D&D General The Role and Purpose of Evil Gods

[Voadam]

I could get behind that, because I think that we have long noticed the issue with Evil Extraplanar entities and gods that they just don't make much sense to worship. As presented, no one in their right mind worships Tharizdun, because he wants to destroy everything and leave nothing but an empty void.

Cthulhu mythos cultists worshipping mythos entities that ultimately are hostile to human life are a trope and a staple.

Often big mythos entities are considered gods, though you could conceive of them as not-gods depending on the paradigm/definition used.

Most of the worshipers are considered not in their right minds, but the evil cult is generally a standard.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Cthulhu mythos cultists worshipping mythos entities that ultimately are hostile to human life are a trope and a staple.

Often big mythos entities are considered gods, though you could conceive of them as not-gods depending on the paradigm/definition used.

Most of the worshipers are considered not in their right minds, but the evil cult is generally a standard.

Yeah, the "in their right mind" was supposed to account for that. Yes, the insane or deranged worship these beings... but there is a limited pool of those type of people, and it already gets stretched a bit thin.

 

[Voadam]

There is also the model of the evil serpent god Set in the Conan World.

An evil state religion, the priests number powerful sorcerers. Set does not seem to offer people good stuff other than his priesthood being powerful and state sanctioned.Following him seems cultural for a whole society as well as for the power hungry.

There is also the question of whether serpent Set is really Yig from the Lovecraft Mythos with the mixing of the two by the authors. A bit different than real world non serpent Set who fights off Apep every night as the serpent tries to devour Ra the Sun god.

 

[Chaosmancer]

There is also the model of the evil serpent god Set in the Conan World.

An evil state religion, the priests number powerful sorcerers. Set does not seem to offer people good stuff other than his priesthood being powerful and state sanctioned.Following him seems cultural for a whole society as well as for the power hungry.

There is also the question of whether serpent Set is really Yig from the Lovecraft Mythos with the mixing of the two by the authors. A bit different than real world non serpent Set who fights off Apep every night as the serpent tries to devour Ra the Sun god.

Yeah, can't say I'm too familiar with Conan, but "give me the power to rule others and force them to worship him" is a pretty decent gig.

But I also thought most of Conan was additionally, "None of these false spirits are true gods" which likely also played into the presentation of their cults.

 

[Bohandas]

A bit different than real world non serpent Set who fights off Apep every night as the serpent tries to devour Ra the Sun god.

Now that you mention them Set and Apep/Apophis are kind of representative of the extremes I was thinking of

 

[Voadam]

Yeah, can't say I'm too familiar with Conan, but "give me the power to rule others and force them to worship him" is a pretty decent gig.

But I also thought most of Conan was additionally, "None of these false spirits are true gods" which likely also played into the presentation of their cults.

There are multiple things going on there.

It is not clear to me that Set gives his priests any powers. Some of them are sorcerers, that does not necessarily mean Set gives them, or is the source of, their powers.

Some of the gods in the stories turn out to be a physical monster that Conan kills, I think there is a big spider one.

There are weird things. And powers. And lots of stuff from the stars. And a lot of mystery and unexplained stuff. And some deliberate cross-pollination between Howard and Lovecraft in their writing.

I enjoyed a lot of the stories and the comics.

 

[Bohandas]

Now that you mention them Set and Apep/Apophis are kind of representative of the extremes I was thinking of

I just realized I've just undermined my own point a little there because Pazuzu falls into sort of a similar category as Set. I withdraw my argument.

 

[Mirtek]

Well, I can't find any evidence that shows frost burns killing people... ever. The closest I can get is the obvious "if your heart starts freezing you'll probably die" but that isn't frost burn.

What? That's like saying "if your heart starts burning you'll probably die"

Frost burn will kill you just as burns do. It's even classified with the same 4 categories from First to Fourth degree.

In both cases forth degree with damage your muscles, tendon, and bone. Get enough of your skin damaged by third degree frost burn and you'll die from that already.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

What? That's like saying "if your heart starts burning you'll probably die"

Frost burn will kill you just as burns do. It's even classified with the same 4 categories from First to Fourth degree.

In both cases forth degree with damage your muscles, tendon, and bone. Get enough of your skin damaged by third degree frost burn and you'll die from that already.

Well, but how quickly. Spells tend to deal lots of damage in one fell swoop. At best they'd last 6 seconds, but considering that 6 seconds is the time for an entire round, if you die at the start of your turn on triggering a spell and don't get to do anything else after you're dead, it seems questionable that an "explosive" spell even needs the entire 6 seconds. It's more like a bullet to your head then dying from any kind of exposure.

This whole discussion of whether you could escape the death from a corrupt sherrif that beat you up once is kinda amusing. But the answer is pretty obvious. Yes, you can. Anyone that tries to argue otherwise probably forgot what the topic of the thread was and is either just amusing himself or a lost cause.

 

[Chaosmancer]

What? That's like saying "if your heart starts burning you'll probably die"

Frost burn will kill you just as burns do. It's even classified with the same 4 categories from First to Fourth degree.

In both cases forth degree with damage your muscles, tendon, and bone. Get enough of your skin damaged by third degree frost burn and you'll die from that already.

Do you die from the cold or from the infection that will result? Third Degree burns destroy multiple levels of skin and strip away that defense from your immune system, causing massive infections that can ravage the body.

Also, unlike fires, cold can't catch your fat layer on fire and spread to be worse, or begin eating through your organs. Yes, extreme heat and extreme cold can both kill you, third degree burns are horrific, but it is rarely an instant death that takes place within 6 seconds, and generally caused by other factors.