Designing gods - a question

LordVreeg · February 01, 2014, 09:14:25 PM

well...you've played in Celtricia.

you've seen the how important faith is and how religion is critical...without losing mystery or the human element.

You've dealt with how the cosmology and such relates to religion. and how the unknowability makes faith more important. i have frankly felt spoiled, twixt thee, Limetom, and Mett....

soltakss · February 02, 2014, 11:20:42 AM

Quote from: Gardeian;728745"My Space Daddy is bigger than your Space Daddy"

"It's crackers and cheese, not cheese and crackers."

"Crackers don't matter."

Do you break a boiled egg at the little end of the big end?

Rincewind1 · February 03, 2014, 07:51:58 PM

Thanks all for some food for thoughts - I'll give my thoughts so far tomorrow, what I'm setting out to achieve.

Erstwhile · February 05, 2014, 11:20:30 AM

Quote from: Rincewind1;728261I like this - this is why I decided to run the ideas through you guys, since sometimes I just need that additional jolt . The hands - off approach also fits, since at the start of the game, the world's picking up after the last war between gods, that caused creation of demons.

Hm. That setup also allows for an aggressive form of atheism to prevent another godswar - "FFS don't worship, it just encourages them."

Well, it won't be atheism as such. Obviously this worldview accepts that gods exist. Perhaps more of an "iconoclast" approach?

Then again, the gods - or at least the miracles they fuel - might be the only defence against the demons that the gods themselves created. Or there may be a few decent gods amidst the pantheon who promise something other than "Hey, worship me, get some shinies, you'll be dead before the next godswar, really."

Bilharzia · February 05, 2014, 02:57:28 PM

Quote from: Rincewind1;728253The recent threads about religions inspired me to finally ask this question. I've been tampering with the following problematic:

How to do a religious conflict between religions, when you have gods which are certain of existence (and the conflict is somewhat realistic). The gods themselves aren't all evil (there are evil gods, but to them everyone is opposed). I was thinking perhaps of simply opposed pantheons, but I'm not sure if that's not too cliche. Or perhaps relegate the warfare to area of conspiracies, where gods'd fight and conspire so that kings of nations'd name them their patrons - or in fact, see how many dynasties the gods themselves could spawn.

There's the Gloranthan pantheons if you want something big.
You can start here:
http://moondesign.glorantha.com/library/religions/index.html

despite the title, this thread is about Glorantha, and fairly(?) accurate read, scroll down until you get to
"Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars"
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3421366&userid=188217&perpage=40&pagenumber=1

The thing with Glorantha is that the world, magic, religion and people are all tied together. You asked about "opposed pantheons" and the most well known by players in the setting is Orlanth Vs Lunar.

RPGPundit · February 07, 2014, 11:25:10 AM

Quote from: Rincewind1;728253The recent threads about religions inspired me to finally ask this question. I've been tampering with the following problematic:

How to do a religious conflict between religions, when you have gods which are certain of existence (and the conflict is somewhat realistic). The gods themselves aren't all evil (there are evil gods, but to them everyone is opposed). I was thinking perhaps of simply opposed pantheons, but I'm not sure if that's not too cliche. Or perhaps relegate the warfare to area of conspiracies, where gods'd fight and conspire so that kings of nations'd name them their patrons - or in fact, see how many dynasties the gods themselves could spawn.

I think you should take a look at Lords of Olympus; see how there's a lot of conflict that can happen between gods, it can be even in the same pantheon.

RPGPundit

Rincewind1 · February 07, 2014, 12:08:54 PM

Quote from: RPGPundit;729830I think you should take a look at Lords of Olympus; see how there's a lot of conflict that can happen between gods, it can be even in the same pantheon.

RPGPundit

I might when I have some cash to fork over. I'd love some of your insights as well, as both a theologian and a man of the occult - I've started a thread for all inspirations possible, after all.

RPGPundit · February 09, 2014, 04:22:47 AM

Well, have you got specific questions?