Faithless world, is it possible at low-levels

[Omegaxicor]

The world is complicated but I want the world to have lost faith in the gods and the player's need to restore it, if anyone has seen Wrath of the Titans (I have only seen the new one but I assume the original is the same) but I am curious how the world would be without religion, like the Dark Ages or different?

Drawing parallels with modern life isn't possible since we still have "religious institutions" and they have moved beyond that.

 

[Herzog]

I am running a similar campaign (no religious institutions) and must say I didn't really bother with radically changing the way the world works.

That said: there is a significant difference between standard D&D, our own world, and a D&D without any form of religion:
-in our own world, religious institutions have no other power than that derived from 'mundane' sources (money, political power, etc.)
-in standard D&D, religious institutions also wield power directly derived from the Gods: divine spells, turn undead, smite, etc.
-in a D&D setting without religion, the most likely scenario is that the place of the religious instutions has been taken by some other organisation.

Given their slightly related powers, Druidic organisations may have moved in or (in case you are also removing Druids and the like) Arcane spellcasters may have created an organisation that fulfills a similar role in society. If you feel that the divine power (like spellcasting) is not the key power for such organisations, we fall back on examples from our own world, where with the declining interest in the church is replaced by interest in large corporations, entertainment, etc.

How that influences society depends on what you choose, and how you fill in their replacement role.

Now, in case you also abandon the 'replacement' institution, you will probably get a society completely focussed on the individual, where self-gratification and personal power are the most important aspects in a persons life.

Kind of like the '90s.....

Good luck!

 

[Empirate]

Modern life is really the only possible parallel you can hope to understand well enough to DM. Close to all cultures that came before were pretty much focused on religious matters a lot. "Dark Ages" (a term I despise) usually refers to the early to high middle ages, a period whose culture was based on religion more than any other in European history.

That said, you could look at some non-Western, non-postmodern phenomenons (like certain philosophic schools in antiquity, or Cultural Revolution China), to see how a total lack or even aversion to religion might play out culturally.

 

[Omegaxicor]

That's an interesting point, I had thought to have a (forgive Warhammer 40k) a Plague of Disbelief, if Clerics can get their powers/spells and such by believing in "Change" rather than any particular god then the Gods mustn't exist and belief itself gives you the power...they are wrong of course and the Cleric is simply worshipping a god without a name (I don't want to go back to Tzeentch being the god of Change but I draw a blank when trying to come up with this on the spot) and he is giving the Cleric his powers, the Cleric's powers are drawn from the deity in the same way the deity's powers are drawn from the worshippers, no worshippers, no power, no Clerics.

By the time Clerics began to lose their powers Technology had advanced, Catapults and Dragons take the place of a Cleric, especially when Unicorns can heal...you see the road this leads to (extinct or angry/uncooperative Dragons and extinct Unicorns) but this is what the PCs have to deal with, whichever god they revere has lost most of his/her powers but the gods were holding something worse back and the player's job is get the gods their power back because catapults and mortals are no match for something the Gods must've united to imprison.

I assume the world would be more technologically minded, engineering, alchemy, etc. but I like the idea of your world where the "institutions" have some mundane power and maybe they are like corporations and noone really believes anymore, makes the PCs job a lot harder...

EDIT: yea, I don't know why I said that /facepalm but yea I mean the level technologically not the fact that EVERYONE was religious in the Dark Ages

EDIT 2: After some thought I like the idea of a Magic-Tech world, more science than magic but high powered until it starts to fall apart

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Things to consider that would be affected:

-People's motivation and purpose for things. If not in obedience or inspired by a deity's direction, then what instead?

-As already mentioned, religious organizations which carry influence and provide order for communities would be absent. What, if anything, would take it's place?

-Divine magic: completely absent, replaced by Druidic nature-based sources, or perhaps stolen like the Ur-priest?

-Why was the faith lost in the first place? Be sure to craft a backstory that makes sense. The history that has happened will shape the answers to many of your questions.

-Secret Cults: a useful theme in fantasy is allowing for the outcasts, the bitter, the vengeful, to find secret, hidden cults for power and revenge. Obscure deities provide an outlet for this. Would these rebels of society turn to gods anyway? Would faith cults pop up as some people did the counter-cultural thing of praying to gods?

-What are the gods doing about it? Are they cut of from the Material Plane, trapped on their outer planes? Are they weakened because they require faith to keep them going? Would they band together, Good and Evil, Law and Chaos, set aside their differences to restore things to the way they were? Would the weakened gods walk the Material Plane, seeking allies, trying to change the culture? Would they stay far away, hoping or looking for champions? Would some be angry and vengeful, trying to restore faith through fear?

-What about the gods that make the Material Plane their home? Fharlanghn, I know there are other more minor ones, are they still around and wandering the world?

-Is the world itself affected? Has nature really been maintained by nature deities? Are birthrates affected by a fertility god? Is civilization maintained by the oversight of Lawful beings?

-What happens when mortals die? Where do they go? Is death itself maintained by gods who oversee that portfolio?

-Planar travel in general, is this affected? How have the outer planes been affected by the change?

Finally, chat with [MENTION=6669384]Greenfield[/MENTION]. He's got a long-running campaign where the people have been severed from the gods, and he and his players have come up with their own answers to how people survive.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Double post, how does this happen?

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

-Triple post, could someone delete this?

 

[Omegaxicor]

I remember reading somewhere there were signs of the apocalypse, like a meteor shower or animals going insane, it was in one of the books an old 'lost' friend had because I have looked through all of the books I have, briefly, but can't find it. Does anyone know what books they were from?

EDIT: @RUMBLETiGER wow, where to start, the triple posting is due to the problems they have been having with the server, I assume, because I have had trouble with the server acknowledging that I am logged in, it says I am and then I try to post and it says "The Token has expired" or "You do not have permission to do that" or some other pointless message...yours is arguably better, at least you post

Now to answer your many and thought provoking questions

1) Motivation for doing things, Survival? or maybe Money...without divine magic to heal them, living becomes difficult.

2) Schools of Magic take the place of Churches, people hunger to know more because the more they know and understand the better they can control their environment.

3) Completely gone, maybe some traces but Druids are as desolated without Obad-hai or Ehlonna as Clerics

4) Why, that's a problem at the moment, I am thinking that they believed like the Ur-Priests that they didn't need to worship the gods to have divine powers (it does say in the PHB that "A cleric can worship an ideal rather than a god") or maybe technology caused people to think that they didn't need divine powers, and that gods didn't affect anything. I was thinking that this Plague of Unbelief (which wasn't what I remember reading when I looked it back up) might be a symptom of the coming doom to ensure the gods cannot stop it. I need to work on that, I know

5) Secret Cults, I don't know, I guess so but not enough to power the pantheon

6) The Gods have always been banished from by worlds, if they can walk among their faithful then they are demigods and not gods, but they have sent signs and have sent visions but without the general faith that is common in most worlds they are unable to act, unable to act causes less people to believe in them...

7) see above

8&9) Nature grows naturally but less and less "vibrant" ex-druids have spoken out that Nature feels the coming doom earlier than Man (Man is all sentient Humanoids) and is trying to communicate this but since something has stopped Obad-Hai and Ehlonna from communicating and prevents the use of spells like "Speak to Animals/Nature" then there is only so much Druids can gleam. The Dead are drawn to the Astral Plane to wander for all time without being guided to their resting place, Demon and Celestial forces are taking notice but haven't done anything...yet

10) Planar Travel is unaffected, I think you asked because in most games the deities exist ON the outer planes, in my games the gods exist in another dimension which cannot be reached by mortals and have no physical body unless they choose one.

as for @Greenfield I would like to see what he has come up with

EDIT 2: yea the more I think of it the more I like the idea of it being a sign of the coming doom, and some have begun to notice the effects, less being born into each generation (after 150 years there have been what, 5 generations) but too few seem to think it is a problem, Kinda like Global Warming in many respects

 

[TerraDave]

...so, like Dragonlance?

 

[Omegaxicor]

I have never played/read anything about Dragonlance, if that is the same then yes

EDIT: reading through the, limited, materials I can find, I don't see any major correlation, if you could be more specific?