Witchmire Rumors

 A few rumors regarding the Witchmire on Gnydrion:

• “Does the Witchmire seem forlorn in aspect? Well, so it is. But it is also locale of historic importance as the site of the Landfall, which is to say, the place of humankin’s advent on Gnydrion.” 
• “I take you for experienced travelers, inured to the variegated configurations human appetite and proclivity may take, so I will speak with candor unadorned by circumlocution: The prominent families of Gamory are perverse. Their cult seeks congress of a carnal nature with ieldra.”
• “The witch Heth has come to live on an island surrounded by treacherous quag. She wears the semblance of a crone, but in her true form she is youthful and very beautiful. She holds a treasure of jewels and fine trinkets lavished upon her by wealthy suitors in her homeland.”
• “Last winter, a mushroom-hunter of Draum made it known he had happened by a Black Obelisk with an aperture where before there had been scatheless stone. Word perhaps traveled as far south as Ascolanth, for scant months ago a party led by a trio of sorcerers arrived. They hired a guide and undertook to find the Obelisk. None of that expedition returned.”
• “Are you familiar with the ditty? It speaks of the disappearance and looked-for triumphant return of  Prince Wanaxandor. He found it expedient to flee more civilized regions after his ill-planned efforts to overthrow the rule of his uncle, the Panarch. He is popularly supposed by rustics and simpletons to be in hiding, gathering a force armed with dire alien armaments, plundered from the Black Obelisks for a repeated attempt.”
• “Wollusk is no more in the grip of rogues meager of scruple than most habitations similarly situated far from civilization, but Zeniba and her Devils have a zeal in the application of violence that borders on obsessive. My admonition: watch yourselves and do not attract undue notice!”
• “A famed medium from the South has recently arrived. She offers intercession for the folk of the region with the wrathful presences of the Mire. She asks no compensation at present for her services. Popular opinion is divided between those that regard her as a fool and those that judge her insane. I am broader of imagination than most and accord both concepts a measure of validity. Be that as it may, I suppose she will need escorts in her endeavors.”

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1982 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around September 16, 1982.

Camelot 3000 #1: Barr, Bolland, and Patterson present DC's first "maxi-series." Earth in the year 3000 is being invaded by aliens. In London, Thomas Prentice flees to a historical dig site and opens the crypt of King Arthur Pendragon, who rises and kills Tom's alien pursuers. Arthur takes him on as his squire. The two steal an alien spacecraft and fly to Stonehenge. There, Arthur calls forth Merlin. They all go to find the Lady of the Lake, who--rising from the cooling waters of a nuclear plant--throws the sword Excalibur to Arthur, but it disappears in midair. At the United Nations, a rock thrusts up from the floor of the assembly room. Stuck in the rock is Excalibur. Interesting enough story, but the real draw here is the Bolland artwork.

Brave & the Bold #193: Burkett and Aparo give Nemesis his last hurrah by again teaming him up with Batman. This will be his last Pre-Crisis appearance, but he'll return in the Post-Crisis Universe in Suicide Squad #1. Nemesis contacts Batman to enlist his help in an operation against a The Council. It' seems Irene Scarfield is in cahoots with the terrorist organization the PLA and wants to use them to kill a congressman who's pushing through anti-crime legislation. 

The two make a coordinate attack from two fronts. Batman goes looking for the terrorist Bloodclaw and Nemesis goes after Scarfield. After a lengthy search, Batman locates and confronts Bloodclaw, but during the struggle, the criminal falls to his apparent demise. Nemesis tracks Scarfield to a secret base where the Council attempts to send a helicopter bomb on a mission, but Nemesis hijacks the chopper and brings it down to the Council headquarters, sacrificing himself in order to eliminate the Council leadership for good. 

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #2: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner pick up where the last left off. Supergirl is clashing with Psi, a young woman being manipulated by psychic researcher turned moral crusader, Pendergast.  Supergirl exerts her powers and breaks free from Psi's psychic trap. Then she fights back and begins beating Psi, while arguing against Psi's morally monstrous goal of destroying Chicago to wipe out "decay". Psi, in moral conflict, finally breaks off the battle and teleports away. Later, Psi reports to Mr. Pendergast, who tries to kill her for her failure. Psi blitzes him with a mental bolt, which somehow mutates Pendergast turning him into the monstrous embodiment of what he claimed to want to destroy. He becomes a slime-being calling himself "Decay."

Green Lantern #159: Barr and Pollard/DeCarlo bring back Evil Star who we haven't seen since issue 133. Evil Star is a villain I didn't know anything about until starting this read-through, but he's kind of interesting. He's a guy who was trying to achieve life extension but the device he created to do so corrupted the user and turned them evil. He is aware of the personality switch and part of him mourns it, but he is unwilling to give up his life to be rid of it. He destroyed his whole planet in the name of keeping it.

Anyway, his current plan is to spread his evil light throughout the universe, corrupting everyone. But Hal sacrifices himself and tells Evil Star to make him evil and spare everyone else. So Green Lantern turns into Evil Star's sidekick, and together they spread terror in a neighboring world. But when he is about to destroy a dam to cause a flood, Hal remembers his friends, Carol and Thom, and his predecessor, Abin Sur, and these memories help him break free from Evil Star's corruption. Hal flights back to Evil Star and defeats him again, this time taking off the component of the Star Band that makes it a weapon.

We get some other things setup: On Earth, a kid named Donny Weems finds a strange crystal, and he gets in a trance when he grabs it. In Oa, the Guardians dismiss the Green Lantern Eddore of his current mission, saying it's now out of his space sector.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Rozakis, Moore, and Rodriquez, aquatic Green Lantern Penelops of Penelo (who looks like an eyeball with tentacles), finds the seas of his world being artificially heated invaders shooting some kind of weapon at the sun. Penelops saves his fellow inhabitants and flies to confront the aliens.

House of Mystery #311: Paris Cullins pencils this issue's "I...Vampire" story. Bennett wanders through the streets of New York City and stumbles into a theater, where they're showing a documentary about the Woodstock. When he sees a young Deborah Dancer, he remembers the way they first met.

In 1969, Andrew Bennett and Dmitri Mishkin visited Woodstock on the hunt for Mary. The Cult of the Blood Red Moon is using the festival as a cover to recruit new vampires. Deborah Dancer is there with her friends, and they're invited to a private party with the Blood Red Moon. Bennett rescues her, but he is too late to save the others. When Deborah is later cornered by her former friends turned bloodsuckers. They are suddenly destroyed by the overwhelming positive emotions at Woodstock during an awesome Hendrix guitar solo. Really, that's what happens! It's a known vampire weakness. Anyway, from that day on, Deborah joins Andrew and Dmitri in their crusade against vampires.

There are a couple more stories but neither have vampires getting dissolved like a Wicked Witch hit by a bucket of water by a cool guitar solo, so they aren't worth the time.

Legion of Super-Heroes #294: Levitz and Giffen/Mahlstedt bring the Great Darkness Saga to a very satisfying conclusion. Things start bleak for our heroes. The mind-controlled Daxamites are rampaging across the galaxy. We get cameos by the Heroes of Lallor, the Wanderers, and Dev-Em putt up a fight, but they are no match for the forces against them. The Legion calls in their reserves including the Legion Subs.

The main battle is joined on Daxam. With reversals and last minute saves, a plenty, including the reveal of the child as Highfather and the restoration of one of Darkseid's clone servants to the form of Orion. Then Superboy and Supergirl arrive just in time, their powers bolstered by Izaya despite the red sun. Darkseid blasts Superboy back to his own time, but Supergirl fights on. Her struggle gives the Legion time enough to regroup around Darkseid, and Saturn Girl declares he's lost.

Perplexed, Darkseid realizes that his long sleep has made him too weak to fight the Legion and simultaneously control billions of slaves. The Daxamites are now free, and the Legion's allies are leading them in an assault. Darkseid admits defeat and after uttering a curse that the darkness will keep growing within them until it destroys them, he vanishes, taking Apokolips with him.

In the aftermath, the White Witch joins the Legion, Light Lass quits, and Brainiac 5 tells Supergirl he is finally over his crush on her. Kara, before she leaves for the 20th Century, remarks that that is a pity, since she was noticing how cute he was.

Night Force #5: Wolfman and Colan/Smith set most of this issue in a Soviet "Science City" in Siberia. Colan seems to have seen pictures of this place, but his version is decidedly more futuristic. Wolfman tells us it's all about psychic research. This is where Vanessa gets taken, and this is where Gold and Caine have to go to get her back. Vanessa at first is treated kindly, but then the administrator springs a trap and reveals he plans to torture her and still her power. Meanwhile, Caine and Gold get to know each other while almost dying out in the snow before reaching the city and getting captured.

So far, I feel like this is the well-done series that probably doesn't get its due, being out of step with the continued ascendancy of superheroes.

Sgt. Rock #371: So Kanigher and Redondo are out to make a point about the replaceability of the soldier and how it's the mission that's important, but what's memorable here is that the story has Rock and a few of his men coming to rescue of the rest of Easy from an ambush by riding a log down a river. Then there's a non-war story about a too wily for his on good general who survives Earth's final war and then rockets to a paradise planet that turns out to be deadly. That one's by Kelley and Randall.

Kanigher and Mandrake are back with an interestingly illustrated but silly ode to paean to the G.I.'s boots. Fianlly, Kanigher and Truman dubiously depict the kamikaze pilots as modern samurai. 

Warlord #64: I went over the main story in this issue here. In the Barren Earth backup, the crashed the humans that survived the crash and the Qlov assault start trekking across the desert to--well, anything. Most of them are killed by weird creatures along the way. There are a lot of them in this desert! In the end, only Jinal is left, and her pants have disappeared along the way! She finds herself surrounded by robed and veiled people with weapons on lizard-back.

Beetles & Birds

Beetle Milk Mead 

A beverage favored in the west of Gnydrion, beetle milk mead is made from the fermentation of a sugary liquid ("the milk") produced by a species of beetle native to the titanic trees of the coastal forests. These colonials insects have members of their community who function as living casks for their hive. They gorge themselves on food and store the liquid they produce in their abdomens so they distend to an incredible degree, having the appearance when full of plump fruit with a diameter as wide as the length of the first digit of a man's thumb. The milk is harvested from the engorged beetles and fermented. The resulting liquid is sometimes added to beer to sweeten it but can also be mixed with the local liquor to render that more enjoyable, as well.

The beetles are farmed by placing thick slices of the bark of their favored trees into beetlehouses. This practiced has allowed the production and enjoyment of beetle milk mead to spread to places where the trees do not grow.

Quaklu

Quaklus are the ubiquitous saddle birds of the Northwest region. It is assumed by most learned folk of the modern age, that the birds are a result of the puissant science of the ancients, though the pedants of the hwaopt have alleged that the quaklus are a distinct lineage from the creatures of humankin's homeworld and so must have been taken from some other world in the past.

Whatever their origins some quaklu, considered atavistic in the modern parlance, are more than just cunning animals and are capable of speech.  The accidental acquisition of such a gifted fowl is considered an unlucky turn due to their willingness to make their thoughts and wishes known--and unwelcome trait in a riding beast.

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1982 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of September 9, 1982. 

Batman #354: Batman has been declared a public menace by Mayor Hill and Commissioner Pauling, but despite a heightened police presence, the Dark Knight still manages to break into their office, and put them on notice that Deadshot spilled what he knows about them (which he hasn't). When Batman leaves the building, Pauling activates an alarm that alerts the officers about his presence and the police start shooting at Batman and hitting him. Still, Batman escapes.

Meanwhile, Dr. Thirteen shows Rupert Thorne the Hugo Strange haunting is a fake, done with holograms. Thorne jumps to the conclusion the responsible parties for this charade are his own pawns, Pauling and Hill.

Later, Alfred has to juggle an annoying Deadshot, who is being held prisoner and blindfolded in the Batcave, and tending Batman's wounds. Vicki Vale gets a phone call from a mysterious (cat) woman, who warns her to stay away from Bruce Wayne.

Thorne is drinking at his home and planning his revenge against his subordinates, when Batman appears and stands there is silence as Thorne rants. Unnerved, Thorne accidentally sets his house on fire. While Batman fights the blaze, Rupert Thorne gets away. Thorne goes to City Hall with a gun, ready to kill his lackeys. Batman arrives just in time to witness Thorne's murder of Pauling and the shooting of Thorne by one of Pauling's loyal cops. Batman disarms the cop and a fearful Mayor Hill promises he will reinstate Batman's special deputy status, but he won't be able to prove that he was ever involved with Thorne.

This Batman is, of course, Dick Grayson, as Bruce is still recovering. After a successful mission, Dick returns home, but someone else is watching Thorne get taken away to the hospital. The person is none other than Hugo Strange, who is very much alive!

This was a satisfying end to this arc by Conway and Newton.

Flash #316: Bates and Infantino continue the Goldface story with the Eradicator lurking in the background. The Flash tangles with Goldface twice and gets defeated. Goldface demands Flash leave town or he'll continue murdering people in Central City.. The Flash isn't about to leave, but he recruits the reformed Heatwave to help him try to take down the villain. They get closer, but again Goldface escapes, and Flash is left in peril of drowning. Meanwhile, the Eradicator makes short work of Goldface's goons that come after him, and Creed Philips discovers that the Eradicator killed his physician (he doesn't appear to know that he's the Eradicator).

G.I. Combat #248: No Mercenaries this month, but hey, more Haunted Tank! Joy. The first Tank story has an interesting high concept, if utterly predictable development in Kanigher style. The crew is leading 3 condemned soldiers to their execution. The three learn something of heroism from Jeb and his men, and then show it themselves by dying in battle giving our heroes a chance to escape the Germans. In the second story, the Haunted Tank manages to capture General Kuntz, "Rommel's right-hand man" and have to transport the injured general across the dangerous desert to command. 

The O.S.S. story is better than average. There is a traitor among four agents sent on a mission, and the still loyal agents have to discover who the turncoat is and complete the mission before the he takes them out. Drake and Trinidad round out the issue with a story about the lives of three individuals in different places and on different sides who wind up intersecting with the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

Masters of the Universe #1: I reviewed this issue here back in 2015. One of the mysteries here is why Tuska is doing the art with Alcala only inking when Alcala did much cooler work in the mini-comics? Maybe a question of speed?

 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #8: Swamp Thing, Dennis and Liz are stranded on an island where they encounter dream-like scenes out of movies. They have to deal with dinosaurs, hostile tribesmen, and King Kong and wander through Rick's Cafe American.

Abruptly we get an interlude. In New Jersey Karen "Casey" Clancy" looks much older and is more sure of her powers. Paul Feldner tells her he won't be a part of her plan. He slaps her and tries to run away before Karen uses her mind power to make him burst into flames. 

Back on the island, Dennis and Liz are finally able to confront dreamers and it is discovered they are Vietnam vets that came into contact with the defoliant, Agent Blue. Traumatized and unable to reintegrate into society, they re-enlisted. They were transferred on the USS New Hampshire, which exploded and sank, leaving them as the only survivors. It was then that the soldiers realized they could "create stuff outta thin air" just by thinking about it and decided to live out the fantasies of their imagination instead of returning to reality. Liz then scolds one of the vets for hiding from reality, essentially calling them all cowards unworthy of sympathy. The vets have a falling out over this, and their fantasies begins to fall apart along with the entire island dissolving. One of the soldiers creates a helicopter and he, Swamp Thing, Liz and Dennis escape while the other dreamers drown.

In the Barr/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, the Stranger takes Amanda Dove (the woman from last issue) to see the latest incarnation of her lover, a general, and tries to stop the war he is currently involved in.

New Teen Titans #26: Wolfman and Perez prove social relevance in comics wasn't just a 70s fad. The New Teen Titans return to Earth from Vega, and Robin, having revealed his true feelings during the battle, begins a tentative, romantic relationship with Starfire, and the other Titans get back to their civilian lives. Several weeks pass in a couple of captions. Then, Raven meets a young girl who has been the victim of domesticate abuse, presumably by a pimp. Dick and Kory, on a movie date, witness the accidental death of a drug-crazed youth who attacks D.A. Adrian Chase (who seems a bit to the right of Bronson's character in the Deathwish movies) and his wife before running into the path of a car. Cyborg and the others visit a home for runaways and basically get a PSA on the problem. The other The next day, at the site of the Statue of Liberty, Changeling battles a young costumed girl, who calls herself Terra. 

It's easy to view this kind message comic as sort of heavy-handed. I feel like it would have seemed hard-hitting and gritty had I read it as a young teen. In a way, I feel like this is better than the Vega arc before, though probably a little of it is going to go a long way.

Superman #378: Kupperberg and Swan introduce a character I only know from the Who's Who: Colonel Future. NASA scientist Edmond Hamilton (a name borrowed from the sci-fi writer) accidentally gains prophetic powers that warn him of a doom the Earth faces in the near future. He adopts the secret identity of Colonel Future and begins stealing devices to help him build a defense against it, but runs afoul of Superman. It turns out, interpreting visions is a tricky thing and Future actually causes a problem Superman has to prevent.

The Woods are Dark and Deep

This half-formed rpg setting idea I got the other day. It could probably work with something D&Dish but might be better suited to something else. Anyway, the world that the players' would know and explore is a sort of mythic forest, a dark fairytale sort of woodland with no apparent beginning or end. Within the woodland are areas of human habitation, where everyone probably speaks the same language, and probably some enigmatic ruins, suggesting perhaps a once united human culture or series of cultures, but nothing like that exists in the present and nothing more than fables that hold any memory of it. Memory, like everything else, gets swallowed by the forest.

The woodland can be a strange place. There are dangers there, even horrors, but there are also places of beauty and enchantment. These last are perhaps hard to find again after visiting, though.  Adventurers are wanderers in the wood, dealing with the things the forest brings them.

I envision it as something like an adult, darker Over the Garden Wall. Perhaps with a bit of Ravenloft with the forest replacing the Mists. The forest might give a similar uncanny vibe to the Zone in the film Stalker. Other inspirations: Grimm's fairytales and the film Company of Wolves. Maybe some stuff from the rpg Symbaroum though it's a bit less "Brother's Grimm meets Acid Western" than what I'm envisioning.

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1982 (week 1)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of September 2, 1982. 

Wonder Woman #298: Frank Miller cover on this issue. Mishkin and Colan/McLaughlin continue the Aegeus story. Wonder Woman consults the Magic Sphere on Paradise Island and learns Bellerophon's history. On Themyscria, the island which the Amazons abandoned for their new home centuries ago in this Earth-One continuity, Bellerophon tries to get the location of Paradise Island out of Steve Trevor because he wants to get ahold the Amazon's healing Purple Ray. Aegeus tries torturing Trevor, but Steve escapes into the temple of Athena. There he and terrorist Sofia see a vision of Athena, who tries to persuade Sofia to turn against Aegeus. Steve grabs Athena's scepter, which he saw destroy one terrorist, and hides it under his jacket. Unfortunately, he's recaptured by Aegeus who knocks an approaching Wonder Woman out of the sky with a thunderbolt.

In the Huntress backup, the would-be superhero Blackwing is captured by the gang running the protection racket and they take him to their boss with Huntress following behind. The boss is called Boa, and he's got a big, pet constrictor--though Staton doesn't appear to have used photo reference in drawing the snake. Huntress busts in and takes out the gang, but Boa sicks his snake on her and the gang leaves while she struggles in the animal's deadly grip.

Arak Son of Thunder #16: Thomas and Gonzales/Alcala bring Arak to Byzantium as he continue his search for Valda. They are in from trouble from the beginning as he has to save Satyricus from an angry mob after he accidentally destroys an icon. Luckily, the duo are aided by General Cometas who they met last issue. he gets them in the see the young Emperor Constantine VI who is being presented with potential wives when Valda catches his eye.

A fight breaks out and Arak intercedes to help her. He's ordered to swim across a pool to prove the turh of his words. In the water, a monster comes out of a mosaic and attacks him--or seems to, as no one else can see it. Despite successfully completing the challenge, Arak and Valda have upset the emperor's and he orders their deaths.

In the backup, Valda and Malagigi attend of fair in Paris. While Malagigi meets with the local Count, Valda explores the market. She encounters a pickpocket dwarf named Brunello who sells her a baby elephant. As she leads the elephant through the streets, Valda is attacked by saracens who claim that the elephant is stolen and think she's the culprit. Valda holds her own against their superior numbers until Malagigi arrives and use his magic to end the fight. The saracens taken possession of the elephant, while Valda and Malagigi are glad to let them have it.

Blackhawk #253: Evanier and Spiegle put the spotlight on one of The Blackhawks in this story. The team (minus Hendrickson) is summoned to a meeting with command to discuss Hendrickson's future with the team. The eldest Blackhawk's mental state is called into question after it is discovered that he is writing letters to his wife--who was killed a year before. Blackhawk promises to speak with him.

When the team returns to Blackhawk Island where Hendrickson was left on duty, they find that he is gone. Putting together clues, they realize that he has located a secret Nazi air base by measuring the fuel load of downed aircraft. And they thought he was crazy for always siphoning the fuel!

The Blackhawks follow to the location specified and find and destroy the air base, but Hendrickson is shot down. A German pilot finds his crashed plane, but Hendrickson outdraws his opponent with pistols. Hendrickson reveals that he has always known that his wife was dead. He simply wrote the letters to her because he was lonely and felt ignored by his teammates.

 

DC Comics Presents #52: Kupperberg and Giffen introduce Ambush Bug. He's the villain here and a good bit different from the character he will become. The story guest stars the New Doom Patrol (a team Superman doesn't even know exists until this story). A being of black energy is wrecking Metropolis and Superman's attempts to stop it are complicated by the teleporting agent of chaos, Ambush Bug. The Doom Patrol tries to lend a hand and let him know that the being is actually an out of a control Negative Woman, but Ambush Bug's machinations makes Supes distrust them. Superman's character is different in Kupperberg's story than what we are used to seeing: he's testier, quicker to act, and more fallible than the usual portrayal. It makes him a better mark for Ambush Bug's shenanigans.

Fury of Firestorm #7: Conway and Broderick/Rodriquez introduce the Québécoise, terrorist super-villain Plastique. She's spurred to action after Firestorm thwarted the impact of the attack by her fellow terrorist Andre by absorbing the energy. She happens to choose the offices of the New York News Express, it happens to be a day where Ronnie has come with the intention of telling his reporter father that he is Firestorm. Being held hostage by Plastique with the Express staff, Ronnie can't change to Firestorm without revealing who he is to everyone! Stein comes to his rescue by sneaking past the police into the building and shutting off the power, so they can become Firestorm unseen. After rescuing the hostages, Firestorm dissipates Plastique's costume, so the bombs drop to the floor before she can detonate them.

Justice League #209: The final chapter of Crisis on Earth-Prime. Don Heck is the artist here, with Conway scripting, per usual. The All-Stars, JLA, and JSA meet with FDR to recap the success of their teams. There is still some work to be done, though. Power Girl, Firestorm, and Steel are in Geneva, Switzerland, looking for more missiles. They find them along with Johnny Quick. The missiles get launched, but the heroes take them down in mid-air. 

After meeting with Professor Zee and cluing him into his megalomaniacal assistant, he gives Green Lantern, Firebrand and Zatanna his prototype time machine, which they use to travel to 1962 on Earth-Prime. There they're ready to take action when the Crime Syndicate arrives on the scene in a Time Vortex. The heroes surprise the villains and defeat them. The Soviet missiles aren't stolen, and Earth-Prime's history proceeds as it should.

On Earth-Two 1942, the heroes take the fight to Per Degaton's base and capture him and his men. Huntress takes care of Own-Man who had been in hiding, gloating over the others' defeat. History is restored, so that no one even remembers this Crisis having occurred. All and all, a nice arc, though perhaps a little longer than it needed to be.

Adventure Comics #494: The only new story here is The Challengers of the Unknown by Rozakis and Tuska/Mushynsky. Picking up where last issue left off, the Challs to be compare notes and decide some gangsters mad at Rocky for ruining their attempts to fix a match where the ones that sabotaged their plane. They pay them a visit, but they turn out not to be the culprits, so the mystery remains.

The Cleric and the Rituals of Faith

Over the weekend, I read this interesting blog series about how polytheism worked in the real world. Check it out. 

Anyway, it got me thinking about how D&D/rpg polytheism might be made more realistic without changing it much. Granted, it's a bit of an uphill battle since rpg polytheism of the D&D variety is very unrealistic in a lot of ways, but I'm going to focus here on one thing and that's Devereaux's central point in the early articles: religion is mainly about ritual not metaphysics.

This is actually pretty good for the D&D cleric, because they are largely soft on metaphysics and philosophy (short a lot of worldbuilding) but out-of-the-box do a lot of things like spells and special abilities that could be glossed (and roleplayed) as rituals. It's sort of transactional, even mechanistic from a modern lens, which is good for D&D because that's what clerical magic is. 

So, clerics are the most religious (in what Devereaux relates is the Roman sense) because they have the most effective deity-related rituals (spells) and they are the most diligent in their performance (it's their job). The use of the cleric to the adventuring party is this very religiousness: their ritual performances always get results. 

I think it would take relatively little roleplaying in this direction and reframing of these abilities in a more religious ritual context to make it feel a lot less merely mechanistic and a lot more flavorfully mechanistic.