Funky Religion Idea

[Dogbrain]

Something I'm throwing out for people to use if it amuses them:

Presume a fairly theocratic set of countries or country. The major religion thereof recognizes the deities of the nearest PC "good guy" religion, but not in a way that most PCs would like. Essentially, they're Gnostics.

Their doctrine is that all of the "gods" of this world are merely lesser beings, trapped in and tied to a limited sphere of existence that includes the material world. They incorporate the PCs' religion(s) creation story(ies) thus:

Yes, the "gods" in question did "create" the world, but they did so after glimpsing, from far away, a distorted vision of the "real" reality, the truly spiritual reality. They populated it with soul-less beings, since these "gods" didn't know any better.

At some time after this, true souls became aware of this poor, crippled, half-universe. They were then induced to enter it by one or more of the following methods:

1. An evil spiritual being tricked or overpowered them.
2. They were forced in by the "massive suckage" of this fake universe. Substitute some other mystical gobbletigook for "massive suckage".
3. Even though they were true spiritual beings, they were not infallable, so they mistook the soul-less beings for entrapped spiritual beings and got themselves stuck in this fake universe trying to rescue them.

So, the current situation is that we have these true souls that are trapped in these icky flesh bodies. Unfortunately, simply dying won't free a soul, since it only enters another icky flesh body by being re-entombed and born. However, a great spiritual force of Wisdom sent forth Emanations to help. These Emanations are far more powerful than the hapless souls trapped, so they are not themselves trapped. The Emanations left very important knowledge as part of the rescue operation. This knowledge is the foundation of the religion.

1: The world is inherently evil/fake/icky and can never be fixed, no matter what.
2: The majority of "people" are soul-less entities.
3: Some people actualy have real souls.
4: Some people are intermediate, having pseudo-souls (the best that the false gods could do as a copy after seeing real souls).
5: The soul-less simply cease to exist when they die. They have no hope.
6: The ensouled are doomed to return to icky flesh bodies. They are likewise unaware of their miserable status.
7: The pseudo-souled are extinguished when they die--but they might have some hope
8: It is possible to tell if somebody is an awakened or partially awakened true soul but impossible to tell if somebody has no soul, has a pseudo-soul, or possesses a soul but it is ignorant.
9: The ultimate goal is to rescue all souls. At this time, the pseudo-souls will be able to "expand" and be permitted to occupy a pseudo-paradise (good enough for them, they wouldn't be able to tell it from a genuine paradise) when they die.
10: Eventually, all the pseudo-souls can also be sent to their pseudo-paradise, at which point the soul-less will no longer be kept back and will spontaneously destroy the fake universe (and themselves), erasing the error.


So, how does this translate to activity in a fantasy world?

This religion has determined that casting Divine Magic of 5th or higher level is proof that a being has a soul. Beings that cast Arcane Magic are either pseudo-souled or not yet sufficiently awakened. However, if one casts Divine Magic but not within the hierarchy of this religion (which accepts any Divine casters except for Druidic types), one has been led astray and must be set aright or "freed for a new cycle". Full enlightenment (and freedom) only occurs if one has never had sex, is able to cast Epic-level Divine magic (within the hierarchy, not as some worshipper of a false god), and starves oneself to death in an elaborate and lengthy ritual of progressive purification and abstention.

False gods are just fine for the soul-less and pseudo-souled. While it is not official doctrine, it is a general belief that those of "coarse demeanor" are soul-less, and those drawn to warfare without learning the ways of Divine magic at all are at best pseudo-souled.

When entering this realm, PCs will find it cordial to their beliefs but a little odd...

 

[MerakSpielman]

I like this.

Unfortunately for the religion itself, it's not the kind of thing to inspire the masses...

It reminds me of Mahayana Buddism, the original religion taught by the Buddha. It taught that the only way to reach enlightenment was to abandon your mundane existance and live as a poor monk/begger, or in a monestary of like-minded people. Even then, if you failed to reach enlightenment, you weren't any better off when you died. This was not a religion that inspired the masses to sign up, since they had to leave so much behind, and there was no gaurentee of success. Buddhism quickly modified itself (after getting kicked out of India), adding provisions for incremental (several reincarnations) progress toward enlightenment, so any measure of improvement, even while living your ordinary lives, was progress in the right direction. Eventually Pure Land Buddhism, the most popular "people's choice" version, came along, saying that if you followed the tenets well enough, you would be reborn in a special incarnation in a special universe, "halfway" to enlightenment, wherein you were assured an incarnation with no temptations. It was gaurenteed to be your final non-enlightened incarnation. People signed on in droves.

Now lets think of your religion. How would they gain a power foothold. Why would people have any incentive to sign up for this religion, or believe in it in any way? Why would it not wither out of existance from lack of new recruits? A religion that teaches that most people are souless flesh-automatons doesn't exactly inspire people to join. In fact, it might inspire people to ostrasize or outcast members of the sect.

Given this, how would this religion have become the theocracy of a country? There are 2 major possibilities:
1) Modification of the religion. A watered-down, "for-the-masses" version of the religion could be fabricated that gives hope to the soul-less that they might one day have souls of their own. This could be true or it could be a lie to keep them quiescent.

2) Conquest. You amass power, influence, and money, hire yourselves an army that could care less what you believe, and tell people you're in charge now. If they disagree, you kill them. Soon, only people who agree are left. This is a time-honored technique.

But wait! The theocrats in charge of the country you posit allow the soul-less masses to follow the lesser, "false" gods. The question is: were these religions present when the Gnostics arrived? Did they resist? Why were they allowed to remain? Are they subjects of or beholden to the new religion? Were they, perhaps, introduced later? Either way, the Gnostics seem to allow them as a sort of "opiate of the masses" to keep order. They probably plan on having them removed eventually.

This religion would probably promote slavery, since those people aren't really people anyway.

My thoughts are running dry...