Question: Has you ever considered creating a Buddhist pantheon based some of the more colorful and spectacular interpretations, or does that step too much on the Devas' toes?
Ooh, man. While Buddhism has many colorful and enjoyable characters, I can't help but feel that trying to work it up as a pantheon would be a nightmare.
Every country's version of Buddhism is different, for one thing. Japanese Buddhism does not have a lot in common with Indian Buddhism at this point, nor do Chinese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism really quite jibe (no matter what modern Chinese rhetoric says about who owns Tibet itself). The basic fundamentals of Buddhism from India have been incredibly changed over time and suited to meet the needs of the various cultures that have imported the religion; the original Buddhism didn't even have deities, being a philosophical religion rather than a worship-based one. Trying to mash all of that together and call it one thing would be a huge headache, and the result would probably be not only vastly unwieldy but also pretty unreasonably culturally syncretized. It'd be a lot like trying to create a Native American pantheon that pretended all Native religions were the same - more convenient for an ST or a writer, maybe, but terribly misrepresentative and simplified for the actual mythology.
I'm more content to let Buddhist deities fall where they fall. Scion already has a few; Guanyin, for example, over in the Celestial Bureaucracy, is as Buddhist a deity as they come, as is Marishiten of the Amatsukami. But the Japanese samurai-goddess and the Chinese bodhisattva of mercy are obviously not from the same pantheon, so I don't mind that they're separated into more appropriate cultural groups. Buddhism sprawls across so many different regions and has involved itself in so many different Asian religions that it makes more sense to me to simply put Buddhist deities in whatever pantheon they most likely belong to. If they're Chinese Buddhist gods, elevate them to the ranks of the Shen; if they're Japanese Buddhist gods, let 'em try to make their way among the Kami.
Not only does it make more cultural sense that way, but you can also run some fun political stories regarding Buddhist deities and how well-accepted (or not) they are within their pantheons; especially for a Scion of one of them, dealing with trying to break into such a rigid political structure as the courtly Kami or get recognition from such condescending ancients as the Devas.
Or perhaps the variety of Buddhist Deities were once a Band(or multiple bands) that keep their connections even as full on members of their Pantheons.
ReplyDeleteThat could be a very fun idea for a campaign, I agree - having gods of different pantheons with pre-existing relationships certainly makes things more complicated (and often more entertaining!).
DeleteIt is a nightmare; I've been messing around with it while doing some side research on Tibet.
ReplyDeleteNightmare #1: One of the premises of Scion is that the player characters are the result of the gods' dalliances with mortals. The highest eschelons of any Buddhist pantheon are, well, buddhas, who by definition have transcended the need to travel to the World to seek out pleasures such as sex, drugs, and rock and roll. So, if there is a Buddhist pantheon out there, would it even have Scions in the first place?
They could adopt.
DeleteYeah, Buddhism is based on a lot of tenets that don't match up with Scion's basic polytheistic plans. It's a bit like the monotheistic religions in that way, though of course their problems are entirely different.
DeleteBuddhist gods certainly could adopt, or I suppose have sex purely functionally (i.e., just like they don't really need to do anything else, they don't need to do it or seek it out for pleasure, but still might in order to get Scions out there in the world). But I'm sticking to my guns - Buddhism is too fractured and different depending on where you are to work as a pantheon on its own. Buddhist gods of different countries are definitely part of those specific cultures' legends, not some larger Buddhist whole.