Religion: idea? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Religion: idea? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
EffigyOfFaith
03-08-07, 03:54 PM I need help think about how to include religion into my world. I want to come up with something other than the typical pantheon. Maybe a set of three or four Gods and that's it. The problem is I'm not sure what to base it off of. I like George RR Martin's 7 gods. Elemental gods are too played, and gods based off the alignments are far to mechanical for me.

To my question I'd like ideas/suggestions for a theme for a small set deities.

Thanks in advance

Effigy
Darth Syntax
03-08-07, 04:18 PM Well, there are always celestial gods.

The Sun God: having positive and negative aspects (provider of life/he who burns the people)

The Moon God: the provider of light in dark places, the master of tides, the bringer of storms, the marker of time

--

Also, gods could be based off of natural phenomena such as weather and geographic features.

Really, it depends on how you want your world to work. So the more information you provide, the more ideas we all might be able to come up with.
Octavian_5
03-08-07, 04:21 PM "Religion is the opiate of the people." -Karl Marx.

And idea for religion: a crazy cult is oppressing a town and ruling due to them having instilled worship of some "New God."

You could use The Great Porcelian God. :D
Class_A_Infidel
03-08-07, 04:28 PM "Religion is the opiate of the people." -Karl Marx.

And idea for religion: a crazy cult is oppressing a town and ruling due to them having instilled worship of some "New God."

You could use The Great Porcelian God. :D

Actually, he said "Religion is the opium of the people". The "opiate" version is a misquotation.

Anyway, I've made my own pantheon. It's somewhat Greyhawk-esque, but it's my own deities. I've always encouraged people to use that.
Yakman
03-08-07, 04:41 PM Use Clive Barker's Imajica.

Goddess cults who revere nature and people and stuff, and have always been worshipped, and generally get along

v.

One God, who is up and coming and ready to stomp across the whole world, bending reality to his image
taradusis
03-08-07, 06:34 PM Perhaps just a racial deity for each race?
bartleby42
03-08-07, 11:09 PM I'm a big pantheon fan. I find the easiest way to determine the gods of the world is to come up with a story, or think of a popular one and make all the charecters gods and work from there. It helps if your willing to paint charecters into corners, if nothing else to accomdate the D&D alingment system.

As an absurd example, let's make the Muppet show pantheon

Kermit- CG- A clear "lead", doesn't get a Lawful due to his constant doging of Ms. Piggy and clearly evading the question of marrige. He gets a good due to his want to help others and make people happy.
Due to his diminutive state is probally reviered by wizards, so lets make him a wizard.

Portfolio- Lets go with Frogs, Songs, Entertainment, lonelyness (not easy being green!), happiness, Wizards and wanderlust
Domains - Animals, Travel, Magic ect...

Ms. Piggy - LE- Dominering to sat the least. Clearly a tyrant and pines for Kermit. Has a set behavior and is very self centered.

Portfolio - Warriors (Vikings!), Love, Order and Food
Domains - War, Law ect....

Gonzo - CN - The enigma, not much to work with in the way of rules with this big nosed freak, so just use him to fill holes you find, he will be the first of many catch-alls you will find. This charecter just gives you a personality and connection to the rest of the pantheon, not any rule info.

Portfolio - Chickens

Fozzy - LG - "Waka-Waka-Waka Fozzy bear's gunna talka!" Fozzy likes things nice and orderly, he will even explain a punchline to a joke he has yet to tell in order for you to know when to laugh. Though many might consider him to chaotic, but in fact when it comes to work he is dismayed if anything goes agaisnt plan.

Portfolio - Order, Bards, Pie and language

~~~~~~~~~~

Well that'll get you started on the Muppets campain setting! Wait that's not what the OP was about!

But if you follow from the basic idea above you can create a pantheon that is of unique flavor, places domains with other those you commonly wouldn't consider being together, and sometimes has a LE pig betrothed to a CG frog.

Hope I helped instead of wasting everyones time.
Bartimaeus
03-08-07, 11:36 PM You could use something like Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea. From what I remember there are only two or three religions. The oldest worship something like demons, but not as evil, just cruel and uncaring. And the newest worship their God-King which is really just giving the ruling kings/emporers whatever in your world, a big ego and temples.
Darth Syntax
03-09-07, 12:16 AM Muppet gods! I would join that religion.

Although I am of the Order of the Neutral Good Kermit, and believe Gonzo to have power over both absurdity and eloquence. For is it not shown in the sacred programme, that the Great Gonzo did once recite the works of Percy Bysshe Shelly whilst being fired from a cannon?

--

Dualism is always a good starting point for a religion.

Another thought might be to have distant and unknowable gods. Gods who maintain the order and harmony of the cosmos, but who interact only in the smallest ways with mortals. Like the Chaldean Astral Religion.
bartleby42
03-09-07, 12:35 AM You know Darth, I started with Kermit being NG but decided to go with CG just to have a futher schizim between him and Piggy. Good picks for Gonzo btw.

Other good sources for non-typical pantheons are norse and egyptian mythology they are wonderfully non-typical in thier diety placement.

I suppose it comes down to what exactly your looking for. If it is just a departure from the typical look up Athas or even the Birthright setting online and use thier dieties. If your looking for something completely new I would go with my prior suggestion and make one based on a story/show (and don't forget to change names!).
Darth Syntax
03-09-07, 12:55 AM I agree with bartleby about having a theme for a particular religion and letting that inform how it takes shape.

If you want to go in a non-traditional direction it might be a good idea to shuffle around the 'standard' portfolios, provided that the results are internally and thematically consistent.
Octavian_5
03-09-07, 07:07 AM I'm telling you guys: The Great Porcelian God. You can make Dieties out of anything in your home. Some examples:

Son-nei, God of Next-Gen Gaming
Spon, God of Silverware
Dra-ware, God of Protection of Pants
Medi-bottel, God of Funny Feelings.
taradusis
03-11-07, 12:15 PM Perhaps a civic deity system?One patron deity per city-state with others being discouraged.The players only encounter new deities if they travel,make the deities as you need them?
77IM
03-11-07, 11:59 PM I often think too much emphasis is put on gods/pantheons and not enough is placed on religious systems as a whole. Here are some ideas in that vein:

- One of the world's major religions has NO gods. Instead they worship an abstract concept, and to put a face on it, they venerate prophets from antiquity. The abstract concept is something vague and open to interpretation (like "The Light" or "The Duality").

- All of the world's religions worship the same pantheon, but the members of the pantheon are secondary to the dogma and the manner in which they are worshipped, which vary from religion to religion. (I've done this in my campaign setting.)

- There used to be an overriding monotheistic religion, but it is being supplanted by an agressive polytheistic religion (a reversal of a classic trend).

- Rather than representing physical aspects of nature, you could have the gods of your pantheon represent ideals of human characteristics, e.g. a god of courage, of love, of wisdom, of discipline, of honesty, etc. People pray to receive those characteristics, rather than praying for external miracles.

- You could also feature a pantheon with a zillion gods, like so many that it's not really worth cataloguing them. Clerics worship the pantheon as a whole.

- If you want just a few gods, try having the two or three represent opposing forces. Law vs chaos is overdone and good vs evil makes the choices too obvious. You might try something like mind vs body vs spirit, or nature vs magic vs technology, or yin vs yang, or something like that.

You can combine the above ideas in interesting ways, too. Religious conflict can be fun (in a fantasy world) and it doesn't need to be god vs god, it can be one religious system vs a totally different system.

-- 77IM
GoriceXII
03-12-07, 12:32 AM I think the last post is kind of hitting the nail on the head. The real question is how do you want this religion to effect your campaign? In mine for instance I have basically one religion which is somewhat like the one mentioned first in Martin's series (which I liked as well) that is slowly supplanting some more traditional ones in some areas. I also have druidism (which properly doesn't really worship gods so much as principles and respects ancient beings of wisdom in my game) and the worship of deities that are reputed to have founded cities and tribes. So in a way this is part of the basis for some degree of cultural conflict in my game. What do you think would be interesting for yours?
TheLastEvilDrow
03-12-07, 01:28 AM Perhaps you could base the pantheon off of a nuclear family? Father, Mother, Daughter, Son.

The brother and sister are particularly active, chaotic dieties, while the parents are the lawful ones; they could represent cardinal directions, the extreme alignments (LG, CG, LE, CE), and certain aspects of the culture. Like the Brother diety is all about fighting against the norms of society, total freedom and individuality, while the father diety is all about following the rules even if they are bad for you, because what's good for the group may not be good for the individual. And so forth.

Just an idea, for a different sort of pantheon structure.

Good luck!
Darth Syntax
03-12-07, 02:39 AM The point about there being perhaps too much emphais on gods and not enough emphasis on religion is well made. The conflicts between the faithful, whether between various sects, heresies, or different religions, often prove to be far more interesting than conflicts between deities.

Now, in order to make such conflicts viable, it might be advisable to make the gods distant, perhaps even contradictory, entities so as to maximize the number of possible religious traditions.
Johnathan_Vagabond
03-12-07, 02:44 AM In Garic's City they have a really interesting pantheon set up, with three gods, One being good, one being neutral, and one being evil. And each god has three aspects, of lawful, neutral, and chaotic. Most people recognize that they are the same three gods (save for unschooled peoples), but that those gods have enough give and leeway that their actions can range from very lawful to very chaotic, kind of like people can. So that might work out for you.
EffigyOfFaith
03-12-07, 09:24 AM Thanks All,
especailly 77IM, TheLastEvilDrow and bartleby42, really good ideas.

I decided to give different cultures in my world different religions.

The predominate religion will worship and mass of inumeral deities. Each deity will be the patron of a small geographic feature, a specific location or maybe a family, or abstract concept. Thus there will be few established churches, thousands of shrines and each deity may have no more than one or two clerics, though certainly this will have exceptions.

Another culture will worship a dulistic deity. Not sure of details yet.

A third culture will practice ancestor worship. I really like this idea, and I have vague images of a special class of PrC related to this concept.

Finally I will have an aggressive expansionalist culture that will have a system based on, as TheLastEvilDrow suggested, the nuclear family, with some twist (not sure yet).

thanks again
bartleby42
03-12-07, 04:02 PM Okay now for some notes on mechanics.

You have a pretty good structure but if you require a diety for your Clerics you can run into some issues with this.

You can disregard all of my post if you don't require a diety for your Clerics/druids/divine casters and don't mind PCs "cherry picking" domains but if that is a concern for you here we go:

The predominate religion will worship and mass of inumeral deities. Each deity will be the patron of a small geographic feature, a specific location or maybe a family, or abstract concept. Thus there will be few established churches, thousands of shrines and each deity may have no more than one or two clerics, though certainly this will have exceptions.

Neat idea, and you have a couple of routes with this, eighter all religion is local and the faith has no main power structure or the majority of the faith worships the pantheon.

If you go with the former (all local gods, no main power source) condsider having the gods phisicaly be on the plane with the PCs, make them all Demigods and relitivly weak (weak enough that you can have some moderately badass PCs/NPCs have the title Godslayer). This can be justified with the fact that they only have a handful of followers and therefore aren't as potent as more popular dietites. What this will do to clerics that wander far away from the diety is a good question that will have to be answered at some point. When it comes to domains I would suggest coming up with a few "template" dietites such as the city god, the forest god the mountain god ect. Have a list of maybe 5 domains for each and let PCs who worship a local god pick a template and pick domains for the god. This way it isn't quite a free for all, and there is a bit of structure.

You won't have to worry about a pantheon worship system just come up with a list of domains and let the PCs get to work coming up with god names when they pray.

Another culture will worship a dulistic deity. Not sure of details yet.

Please avoid the standard dualisms (good vs. evil, law vs. chaos, hot vs. cold) go with something new and fresh. Otherwise your dualistic dietites look like a version of the odd couple. How about The Wild and The Urbane? A clash of nature against progress and cities, druids against rogues, rangers against palidins and socerors against wizards. It has many elements of law and chaos, but it is very, very unclear as to who is good and who is bad, (sure palidins are all good, but rogues tend to be a problem). Be sure to emphisis the underside of city aspect of the Urbane makeing s/he coniving enough to no longer be an obvious LG/LN diety, and conversely the planning and patience of the Wild. Heck with this you can have a duality with both gods being true neutral.

A third culture will practice ancestor worship. I really like this idea, and I have vague images of a special class of PrC related to this concept.

Just keep in mind domains and any restrictions you might want on them. It is possible that in the hands of your players your two different systems will look the same due the fact that they all take the same domains....

Finally I will have an aggressive expansionalist culture that will have a system based on, as TheLastEvilDrow suggested, the nuclear family, with some twist (not sure yet).

Though it might sound silly, and it is funny when you do things literaly, but for a twist of some sort think of a sitcom or a movie you enjoyed. Writers are paid to come up with interesting charecters that play off of one and another, why not use thier hard work.

Good luck and let us know how this turns out.
Angel Black
03-18-07, 07:12 PM Check out The Gods of Arr-Kelaan:

http://home.paonline.com/zaikoski/ak/INDEX.HTM

There is a Elemental Court ("intelligent expressions of pure elemental force" that care about "life" but can't understand them) that uses "gods" as a way to administrate divine power. It seems a good beginning to have 1 or 1000 gods.

Let's Say that the Elemental Court (or another Great Powerful Beings on your world) thinks is a great idea to allow people have gods in order to help them better, by the way remember Court is Kind of Neutral so they don't think Evil is Bad and Good is better, in fact those are things they don't fully understand, so they pick up some beings and turn them into gods:

Paladin God
God of Defense, Holyness and Might for Fighters and Good do-ers.
Data: Half Elf high level Fighter/Cleric.

Whispering God
God of Deceiving,Art and Swiftness, for Rogues, Bards, and some other sneaky classes.
Data: Gnome Rogue.

Knowledge God
God of Arcane Power and all the Misterious Things.Wizards usually call him: The Source.
Data: high level Loremaster.

Nature God
God that Defends all the natural things.A god for Druids , Rangers, and Barbarians.
Data: Elf Cleric/Ranger (Plant...)

And:

The Forbidden
Is the God of Death, the secret god of evil doers.Some say he is a guy from a previous pantheon erased for the Elemental Court, but he is somehow back to "life"
Data: ?????? some say he is an undead necromancer, others say he is ....
Gnomemaster
03-22-07, 04:39 AM what I find interesting is that we tend to look to the sun god and the moon god. Hawaiins did not in fact worship either of those things. Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes, there was also a goddess of the snow tipped mountains, and various guardian-demi-gods who represented abstract aspects of life (like good luck and war)
Angel Black
03-22-07, 11:43 AM ...I want to come up with something other than the typical pantheon. Maybe a set of three or four Gods and that's it...

Effigy

Idea #2 :

The Tryad:

Justus , the enbodiment of all the Goodness.A strong Paladin/Cleric.A strong god

Paxis, the enbodiment of the Neutral.A Bard/Druid/Rogue.A beautiful goddess.

Umbra, the enbodiment of all the Evilness.A god-like Wizard.A thin god.

Idea #3:

Good :
George,the Holy Warrior - Paladin of Nature(Paladin/Ranger)
Sara, the Sacred Defender - Divine Power (Cleric)

Evil:
Menelao, the Mighty Destroyer - Chaotic Warrior ( Fighter/Bard )
Hellen, the Killer of Faith - Arcane Defender (Wizard/Rogue)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
EffigyOfFaith 03-08-07, 03:54 PM	I need help think about how to include religion into my world. I want to come up with something other than the typical pantheon. Maybe a set of three or four Gods and that's it. The problem is I'm not sure what to base it off of. I like George RR Martin's 7 gods. Elemental gods are too played, and gods based off the alignments are far to mechanical for me. To my question I'd like ideas/suggestions for a theme for a small set deities. Thanks in advance Effigy
Darth Syntax 03-08-07, 04:18 PM	Well, there are always celestial gods. The Sun God: having positive and negative aspects (provider of life/he who burns the people) The Moon God: the provider of light in dark places, the master of tides, the bringer of storms, the marker of time -- Also, gods could be based off of natural phenomena such as weather and geographic features. Really, it depends on how you want your world to work. So the more information you provide, the more ideas we all might be able to come up with.
Octavian_5 03-08-07, 04:21 PM	"Religion is the opiate of the people." -Karl Marx. And idea for religion: a crazy cult is oppressing a town and ruling due to them having instilled worship of some "New God." You could use The Great Porcelian God. :D
Class_A_Infidel 03-08-07, 04:28 PM	"Religion is the opiate of the people." -Karl Marx. And idea for religion: a crazy cult is oppressing a town and ruling due to them having instilled worship of some "New God." You could use The Great Porcelian God. :D Actually, he said "Religion is the opium of the people". The "opiate" version is a misquotation. Anyway, I've made my own pantheon. It's somewhat Greyhawk-esque, but it's my own deities. I've always encouraged people to use that.
Yakman 03-08-07, 04:41 PM	Use Clive Barker's Imajica. Goddess cults who revere nature and people and stuff, and have always been worshipped, and generally get along v. One God, who is up and coming and ready to stomp across the whole world, bending reality to his image
taradusis 03-08-07, 06:34 PM	Perhaps just a racial deity for each race?
bartleby42 03-08-07, 11:09 PM	I'm a big pantheon fan. I find the easiest way to determine the gods of the world is to come up with a story, or think of a popular one and make all the charecters gods and work from there. It helps if your willing to paint charecters into corners, if nothing else to accomdate the D&D alingment system. As an absurd example, let's make the Muppet show pantheon Kermit- CG- A clear "lead", doesn't get a Lawful due to his constant doging of Ms. Piggy and clearly evading the question of marrige. He gets a good due to his want to help others and make people happy. Due to his diminutive state is probally reviered by wizards, so lets make him a wizard. Portfolio- Lets go with Frogs, Songs, Entertainment, lonelyness (not easy being green!), happiness, Wizards and wanderlust Domains - Animals, Travel, Magic ect... Ms. Piggy - LE- Dominering to sat the least. Clearly a tyrant and pines for Kermit. Has a set behavior and is very self centered. Portfolio - Warriors (Vikings!), Love, Order and Food Domains - War, Law ect.... Gonzo - CN - The enigma, not much to work with in the way of rules with this big nosed freak, so just use him to fill holes you find, he will be the first of many catch-alls you will find. This charecter just gives you a personality and connection to the rest of the pantheon, not any rule info. Portfolio - Chickens Fozzy - LG - "Waka-Waka-Waka Fozzy bear's gunna talka!" Fozzy likes things nice and orderly, he will even explain a punchline to a joke he has yet to tell in order for you to know when to laugh. Though many might consider him to chaotic, but in fact when it comes to work he is dismayed if anything goes agaisnt plan. Portfolio - Order, Bards, Pie and language ~~~~~~~~~~ Well that'll get you started on the Muppets campain setting! Wait that's not what the OP was about! But if you follow from the basic idea above you can create a pantheon that is of unique flavor, places domains with other those you commonly wouldn't consider being together, and sometimes has a LE pig betrothed to a CG frog. Hope I helped instead of wasting everyones time.
Bartimaeus 03-08-07, 11:36 PM	You could use something like Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea. From what I remember there are only two or three religions. The oldest worship something like demons, but not as evil, just cruel and uncaring. And the newest worship their God-King which is really just giving the ruling kings/emporers whatever in your world, a big ego and temples.
Darth Syntax 03-09-07, 12:16 AM	Muppet gods! I would join that religion. Although I am of the Order of the Neutral Good Kermit, and believe Gonzo to have power over both absurdity and eloquence. For is it not shown in the sacred programme, that the Great Gonzo did once recite the works of Percy Bysshe Shelly whilst being fired from a cannon? -- Dualism is always a good starting point for a religion. Another thought might be to have distant and unknowable gods. Gods who maintain the order and harmony of the cosmos, but who interact only in the smallest ways with mortals. Like the Chaldean Astral Religion.
bartleby42 03-09-07, 12:35 AM	You know Darth, I started with Kermit being NG but decided to go with CG just to have a futher schizim between him and Piggy. Good picks for Gonzo btw. Other good sources for non-typical pantheons are norse and egyptian mythology they are wonderfully non-typical in thier diety placement. I suppose it comes down to what exactly your looking for. If it is just a departure from the typical look up Athas or even the Birthright setting online and use thier dieties. If your looking for something completely new I would go with my prior suggestion and make one based on a story/show (and don't forget to change names!).
Darth Syntax 03-09-07, 12:55 AM	I agree with bartleby about having a theme for a particular religion and letting that inform how it takes shape. If you want to go in a non-traditional direction it might be a good idea to shuffle around the 'standard' portfolios, provided that the results are internally and thematically consistent.
Octavian_5 03-09-07, 07:07 AM	I'm telling you guys: The Great Porcelian God. You can make Dieties out of anything in your home. Some examples: Son-nei, God of Next-Gen Gaming Spon, God of Silverware Dra-ware, God of Protection of Pants Medi-bottel, God of Funny Feelings.
taradusis 03-11-07, 12:15 PM	Perhaps a civic deity system?One patron deity per city-state with others being discouraged.The players only encounter new deities if they travel,make the deities as you need them?
77IM 03-11-07, 11:59 PM	I often think too much emphasis is put on gods/pantheons and not enough is placed on religious systems as a whole. Here are some ideas in that vein: - One of the world's major religions has NO gods. Instead they worship an abstract concept, and to put a face on it, they venerate prophets from antiquity. The abstract concept is something vague and open to interpretation (like "The Light" or "The Duality"). - All of the world's religions worship the same pantheon, but the members of the pantheon are secondary to the dogma and the manner in which they are worshipped, which vary from religion to religion. (I've done this in my campaign setting.) - There used to be an overriding monotheistic religion, but it is being supplanted by an agressive polytheistic religion (a reversal of a classic trend). - Rather than representing physical aspects of nature, you could have the gods of your pantheon represent ideals of human characteristics, e.g. a god of courage, of love, of wisdom, of discipline, of honesty, etc. People pray to receive those characteristics, rather than praying for external miracles. - You could also feature a pantheon with a zillion gods, like so many that it's not really worth cataloguing them. Clerics worship the pantheon as a whole. - If you want just a few gods, try having the two or three represent opposing forces. Law vs chaos is overdone and good vs evil makes the choices too obvious. You might try something like mind vs body vs spirit, or nature vs magic vs technology, or yin vs yang, or something like that. You can combine the above ideas in interesting ways, too. Religious conflict can be fun (in a fantasy world) and it doesn't need to be god vs god, it can be one religious system vs a totally different system. -- 77IM
GoriceXII 03-12-07, 12:32 AM	I think the last post is kind of hitting the nail on the head. The real question is how do you want this religion to effect your campaign? In mine for instance I have basically one religion which is somewhat like the one mentioned first in Martin's series (which I liked as well) that is slowly supplanting some more traditional ones in some areas. I also have druidism (which properly doesn't really worship gods so much as principles and respects ancient beings of wisdom in my game) and the worship of deities that are reputed to have founded cities and tribes. So in a way this is part of the basis for some degree of cultural conflict in my game. What do you think would be interesting for yours?
TheLastEvilDrow 03-12-07, 01:28 AM	Perhaps you could base the pantheon off of a nuclear family? Father, Mother, Daughter, Son. The brother and sister are particularly active, chaotic dieties, while the parents are the lawful ones; they could represent cardinal directions, the extreme alignments (LG, CG, LE, CE), and certain aspects of the culture. Like the Brother diety is all about fighting against the norms of society, total freedom and individuality, while the father diety is all about following the rules even if they are bad for you, because what's good for the group may not be good for the individual. And so forth. Just an idea, for a different sort of pantheon structure. Good luck!
Darth Syntax 03-12-07, 02:39 AM	The point about there being perhaps too much emphais on gods and not enough emphasis on religion is well made. The conflicts between the faithful, whether between various sects, heresies, or different religions, often prove to be far more interesting than conflicts between deities. Now, in order to make such conflicts viable, it might be advisable to make the gods distant, perhaps even contradictory, entities so as to maximize the number of possible religious traditions.
Johnathan_Vagabond 03-12-07, 02:44 AM	In Garic's City they have a really interesting pantheon set up, with three gods, One being good, one being neutral, and one being evil. And each god has three aspects, of lawful, neutral, and chaotic. Most people recognize that they are the same three gods (save for unschooled peoples), but that those gods have enough give and leeway that their actions can range from very lawful to very chaotic, kind of like people can. So that might work out for you.
EffigyOfFaith 03-12-07, 09:24 AM	Thanks All, especailly 77IM, TheLastEvilDrow and bartleby42, really good ideas. I decided to give different cultures in my world different religions. The predominate religion will worship and mass of inumeral deities. Each deity will be the patron of a small geographic feature, a specific location or maybe a family, or abstract concept. Thus there will be few established churches, thousands of shrines and each deity may have no more than one or two clerics, though certainly this will have exceptions. Another culture will worship a dulistic deity. Not sure of details yet. A third culture will practice ancestor worship. I really like this idea, and I have vague images of a special class of PrC related to this concept. Finally I will have an aggressive expansionalist culture that will have a system based on, as TheLastEvilDrow suggested, the nuclear family, with some twist (not sure yet). thanks again
bartleby42 03-12-07, 04:02 PM	Okay now for some notes on mechanics. You have a pretty good structure but if you require a diety for your Clerics you can run into some issues with this. You can disregard all of my post if you don't require a diety for your Clerics/druids/divine casters and don't mind PCs "cherry picking" domains but if that is a concern for you here we go: The predominate religion will worship and mass of inumeral deities. Each deity will be the patron of a small geographic feature, a specific location or maybe a family, or abstract concept. Thus there will be few established churches, thousands of shrines and each deity may have no more than one or two clerics, though certainly this will have exceptions. Neat idea, and you have a couple of routes with this, eighter all religion is local and the faith has no main power structure or the majority of the faith worships the pantheon. If you go with the former (all local gods, no main power source) condsider having the gods phisicaly be on the plane with the PCs, make them all Demigods and relitivly weak (weak enough that you can have some moderately badass PCs/NPCs have the title Godslayer). This can be justified with the fact that they only have a handful of followers and therefore aren't as potent as more popular dietites. What this will do to clerics that wander far away from the diety is a good question that will have to be answered at some point. When it comes to domains I would suggest coming up with a few "template" dietites such as the city god, the forest god the mountain god ect. Have a list of maybe 5 domains for each and let PCs who worship a local god pick a template and pick domains for the god. This way it isn't quite a free for all, and there is a bit of structure. You won't have to worry about a pantheon worship system just come up with a list of domains and let the PCs get to work coming up with god names when they pray. Another culture will worship a dulistic deity. Not sure of details yet. Please avoid the standard dualisms (good vs. evil, law vs. chaos, hot vs. cold) go with something new and fresh. Otherwise your dualistic dietites look like a version of the odd couple. How about The Wild and The Urbane? A clash of nature against progress and cities, druids against rogues, rangers against palidins and socerors against wizards. It has many elements of law and chaos, but it is very, very unclear as to who is good and who is bad, (sure palidins are all good, but rogues tend to be a problem). Be sure to emphisis the underside of city aspect of the Urbane makeing s/he coniving enough to no longer be an obvious LG/LN diety, and conversely the planning and patience of the Wild. Heck with this you can have a duality with both gods being true neutral. A third culture will practice ancestor worship. I really like this idea, and I have vague images of a special class of PrC related to this concept. Just keep in mind domains and any restrictions you might want on them. It is possible that in the hands of your players your two different systems will look the same due the fact that they all take the same domains.... Finally I will have an aggressive expansionalist culture that will have a system based on, as TheLastEvilDrow suggested, the nuclear family, with some twist (not sure yet). Though it might sound silly, and it is funny when you do things literaly, but for a twist of some sort think of a sitcom or a movie you enjoyed. Writers are paid to come up with interesting charecters that play off of one and another, why not use thier hard work. Good luck and let us know how this turns out.
Angel Black 03-18-07, 07:12 PM	Check out The Gods of Arr-Kelaan: http://home.paonline.com/zaikoski/ak/INDEX.HTM There is a Elemental Court ("intelligent expressions of pure elemental force" that care about "life" but can't understand them) that uses "gods" as a way to administrate divine power. It seems a good beginning to have 1 or 1000 gods. Let's Say that the Elemental Court (or another Great Powerful Beings on your world) thinks is a great idea to allow people have gods in order to help them better, by the way remember Court is Kind of Neutral so they don't think Evil is Bad and Good is better, in fact those are things they don't fully understand, so they pick up some beings and turn them into gods: Paladin God God of Defense, Holyness and Might for Fighters and Good do-ers. Data: Half Elf high level Fighter/Cleric. Whispering God God of Deceiving,Art and Swiftness, for Rogues, Bards, and some other sneaky classes. Data: Gnome Rogue. Knowledge God God of Arcane Power and all the Misterious Things.Wizards usually call him: The Source. Data: high level Loremaster. Nature God God that Defends all the natural things.A god for Druids , Rangers, and Barbarians. Data: Elf Cleric/Ranger (Plant...) And: The Forbidden Is the God of Death, the secret god of evil doers.Some say he is a guy from a previous pantheon erased for the Elemental Court, but he is somehow back to "life" Data: ?????? some say he is an undead necromancer, others say he is ....
Gnomemaster 03-22-07, 04:39 AM	what I find interesting is that we tend to look to the sun god and the moon god. Hawaiins did not in fact worship either of those things. Pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes, there was also a goddess of the snow tipped mountains, and various guardian-demi-gods who represented abstract aspects of life (like good luck and war)
Angel Black 03-22-07, 11:43 AM	...I want to come up with something other than the typical pantheon. Maybe a set of three or four Gods and that's it... Effigy Idea #2 : The Tryad: Justus , the enbodiment of all the Goodness.A strong Paladin/Cleric.A strong god Paxis, the enbodiment of the Neutral.A Bard/Druid/Rogue.A beautiful goddess. Umbra, the enbodiment of all the Evilness.A god-like Wizard.A thin god. Idea #3: Good : George,the Holy Warrior - Paladin of Nature(Paladin/Ranger) Sara, the Sacred Defender - Divine Power (Cleric) Evil: Menelao, the Mighty Destroyer - Chaotic Warrior ( Fighter/Bard ) Hellen, the Killer of Faith - Arcane Defender (Wizard/Rogue)