Churches Instead of Gods

[Wolfwood2]

I agree that the source of divine power can be left mysterious. If certain rituals are performed and rite done and everybody believes really hard, a person becomes able to channel 'divine' power. There's no moral judgement involved. Sometimes newly invested clerics are secretly corrupt or become so and they still retain their powers. It's possible for a person of good faith to beleive that these powers are gifts from a god while others laugh in scorn at the idea.

 

[El Mahdi]

I've wanted to do someting like this with my game ever since reading A Game Of Thrones. Just looking at our own world, there are hundreds of major religions, with most of them having hundreds of sects or divisions. And there are almost as many concepts of "God" and how the world came to be as their are major religions. I'd like to make up something like George R. R. Martin did, and get away from a unified cosmology and pantheon.

 

[CleverNickName]

Pretty nifty idea. I might even steal it one day, although I'd likely change the power source to vary from religion to religion (that is, maybe one religion's Clerics are powered by the collective belief of the flock, while another channels the power from a McGuffin, and maybe a third has some great being who provides their followers with the mojo.) In fact, figuring out how a given religion's power is actually sourced would probably be a great way to characterize and flavor their beliefs.

Another awesome idea...this is why I love this message community. Yoinked, totally.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I always liked the idea of the faith of humans giving power to gods.

But maybe what if it is a little different - the faith in a god (or a similar concept) gives strength to the community of the faith? Not an individual creature, but the community.

That's why churches form - the devotion of the faithful is what creates a source of power that people chosen by the community can tap into by being ordained. This power doesn't have to be aligned with the faith - it just exists, but requiring faith to be created.

Members of the church don't have to be lied to by priests -the priests can tell them outright - you know, you can believe in what you want, gods don't exist, but if you focus your mind on the ideals represented by our Church, you create a source of power that will help us all!

Good people would of course try to align the faith with good ideals - justice, valor, honesty, since the ideals alone would already benefit the community. But that's not a requirement. It might also be a good idea to "believe" in egoismn or might makes right, since this would attract egoistic people.

And of course, you could also worship objects of less moral relevant - beauty, art, song, dance, nature, sun, moon, earth, fire and so on, because people can appreciate this, too.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I've done the same, except that the Divine Power comes from the mortal's own faith, rather than what the faith is placed in. So, no need for a Council of Elders (unless the Council of Elders is what people have faith in).

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I've done the same, except that the Divine Power comes from the mortal's own faith, rather than what the faith is placed in. So, no need for a Council of Elders (unless the Council of Elders is what people have faith in).

My idea is that the individual ones power is still not enough - you have to "pile it up" to have anything that is actually useful. And it's not that everyone can tap into the power - only those that get "connected" to it by ordination (or any other religious ritual making them a Cleric/Paladin).

In a way it is like everyone having to pay taxes so that roads and schools can be built - except that if you wouldn't have to pay the taxes, you don't have some spare money - what you used to pay taxes is useless otherwise.

 

[Irda Ranger]

My idea is that the individual ones power is still not enough - you have to "pile it up" to have anything that is actually useful. And it's not that everyone can tap into the power - only those that get "connected" to it by ordination (or any other religious ritual making them a Cleric/Paladin).

In a way it is like everyone having to pay taxes so that roads and schools can be built - except that if you wouldn't have to pay the taxes, you don't have some spare money - what you used to pay taxes is useless otherwise.

Sure, you can do that. It would make it obvious though what's a "church" and what's a "cult", since the latter would just be a bunch of Warlocks with Skill Training (Religion).

I'm not saying that's a bad way to go, either, just realize the effect it has on the campaign world.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

I did precisely that with my homebrewed religion Deismaar: Year 200 / Divine Source

 

[JVisgaitis]

I don't like the idea of "gods" in my game. Supreme beings who concern themselves with the affairs of humankind seem better-suited to theologians and science-fiction writers, not a fantasy game setting.

So I came up with the following plan: replace gods with churches.

We don't like the gods meddling in the affairs of man either so when we were working on Violet Dawn we did pretty much the same thing. The only difference is we call them Faiths. I didn't realize so many people had issues with gods in game as is. It's cool seeing other people we the same thoughts on this as we have.

 

[Shades of Green]

I typically use a similar approach. While most of my game worlds have divine entities, these entities are distant and a bit 'diffuse' - direct interventions and even direct communications between them and mortals are extremely rare. This means that mortals have to interpret the various enigmatic signs, portents and omens on their own - and usually more than one interpretation exists.

This has three main advantages:
1) No ultra-powerful beings messing around my campaign world with direct divine interventions. No deus-ex-machina...
2) More than one religious world view and more than one pantheon could exist - even competing monotheistic religions may exist.
3) Churches are mortal creations, not divine creations, and thus have politics, sects, schisms, and a few rotten apples.