Conclusions

We had as a goal in this essay to analyse the connections between the D&D Cleric and their real life counterparts. I believe we have managed to point towards a series of interesting connections between Dungeons and Dragons and real life religious practices, in this case, the Catholic church. Much of the visuals, such as the symbols of office, the clothing, as well as the general mythos of the role is shared by both incarnations. The focus on prayers, as well as miracles and the performance of miraculous things are present in both roles. Lastly, the symbols of office or the holy symbols do carry great weight when it comes to performing these wonders and miracles.

Next chapter will be dedicated to another spellcaster that uses divine or otherworldly powers, the Warlock.

Footnotes

1Note that Clerics are not the only classes that get their powers from a divine source. Some other notable examples are Paladins and Warlocks, which we will discuss in later chapters.

2 All individuals that were believed to be able to perform miracles in one form or another.

3 Not to be confused with the D&D class, the Monk.

4 A context of which Dungeons and Dragons were created (Wizards of the coast).

5 See, The Bible.

6 I base this assumption on the fact that Wizards of the Coast is a primarily American company, that at its conception primarily sold to an American public. As a result, would it make sense to tie the Cleric to a religious context this public would be the most familiar with. (Wizards of the coast)

7 Massive multiplayer online role playing game

References:
Wizards of the coast. (2019). Pantheons. Retrieved 2019.09.25 from https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/appendix-b-gods-of-the-multiverse

Wizards of the coast. (2019). Cleric. Retrieved 2019.09.25 from https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/cleric

Wilson, D.K. (2018). A magical world: superstition and science from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. (First Pegasus books hardcover edition.) New York, NY: Pegasus Books, Ltd.

Bourdieu, P. & Thompson, J.B. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Further reading

General texts on the chatolic faith or mission

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04049b.htm

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25133/25133-h/25133-h.htm

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52040/52040-h/52040-h.htm

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11553/11553-h/11553-h.htm

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18039/pg18039-images.html

Introduction to literary studies: part 1, sources and reliability

18 September, 201917 July, 2023 ~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

This will start a shorter series discussing the different terms and themes commonly used in art and culture studies. This first chapter will give a general idea of how to think about sources and how they can be, and cant be used.

Today will start our Wednesday series on general literary and art studies. Today’s topics is on sources and how to properly evaluate them. This series is designed to help future and current Humanities students, as well as general readers of my blog.

The level of sources

We will begin with dividing our sources in different level. These levels is related to how close, or far away they are from the original text we are studying.

First hand source: The artefact itself, in other words the object of study. In this case the object of study is the game Undertale. In most cases are the first hand sources to be proffered in any kind of serious analysis.

Second hand source: a text about the artefact, in our case the second hand sources is going to take the form of Game wiki pages about Undertale, as well as other discussions about the first hand source. If the first hand sources is not available to you, then second hand sources can be used. The first hand source may be rare, or lost, or difficult to handle in one way or another.

Third hand source: usually an analysis or compilation of second hand sources. These types of sources will not be very important in the case of this study in particular, but they are important to keep in mind none the less. Third hand sources can be used when talking about wider concepts about the Artefact, but they should be avoided when making the actual analysis.

The origin of the source

It is inportant to always keep in mind where a source comes from, and who is the sender of said source. By examining the source of a text, can we learn a lot about the credibility of the text, as well as the intention of the sender.

Some things to look out for:
a) Does the source has a clear sender/author?
b) Do the source mention any form of references?
c) Is the book/magazine/website well known?
d) Do the source seem to be pushing a specific angle?

Keep in mind that these are mere guidelines and not exact rules for research. A source can still be interesting even if it comes from a dubious origin, as long as you are aware of, and transparent with this dubiousness as you work with the source.

Conclusion

When selecting your sources, keep in mind on how it relates to the text, as well where it comes from. This is but a short introduction to the subject, but it will let you start thinking about sources, and how to properly use them.

Dungeons and dragons and history: part 1, the Wizard

15 September, 201917 July, 2023 ~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

The modern myth of the Wizard may be traced back to the renaissance in Europe, but the concept of magic and the men and women that could wield it goes way further back then that.

In this series will we discuss some of the classes available in the Tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, and put them in a larger fictional and historical context.

The Mage

The concept of the wise old man with a long beard and a flowing robe is far from a new one, both in fantasy and in general lore as well. The modern idea of the mage can be traced back medieval Europe and the Renaissance as well and the middle ages. This mage or wizard gained his power trough diligent studies and the manipulation of the natural world to his advantage. The mage is seen as a seeker of knowlage and truth, in comparison to the Sorcerer and the superstitious magic user of the countryside. This can very much be understood by the climate of the times and the need to distance themselves from the heretics that the Inquisition were hunting at the time (Levi 2017).

The Wizard in D&D

The fifth edition handbook describes the wizard as a scholar of the arcane. Tough his craft does at first seem simple and their powers come form a single utterance of a short word, or waving of the hand, does this hide vast hours of preparation, study and meditation. The idea of the Wizard as a scholar is further cemented in the form of Arcane Traditions, these traditions are described as philosophical schools of thought, or general areas of study. A wizard tends to specialize in one of them. (Wizards of the Coast 2014)

Knowledge as Power

A mage becomes more and more powerful the more he or she studies the magical and natural world, this concept that exists within both sources we have discussed so far. Lévi argues that true magic can only come from study, and the wizard of Dungeons and Dragons must spend several decades of apprenticeship and studies to acquire any form of real power. In other word does their dedication to their studies and search for magical lore leads to the gain of real life wealth and power.

Booth texts puts large emphasis on the fact that the visual aspects of the magic, the hand waving, the chants and the components, are but a small part of the spell. The real power comes from within the mage itself, and from his long and careful preparations.

Dark vs Light Magic

In Lèvi´s texts (2017), as well as the text of his contemporaries is the Mage presented as the user of light and good magic, in comparison to the evil superstitions of the Sorcerers and Necromancers. This dichotomy between science and superstition, high and low, city and country has been written about in several places. This will not be our focus point today, but non the less will it be consider (Levi 2017). The magic in Dungeons and dragons, are as in many fantasy worlds organized in to good and evil magic to some extent. Dungeons and Dragons most clear example on “evil” magic, would be the study of necromancy (Wizards of the Coast 2014). Lèvi also condones any use of Necromancy in any shape or form.

The clothes of office

When most think of the image of a Wizard, they think of an old man in long robes and with a large white beard. Much of this image I would personally like to attribute to Tolkien’s works, but Dungeons and Dragons as well.

Wizard D&D 5:e taken from Players Handbook

Here we have two examples of Wizards as they are presented by Wizards of the coast¹. Here we can see a clear symbols of the mage, the staff, the robes and the book/scrolls of his practice, not shown here is the wand, a symbol that is often related to the wizard as well².

Wizard D&D 3,5:e taken from Players Handbook

Lèvi discusses a series of artefacts in his text. Chief amongst these are the robes, the staff and the magical wand. Levi explains that these artefacts are al needed to properly control the Astral light. He continues to g in to deep detail about how these instruments should be prepared, used and preserved. The robes in particular corresponds to the certain days of the week, which in turn reoffered to the different celestial bodies. (Levi 2017)

Many of these elements can be seen in the Tarot card The Magician. The Tarot is one of Lévis largest inspirations, and are a large element of occult studies even today. In this card can we find several of the artefacts we have already pointed out. Here we see the robes, the staff and of course the inportant wand. Note that there are several artefacts the Magician carries that do not have a clear translation to the D&D wizard. Chief amongst these are the sword, the talisman and the chalice or cup. Note that Lévi makes account for al of these in his text on occult science.

The Weave

This is the layer of magical energy that the Wizards of Dungeons and dragons uses to manipulate the world around them. This underlying force that combines everything in the multiverse (Wizards of the Coast 2014). A similar concept can be found in Lévis texts in the form of the Astral light. This once again the unifying force that ties the world together. Levi compares this Astral light to a series of contemporary ideas about magic and divinity, such as animal magnetism (Levi 2017).

Knowledge of the ancients

Both of our base texts built around the idea of a long historical tradition of study, as well as the idea of lost knowlage. That the forbearers grasped magic to a much higher degree, and that it is up to today’s Mages to find this lost knowlage (Wizards of the Coast 2014). Lévi (2017) in his studies ties a lot of his research back to the Egyptian and Greek knowlage on the arcane and religion. In Dungeons and Dragons is the call of knowlage very much used as a reason for the Wizard to leave their laboratories and workshops and go out in world and explore and discover old secrets of the world. Lévi also attributed much of his research to the Cabala of old, a topic way to big to take up in this text, but one we might return to.

Spells, Alchemy and Divination

The bread and butter of many magical vocations, including that of Dungeons and Dragons. Lèvi, amongst with his contemporaries all dabble in these arts, as well as the art of Divination. In the Era of the Renaissance and late the enlightenment did many nobles and lords still decide on wars and inportant meetings based on the alignments of the stars. It was the job of the mage to interpret and rely these messages from the stars (Wilson, 2018).

Alchemy was also a well trusted source of knowlage, power and wealth at the time of Lévi and earlier. Many Renaissance scholars and scribes were dabblers in magic as well as natural and social science. Much of was written in these subjects, at least in Europe, was done so with a clear Christian angle and viewpoint. It was hard, if not impossible to separate magic, science and religion.

An interesting side note, the famous Dungeons and Dragons spell Prestidigitation, is a French term, that toughly translates to “slight of hand trick” or “visual magic trick”. An amusing coincidence considering the fact that Lévi and many of his occult contemporaries were indeed from France.

Conclusions

we have in this text endeavoured to tie the Wizard of the Dungeons and Dragons, to his real world counterparts. We have managed to tie the practises, history and visuals of the fictional mage and the Wizard in Dungeons and Dragons.

I argue that we can find several connections between the two images of the Wizard archetype. I would not go so far as to draw direct lines between the two, but it does point towards a somewhat unambiguous and universal view of the Wizard in the west. This text also has quite effectively managed to draw links between modern pop culture and the traditions that came before it, our era do not exist in a vacuum. This is one of the major goals with this blog, to show our popular media, in a broader social and historical context.

If you find this topic interesting then I have a few suggestions for further reading in the references, and I will be adding more to this list as I find them. Feel free to share your suggestions and advice for further research in the comments.

References

Agrippa von Nettesheim, H.C. (1986). Three books of occult philosophy … London: Chthonios.

Wizards of the Coast (2014). Dungeons & dragons Player’s handbook. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast LLC.

Lévi, Eliphas (2017) The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic : A New Translation

Wilson, D.K. (2018). A magical world: superstition and science from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. (First Pegasus books hard-cover edition.) New York, NY: Pegasus Books, Ltd.

1The company responsible for the release of Dungeons and Dragons. Note that they to share the name of today’s chapters namesakes.

2An image popularized in to contemporary pop culture much thanks to J.K Rowling Harry Potter series, a series we will in the future discuss in relation to renaissance magic as well.