Aboleth-revering religion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Aboleth-revering religion [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
JulesCARV
01-21-08, 06:44 PM In my setting, aboleths once ruled the world (mainly as a testing sight for various magic experiments, doing things like creating new hybrids, etc). Their humanoid vassal states generally had a state religion which revered the aboleths, not really as deities, but as sovereign masters of a sort of conservative, corporatist, feudal hierarchy. (A human king derives his legitimacy from and obeys the aboleths, a lord obeys the king, commoners attached to the manor obey their lord, everyone has his place in the organic whole of society, etc, etc.) The aboleths didn't really care about ruling, and mainly left people to their own affaris but just found it easier to conduct their research if they had states which sent them some of their criminals, vagrants, etc to the aboleths as research subjects for their freaky magical experiments.

By the point of the campaign, it's been about 750 years since the aboleths left the world, due to the increasing strains on their rule. By this point, most of the vassal kingdoms that existed during the aboleth era have fallen to war, rebellion, or the like. However, a few of them still survive, and still follow the aboleth-revering religion, even though the aboleths have left.

I'm pretty sure I know what the religion's tenets are. It's actually a pretty dull religion: be content with your lot, preserve the social order, know your place in the Great Chain of Being, obey your lord, etc. It's not a religion the aboleths themselves followed; it was mainly a tool to keep the world quiescent and orderly to make their research easier. It's taken on a life of its own after they left, though.

I'm just wondering about domains and similar stuff:

Alignment: LN or LE?

Domains: Community, Evil?, Law, Water, Nobility?

Favored Weapon: Trident?

Symbol: An octagonal arrangement of lines, three lines deep, some bisected (known as a "aboleth's clock"), with a pair of horizontal chevrons on each side.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2243/2210671040_c3e5f80f86.jpg
Taeldrin Laesrash
01-22-08, 12:58 AM If the message is simply obedience and conformity, I see no problem with it being LN. A very harsh LN, but not bordering into LE. Unless the social order thing plays deeply into the creed, I wouldn't suggest Nobility. Community doesn't seem to work either, as it's less of a sharing and caring thing than people lined up in pretty rows.
JulesCARV
01-22-08, 03:02 AM The creed itself isn't clearly evil, but aboleths it reveres are, hence my uncertainty about whether the religion should be or not.

So what domains? Just law and water? I feel like that's a bit thin.

As for community, I see your point. Although, as a point of clarification, I should note that neither the aboleths nor their vassals really ruled in a totalitarian manner; it was a feudal and manorial system in which the people in different parts of the hierarchy had rights, specific privileges and reciprocal duties to each other, but aren't easily bossed around except in the specific manner that their ancestors had been bossed around for the past few centuries. The aboleths themselves were too indifferent to the details of governance to try to create a centralized, absolutist system of rule, but didn't want their vassal-kings to be too powerful, lest they become a threat, so they put pressure on their vassals not to centralize authority, and in so doing nudged the world's society toward a system in which tradition was extremely powerful and authority rather decentralized, so that some king who has some idea of hunting the aboleths out of the ocean and taking over the world for himself will face the problem of his vassals refusing on the grounds that it's a loony idea that will get them all killed. It was a very conformist society, but more about obeying tradition than about obeying your specific superiors in the hierarchy.

Hm... maybe the Protection domain? It doesn't really seem quite right, but it doesn't seem egregiously wrong either.
zacnn
01-22-08, 08:48 PM prehaps domination?
Danahan
01-25-08, 10:31 AM I find this thread very interesting, because I've been contemplating a very similar religion as part of my Cthulhuesque pantheon. Tarrasque is another monster that I essentially made into a god. Since I eliminated alignment from my horror setting, for Aboleth I’ve been contemplating the following domains:

Knowledge (because they are born with their parents’ knowledge, and they can assimilate memories from other creatures)
Illusion (because they use lots of illusions)
Tyranny (because they enslave people)
Water (pretty self-explanatory)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
JulesCARV 01-21-08, 06:44 PM	In my setting, aboleths once ruled the world (mainly as a testing sight for various magic experiments, doing things like creating new hybrids, etc). Their humanoid vassal states generally had a state religion which revered the aboleths, not really as deities, but as sovereign masters of a sort of conservative, corporatist, feudal hierarchy. (A human king derives his legitimacy from and obeys the aboleths, a lord obeys the king, commoners attached to the manor obey their lord, everyone has his place in the organic whole of society, etc, etc.) The aboleths didn't really care about ruling, and mainly left people to their own affaris but just found it easier to conduct their research if they had states which sent them some of their criminals, vagrants, etc to the aboleths as research subjects for their freaky magical experiments. By the point of the campaign, it's been about 750 years since the aboleths left the world, due to the increasing strains on their rule. By this point, most of the vassal kingdoms that existed during the aboleth era have fallen to war, rebellion, or the like. However, a few of them still survive, and still follow the aboleth-revering religion, even though the aboleths have left. I'm pretty sure I know what the religion's tenets are. It's actually a pretty dull religion: be content with your lot, preserve the social order, know your place in the Great Chain of Being, obey your lord, etc. It's not a religion the aboleths themselves followed; it was mainly a tool to keep the world quiescent and orderly to make their research easier. It's taken on a life of its own after they left, though. I'm just wondering about domains and similar stuff: Alignment: LN or LE? Domains: Community, Evil?, Law, Water, Nobility? Favored Weapon: Trident? Symbol: An octagonal arrangement of lines, three lines deep, some bisected (known as a "aboleth's clock"), with a pair of horizontal chevrons on each side. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2243/2210671040_c3e5f80f86.jpg
Taeldrin Laesrash 01-22-08, 12:58 AM	If the message is simply obedience and conformity, I see no problem with it being LN. A very harsh LN, but not bordering into LE. Unless the social order thing plays deeply into the creed, I wouldn't suggest Nobility. Community doesn't seem to work either, as it's less of a sharing and caring thing than people lined up in pretty rows.
JulesCARV 01-22-08, 03:02 AM	The creed itself isn't clearly evil, but aboleths it reveres are, hence my uncertainty about whether the religion should be or not. So what domains? Just law and water? I feel like that's a bit thin. As for community, I see your point. Although, as a point of clarification, I should note that neither the aboleths nor their vassals really ruled in a totalitarian manner; it was a feudal and manorial system in which the people in different parts of the hierarchy had rights, specific privileges and reciprocal duties to each other, but aren't easily bossed around except in the specific manner that their ancestors had been bossed around for the past few centuries. The aboleths themselves were too indifferent to the details of governance to try to create a centralized, absolutist system of rule, but didn't want their vassal-kings to be too powerful, lest they become a threat, so they put pressure on their vassals not to centralize authority, and in so doing nudged the world's society toward a system in which tradition was extremely powerful and authority rather decentralized, so that some king who has some idea of hunting the aboleths out of the ocean and taking over the world for himself will face the problem of his vassals refusing on the grounds that it's a loony idea that will get them all killed. It was a very conformist society, but more about obeying tradition than about obeying your specific superiors in the hierarchy. Hm... maybe the Protection domain? It doesn't really seem quite right, but it doesn't seem egregiously wrong either.
zacnn 01-22-08, 08:48 PM	prehaps domination?
Danahan 01-25-08, 10:31 AM	I find this thread very interesting, because I've been contemplating a very similar religion as part of my Cthulhuesque pantheon. Tarrasque is another monster that I essentially made into a god. Since I eliminated alignment from my horror setting, for Aboleth I’ve been contemplating the following domains: Knowledge (because they are born with their parents’ knowledge, and they can assimilate memories from other creatures) Illusion (because they use lots of illusions) Tyranny (because they enslave people) Water (pretty self-explanatory)