Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Cuindless 12-08-07, 02:11 AM	I'm currently struggling to create my own homebrew world, and to get myself going I decided to take a look at all the published campaign worlds. With the exception of Eberron, all the other published campaign worlds have the same type of religions: Loose pantheons of gods with portfolios and domains. I find this extremely odd, especially considering that the other races, who have vastly different mentalities, have basically the same religious set up. So, here's what I've started working on: Humans have a variety of religions, of which the most common are The Virtuous Orders. The Virtuous Orders are based on the Virtues from the Ultima games as well as the Stoics from ancient Rome. The Virtuous Orders are considered an urban and cosmopolitan religion, mostly followed to by the wealthy. They stress adherence to "the virtuous principles" which form the bedrock of civilized society. Rumors abound of a secret society of cultists who revere "the vices", or the antithesis of the virtues. These cults are well-known for unscrupulous activity and the worship of fiends. In rural areas, human religion typically consists of an arrangement of folk festivals and superstions which honor earth based deities and the cycles of nature. This religion is primarily based on paleo-paganism. Unlike most other campaign settings, the gods of my realm don't interact with humanity and the prime. As such, knowledge of the gods is based on folk-tales, myths, legends and the divine inspiration of priests. Next to nothing is known about the afterlife or the disposition of the souls of the dead. The religion of the elves is a combination of nature worship, animism and ancestor worship. Their priests are Druids. The elves believe in reincarnation and the spirit of all things. Great, legendary ancestors are revered as near gods, though the elven idea of worship is very different from the human worship, resembling great respect. The elves rarely beseech the spirits for anything, preferring to solve problems with skill and magic. The primary inspiration for elven religion is Shinto. The dwarves have a very structured dualist religion centered around two entities: The Maker and The Unmaker. The Maker is responsible for all creation and is the father of the dwarven people. Dwarven teachings say that The Maker taught the dwarves all craft, which the dwarves in turn taught the other races. The Unmaker, on the other hand, is responsible for the loss of knowledge and the destruction of all things. The Unmaker's rage and blood gave rise to the orcish race, the enemies of creation. The Maker and The Unmaker are engaged in an eternal war. Dwarven Structural Dualism most closely resembles Zoroastrianism. There are no gnomes in my world. The halflings of my world are more like Tolkien's hobbits instead of the kender-like halflings that seem common in 3.5. As such, they are a strangely non-religious race. What few do actually entertain religious ideas worship the same nature-based pantheon of gods that rural humans do, except they have a halfling twist. A few other religions exist in my world. The Enlightened Fraternity of the Inner Light is a young religion of zealots and crusaders who claim that the human spirit is transcendent. Their practices are very insular, and they are said to hold secret meetings in the lodges of members. The EFIL has many detractors, especially amongst the virtuous orders, though there are no crimes or specific doctrines to point to as evil. The EFIL is popular with wizards. In savage and uncivilized areas, primitive barbarians are said to worship idols and geographic features as gods and deities. What do you guys think so far? Any suggestions?
Space_Dragon 12-08-07, 02:23 AM	The only issue with this is how divine magic works (if it doesn't exist at all, the PC's will need to have another way of easy healing). I assume you are going the Eberron route, and having the source of divine energy be a mystery that is constantly being argued over. In this case, each religion will have to come up with explanations for why the clerics of other faiths are still getting spells (for example, the Virtueists might believe that anyone can use the power of the Virtues and Vices whether they know they are doing it or not, the animists might be henotheistic, the dwarves might believe that the other races worship their two gods under different names, etc). That is how I would do it, anyway.
TheAnthroDM 12-08-07, 03:24 AM	Looks good. I did something similair with my races so you're not alone: Humans: Dualism (LN diety vs CN diety) Desert Elves: Egyptian Style Pantheon Sky Elves: Magic Worship(Pantheism) Forest Elves: Sorta Druidism Drow: Monotheism resently converted from Polytheism Gold Dwarves: Secular Dwarvenists(Secular Humanists, couldn't figure that one out could you?) or finite godism Duergar and Adamantine Dwarves: Polytheism Gnomes: The Great Game(Polytheism where the world is a chessgame to the Gods) Halflings: As human. Tieflings: As human. Most popular non-race specific religion: The Nine Truths Obscure Cults: Cults of the Ancient Ones Although Gnomes, Halflings, and Humans often engaged in evanglism, so exceptions aren't so uncommon. All Elf religions actually have a point of connection.
Cuindless 12-08-07, 03:49 AM	The only issue with this is how divine magic works (if it doesn't exist at all, the PC's will need to have another way of easy healing). I assume you are going the Eberron route, and having the source of divine energy be a mystery that is constantly being argued over. In this case, each religion will have to come up with explanations for why the clerics of other faiths are still getting spells (for example, the Virtueists might believe that anyone can use the power of the Virtues and Vices whether they know they are doing it or not, the animists might be henotheistic, the dwarves might believe that the other races worship their two gods under different names, etc). That is how I would do it, anyway. That's how I was planning on doing it. The Virtuous Orders believe that sufficiently Virtuous or Vicious acts and beliefs give people divine powers. The Enlighted Fraternity of the Inner Light believes that divine magic is just another form of magic that is harnessed in a different manner. The dwarves belief that those who support The Maker can be granted powers by HIM while those who support The Unmaker can be granted powers as well. Et cetera, ad nauseum. Looks good. I did something similair with my races so you're not alone: Humans: Dualism (LN diety vs CN diety) Desert Elves: Egyptian Style Pantheon Sky Elves: Magic Worship(Pantheism) Forest Elves: Sorta Druidism Drow: Monotheism resently converted from Polytheism Gold Dwarves: Secular Dwarvenists(Secular Humanists, couldn't figure that one out could you?) or finite godism Duergar and Adamantine Dwarves: Polytheism Gnomes: The Great Game(Polytheism where the world is a chessgame to the Gods) Halflings: As human. Tieflings: As human. Most popular non-race specific religion: The Nine Truths Obscure Cults: Cults of the Ancient Ones Although Gnomes, Halflings, and Humans often engaged in evanglism, so exceptions aren't so uncommon. All Elf religions actually have a point of connection. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read "Secular Dwarvenists". I love that. I'm going to have to create a semi-atheistic dwarven culture now.
ArkhamInmate 12-08-07, 04:46 AM	I also went towards a pantheon-less world... Humans - Monotheistic Elves - Druidic in nature Dwarves - currently in the middle of a religious crisis after discovering some truths about the aboleths attacking them from under the earth, though the human faith is growing amongst them Halflings - non existent Goblins - In actuality a created race who are utterly devoted to their aboleth masters Hobgoblins - Devil worshipers engaged in a cold war with the elves Gnomes - Far to obsessed with mercantile and profit to worship any gods though some follow the creator goddess of the humans and dwarves Trolls(totally stolen from Warcraft) - race of voodoo practicing barbarians Also on my world goblins also have a different name, to differentiate them from the hobgoblins, who are called "goblins"
TheAnthroDM 12-08-07, 01:33 PM	I nearly fell out of my chair when I read "Secular Dwarvenists". I love that. I'm going to have to create a semi-atheistic dwarven culture now. Thank you, thank you. *bows* Oh, I forgot to mention, that my Orcs follows a pantheistic religion that's a mixture of buddism and hinduism and daoism. (Yes, the great spirit is called Grummish, and his favored weapon is a Katana) Yes, my Orcs are asian. I also went towards a pantheon-less world... Humans - Monotheistic Elves - Druidic in nature Dwarves - currently in the middle of a religious crisis after discovering some truths about the aboleths attacking them from under the earth, though the human faith is growing amongst them Halflings - non existent Goblins - In actuality a created race who are utterly devoted to their aboleth masters Hobgoblins - Devil worshipers engaged in a cold war with the elves Gnomes - Far to obsessed with mercantile and profit to worship any gods though some follow the creator goddess of the humans and dwarves Trolls(totally stolen from Warcraft) - race of voodoo practicing barbarians Also on my world goblins also have a different name, to differentiate them from the hobgoblins, who are called "goblins" I like. Interesting set up you have there.
CryoSilver 12-08-07, 01:40 PM	I set up the religion in my campaign world by making each domain a weak quasi-deity, with power increasing as more people worshipped it, or significant event occured that related to the domain. Each domain has an avatar (usually around DvR 0-2) that can be killed, but reforms immediately on the Astral Plane if destroyed. Ex: Fire is one of the most powerful domains, and it becomes even stronger during the summer, or when there's a large forest fire somewhere. A century of world-spanning war has greatly weakened the power of Law, and each robbery, arson or murder increases the power of Chaos.
TheAnthroDM 12-08-07, 01:44 PM	I set up the religion in my campaign world by making each domain a weak quasi-deity, with power increasing as more people worshipped it, or significant event occured that related to the domain. Each domain has an avatar (usually around DvR 0-2) that can be killed, but reforms immediately on the Astral Plane if destroyed. Ex: Fire is one of the most powerful domains, and it becomes even stronger during the summer, or when there's a large forest fire somewhere. A century of world-spanning war has greatly weakened the power of Law, and each robbery, arson or murder increases the power of Chaos.Intereting, but you almost style Chaos as a bad thing.
CryoSilver 12-08-07, 01:52 PM	Robbery, arson and murder are all chaotic. Murder just happens to be chaotic and evil at the same time. You watch the news and tell me that civil disorder likeis happening in Iraq isn't chaotic. I'm a libertarian. I'm all for freedom and small government, which is also chaotic. But chaos is a big spectrum, just like law goes from totalitarian government to following your own personal code.
Cuindless 12-08-07, 03:11 PM	I set up the religion in my campaign world by making each domain a weak quasi-deity, with power increasing as more people worshipped it, or significant event occured that related to the domain. Each domain has an avatar (usually around DvR 0-2) that can be killed, but reforms immediately on the Astral Plane if destroyed. Ex: Fire is one of the most powerful domains, and it becomes even stronger during the summer, or when there's a large forest fire somewhere. A century of world-spanning war has greatly weakened the power of Law, and each robbery, arson or murder increases the power of Chaos. I was originally going to go with a concept similar to this, i.e. that the "truth" of the divine was that it is basically mutable. The faith of sentient worshippers actually creates/destroys deities and it is actually the power of faith that creates clerical magic and positive/negative energy. The only problem I had with this was how to incorporate the use of fiends and celestials. I've finally decided that the multiverse is actually a manifestation of various different forces (elemental, ethereal, astral and negative/positive) that interact with the prime at it's center. The various outsider beings are all representations of the source of those forces. Clerics are just exceptionally wise individuals who have attuned themselves to those forces through training and faith. Also: When in doubt, I say, "It's, uh... magic."
CryoSilver 12-08-07, 03:14 PM	"Oh, oh, it's magic, ya knooooow..."
ArkhamInmate 12-09-07, 04:57 AM	\I like. Interesting set up you have there. Thanks, though the only reason it really came about is because i just was to tired to really come up with an entire pantheon one night and just decided that the humans will be a monotheistic race to stop a headache, though if you'd like any more information on how any of the races work, just let me know
Neutronium_Dragon 12-10-07, 09:36 PM	One other difference which Eberron presents but which seems to be missing in most of the posts here: It doesn't delineate religion by race, or at least not in most cases. There isn't a "dwarf religion" and a "human religion" - both races include followers of a variety of religions, as do most of the other races. There are a few religions which have a stronger racial association, but even they don't claim all members of a given race, and may well integrate other religions into their own. Kalashtar typically follow the Path of Light owing to their supernatural natures, but not all do, and even the ones who do may meld it with another religion such as the Silver Flame, seeing one as an aspect or force of the other. To me, that's a much more interesting setup than every race having its own clear-cut religious sandbox.
meigin 12-11-07, 12:37 AM	i like what you're doing it's great to break away from the standard and create the thinking man / womans game. Originally i started with the pantheon standard model and then toyed around until formulating something similar to what you're ascribing. Though, the concept of the shinto / elven veneration system didn't occur to me, i might borrow that idea if you don't mind.