September 14 is the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, the 14th century Italian poet and author of the Divina Commedia ("The Divine Comedy"). In first person, he tells an initiatory quest for personal transformation. The first part, Inferno, possesses a strong evocative power due to the description of multiple infernal underground places, haunted by the torments of the sinners. It has a lot of influence on culture, popular culture,... and tabletop role-playing games culture. Dante was a chess player, was he also a distant ancestor of RPG gamers ?
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| «Keep going in the obscure forest, go to 13. Give up and come back, go to 256.» |
Dungeon railroading ?
Dante's Inferno could be an old inspiration for dungeon crawling, at least aesthetically because of its underground, gloomy and fantastical themes. It is possible that the domains of Moria and Mordor of The Lord of the Rings borrowed patterns from it. However, structurally, we could qualify Dante's quest being being very railroaded. Its journey is more a linear church labyrinth than a maze full of choices. Dante has very limited agency: he only has the choice to enter the underworld and continue.
At first, Dante is lost in a dark forest. He tries to avoid successively 3 wild beasts which push him to meet Virgil. Virgil is a poet admired by Dante, but above all he is a quest giver and a tour guide NPC who will be abandoned at the end of the Inferno. Virgil will be replaced by Beatrice and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux for the Purgatorio (Purgatory) and the Paradiso (Paradise). These NPCs are ubiquitous, they answer questions (even the most daring ones) and they keep Dante from getting lost.
The door which leads to the underworld, and which may be enchanted with the spell Magic Mouth, announces:
« You who enter, abandon all hope. » (Inferno III, 3).It’s a great start to a dungeon crawl. Auguste Rodin made this door his masterpiece.
Extraplanar exploration
Rather than dungeon crawl, Dante's quest is more akin to a planar crawl, a visit to ordered parallel worlds. Dante travels the nine concentric circles of the underworld, then the ascending spiral of the mount of Purgatory and finally the celestial circles of Paradise.
The first sketches of the « Outer planes » in Dragon Magazine for OD&D (1977, no. 8, p. 4) and in the Players Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1978, p. 120-121) seemed to owe much to Dante when they described the « Nine Hells of Absolute Lawful Evil ». The other Outer planes had the same stacked structure (eg. the 666 chaotic evil Abyss, etc.). Usually, one had to go through the first layer before accessing the deeper levels. There was also a hierarchy of power (D&D) or severity (Dante) between the upper circles of the underworld that were lighter and larger levels than the deeper levels.
In Dragon Magazine no. 35 (1980), William Fawcett, game designer and future co-founder of Mayfair Games, mentioned in his article « Angels in Dungeons & Dragons » (p.18) [added after suggestion by Jon Peterson] :
« This article is intended as a supplement to the games of D&D and AD&D. Though the information it contains is based on both religious literature and theological speculations, it is not intended to be representative of any religion’s actual beliefs. Its sources also include popular fiction such as Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost. »
In Dragon Magazine no. 75 (1983), Ed Greenwood, future designer of The Forgotten Realms mentioned in his article « Nine Hells, part I » (p. 17) :
« A vast number of writers have offered their own religious or primarily fantastic conceptions of the infernal regions (those lands of the dead that are linked with evil spirits and, usually, punishment of the souls of the dead). The chief sources of geographically detailed descriptions of the hells are listed here, for DMs who want to develop their own versions: Dante'’s Inferno; Homer’'s Odyssey, book XI; Virgil’'s Aeneid, book VI; Spenser’'s Faerie Queene, book II canto 7; Ariosto'’s Orlando Furioso, book XVII; Tasso' ’s Jerusalem Delivered, book IV; Milton’' s Paradise Lost; Fenelon'’s Telemaque, book XVIII; and William Backford’'s fantasy romance Vuthek. Libraries are the best sources for the above books. » [bold are mine]
The Inferno module (1980) attempted an exploration directly inspired by Dante, but it was never followed up. In it, there was the 3 beasts, but also Charon, Minos, etc. The supplement To Hell and Back by Role Aids (1993) was also based on Dante's Inferno. The role-playing game Abyss (1997) also explicitly took Dante's Inferno as a campaign setting and allows conflict between different lords of the underworld or interposition forces to be played out. Most recently, Inferno: Dante’s Guide to Hell (2021) is a crowsourced D&D 5e campaign and the latest attempt at exploring Dante’s Inferno.
Visiting other worlds
Another common trope between The Divine Comedy and fantasy role-playing games is the « visitation theme » which was summarized by Jon Peterson in Playing at the World as an early litterary trope preceding TTRPGs. They are escapism journeys of personal transformation. The protagonist primarily faces the emotion of fear and overcomes it before returning to his homeworld. :
« The formula is a simple one: plausible contemporary persons undertake a journey to an undiscovered, fantastic realm, where after some adventures they return to their place of origin. » (Jon Peterson, PatW).
Examples: Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court,...
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| " - Only kobolds ? - Only kobolds. " |
According to Edgar Dubourg, The Divine Comedy is one of the first fiction to give an important place to the imaginary world. Indeed, its description is independent of the needs of the plot and it explores structural and detailed aspects that go beyond the story. “In fact, during the 15th century, an architect by the name of Antionio Maneti created a map from this text. This first imaginary map launched a very original debate from 1450 to 1600. Italian intellectuals debated it, while trying to improve it. It's one of the first signs, in the history of literary reception, of a strong interest in an imaginary world in itself ”. [added Sept. 29]
Reenchantment of the World
In addition to this theme of the visit, Dante incorporates in his journey people from his humanist culture (Virgil, Homer, etc.) or from his daily life (politicians, religious, etc.).
This process of sublimating emotions (anger or bitterness in the face of injustice or corruption, sadness or nostalgia for lost love) by incorporating them into a fiction can be close to the creative process of players and gamemasters (sometimes also close to the approach of the authors of fanfictions).
Economy of salvation & gamification
In the places visited by Dante, sinners are punished according to the faults committed. From Purgatory to Paradise, there is a progression by trials and by levels, with key locations and rewards. For example, in the Purgatory, Dante received 7 times the letter P on his forehead. Then, for each upper layer he went through, an angel removed one P.
This scripted and simple action-consequence modeling corresponds to the gamification models of ludic games and serious games. Salvation is a personal and collaborative, progressive, negotiated, educational, measurable / quantifiable and autotelic process. Like [tabletop role-playing] games.
It is interesting to note a theological shift in the meaning of the Underworld. In Dante and Christian theology, the devil is an angel who refuses the alliance with God, turns away from him, betrays him, leaves him to remain alone. In D&D, Asmodeus is an angel who tricked the gods into signing a contract containing hidden clauses to his advantage. From a theology of obedience, we switch to a theology of the contract. The latter is undoubtedly a more meaningful value in the publishing industry.
Symbolism
The magical world, accessible and decryptable, also refers to many themes of urban fantasy. Sometimes a key symbolic interpretation gives access to, or helps in understanding or mastering the magical world or the real world. In a sort of Gnostic approach, some role-playing games like Nephilim or Kult have used this theme of deciphered symbolism to acquire knowledge that gives more power to the characters.
In Nephilim (French 3rd ed, 2001, Manuel des joueurs, p. 102) Dante is revealed to be a Rosicrucian, along with Paracelse, Aggripa, Descartes or Goethe. Inferno (2003), a French supplement of Kult 3rd edition quotes and takes up lightly elements of Dante. In Tenebrae (2013), Dante's Hell is touched upon briefly in the Game Universe Secrets of Playing Paladins during the 30 Years War. In Mélencholia (2020), a storyline for Mantra - Oniropunk, players must travel through the underworld to collect nine shards.
Some games offer a player-character journey close to the narrative arc of the discovery of Dante's salvation:
- the divine ascension in D&D Immortal rules.
- the awakening in Kult.
- the quest for Ascension in Mage : The Ascension (obviously!).
- the spiritual enlightenment of Agartha in Nephilim.
In cyberpunk games
In some cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic games, Dante is mentioned as a wink.
In Shadowrun, Dante’s Inferno is a huge iconic night club in Seattle, the central city of the game universe. It has 9 floors with many holograms simulating flames. We enter through the roof passing in front of Charon, the bouncer, and we go down the floors. On each floor, with filtered access, corresponds a sin. The lowest floor is called Hell.
In the World of Progress, the game world of SLA Industries, Dante is a "war world" type planet, in perpetual conflict, where the average life expectancy of a dismounted soldier is no more than a few minutes. Those who come back are mad war veterans. In the game world, there is also a huge and multi-level nightclub: The Pit :
« At the entrance (“Deth’s Door”, after the Shaktar that runs gate security for The Pit) the words “Lasieate ogin sperenga voi ch’entrate” are written, which is Killian for “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” »
SLA Industries: Mort Sourcebook (1995).
In Mage: the Ascension (1st ed.), The character on the tarot card on the cover of the game is a virtual devotee called Dante. He is an important NPC in the game. In the post-apocalyptic game Stygmata, Dante's Angels are "bikers who believe [the Europe of] Eden is a hell to rule. "
Certain events in the various matrix (a digital parallel world) of cyberpuk worlds can be compared to the Dantesque hellish journey.
Dante, a role-playing game author?
In Wraith: The Oblivion, Dante is the apocryphal (ie. fictional) author of Historia Popularis Stygiae (“A Folk History of Stygia”). This is a section of the base role-playing game describing the history of the Shadowlands (2nd Edition, pp. 59-75):
« (…) Here I cannot be silent, Readers. Hear me swear to you, as you go through this world, do not forget hope. Feed it, nourish it, conjoin with one another and encourage it, make it a powerful, lively thing. Do not forget the words of Charon, or the Lady of Fate, who have promised for us the path to eternal peace. I charge thee all, be faithful to the great goal, and there shall we all find Transcendence.A non-apocryphal (ie. true) epigraphic quote from Dante is also present on page 236:
By Charon’s Oar, »
Dante Aligheri (apocryph)
« Trasumanar significar per verba non si poria. »
- Dante, Paradiso, Canto I. 70–71
NB: trasumanar is a word invented by Dante. Translation : « Passing beyond humanity cannot be worded. »
Citations and quotations of Dante
Whether Dante's Inferno is used directly or indirectly, Dante is cited quite often in tabletop role-playing games. It is in White Wolf's World of Darkness games that we find the most direct quotations, or references in the text, or in the bibliography (and even in apocryphal texts, see above).
| Game | In bibliography |
Quoted in epigraph |
In text |
|---|---|---|---|
| Players Handbook. AD&D (1978) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Inferno (1980) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dragon Magazine no. 35 (1980) | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Dragon Magazine no. 75 (1983) |
1 | 0 | 0 |
| Abyss (1997) | |||
| The Book of Madness (1994) for Mage The Ascension 1st ed. | 1 | ||
| Wraith : The Oblivion 1st ed. (1994) |
1 | 1 | |
| Wraith : Player’s guide (1995) |
0 | 1 | |
| Wraith : The Oblivion 2nd ed. (1996) |
0 | 1 | p. 59-75 |
| Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade (1998) |
0 | 2.5 | |
| Nephilim, Manuel des joueurs (3rd ed. fr 2001) |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Inferno, pour Kult 3rd ed. fr (2003) | 0 |
0 |
p. 6-11 |
| Casus Belli magazine (3rd ed. no.3) |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| Tenebrae (2013) |
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| Mélencholia (2020) |
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| Inferno: Dante’s Guide to Hell (2021) |
Without these explicit citation links, it is reasonable to think that The Divine Comedy indirectly or directly influenced many tabletop role-playing games. The aesthetic motifs of Inferno, the progression of the quest, and the orderly organization of the planes would be the main manifestations of this influence.
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Written with the help of Le Guide du Rôliste Galactique, Wikipédia, DragonDex (index of Dragon Magazine) and RPGGeek. Walkthrough the Commedia (en, fr, it).
Thanks for sharing in the comments your references or toughts on Dante in TTRPGs!
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