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<blockquote data-quote="dcollins" data-source="post: 2736945" data-attributes="member: 876">Another thing about Lovecraftian magic is that I almost want to say that divine magic doesn't exist. Standard practiced religion doesn't seem to have any place in the Lovecraft worldview. The people with power are combing through old texts (aka wizards), or making personal deals with powerful entities (aka sorcerers, per 3.0 DMG Variant: Learning New Spells).Except that as I say that I can find evidence of priests, temples, etc., in Lovecraft's Dreamworld. You've got &quot;the bearded priests of Nasht and Kaman-Thah, (in their) cavern-temple with its pillar of flame...&quot; (Kadath, p. 2-3). Randolph Carter tries praying in the first page of Kadath, but is unanswered. There's a temple and high priest in Celephais, and &quot;all the Great Ones are mentioned in diurnal prayers&quot; (Kadath p. 66).So perhaps in a quasi-Dreamworld campaign, there are priests and temples of the gods. However, they're don't ever seem to be common worshippers around... perhaps worship is turned-around more like the ancient style: temples are not evangelistic, looking for new followers, but rather insular, keeping secrets and performing rituals, allowing only select chosen worshippers to be part of the inner workings.Edit: Although now that I think of it, none of the characters identified as &quot;priests&quot; evidence any special powers (other than simple knowledge). I wonder if there are any examples of that?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="dcollins, post: 2736945, member: 876"] Another thing about Lovecraftian magic is that I almost want to say that divine magic doesn't exist. Standard practiced religion doesn't seem to have any place in the Lovecraft worldview. The people with power are combing through old texts (aka wizards), or making personal deals with powerful entities (aka sorcerers, per 3.0 DMG Variant: Learning New Spells). Except that as I say that I can find evidence of priests, temples, etc., in Lovecraft's Dreamworld. You've got "the bearded priests of Nasht and Kaman-Thah, (in their) cavern-temple with its pillar of flame..." (Kadath, p. 2-3). Randolph Carter tries praying in the first page of Kadath, but is unanswered. There's a temple and high priest in Celephais, and "all the Great Ones are mentioned in diurnal prayers" (Kadath p. 66). So perhaps in a quasi-Dreamworld campaign, there are priests and temples of the gods. However, they're don't ever seem to be common worshippers around... perhaps worship is turned-around more like the ancient style: temples are not evangelistic, looking for new followers, but rather insular, keeping secrets and performing rituals, allowing only select chosen worshippers to be part of the inner workings. Edit: Although now that I think of it, none of the characters identified as "priests" evidence any special powers (other than simple knowledge). I wonder if there are any examples of that? [/QUOTE]

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