Input wanted: What made the gods mad?

[fredramsey]

I want to have an entire continent that was laid waste by the gods. It was once home to a great empire. What did the people do that angered the gods? It would almost have to be something other than "ignored them".

Any ideas?

 

[Psion]

Nominated Julia Roberts for another Academy Award? Renewed Voyager for another season? Cancelled Farscape?

Ahem... what are gods like in your game? If they are like Greek gods, they might be enormously petty and cause havoc and mayhem for saying a mortal is prettier than them.

 

[fredramsey]

Actually I am designing a new world, and have not thought much about a pantheon yet.

I want the reason to be something that is discovered in the campaign, and not well known.

Of course, it didn'th HAVE to be the gods, but I don't want to just re-create the Mournland from Eberron, or the situation in Earthdawn. I'm trying to come up with something cool and new (which is difficult at best).

Nominated Julia Roberts for another Academy Award? Renewed Voyager for another season? Cancelled Farscape?

Ahem... what are gods like in your game? If they are like Greek gods, they might be enormously petty and cause havoc and mayhem for saying a mortal is prettier than them.

 

[Doug McCrae]

They were worshipping graven images, fornicating, building a tower to reach heaven. The usual things that annoy the gods.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One of the little things I wrote for the Tree of Knowledge for the Book of the Righteous was how that it was actually the gods who destroyed Freeport in the past because they feared that the mortals would accidentally bring forth the Unspeakable One and that they were covering up the story and spreading lies to insure that people never blamed the gods for the destruction of the land.

Perhaps the inhabitants there were wizards preparing to activate a huge portal to the Far Realm and the gods had no other choice but to shatter the whole land least the Prime be consumed by the entities of the Far Realm. If you have the Monster Manual II, you can put a few inhabitants there to act as their agents (I forget what their scouts and outpost agents are called though... Katori or something?)

 

[Remathilis]

Simple, the ancient empire unlocked the key to divinity and threatened to make their chosen more powerful and become the new gods.

The epic throw-down between the "new" demi-gods and the Gods of Old shattered the continent...

And the secrets to gaining god-like power were again lost... or were they?

 

[fredramsey]

Sounds intriguing. I would assume there is more about the Far Realm in the Righteous book?

One of the little things I wrote for the Tree of Knowledge for the Book of the Righteous was how that it was actually the gods who destroyed Freeport in the past because they feared that the mortals would accidentally bring forth the Unspeakable One and that they were covering up the story and spreading lies to insure that people never blamed the gods for the destruction of the land.

Perhaps the inhabitants there were wizards preparing to activate a huge portal to the Far Realm and the gods had no other choice but to shatter the whole land least the Prime be consumed by the entities of the Far Realm. If you have the Monster Manual II, you can put a few inhabitants there to act as their agents (I forget what their scouts and outpost agents are called though... Katori or something?)

 

[Buttercup]

Why would gods destroy a continent? What about:

• The flora/fauna on the continent developed a malign sentience and would have eventually consumed/polluted/taken over the whole world.
• The inhabitants became overfond of the use of magic, and developed so much power that they rivaled the gods themselves. (IOW, jealousy.)
• The gods were warring amongst themselves and the continent was just caught in the crossfire.
• The gods were warring, but the god that "owned" this particular continent actually destroyed it accidentally while trying to kill or maim another god. (IOW, friendly fire.)
• The gods didn't actually do it. Some long dead species did it, but the gods claim to have done it so that no one now living will ever find out how it was done and destroy the rest of the world.
• The inhabitants were wicked and the gods destroyed the continent as punishment.
• It was a natural phenomenon. For some reason, the magic all leached out of the land, and it just...died.
• Aliens did it. Then they stayed around and convinced everyone they were gods. So the "gods" everybody worships are just lousy carpetbaggers.
• The continent was hit my a meteor. In order to save the planet, the gods had to sacrifice that continent. Or maybe they just didn't care.

 

[sword-dancer]

The Church tried a blasphemic Rite tocall up the powers of old times in dire need, maybe not knowing the`re tapping in an power of Entities so old and twisted, that evilisn`t an fitting description.
So the gods must stop, circumvent etc these power or lose ... something,

or the chruch tried an forbidden Ritual and the gods manipulatde the outcome,like instead of calling the Champions of the old days back the graves opened and the undead roamed free, and the clergy(the few that survived the ritual) had no longer working powers.

 

[sword-dancer]

Double post