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Don't know if she'll will work for what you want but Milani is a CG Diety of revolution and uprisings.
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Don't know if she'll will work for what you want but Milani is a CG Diety of revolution and uprisings.It's a custom setting using PF deities, so maybe this doesn't make sense, but the current patron deity of the country (sort of what Athena was to Athens) is Abadar, a LN neutral god.
For that reason, I've been trying to make this a struggle between the law and chaos dichotomy rather than good and evil.
My point being she probably won't work, but I'll look. She's certainly better than having no clue at all. Thanks! :)
If it's a chaos vs law thing then she might fit better than I thought. In Golarion she and Abby don't exactly have the best of relationships.
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Yeah, definitely Milani. She's very much the goddess of raging against the machine, and corpses of rebels and ashes of dreams and blood-soaked streets.
She's CG, but can have CN clergy, and, if Galt is any indication, the non-cleric followers can degenerate into whatever level of rampaging-mob behavior you need for your story.
If you want a more sinister agenda, CE clerics of Xoveron (demon lord of ruins and gargoyles) could be attempting to see a glorious city-state reknowned for its architecture and innovation devolve into broken ruins of it's former splendor, by having his clergy agitate the masses against the leadership (perhaps by stirring up resentment among the lower classes about how much money the city pours into infrastructure and monuments and the like, while people huddle in the shadows of their great work projects, hoping for a day laborer position to fill their bellies).
Lots of faiths, some of them not even chaotic, could be backing a revolution against a government they strongly oppose. Calistria's clergy could support the overthrow / weakening of a government that is oppressing women, or elves. Desna, same thing, a government that is promoting slavery or oppressing ethnic Varisians. Gozreh, a city-state or nation that is egregiously despoiling nature. Nethys, one that is forbidding arcane magic, or oppressing users of magic. Pharasma or Sarenrae, one that is dominated by undead. Lamashtu, one that is persecuting monstrous humanoids, monsters or one or more of her favored races (gnolls, goblins, etc.). Rovagug, anyone, for any reason, just for the sheer love of tearing things down.
The churches of other 'lesser gods,' like Milani, could also have agendas to tear down certain regimes. Achaekek is all about legitimate rulers and might support an insurrection against one they consider illegitimate. Besmara might support stirring up trouble in the port cities of a nation that is strongly (and effectively) anti-piracy. The faiths of Dahak, Groetus, Ghlaunder and Gyronna might be all for that sort of thing, for various reasons.
With so many choices, your main deciding factor should be the needs of the story you want to tell. Wild mob, out of control, initially stirred up by well-meaning CG idealists? Wild mob, pointed like a weapon by sinister forces that cackle as they rampage around and destroy their own homes?
Surprisingly orderly mob, surgically directed to expose corruption among the ruling caste by a kindly and respected cleric of Iomedae who by day stands among the local elite and wrings his hands and agrees how sad and outrageous this uprising is, while plotting their next strike against his hopelessly corrupt fellow civic leaders?
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Omg, I had a big response thanking you and examining why she might work now, but then something screwy happened and it got deleted.
So yeah, damn.
There used to be a common bug that if you left the window open too long while replying (15 minutes or so), the window would time out and when you hit submit post, you'd lose it. I thought they fixed it ages ago, but it's probably still a good idea to Ctrl-C and save your post before hitting Submit Post, just in case, if it's long enough that retyping it would be a pain in the butt.
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I guess I should sort of explain a bit more. These aren't people saying "this government is oppressing us, kill the king!" These are people against government in general. Anarchists, not reveolutionaries.
Milani and some of the CE destruction-god choices (Xoveron, Rovagug, Dahak, etc.) might be the more thematically appropriate choices then. Xoveron and Groetus are particularly good, as they are not just 'destroy everything' gods like Rovagug and Dahak, but are specifically into ruins and tearing down civilization.
A CN Groetus church could go all Fight Club / Tyler Durden and believe that civilization is making men soft and causing them to lose the capacity to fight and secure their own food, defend themselves against the world, etc. and that only by tearing down the whole system can people regain the strength necessary to compete in a world full of stronger and more dangerous creatures. They'd be all about fitness to lead, determined by strength (and readiness to use it), not by 'bloodline' or who inherited the most money or other social illusions. The inherent contradiction in their thinking (that by abandoning the social structures and cities and inter-group trade and commerce that man has over animals and monstrous humanoids, they'd be surrendering one of their greatest strengths and handicapping themselves against creature with innate natural weaponry and vastly greater physical capabilities) would, of course, be ignored by these cultists and their followers.
Gorum, despite being CN, has a bondage-y co-dependent relationship with civilization, because without it, there wouldn't be armies and wars, just tribal skirmishes that are less often full scale battles and more like ritualized posturing with counting coup and all that. He may have no use for the soft parts of civilization, but sure does love the bits where armies clash on the field of battle...
I would consider Besmara the polar opposite of Adabar, but She might be a bit too "nautical" to be of use.
There are lots of deities with the Chaos domain in Pathfinder. Many of the Dark Tapestry deities and Great Old Ones would be good for anarchic cults, since they're mostly in the style of Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu. One particular that is associated with cults, disorder, and nihilism, is Hastur, a.k.a. the King in Yellow. Azathoth might work as well, as well as the classics, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, and Cthulhu himself.
Other chaos-related deities may be too mainstream to work for an anarchist cult, e.g. Besmara, Gorum, Calistria, Desna, etc. If there are lots of monsters and aberrations associated with the cult, Lamashtu could be their patron. If they're a doomsday cult, it could be Groetus. Milani, as previously noted, could work if they're relatively nice anarchists and sincerely believe that everyone will be better off with the machinery of oppression (i.e. government) destroyed. Rovagug would indicate a far more destructive sort of anarchist, the type who is out to destroy everything and wallow in the death and misery he creates.
I second Azathoth. He's basically the purest embodiment of chaos in the multiverse.
Yeah, but what we really need is a God(dess) of Athiesm!
(Sorry)
Yeah, but what we really need is a God(dess) of Athiesm!
(Sorry)
Outside of Golarion, you don't necessarily need a god to be a cleric. You can worship a force or philosophy. Or if you don't like that, you can just go with Oracle.
Azathoth was my thought as well, assuming you're okay with a Lovecraftian bent to your cultists / storyline.
If you're talking about Golarion, i'd say Besmara is your best bet.
If you're in a homebrew game, it's more about theme than anything else.
Anarchy is defined as a lack of law or rulership. Its ostensibly a personal scale philosophy, but in practice its actually a political philosophy about how people should organize (or, rather, shouldn't).
So, by that definition, pretty much every "nature god" who prizes the natural order of things over civilization would be a god of anarchy. Most Druids are anarchists, they're just philosophic anarchists, rather than active anarchists. They don't necessarily agree with civilization, but they're willing to work with it.
Some of the more angry nature gods who want to "tear down the towers of men" and whatnot might be good for a cult of proactive anarchists.
Find yourself an angry Chaotic Neutral divine power and you're good to go.
There are lots of deities with the Chaos domain in Pathfinder. Many of the Dark Tapestry deities and Great Old Ones would be good for anarchic cults, since they're mostly in the style of Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu. One particular that is associated with cults, disorder, and nihilism, is Hastur, a.k.a. the King in Yellow. Azathoth might work as well, as well as the classics, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, and Cthulhu himself.
Other chaos-related deities may be too mainstream to work for an anarchist cult, e.g. Besmara, Gorum, Calistria, Desna, etc. If there are lots of monsters and aberrations associated with the cult, Lamashtu could be their patron. If they're a doomsday cult, it could be Groetus. Milani, as previously noted, could work if they're relatively nice anarchists and sincerely believe that everyone will be better off with the machinery of oppression (i.e. government) destroyed. Rovagug would indicate a far more destructive sort of anarchist, the type who is out to destroy everything and wallow in the death and misery he creates.
The problem with any of the Dark Tapestry Mythos gods is that none of them embody anarchic beliefs. They're pretty far outside those sorts of ideas.
The idea of Anarchy assumes that the people who hold the beliefs actually care about societal structure. (The Joker in The Dark Knight is a fantastic example of an anarchist villain. He definitely cares about societal structure. He thinks society is wrong, upside down, stupid and hilarious and intends to prove it.)
Azathoth isn't like that. It doesn't have an agenda or point to make. It isn't out to prove anything. It's just there, burbling and churning out destructive madness.
Azathoth is more like a god of Nihilism than Anarchy.
Outside of Golarion, you don't necessarily need a god to be a cleric. You can worship a force or philosophy. Or if you don't like that, you can just go with Oracle.Yeah, but what we really need is a God(dess) of Athiesm!
(Sorry)
Of course, I just like the logical fallacy of a "God of Athiesm".
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A more nuanced and off the beaten path idea for a god of anarchy could be Haagenti the demon lord, if the anarchists took his portfolio of change/alchemy to be a metaphor for change in society. Perhaps, like the free masons began with local fraternities of stone masons, the cult started out with fraternities/guilds of alchemists. Mixing in alchemical symbolism for inspiration, you could make the cult some sort perverse parody of freemasonry.
Haagenti is known for his urbanity and sophistication and does advocate for the removal of restrictions on innovation and alchemical research, so a puppet anarchy cult could work here.
Plus since his worshipers are often alchemists, you can have literal bomb-throwing anarchists!
Oh, that's just awesome. Stealing!