Deitieless Religions?

[Rayston]

Deitieless Religions?

Has anyone messed around with this concept?

I have a campaign idea in mind that would focus in part on 2 religions, neither of which has a real "Deity" they worship instead worshipping a concept and following complicated dogma.

Anyone have suggestions for properly doing this?

 

[Crothian]

It should be easy to do. Just have it well defined about what the belief is and how that belief is looked upon and how it looks upon everything.

 

[Uncle Joe]

I once played a character who was a Cleric of the Invisible Hand - a devotee of capitalist ideals. Major dogmas of the faith included opposition to high tax rates and closed shop craft guilds. Most importantly, for an adventuring cleric, was the obligation to liberate idle capital that was being hoarded by various monsters.

 

[Darklance]

*chants*"The one is all. The all is one."


Oh I've done it.... The best was when my PCs tried to have religious arguments with the fanatics.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Yes. Not necessarily a deityless religion, though---more of an agnostic one. Could care less about the gods, since it focuses on self-improvement to obtain perfection & enlightenment.

This is the foundation of the monk class in my campaign setting---there are no monasteries devoted to the deities. The monks may hold a deity in regard, but more as a saint or exemplar of a particular virtue valued by the faith.

Druids are deityless, in a sense---they worship the force of nature in its myriad of forms.

I pretty much developed each main class with a religious bent (clerics, druids, monks, shamans, shujengas) to belong to a particular type of religion. The clerics worship the gods & the "ancients" (akin to the Titans of Greek myth & the Giants of Norse myth); the shujengas worship only the "ancients" (or great kami, as they call them); the druids worship the force of nature solely; the shamans are animists; & the monks are agnostics seeking enlightenment (sort of like Buddhism, IIRC). Sohei practice the same faith as monks; rangers follow the same faith as the druids; & paladins & blackguards worship certain gods.

 

[Serpenteye]

You could always base it on Buddhism or Shinto.

 

[William Ronald]

Actually, SerpentEye, I thought Jainism would be a better choice. There are deities associated with different forms of Buddhism and Shintoism.

Here is a link I found on Jainism. It is also useful for anyone doing a campaign setting based on the Indian subcontinent: http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/jainhlinks.html

 

[Serpenteye]

Well, I never really know as much as I like to think I do. But I think that the "deities" in buddhism are pretty un-deific, more like saints than deities. Buddha himself was never seen as a deity by any major branch of the religion.
I will gladly admit that I know nothing about jainism and that it may well be better suited for your needs. A more obscure religion might also be less recognizable by your players and therefore be percieved as more a more realistic part of the game-world.

 

[Kichwas]

Shinto in it's "default form" is all about the Kami which are in effect millions of deities, demigods, and saints.

Buddhism though in it's default form has no dieties and it actually a philosophy more so than a religion.

Buddha himself said that the question of the nature of the divine and divinity was no business of his nor anyone following his path to even waste time pondering over.

So any Buddhist who has any dieties in their buddhism is directly going against his teachings. Of course he also said alcohol was forbidden and everyone should be a vegitarian and that's not really gone over very well either.

Anyway...

So I wouldn't use Shinto as an example but I would Buddhism. I'd also consider Taoism as an example. Perhaps scientology as well thought the concept of aliens probably doesn't exist in most fantasy worlds. However you could easily switch the aliens out for Mind Flayers and end up with a faith that almost exactly resembles Scientology save that it might very well have concrete proof that it's views are justified.

 

[Rhialto]

I've got groups called "Heresiarchs" in my world, who don't worship gods, but instead worship concepts. But they're a minor force compared to your average church, and most of them are crazy to boot...