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

[Voadam]

Default D&D has a lot of healing backups for clerics of good gods, there are druids, bards, and most importantly, clerics who do not worship gods. There could still be confucian LG clerics in a world where the only divine beings are fiendish. The same goes for paladins.

"Luke striking your father's hand off was not an act of filial piety, for atonement you must reject the emperor's offer and be scoured by his lightning."

I like the no alignment thought, "Hey, they're not really evil, they are just self interested powerful non human beings."

 

[kenjib]

Hi Erik,

That sounds alot like the campaign I am preparing at the moment. I'm using the sovereign stone classes and magic system. Under that system there is no divine magic and no hybrid spell caster classes - there's really just one spell caster class and if you want to mix it you multiclass. That's how I like it. Religion is just a cultural thing and the gods have absolutely no tangible presence in the world.

Now there are no demonic forces in that magic system, but with this kind of framework it's easy to have demons give magical secrets and power (in the form of various bonuses or spell knowledge) but without all of the baggage of having spells' power derive from such sources. This is more in keeping with classic pulp fiction for me - you trade your immortal soul for access to knowledge and occult secrets rather than having your power fuelled directly by demonic/divine energy. You can learn without them as well but it's not as easy nor as powerful. Thus worshipping a cultural god gives you no benefits beyond the community whereas following a demon gives you true power since demons are real.

Oh, there's no alignment in that system either.

I think, if you really want to capture this kind of feel, it's best to not even have any distinction between divine and arcane magic at all. It's all just magic - selling your soul just gives you more of it and knowledge of some of the darker, forbidden, spells.

 

[333 Dave]

Cthulhu ftagn!

 

[Harp]

...There's a long ride before that happens, though. You'll be hearing more about it, I'm sure, as I get closer to actually putting the thing together...

I'd definitely be interested in following this setting's development. Where's the best place to look for news? Here?

Thanks,
Harp

 

[Erik Mona]

Harp,

Actually, I'm in the process of setting up a web page with some art director/graphic designer friends, and plan to develop the setting in a semi-regular series of columns on that site. We're almost ready to go live, so keep posted here for an announcement some time in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for the interest,

Erik

 

[nopantsyet]

ok...late comer to the thread and i must keep missing something.

Those who own the book will know what I'm talking about.

what book is this?

this is right up the alley of the setting i'm working on. the gods are dead. well, not dead in a human sense...dead in a cthulhu sense; they are in a dormant state until conditions allow them to become active again.

as a result there are no divine spellcasters, although if there were they would be very powerful because it's a low-magic setting for arcane magic.

it is a dead world; there are badlands, barrens, deserts and wastes. there is no civilization to speak of, except a couple of cities that have managed to survive; these are havens of degenerate, bacchanalian, low-down, dirty, evil, anarchic places.

and the worship...demon princes: belial, moloch, baal, beelzebub...the usual. which brings me back to my original question...what is this book? it sounds like it might be a useful reference.

 

[Davelozzi]

ok...late comer to the thread and i must keep missing something.

what book is this?

Armies of the Abyss. I believe that Erik wrote it for Green Ronin.

 

[nopantsyet]

aha--just saw the cover on the home page...that looks very cool; looks like i'm going to have to hit the gaming store tomorrow. :-D