Whoring Religion Before The Throne: Religion In Bed With Politics.

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Whoring Religion Before The Throne: Religion In Bed With Politics

Real world political-religious history removed - Plane Sailing

Throughout history, religion has always had close ties with the ruling powers and government. In looking at a campaign, at your campaign—how do you develop the different relationships between religion A, and the government, and religion B, and the government? How does one religion gain precedence and favour over all of the other religions? Or perhaps they do not gain precedence or some form of official preference by the ruling powers or the king. However, do the religions in your campaign attempt to do so? How do they tempt the ruler to favour them, and oppress their opponents? Does the king in whatever corner of your campaign favour one religion over another? If the king or queen does favour one over another, does that reality have any impact on the campaign environment? How do these influences affect the local religious community in question, and perhaps even the player characters?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

I've played a couple of settings which were theocracies (one a Druidic Theocracy) and another ruled by a god-king. In both these cases the reality of the diety was indisputable so there was no real room of religious dissention

However I once played a Half-Giant cleric who was heretic openly opposed to the Imperial State Religion and who actively preached against it.
Luckily the state religion had a set up where he could be both faithful and heretical - basically the Empire claimed that the First Empress (a Human) had ascended to godhood and become wife of the creator god. My PC claimed that the Imperial Religion had usurped the true faith and suppressed the right of the Giants as descendants of the Titans.

My PC did develop a following and participated in a schism against the state religion which was violently crushed by the Empire - forcing my PC into hiding (where he remains)

In another setting based in an alt-Earth I had the Grand Inquisitor be elected Pope and then go about removing the state monarchs under allegations of heresy and consorting with demons (the demons were exposed and chained as proof). The Inqisition became a major threat to the World! Nonetheless the strength of the Ottomans allowed them to maintain a hold in Granada much to the chagrin of the Inquisition Terriroties. In the same setting the Puritans still dominated Britain (as Cromwell survived his sickness) and had spread into Northern France forcing the Pagans of Europe to move into the eastward. Nonetheless Scotland, Ireland and Lyonesse where dominated by Fae who oft raided the Puritan lands. Elsewhere less militant forms of Catholicsm and Protestantism competed for status although they were largely united against the Pagans and Ottoman threat

I'm nearly in tears to see 9 different posts from you today SHARK. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH of a good thing! Your writing and analogy to our own history is always outstanding. I had to read this one out loud to my wife tonight (not a gamer, not a history buff), and even she was stunned.

In my own campaigns, I find things to be somewhat more black and white within the context of the dieties the PC's must interact with on a daily basis. There are so many dieties, and their roles are so clearly defined, that there seems to be less "infighting" within a church. I much more often have seen conflict between Religion A and Goverment A vs. Religion B and Goverment B, vying for control of valued resoures. The first thing that came to mind is the zhentarim, backed by the powerful influence of the god of tyranny: Bane. In the corner of the PC's, in the little town of Daggerdale, backed by the influence of the small church of Ilmater and Tymora (both represented by PC's in the party). The PC churches are influential to the farmers, the leaders, the ruler and judge (Mourngrym, a former adventurer). These were frequent sources for the start of an adventure. The zhents and their priests of Bane were routinely the thorn in the side of the PC's machinations, establishing footholds, strongholds, haunts, and ultimately leading an invasion. One of the most revered villians of this campaign, Fzoul Chembryl, bore a strong (but not complete) influence on the zhentarim, and the forces of zhentil keep.

A shining example from the above campaign, was when the party had to solve a murder mystery in the Church of Ilmater, as the influence of Bane had not only infiltrated Shadowdale, but even the safe haven of one of the PC's temple.

A central religious authority with wide reaching power has been in the background of most of the campaigns I've run, becoming important campaign components in two of them. The Temple of Solaris (also the Church of the Nine) usualy serves as an element of control against powerful player characters (a visable 'big dog' whos attention is usualy unwanted).

The Temples power and relation to different governments depends on how powerful that government is. The two largest powers are not bound directly by its dicates, while smaller nations have no choice but to comply with any demands made. It is the Temple that officialy crowns kings, officiates (if thats a word) over weddings, and blesses just about anything imaginable. Added to this are formittable magical capabilities (both divine and arcane casters are part of the Temple). A king who acts openly against the Temple can find that the local priests speaking against him, the Temples assistance going to a rival, or (in an extream case) outright excommunication. The more powerful the nation the less it has to bow to the churches dictates.

The Kingdom of Luxoria -- The royal family rules by divine right, and great-grandpa has the half-celestial template to prove it. The blood of the sun god runs in their veins, and his church is the official state religion -- though they tolerate worship of the other five non-evil deities. All members of the royal guard are sun-paladins (though many are multi-classed). This is the default starting kingdom for my campaign. (Oh, and the church of the sun god also happens to run the court system... )

Cheers, -- N

Man...9 SHARK posts in a day.

It's like goddam Chritmas

Teflon Billy said:

Man...9 SHARK posts in a day.

It's like goddam Chritmas

Click to expand...

True that, though we'd better hope that ENWorld isn't jumping the SHARK!

IMC there are a number of Theocracies, probably a quarter to half of all systems of government.

They are better run and more in line with faith than real world theocracies simply because if the line is not towed the Clerics are depowered.

Also The Afterlife and Reincarnation are proven facts making exclusivity very difficult. A Faith can claim a better path but not the only path.

Shark,

I've edited your post to remove the real-world political-religious history. Your initial post doesn't need it to carry your premise, and talking about real world religious situations has the potential to derail threads badly, which is why we don't allow it.

Thanks

Plane Sailing said:

Shark,

I've edited your post to remove the real-world political-religious history. Your initial post doesn't need it to carry your premise, and talking about real world religious situations has the potential to derail threads badly, which is why we don't allow it.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Now I am dying to know what it said Shark, can you please PM it to me - thanks