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Message: <blockquote data-quote="vulcan_idic" data-source="post: 4103172" data-attributes="member: 19615">My Points of Light SettingIn my Points of Light setting Good and Evil have had their great titanic struggle and it is over.  Good lost evil won.All of the good deities have been either utterly destroyed beyond any hope of recall or imprisoned/enslaved by evil dieties.  Tiamat has imprisoned/enslaved Bahamut, Boccob was utterly annihilated, Gruumsh has imprisoned/enslaved Corellon and is torturing him, and so on.Taking advantage of the chaos of the titanic battle one of Hexors underlings, Bane, rose up to slay him and take on his Godhood.  So powerful is the new comer that he rapidly rose through the ranks to become *the* dominant deity of the pantheon, ruling all others with an iron fist.The outward aspect of Bane's dogma is one of rightful authority, of order and structure supporting the few with power so that they might govern effectively for one and all.  Of course he's really a god of Tyranny but that doesn't make a real good "sales pitch" to the common folk.  All deities have similar outwards shows related to/promoting yet simultaneously hiding their true agendas.  Bane is spreading his church (and to a lesser extent the churches of associated deities who bend to his will and acknowledge his lordship over all the Gods) like a wildfire in a manner not unlike Stargate's Ori - the carrot and stick approach.  Believe and follow me and I will protect you, raise you up and make you truly powerful, defending you from all those evil people and monster who desire to do you harm, only I can save you (kind of a mafiaesque protection scheme, basically dreawing on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory" target="_blank">Terror Management Theory</a>) being the carrot and the threat of utter destruction if the worship of Bane (et al) is refused being the stick.In this grim situation some people find themselves to be heroes, there are the PCs, who decide to take a stand and go out into the world to try to change things for the better in whatever small way they can who are certainly heroes and spend much time in the spotlight.  Then there are the heores who are out of the spotlight, but great heroes nonetheless, who not unlike Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger, are the friends and family of the PCs who stayed behind hiding the PCs absence from the Banites/Jacobeans/Nazis/Black Riders as long as possible to give the PC the greatest possible chance to do good in the world, undetected for as long as possible, knowing full well what will happen to them when their deceit is inevitably discovered.  It is the heroic sacrifices of these off-screen heroes that harden the wills of the PCs to do what must be done for the greater good, to ensure the sacrifices of their loved ones were not in vain.I imagine starting such a campaign in a frontier village which has just converted to the worship of Bane, clerics come to minister to the people and soldiers of Bane come to protect them and train them militarily so that they might destroy the infidels who refuse the worship of Bane.  One citizen, a town militia man or woman, cannot stand what s/he sees, so leaving their spouse and children behind goes to fight the evil they see frustrated that their neighbors cannot pierce Bane's lies as the PC can.  Once the Banites discover the PC's absence they send an emissary to bring them in - perhaps a cleric of Bane, or a Warlord in Bane's army - who in their investigations comes to see the truth of Bane and turns against their deity and joins forces with their quarry...Our PC's strive to become thorns in the sides of the Banites and their allies all the while striving to avoid detection by the enemy forces who far outnumber them.  The cleric/warlord perhaps retains the dressings of a Banite cleric/warlord trying to still pass as one and getting similar armor to dress the fighter in (a la Han and Luke on the first Death Star in A New Hope) and simultaneously seeking allies.As they strive to find allies and fight the bad guys identity is important - hiding their identity from foes, while being able to reveal it convincingly to potential allies before the allies kill them thinking they're bad guys, hoping the potential allies are allies and not someone who will turn around and turn them into the Banites (Lando at Cloud City?)That is the basic sketch of my world concept and the basis of my first adventures.  WHat do you think?</blockquote>

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