A world without gods, where clerics worship demon princes (armies of the abyss)

[uv23]

Those who own the book will know what I'm talking about. There are some blurbs in there for campaign ideas, one being the scenario as described in the thread subject. The gods have left or died. Demons provide the only "spiritual guidance" for the populace in the form of clerics/thaumaturges that worship them. Has anyone played in a setting like this? It sounds so tasty...

(as an aside, the demon princes in AoTA are excellent.. very deep and rich. It almost makes up for the lack of standard demons in the rest of the book.)

 

[Crothian]

No, but it does sound interesting. Really puts a twist on the cleric class.

 

[Valicor]

Sounds like a good idea. You have the idea for the dark powers down, but what about clerical powers for the side of good? Would they also follow the demons and Devils?

 

[Nightfall]

Well Vali, you could have powerful good outsiders handling some of that slack, or perhaps maybe celestials. Hard to say exactly WHO but those are my choices.

 

[uv23]

You're missing my original point. There are no forces of good (as far as clerics go). A little imbalance can be fun. The only religious types are worshippers of demon princes. Would make for a very cool twist on perception of clerics as was mentioned above. I would totally take this on as a project if I wasn't already developing a campaign setting. Damn...

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

How about this?

The followers of "good" get no powers. Only demon worshippers get magic. Therefore, anyone claiming to possess "magic powers" is a "witch" who must be killed. Just like the view expressed by most religions in the real world...

 

[Nightfall]

True but you didn't see anyone burning St. Paul when he healed people. Or any of the other saints.

But hey if you guys want the evil guys to have ALL the divine magics, go for it!

 

[discjacker]

I think it's a great idea, I am GM'ing a game where all the Gawds are evil selfish bastards content to bicker amongst themselves and use all kind as there playtoys. People worship out of fear not joy. It is considered very dangerous to even speak of the deities without the fear of immediate deific retallition. The Pc's at one point attmpted to sell an idol of a god made of gold to a goldsmith....who promptly threw them out of his shop and then sent messengers to all the other neighboring businesses and a couple of temples with the PC's descriptions. The idol also cursed the whole party they didnt even steal it, it was just loot from a horde they found.

Demon Gods, Evil Gods Alien Gods yeah yeah yeah

I have introduce a few neutral and even good-like deities to the game but they are all lesser powers ascended heros or Faiths that worship elements.

well thats my bit

 

[Erik Mona]

Not surprisingly, the campaign setting/campaign background I'm currently developing has exactly this sort of setup. That's one of the reasons why a lot of the demon princes in Armies of the Abyss are a little more subtle than blood-sucking mass murderers. In the real world, lots of people studied or even imagined themselves making deals with demons, and very few of these folks were bloodthirsty villains. Most of them were opportunistic, or in a tight spot, or what have you.

As I'm currently setting things up, I plan to either use the thaumaturge or the cleric for my religious aristocracy. There's at least one goddess in a land far removed from the campaign center, but whether or not she's actually divine is a matter for another day (mostly because, at this point, I just don't know).

Currently I've got no paladins in my game, either, and I'm toying with the idea of ditching alignment as something everyone has. We'll see how it goes.

--Erik

 

[uv23]

Erik, if you need a hand let me know. I can spare a little time, especially when something is this interesting. I have to admit, your book was the first d20 product I've bought in a while that has actually inspired me. Kudos.