In my homebrew cosmos, the gods are "small" for the most part, barring a few cosmic forces that incarnate on occasion. So the majority of gods are local to a world or plane, and may have been mortal at one time, kinda like Immortals from Basic D&D, or the mythos of M. Moorcock.
And in this cosmos faith/will/belief shapes reality.
So I am designing a religion similar to the Athar from Planescape. They believe (rightly so) that gods are just powerful beings and didn't create the world and should not be worshiped.
Now this puts them at odds with the "immortals/gods", most religions, etc. It also doesn't help that they are fairly contemptuous of organized religions. HOWEVER, (and this is the twist) they receive divine power and have many of the same classes in their organization; i.e. clerics and paladins mostly.
They see this as proof that you do not need to worship powerful beings (and again they are right!) but the other religions see it as proof that there are gods and that they are being granted power (but why?).
This mainly intolerant/arrogant faith (with good people) is slowly spreading across the cosmos. Spreading farther than the some of the local gods. This also implies that they are right, if they are spreading farther and across more systems (planes are planets) than so-called gods, then this proves their way is superior.
Here is the twist to the twist: While they are right according to "laws" of the cosmos, and worshiping a philosophy could grant their power, they were actually founded by a prophet that was unaware he was being sponsored by Asmodeus (one of my cosmic forces).
This is win/win for him/it, the more people that abandon gods channel power to him. And he gets to break free/rule the cosmos/etc.
Concerns;
1. I can't think of a dramatic, appropriate name that holds a hint of a clue to the situation (without being a club in the face clue to the players)...and...
2. Worried that my logic is flawed in some way...
Thoughts?
And in this cosmos faith/will/belief shapes reality.
So I am designing a religion similar to the Athar from Planescape. They believe (rightly so) that gods are just powerful beings and didn't create the world and should not be worshiped.
Now this puts them at odds with the "immortals/gods", most religions, etc. It also doesn't help that they are fairly contemptuous of organized religions. HOWEVER, (and this is the twist) they receive divine power and have many of the same classes in their organization; i.e. clerics and paladins mostly.
They see this as proof that you do not need to worship powerful beings (and again they are right!) but the other religions see it as proof that there are gods and that they are being granted power (but why?).
This mainly intolerant/arrogant faith (with good people) is slowly spreading across the cosmos. Spreading farther than the some of the local gods. This also implies that they are right, if they are spreading farther and across more systems (planes are planets) than so-called gods, then this proves their way is superior.
Here is the twist to the twist: While they are right according to "laws" of the cosmos, and worshiping a philosophy could grant their power, they were actually founded by a prophet that was unaware he was being sponsored by Asmodeus (one of my cosmic forces).
This is win/win for him/it, the more people that abandon gods channel power to him. And he gets to break free/rule the cosmos/etc.
Concerns;
1. I can't think of a dramatic, appropriate name that holds a hint of a clue to the situation (without being a club in the face clue to the players)...and...
2. Worried that my logic is flawed in some way...
Thoughts?
