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So, this neat thread over here got me thinking about all the other obscure, silly or frightening religions that actually exist in the real world and how they might fit into a fantasy campaign setting.
This is a thread for discussing how belief systems like Pastafarianism, UFO cults, and the Church of the SubGenius could work in a game. If you're looking for Jesus, Buddha or Satan, try that other thread. If you want to discuss how a Raëlian cult might fit into your homebrew world or what domains a Scientologist cleric would have, this is probably the place for it.
I'll kick this off with the religion that spurred me to create this thread: The Cargo Cult
Cargo cults have all but vanished from Earth but, for a time after WW2, many tribes in the South Pacific believed their ancestors would provide them with advanced technology if they mimicked the soldiers using their islands as drop zones and temporary military bases, even going so far as to mow down forests to build runways and control towers. Some even built to-scale models of planes out of straw.
A tribe of lizardfolk collecting a city's cast-off refuse as it floats downriver into their swamp could become a cargo cult. In a campaign where travel by air isn't completely unheard of, a clan of isolated barbarians might even pray to a wind spirit for items dropped by griffon-riders or passing airships.
If I were to use a cargo cult in a game, I'd probably go with something like this:
Deity - varies by cult, but typically ancestor worship or a wind/sea god
Favored Weapon - varies by cult (cargo cult members usually mimicked the actions of flight controllers and the marching routines of soldiers as part of their rituals so a cleric of a cargo cult might carry the weapon most often associated with the group his cult mimics or the weapon most commonly found among the cargo.)
Domains - Family (Community subdomain,) Ancestors (Repose subdomain) and Wind (Air subdomain) and/or Oceans (Water subdomain) depending on where the cult gets its cargo. Yes, that's only three or four domains, but I don't see a cargo cult generating a whole lot of worship juice.
Am I alone in this or does anyone else have ideas for this or another religion?
Actually, I think it's an awesome idea, if still in need of a little fleshing out. An interesting variation on the cargo cult would be a post-apocalyptic artifact cult, based on Clarke's Third Law.
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I intentionally left it vague. The cult's details would largely depend on its place in the campaign world.
For the lizardfolk example, for instance, I'd go with this:
Deity - Ancestor worship (the tribe believes its ancestors send the items to them from the afterlife)
Favored Weapon - Net (useful for both collecting debris in the water and capturing trespassers into their sacred river)
Domains - Ancestors, Water and Community (or Family subdomain)
The cult would develop out of the tribe locating a section of the swamp where a large amount of often-salvageable refuse gathers after being swept downriver. Weekly rituals would take place at the riverside a few days after the city upriver has thrown out its trash though the lizardfolk wouldn't realize the true source of their bounty. An adventure might involve a lizardfolk warrior traveling upriver to visit his dead ancestors or investigate a sudden drought of supplies only to find the city.
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You're certainly entitled to that opinion, and I'd never tell you to use an idea in your campaign if you don't agree with it. It's a hypothetical situation taking place in an imaginary world where people can shoot lightning out of their faces. Given that, I don't see any reason a lizardfolk tribe couldn't be a few days downriver from a city and not maintain its isolation. Maybe the tribe's elders have told everyone not to travel upriver because they won't be able to return from the afterlife? Maybe they gave up on their old gods because their new one sends them microwaves?
Why you gotta be a hater? ^_^