Alternate Cosmology

[gyor]

I had a weird idea for a alternate cosmology.

Instead of Hell there is Purgatory and the Devils there get all souls, period. But the souls aren't there for eternity, they are there until the devils torture the Sin out of the soul, which is the fuel of Purgatory, which they toss into a massive crevis in the middle of Purgatory called the Abyss which functions as both furnance for Purgatory and a prison for those greedy devils who rebelled against their duty in their greed for more Sin, and where transformed into demons (yes demons are fallen devils).

They are ruled by a Lawful Good Deity who conciders them a lesser evil because soul who get reborn still covered in their Sins are reborn as Tieflings, who instead of going to Purgatory like other souls become Succubi and Incubi upon death if Celestials don't purge the Sins first.


Tieflings are mortal Succubi/Incubi who still haven't shucked off their mortal forms to become true Succubi/Incubi.

Succubi and Incubi don't just tempt mortals onto Sin, they help mortals avoid purifying torture in Purgatory, so they are reborn as Tieflings and eventually Succubi.

Those mortals who die without Sin are only briefly in Purgatory and get reborn as Aasimar. Succubi prize tempting Aasimar above all other souls.

Celestials serve the Gods as a way to help Mortals purge Sin in life before the more painful devil method after death, to minimize ones soul in the afterlife.

Each God, except the God of Purgatory, has many Angels and worshippers pray to the Angels of a God, not to a God directly as the Gods are said to be beyond comprohending by mortals, and hearing one answer your prayers can drive you mad.

Worshippers learn the names of their preferred God's Angels and other celestial servants because each has it's own specific teachings and area of responsibility.

Divine Spells are simply the full names of a particular angel of the God the that cleric worships, God has an Angel whose job it is to empower a particular spell for it's clerics.

Example for the God Glashic would be Bapjezeal El Cathukic Del Aatros the Glashic God's Angel of Cure Wounds , Helip Vax Solthic Donna the Glashic God's Angel of Spirit Guardians spell.

The highest Celestials in service to a God isn't a Solar, it's Domains (yes Cleric Domains personified as Powerful Angels), which are Angels too powerful have a physical body. All Gods have all Domain types, but the Earth Domain of Glashic is not the same being as the Earth Domain of Sslasatica, they merely are the same race of Domain and other clerics who follow thier teachings the same sorts of powers. Domain spells unlike other clerics spells aren't the full names of different Angels, they are different names of the individual Domain the Cleric serves under.

Solars serve under a domain, and often act as a the face for the Domain that doesn't appear physical and in fact can't appear physically. Planatars serve under Solars. Devas serve under Planatars.

Druids and Rangers use the names of Coualts, Pegasi, Unicorns and other none Angellic Celestials to cast their spells.

Druids and Rangers might or might not worship individually worship the Gods, but they believe that the best way to purify the soul of Sin is by purifying and healing the earth.

The planes are Shadowfell, Feywild, the Material Plane, the Astral Darkness (the Astral Plane is a dark not plane in this cosmology, that why people aren't effected by the forces of time), and floating in the Astral Darkness is all the Gods (who manifest as sentient planes of wonder and horror where the Celestials dwell), and Purgatory which was created from the collwctive Sins of the Gods as a place to purify mortal sins, and the Far Realms, planes of madness and horror created by Yugoloths, places that follow the rules of the Yugoloths not the rules of reality, and Elemental Primordials which are senient planes filled by the Elements instead of Celestials,who care for physical reality, not mortals or living creatures. Bordering the mortal plane is the Ethereal, the domain of the Succubi, the plane of great evil, but also indescribable pleasures, there the Succubi offer every temptation, where the lowest mortals can live like a king, at the cost of his souls future. The Succubi Kings and Queens are manifest as sentient demiplanes in the Ethereal. Normal Succubi tempt mortals to visiting a demiplane where their every fantasy is granted, but at the cost of their souls acquiring a great deal of Sin as well as learning how to avoid the purifying tortures of devils in the afterlife.

It's ruled Azareal a Lawful Good God who sacrificed much power to take on the form of a Solar to rule directly over the Devils and make sure mortals souls are purified so that Succubi don't take over the world. Taking on a physical body is why Azareal has no angels or clerics of his own. Azareal is not happy at how much his servants have come to enjoy causing suffering and so he conducts purges every once in awhile, tossing devils that cross the line into the Abyss to become imprisoned demons.

Yugoloths are the horrors that inhabit the Astral Darkness, who are always fighting with the Githyanki, desendants of mortals who tried to journey to dwell in the Gods, only to fall (the Githzerai are descendants of those who succeeded). Yugoloths can only enter the mortals planes in two ways, summoner by dark magic or by reincarnating as abberations like beholders.

Yugoloths are too alien for Chaotic and Lawful alignments to make sense, they seem to follow laws of a sort, just ones that violate the laws of reality, and although most are evil, it's not on purpose, it's a side effect of not understanding morality.

The most powerful Yugoloths are the Far Realms themselves.

There are two major factions among Warlocks Fiend pact Warlocks, those who make deals Devils and Rakshasa who make deals to hunt Warlocks who make deals with Succubi, Yugoloths, and Aberrations.

The Great Old Ones pacts are with individual Far Realms (Far Realms are Yugoloths are are too far beyond Ultraloths as to qualify as fiends, same with Succubi Monarchs), Gods, and Primordials. Side stepping Angels to make pacts with Gods is seen as the act of mad men, a God is too vast to comprend them fully, Gods are far more good and loving then Far Realms, Succubi Monarchs, Primordials, they are too alien in their own way which why they created celestials to deal with the rest of reality).

Does this sound like an interesting cosmology? It just came cane to me this morning.

 

[gyor]

Great Old One Pacts tend to be weird cults of all types who believe divine spellcasters and fiend pact warlocks are servants of selfish decievers who stand in the way of mortals communing with high powers, fiend pact warlocks are more mercanies who make deals for magical power in exchange for services. Fiend Pact Warlocks who make deals with Devils tend to be seen as respectable, they serve the proper order of things, and in fact tend to be given the job of hunting other warlocks down when they cross the line. Other Fiend Pact Warlocks hate them.

The only other warlocks who are seen as respectable are Celestial Pact Warlocks and Fey Pack Warlocks, the Celestial Pact Warlocks are usually failed clerics that couldn't master divine magic, and so made a deal with celestials to access arcane magic.

Fey Warlocks are the mortal knights that have fallen in love with Fey Lords and Ladies and pledge their service to them abd the fey courts.

Hexblade Pacts are with the Grim Reapers of the Shadowfell who offer to share the powers of the Scythes with the Warlock in exchange for spreading death (the Reapers mostly don't care who dies, as long as someone does, but they prize the deaths of Immortals most of all, as difficult as that can be to come by).

Undying Pacts are with Immortals, both Living and Undead, beings of whom are seen as unnatural to the Celestials and Devils, they violate the cycle of reincarnation, and as dangerous competition to the Succubi, and are seen by Grim Reapers deseperate need of Death. Undying Warlocks are in a constant state of war with Hexblade Warlocks over the fates of Immortals.

 

[TwoSix]

Only thing here that doesn't make sense is why do you need any sort of polytheism at all? Seems more cohesive if there's just one god. All of the cleric/divine variety is provided by celestials.

 

[gyor]

Only thing here that doesn't make sense is why do you need any sort of polytheism at all? Seems more cohesive if there's just one god. All of the cleric/divine variety is provided by celestials.

I concidered making it monothiestic, but I wanted competition between groups of angels and religions. The idea is each God is its own complex religion, with different ideas of what Sin is and the best ways for the living to expel it is.

So maybe one God's Angels teach that the best way to purify one's soul is vows of poverty, another might says its raising a happy family and duty to your community, one might say no sex out of marriage, another God and its amgels teach free love. There are many, many concepts and ideas of what good is and each gets a God and its own Angellic Mythology.

In this Cosmos there are no evil Gods, just different ideas of what Good is snd the best way to achieve it.

Fiends are evil, but often in a the ends justify the means sort of way and many fiend believes they serve a greater good so the evil they do is forgivable. Devils for example purify souls via torture, while Succubi offer ways of breaking what they feel is a hypocritical process of reincarnation in favour of an eternity of depraved delights, so if they have to encourage mortals towards evil so be it, the road to paradise is paved with evil intentions is their saying.

 

[gyor]

Wizards, Sorcerers, Paladins, and Bards (Hierodules).

Wizards are the humanists who usually believe its better to put your faith in mortals then higher powers and so they learn the various languages of the universe to alter the universe and access Arcane Magic. Languages of Cosmic Resonance like Infernal, Abyssal, Celestial, Primordial, Draconic are the languages they use to manipulate the laws of reality. This does not mean they know how to use the language conversionally, just how to use the words in a spell context.

Sorcerers aren't born Sorcerers, they use the same languages of Cosmic Resonance, but instead of using them for humanism, they use it for Transhumanist goals, to become something more then human.

Bards are called Hierodules and their magic is Divine, not Arcane in this Cosmology, they get their Divine Magic from the Succubi Queens and the Incubi Kings, with spells being the names of individual Succubi in service to the Hierodules's Succubi Monarch.

The Priesthood of the Clerics and the Hierodules hate each other, competing Priesthoods of Clerics might argue heavily and occasionally go to war with each other, but they general don't wish to crush each other the way Clerics and Heirodules do.

Paladins are the Knights in service to the Hierodules and Clerics.

A Paladin gives a Hierodule or Cleric their magical oath of service and that Oath allows the Paladin to use the Priest as a vector to Divine Magic. Paladin's use the names of Angels or Succubi in their spell casting depending upon which type of Priest they give their oath too.

Oath of Conquest Paladins tend to focus on fighting rival faiths.

Oath of Devotion Paladins focus on defending the Faithful.
.
Oath of the Ancients Paladins focus on fighting enemy extraplanar creatures and protecting allied extraplanar creatures as well as holy sights.

Avengers aka Dark Knight Paladins focus on hunting down heretics, traitors and even ordinary criminals who abuse the faithful. They are also the excutioners who kill those captured by the other Paladin Oaths.

Paladins of Redemption are Knights who do missionary work, they can fight when needed, by they prefer to convert and talk things out.

 

[TwoSix]

In this Cosmos there are no evil Gods, just different ideas of what Good is snd the best way to achieve it.

So no one actually knows what Sin is, or how to avoid it, but mortals end up covered it anyway and being tortured in Purgatory? I just want to clarify that's the grimdark nature of what you're intending.

 

[Eltab]

Maybe reading Dante's Inferno and Purgatorio and Paradisio (in a prose form*) will help clarify your thoughts.

* The original poem form is pretty good, but you have to read it twice; once to get the poetry, again to understand what the poetry is describing.

 

[Blue]

I concidered making it monothiestic, but I wanted competition between groups of angels and religions. The idea is each God is its own complex religion, with different ideas of what Sin is and the best ways for the living to expel it is.

One thing I've had success in my current campaign is that the religions are not monocultures. They have sects and different interpretations of dogma. This can allow priests of the same god to be helpful, to block you, to be indifferent, and otherwise stay interesting.

So you could have different interpretations and competition between followers even in a monotheistic interpretation, especially since you have stepped away from the standard D&D religion-unifying aspect of being able to directly get the direction of the deity "from the god's mouth". With the god unknowable, the best interpretation comes from what each Domain is interpretting the god as believing, and obviously they have varying viewpoints.

And a quick clarification:

Worshippers learn the names of their preferred God's Angels and other celestial servants because each has it's own specific teachings and area of responsibility.
...
Example for the God Glashic would be Bapjezeal El Cathukic Del Aatros the Glashic God's Angel of Cure Wounds , Helip Vax Solthic Donna the Glashic God's Angel of Spirit Guardians spell.
...
Druids and Rangers use the names of Coualts, Pegasi, Unicorns and other none Angellic Celestials to cast their spells.

Druids and Rangers might or might not worship individually worship the Gods, but they believe that the best way to purify the soul of Sin is by purifying and healing the earth.

This isn't the clearest - are the non-Angellic Celestials like Unicorns aligned with a god, or are they a separate nature heirarchy around the edges?

In other words, would a Ranger be invoking the name of Jelfanis Parduo Del Ranis the Celestial Coualt of Hunter's Mark, or are they invoking Jelfanis Parduo Del Ranis the Glashic God's Celestial of Hunter's Mark? (Or whatever god, and whatever name - I just made that up.)

 

[gyor]

So no one actually knows what Sin is, or how to avoid it, but mortals end up covered it anyway and being tortured in Purgatory? I just want to clarify that's the grimdark nature of what you're intending.

The Gods know what it is, but they don't make it clear using parables to try and explain it to creatures whose minds aeen't as vast.

 

[gyor]

Maybe reading Dante's Inferno and Purgatorio and Paradisio (in a prose form*) will help clarify your thoughts.

* The original poem form is pretty good, but you have to read it twice; once to get the poetry, again to understand what the poetry is describing.

Those really aren't what I'm going for.