That Friend Nobody Likes
Probably. Depends on how similar the gods and/or religions are. If the gods are pretty much the same but the rules, rituals, etc are different, it might not be that big of a deal.
Umm... so, I was here, I guess. If I wasn't, someone hacked my account. So, yeah.
Not necessarily-some religions are more open to syncretism than others.
Truth be told this was actually the MO of ancient Rome whenever they "obtained" new members. They would declare that group's gods to just be other names for their gods.
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"
Many Christians, Jews and Muslims express a belief that they all actually worship the same God, and merely have a different spin on the nature of that God. Far from being offensive, this is often embraced as a means of promoting interfaith cooperation and understanding.
Among a lot of neopagans, "all gods are interchangeable" CAN be insulting if you literally think a "mix and match" approach to rituals is okay—gods have very specific personalities, in addition to really obvious cultural differences. If you tried to swap out, say, the Greek Selene for the Tagalog/Pampangan Mayari just because they're both moon-deities, this would be a dumbass move because Mayari is also the goddess of REVOLUTION.
When Mayari ran into inheritance issues with her brother Apolaki about who got to rule the world after their father died, she demanded to duel him for rulership and ended up losing at least one eye in the fight (versions differ on whether it was just one or both). Apolaki immediately felt remorse and stopped the duel, and they worked out that Apolaki would rule in the daytime and Mayari in the night. The loss of Mayari's eye(s) dimmed her brightness and turned her into the moon. That's... not much like Selene at all.
If you just mindlessly swap out Selene's name for Mayari without knowing Mayari's main myth, her personality, or the energy she brings to spells, she may retaliate and fuck up your spell for treating both of the goddesses like they're watchdogs to command as you wish.
Also complicating things: Greek mythology is generally an open religion and Selene probably won't mind if you're not Greek, but Tagalog mythology is VERY closed. It's heavily dependent on being Of the People because the Philippines' society was tribal and fraught with inter-group warfare, and then there's the issue with Spain bringing Catholicism making a lot of Filipinos VERY reluctant to share their traditions (and deities) with outsiders.
If you're just of the wrong FILIPINO ethnicity (like, say, Visayan) and you try to call a Pampangan/Tagalog goddess for your ritual, she might understand you didn't really know her and point you to "your own people's moon-deity"—or she could get mad and fuck up your spell point-blank because the Tagalogs and Visayans historically HATED each other, and they're still not very friendly in modern times. If you're not Filipino at all, she may get insulted that a foreigner essentially picked her name out of a "moon-deity bucket" and took her time/attention away from her own people.
All of this changes if you do about five minutes of research.
If you were thinking of invoking Selene, but later felt a need for an Action Girl's energy, and then explicitly invoked Mayari because you need to kick ass and take no prisoners for the spell, she'd respond much better.
So yeah, the difference between "different gods have different names/faces for the same thing" and a more insulting/ignorant mentality of "it's okay to swap names out for a spell" could very well show up as an argument in the story.
edited 15th Feb '18 1:01:26 PM by Sharysa
I will said no, maybe the kindom would said is the oposite: that the empire is just using a copy ast version of their gods.
De Marquis: while that is true is also do with the note that of all gods, is their the "true" way, typical of religion.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
So the Kingdom and the Empire are trading with each other. The people & merchants of the empire believe the gods of the kingdom are only other names for their own gods. Should that offend the more religious people in the kingdom? I'm not sure. Especially because the protagonist is a warrior-monk who travels in the Empire. So he will confront it more often.