The Campaign: Take It From The Top

I said we're starting at the Cosmic level. Cirsova beat me to the punch, so here's his Tweet getting to the point.

The more powerful an individual is, the more powerful their alignment signal is. The average rando's alignment is just part of the white noise on the prime material plane; powerful individuals, however, can be picked and observed from afar and influenced by the extraplanar beings

— Cirsova: Summer Issue Ads Due 5/1/23 (@cirsova) April 30, 2023

The Grand Game of the Gods

The cosmic powers--Gods, Demons/Devils, Angels, etc.--have a vested interest in the affairs of the Material Planes. They lend their power to moral agents--Clerics and Paladins for the Outer Planes, Druids and Bards for the Elemental and Material Planes--and in return those agents further their patron's interests. (Dungeon Master's Guide, pp.38-39)

Not that mortals are necessarily unable to tap divine power that lies inchoate; Clerics and Druids can reach up to 2nd level spells without divine approval. (ibid) So long as they declare for a god, and are sincere in their devotion thereto, they can acquire the means to cast low-level Cleric or Druid spells. This implication of the rules as they are written permits false religions to nonetheless wield some power, only to be overwhelmed by a true religion that has a cosmic patron behind it.

Maintaining divine favor is required to maintain access to Clerical/Druidic powers as well as spells of 3rd level and above (ibid), so it does matter to Cleric, Druids, Bards, Paladins, and high-level Rangers in a direct and immediate manner.

Indirectly it also matters to other classes. They may not be directly empowered, but they receive such benefits at one remove via those mortal agents; just as the gods see fit to withhold favor from errant agents, said agents do see fit to withhold or withdraw aid from parties who do not in turn aid their patron's cause. Furthermore, for the Magic-User in particular (and to a lesser extent the Illusionist), maintaining good relations with certain cosmic powers means that furthering one's own magical career becomes easier; sorcerers strike pacts for a reason.

Cosmic Kriegspiel

This means that said cosmic powers are engaged in a cosmic game of Kriegspiel, with uncountable numbers and variations of Braunstein breaking up the campaign's big picture manuevers. Referees far more ambitious than I may want to tackle that; I think I will stick to something down on a mortal level of existence for now.

In most campaigns, it means that cosmic attention is directly tied to the number of and potency (in terms of Hit Dice or Level) of the major participants- the Heroes and Leaders making things happen. The meek and the mundane, provided that they steer clear of trouble and never come to anyone's notice, can count on a quiet life- albeit an anxious one that slides into desperation from time to time.

Nonetheless, it also means that there is an implied conflict at the top. The four-fold forces of Law, Chaos, Good, and Evil not only ally and oppose each of the others in an eternal game of Diplomacy but the Inner and Material Planes (Neutrality) are also active players in this grand game- often as Team "Fuck Off, We're Full".

There is no creation myth provided in the rules; that is specific to the commercial settings, so Greyhawk is not the Realms is not and so on. (Yes, Ravenloft, I see you there- shut up or I stuff you in the locker again.)

In a typical campaign, the intervention of the divine is confined to servants and bestowed--borrowed--power most of the time. Rare are direct interventions, as even Gate (et. al.) makes it clear (DMG p.43) that only if it is immediately necessary and urgent are the odds likely that the called being arrives, does as intended, and only demands some modest recompense in return.

There is one other thing to keep in mind. Because the gods do bestow power to their mortal agents, there is no doubt that gods are real; it's not a matter of faith as we speak of that term now. Rather, it is a matter of whose religion is worth supporting- and therefore whose explanation of existence, whose mythology, is correct as shown by what civilization it erects and the effects it has for its friends and against its enemies. There are no atheists in AD&D1e; there are fools, and there are followers.

Which means that religion is a major institution, no matter the culture, and that is for tomorrow.