How many temples in a community?

[mr_accipitres]

I'm designing a small town of 2000 citizens and I'm curious how many temples there might be. Is there anything in a book that offers a baseline or does everyone kind of wing this type of thing? If so, how many people would be typically needed to support a temple?

Thanks for the feedback

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

It would probably only have a couple temples, if that (depending on the wealth and level of devotion of the population). Shrines and small chapels might be more prevalent.

 

[Arkhandus]

I figure that any large church or temple will have space and seating for maybe 100 people or so, perhaps 200 (unless we're talking a friggin' HUGE temple, which could seat maybe 1000 or so people like in an amphitheater). Assuming that maybe half the populace of a D&D town might be agnostic, atheistic, or just so passively devoted that they don't really attend services except perhaps on holidays........I'd suppose that there should be about 1 large temple (or the equivalent) per 300 people or so in a community. Again, assuming that there are about as many non-pious or minimally-pious people in town as there are pious individuals. Now, this number may be adjusted to have half as many temples, assuming that the temples hold, say, 2 regular services per day for different groups, i.e. an early morning service about an hour past dawn and another service about an hour or two before noon.

Smaller churches or temples might hold services for about 20-60 people each, so count every 4-8 small temples as 1 temple for purposes of the aforementioned determination. A small shrine or the like might serve about 5-20 people at a time.

I figure that any settlement of hundreds of people would have 1-10 temples (depending on how cosmopolitan and important the settlement is), generally around 1-4 though, plus around 1-20 shrines, generally perhaps 1-8 shrines.

These guesstimations assume that religion is fairly influential and popular in the setting or region.

 

[Umbran]

That'd depend on how much wealth the community has. A 2000 person agricutural community probably doesn't have much wealth, and probably can't support too many priests. Assuming a standard D&D polytheism, I'd probably put in one "church" dedicated to worship of any and all good or neutral gods. Or a few smaller shrines dedicated to individual deities that may not be tended by priests at all.

Of course, if a temple has outside financial support (a wealthy church or patron who pays for building and upkeep),then all bets are off.

 

[wingsandsword]

I'd say there can be a large number of temples in a community of 2,000.

I grew up in a small, rural agricultural town with a population of about 2,000. We had well over a dozen churches, maybe about a dozen if you excluded some that really were on the outskirts and had more worshippers from out in the county. You had two or three large mainstream churches with large attendances, a few independent smaller churches scattered around, one church on the edge of town that people treated with caution because it belonged to a controversial denomination, and a few tiny churches which were little more than a small shack where two or three dozen people would get together regularly and pray with a lone pastor.

The larger churches had regular attendance of well over 100 every Sunday, while the smaller ones may have only two or three dozen parishioners.

In a fantasy setting, this means that 2000 people can easily support a large number of temples to a significant number of deities, a small pantheon might even have a temple to each god.

In terms of Clergy, the standard demographics rules in the DMG (p 137-139) give a town of 2,000 people "Small Town" status, which means it's perfectly possible to have an 8th level cleric or druid, and around 3 dozen clergy in total (Clerics, Druids, Monks and Adepts), who can easily staff many temples (especially since only one or two are needed for smaller shrines and prayer houses).

 

[Li Shenron]

I would say one or two temples in such a community, I think that's not far off the numbers in real world. Perhaps you could add a small group of a secret cult, or druidic faith.

 

[Aaron L]

a wealthy church orpatron

You have no idea how long I sat here wondering what an orpatron was! Seriously, sometimes I just get really stupid.

 

[Hand of Evil]

That really depeands on your world and how the gods are worshipped, you may have all gods to be in one temple and then a few shrines for important ones based on the chief product of the town, god or mining, god of harvest, god of the sea, etc. Think about the nature of the town but for 2000 people, I would say one or two prime, and one or two secondary, and one hidden/forbidden for a total of 5 max.

 

[ephemeron]

There could be virtually any number, really. wingsandsword beat me to the observation that the number could be very large (the town nearest my parents' house had 1600 people as of the 2000 census and at least ten churches); but, to give a historical example at the other end, a city larger than that in Ancient Greece could well have only one or two temples and a handful of shrines, not all of which would have associated priesthoods -- there'd be a temple to the city's patron god somewhere near the middle of town, and maybe a temple to another god at the edge of the territory controlled by the town. Everybody in town would go to the same festivals at the same temples in the Greek city; in the southern US, people generally have a church that they go to, and very seldom set foot inside a different church.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Also see: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm