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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 1255662" data-attributes="member: 7464">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...</blockquote>

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