I'm working on my homebrew and I just can't seem to gather my mental energies to create a few major world religions. I want to have a half dozen-ish real world type religions, rather than just a bunch of various deities. I'd like to have a broad spectrum of faiths, from animistic to monotheistic. The only similarity that they all need to have is the ability to be molded by their worshippers; no solid rules, only "guidelines" that can be interpreted differently by different people (a trait that all successful religions share). What do you think would be cool?
I'm working on my homebrew and I just can't seem to gather my mental energies to create a few major world religions. I want to have a half dozen-ish real world type religions, rather than just a bunch of various deities. I'd like to have a broad spectrum of faiths, from animistic to monotheistic. The only similarity that they all need to have is the ability to be molded by their worshippers; no solid rules, only "guidelines" that can be interpreted differently by different people (a trait that all successful religions share). What do you think would be cool?
For some good ideas, try some of David Eddings' work like the Belgariad and the Elenium... both really good series IMO
I think Eddings' books' religion still fall under that "bunch of gods" even if he does take steps to the right direction...however, all the gods are still closely tied to each other.
Another world which is sort of getting it is Glorantha (of RuneQuest), with several pantheons which all coexist but many of them just happily ignore each other and there is no clear good guys-bad guys division, except that we are the good guys and those who oppose us are the bad guys.
In the world I was creating there was a definite pantheon where different gods had varying popularity in various places, but there were also couple of sects who basically were not connected at all. One worshipped great cycle of birth-life-death and while it sort of acknowledged existence of other gods it paid no attention to them (bit like buddhism).
Other one was localized to one area and worshipped Dragon who was actual physical being in the world, not antropomorphized concept like most others. So this god of their own did have much stronger influence in everyday life even if technically it was not equal to other gods...this sect also sort of acknowledged existence of other gods but they weren't important.
To clear out a bit, there was exactly this one dragon in the whole world (though there has been rumours of others, somewhere...) and it definitely was not anything out of MM.
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Ah yes, religion. I love making up pantheons, do it all the time. I've got several in a folder on my computer. I always do at least two or more major pantheons per world, and try to make each one a little different from the other. I model some religions on real world ones - like an Egyptian or Persian style pantheon in a desert region, or a sea-faring culture with a greek style pantheon. I've been toying with a pantheon based on the titan Prometheus.
I also like to use the demon princes and archdevils from the Book of Vile Darkness/ Fiendish Codex(es) as cults throughout various lands.
For arch devil cults, you could have one or two and they interact with the rest of the pantheon. Levistus is one of my favorites, because I think he makes a good patron of rogue-type characters, especially maybe pirates. I also like Asmodeus, whose worshippers make great tyrants.
For demon cults, I usually like to put them in oppostion to an entire family of gods whom I have as strongly lawful or neutral aligned (but either good or evil). This would be similar to the Norse pantheon - even though the other new that Loki was evil, it took something really bad (Baldur's murder) before they really decided to punish him. Orcus is always a good demon, because he is so close to being a god and has the whole undead portfolio going for him. I've also taken a liking to Obox-ob - I think he'd make a great cult of vermin/disease. The great thing about demon cults though, is that you can just make up any you want, since there are so many layers of the Abysss that have nothing written about them.
Religions in Eld will be similar in interaction with each other to religions of the ancient world. The majority of folks believe that their religion is tied to their homeland in some way, so that travellers are usually happy to pay homage to the gods of the lands they visit even if they also keep up prayer to their home faith. "Thou shalt have no other god than me" is a sure-fire way to loose friends and support in most circles.
There will be cults of course who break these generalities; fiends of all sorts will attract small followings of mortals. There will be cults created by strong leaders with psychotic tendancies.
I do like the idea of having a dragon centered religion, as I've always felt that dragons should be at least a little more important than a tough fight for the PCs.
The problem I find with making religions is that every religion in a D&D world can offer positive proof of the existence of it's deity, so like you said, it doesn't make much sense to say all other gods are worthless as most real-world religions do.
To get over this and create conflict I like to give my D&D religions flavour by making them opposed/sympathetic to certain mortal things rather than other gods. For example, I usually make a religion where none of the faithful are arcane casters and the religion is full of "witch hunters" who think any magic save divine magic should be banned. Or a religion where the clerics are sworn to heal anyone who asks. This can easily create great plot tension, as well as giving automatic background for the world; clerics of this deity are likely to be much beloved, and it will probably be a great crime to harm them in nearly every society.
Just a quick 2.5c (that's 2c US for you guys)
True, you can't say they're worthless. What you can say is that they're morally bankrupt, unlike the one true way of __________ the holy, and any power gained from them is a profane blasphemy in the name of the true powers of righteousness.
Plus there are many lesser gods whose power has yet to be witnessed by most. Who's to say if they're necessarily real? I could see one cleric from a D&D show me state suggesting to his flock that Flarglenargle, the god of dyslexic gnosem, didn't exist if he'd never witnessed a granted power exercised in his name.
Cleric: "All behold the power of the Aedar!"
Peasant: "No, we worship the Bodrahm here. I don't believe the Aedar exist."
Cleric: "Then I shall demonstrate their power to you." (Casts a divine spell)
Peasant: "So, what? You made some flashy lights. I've seen a wizard do that, too, and he didn't claim any god was granting him the power."
Cleric: "But I can heal you."
Peasant: "So?"
Cleric: "Wizards can't do that."
Peasant: "Says you! Get out of here, you charlatan!"
Who says that just because the gods are real that some people can't choose to deny their existence?
That example given, I do tend to keep in mind that the gods are real, and whether people acknowledge it or not, they have an effect on the world. Most people are satisfied with this level of proof and accept them. But, it doesn't have to be that way, even if you leave the gods as being "real."
True, you can't say they're worthless. What you can say is that they're morally bankrupt, unlike the one true way of __________ the holy, and any power gained from them is a profane blasphemy in the name of the true powers of righteousness.
I thought it was spelled ___________ the holy, not __________ the holy?
A great one would be ancestor worship. I do something like that with my dwarves, but it could work with just about any race. It adds some great flavor for a culture too.
You could take several different ones and blend them with some fantasy too. Say... People of the Book? Their god gave them a sacred book (god of wisdom? magic?) and only through study can they please their patron diety.
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I thought I'd share this, it's an example of a homebrew creation myth I wrote up, based on Russian/Slavic mythology:
The Dawn of Time
In the beginning, there was nothing but ice. The ice cracked open, and from it emerged Matka, Mistress of the Earth. She was greeted by the Three Sisters, Ord, Dersis, and Aulda, who govern fate and whose origins no man or god may know. Matka was thirsty, and she asked the fates if they had anything to drink. The sisters said no, but suggested that she melt some ice. Matka followed their advice, and when the ice melted she found two brothers: Arbog and Nzerbog. Arbog was young and strong, while Nzerbog was sickly and withered with age.
Matka asked Arbog, whom she though handsome, if he could find a way to warm her. Arbog went to Nzerbog, and borrowed one of his eyes. He took the eye and kindled a flame upon it, then placed it in the sky, so that its light and heat shone forth.
Matka was pleased by the light, but thought it a bit too much, and told Arbog so. In response, he once again went to Nzerbog, but this time asked him for a tooth. Arbog threw the tooth in the air and blew a great wind at it, which froze it. The frozen tooth hung in the air, helping to reduce the heat from the burning eye.
The Birth of the Tribes
Matka was pleased with all of Arbog’s efforts and allowed the handsome god to court her. In time they married and had children. Four times Matka was with child, and each time she gave birth to a son and a daughter. In the spring she gave birth to Varun and Trinya. During the heat of summer she gave birth to Beles and Karinca. When the leaves fell, she gave birth to Domov and Ladya. Finally, as the snows began, she gave birth to Chezk and Zanica. Each of these pair went on to have children of their own, and thus the four great tribes were founded.
That example given, I do tend to keep in mind that the gods are real, and whether people acknowledge it or not, they have an effect on the world. Most people are satisfied with this level of proof and accept them. But, it doesn't have to be that way, even if you leave the gods as being "real."
I do agree, even while gods were real it might be that their worshippers are misguided people who worship demons, or gods subservient to Our God, or their own ancestral spirist who do nothing for Us...all these have been done in real-world religions.
Or different religions might have very different interpretations about mystical events, their significance and their gods' part in them...Glorantha has some interesting examples on this subject (that old RQ book describing cults of Glorantha is one of my favorite RPG supplements of all time, recommended reading if you ever come across to it).And about the Dragon cult I mentioned above, the irony is that Dragon really isn't a god, the clerics of the sect get their divine powers from concept of Dragon and not Dragon itself (after all, worshipping abstract concepts can give divine powers in D&D...). Dragon of course is aware of the fact but nobody else is, and it knows that were this information become known, it would lead to crisis of faith, crumbling of society and destruction of "its people" over whom it feels responsibility (for the record, Dragon is Lawful Neutral with some Good tendencies...). Thus it reluctantly maintains the illusion.
Not that I would ever great a nasty dragon god, but here it is... :) (So, ok, maybe I have)
Take a powerful dragon, for this purpose, lets say a Great Wyrm Red Dragon. Slap on the old 1/2 fiend template. (I really am a big fan of 1/2 fiend/celestial dragons). Now you have a dragon that is an outsider. Wait, an outsider, that can mean only one thing... He qualifies for the Fiend of Blasphemy Prestige Class from the Fiend Folio... One of the powers that this PrC gives is the ability to grant spells. Voila, a dragon god. Now granted, he doesn't have near the range true gods have, but it still makes for an evil villian cult that can be fun.
There's an idea for a god that I came up with recently-this is just brainstorm material without anything conrete yet and it can be dropped into more or less any pantheon I suppose. I was researching the role of gargoyles on buildings (besides the obvious rainspout function)and of course found out that they were supposed to be terrible-looking to scare evil spirits away. Traditionally evil creatures in mythology were given terrible countenences, but then I looked into the Hecatoncheires of greek muth and some others, and came up with an idea for a good aligned faith. It is primarily a martial religion, and among its followers there are many 'redeemed monsters' as well as people tragically deformed, outcasts, etc. The lay followers worship this god or force to protect them from evil, and supposedly it is especially protective of children. The more serious followers (clerics and paladins) take it upon themselves to put the fear of righteousness in evil personally. They are known for their use of shock tactics and spells with particularly horrific (though often not outright nonlethal; the nonlethal nybor's spells would be a good example) effects. Those who wear heavy armor often decorate it with intimidating-looking designs and they frequently wear masks, the more horrifying looking the better.
So essentially it would be a good faith trying to emphasize its 'monster' aspect of existence. The enemies that it would focus on would be human, petty evil. They wouldn't be the detect then smite types, really, but would hope to convert evil by making them understand the fear and torment that they put everyone else through. If that fails, they just make sure that they are so scared of retribution that they go straight on the surface, even if they are still evil at heart.