Input wanted: What made the gods mad?

[sword-dancer]

The Church tried a blasphemic Rite tocall up the powers of old times in dire need, maybe not knowing the`re tapping in an power of Entities so old and twisted, that evilisn`t an fitting description.
So the gods must stop, circumvent etc these power or lose ... something,

or the chruch tried an forbidden Ritual and the gods manipulatde the outcome,like instead of calling the Champions of the old days back the graves opened and the undead roamed free, and the clergy(the few that survived the ritual) had no longer working powers.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Sounds intriguing. I would assume there is more about the Far Realm in the Righteous book?

Actually, the Far Relam is D&D's take on the whole Call of Cthulhu thing. It was first, afaik, introduced in Gates of Firestorm Peak, a 2nd ed module that took advantage of the various Player's Options. It's briefly detailed in Manual of the Planes, has a scattered of references here and there, and has a Dragon Article coming out that's supposed to clock in at some odd what, 10K words?

 

[Maerdwyn]

One of the gods is quite insane. The continent he has dominion over has been remade into his vision of beauty, festering corpses, broken land, and all. The god loves his people, he just doesn't show it in the same way other gods do.

 

[Mallus]

Simple, the ancient empire unlocked the key to divinity and threatened to make their chosen more powerful and become the new gods.

I like that, probably because I used something similiar in an old 2nd campaign...

The gods of that world, called The Seventeen, were the last terrestrial members of an eons-old race (the forerunners of the present-day humans). At some point in their development their culture split between those who left to explore other space-time continua, and those who stayed on their homeworld and "bonded" themselves to the "soul" of the planet, or to abstract concepts --a la Platonic Forms-- becoming immortal sort-of dieties.

One of them, Philon, who styled himself the Keeper of Secrets, regulated the development of the world's younger races, protecting them from the acquisition of 'dangerous information'. For a time he lived in a fortress/research lab/deathtrap called the Tomb of Secrets. For some reason known only to him, perhaps boredom, he abandonned the Tomb, leaving it guarded by sentient constructs and deformations to the very fabric of reality (ever read the old sf story "Rogue Moon"??)

Millenia later the mages and sages of the human Jengara Empire discovered the Tomb of Secrets. Lacking any signifigant enemy states, the Empire devoted what became 1000 years to plumbing its secrets, losing generation after generation of their best and brightest to its lethal defenses. But eventually they learned enough not only to create a 1000 year long magical empire, but that the gods were once as they, mere mortal, albeit from a civilization a million years more developed. Seeing The Seventeen as their only rivals, the Empire began drawing up plans to eliminate them, by reversing the ritual that created them.

The Gods eventually took notice, though oddly, Philon cared little for his former role parenting the younger races and gave little help. The goddess Ilraeade took the guise of a mortal sorceress and joined with a band of rebels who opposed the ever-increasing tyranny (and power) of the Empire. From the distant, garden province of Dalia they waged a succesful war against the Empire, during which time Ilraeade, now called Ilraan, fell in love with the rebel leader, Kel Jarreth. Which was the rebellion's, and the Empire's undoing.

The rebellion carried the war to the Imperial capital at Ranneth. In the final battle Kel Jarreth was killed. In her grief --and madness-- Ilraeade unveiled her full powers, reducing Ranneth and the surrounding plains --and both armies-- to molten rock. She then spent days scouring the subsurface, completely destroying the watertable, and the entire region became a desert later called The Scorch, which still grows larger every year, depite the attempts by the other gods to "heal" the land.

OK, so that was long, and its not really a whole continent, but I really enjoyed my little trip down campaign-memory-lane.

Now if I can only remember the legend of the god who throw a ICBM-like spear at a continent he was mad at...

 

[Insight]

You know, there are about as many ways to address this question as there are different types of deities and pantheons. I think a wise first step is to decide on the cosmology of your campaign world. One important part of that is to decide the nature of deities and divinity in the cosmology. Do the gods participate in the affairs or mortals? If so, how often, and are there any limitations on what they can/will do? Do gods respond to mortals' queries and requests? Do the gods require regular sacrifices or other tasks in order to maintain order, provide a bountiful harvest, etc.

Now keep in mind that whatever you decide on these issues, it may have been different in the past, ie, before they 'got mad' and changed things.

For example, let's say that your deities were once very influential in the lives of mortals, and required lots of sacrifices and such, but in exchange for those sacrifices, mortals were given great boons (harvests, good weather, etc). But one particular mortal came along and demanded too much, or perhaps convinced mortals that the gods were not needed to accomplish these things. The gods became angry and decided not to help mortals anymore, or hurt them or the world (or both!) in some permanent way.

These decisions, of course, affect the rest of your campaign design to a certain extent, so you may want to consider where you want this to go before making any final decisions on the nature of the gods, etc.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Now if I can only remember the legend of the god who throw a ICBM-like spear at a continent he was mad at...

"Lo, and behold, there came a day when the lord of Trickle Down Theory said unto his mortal enemies, "Tear down that wall" and his cunning mate cried out, "Just Say not To Drugs." and when there was little comprehenesion by those who stood against him, oh did that missile fly..."

 

[Mallus]

"Lo, and behold, there came a day when the lord of Trickle Down Theory said... "

To my complete shame, I never quite thought of it like that... I like your version better.

 

[diaglo]

the world was run by a bunch of goodly gods and the things they said and did weren't questioned by the masses.

in fact their rules were looked upon as good.

but the gods were poor managers. and memos or addendums they wrote were released as a law too. some of which weren't fully thought out or tested. so inconsistencies emerged. rules contradicted other rules. soon there was chaos.

and the gods became angry. they turned their backs on the masses. for surely it was the masses who had caused the chaos and not the omnipotent gods.

the chaos ruled. an entire generation was lost. and the next one tainted by the aftermath.

new rules were written. even more complicated rules. rules that were free for others to interpret and abuse. they called these rules the SRD.

and now you know...

d02 is the devil.

 

[fredramsey]

There is mistletoe hanging off the back of my belt.

You know what to do.

the world was run by a bunch of goodly gods and the things they said and did weren't questioned by the masses.

in fact their rules were looked upon as good.

but the gods were poor managers. and memos or addendums they wrote were released as a law too. some of which weren't fully thought out or tested. so inconsistencies emerged. rules contradicted other rules. soon there was chaos.

and the gods became angry. they turned their backs on the masses. for surely it was the masses who had caused the chaos and not the omnipotent gods.

the chaos ruled. an entire generation was lost. and the next one tainted by the aftermath.

new rules were written. even more complicated rules. rules that were free for others to interpret and abuse. they called these rules the SRD.

and now you know...

d02 is the devil.

 

[WayneLigon]

From the first Greatwood handout:

Ten years ago, this was the furthest northern exploration of the Heron Empire. A large and well-run state, the Empire spread from the great peaks of the north to a vast shining sea to the south; it was home to hundreds of thousands of people. The great capital city of Herath was hundreds of miles south on the shore of the sea. All that came to ruin in three years.
Word of what happened has been confused, because there were very few people that came north to tell the tale and very few who venture south ever return. Divination by the Keepers of the Faith has revealed this to us: The Emperor’s son had become base and decadent, and wished to take a second bride when the first bore him no children. Informed by the Keepers of the Faith that he had a good and loving wife, and so they could not bless a second union, the son took the royal staff of office and struck down the Hierophant, saying that Men ruled in Herath, not the gods.

The Hierophant, as he lay dying, said that then it would be so.

During the great spring festival of the Daughter, a strange ship came into the harbor of Herath bearing a cargo of dead men and gold. Authorities recognized what happened, but the lure of gold proved too strong for the baseborn. While the ship was being readied for burning, many foreign coins started to appear in the marketplaces. A few days after that, the first deaths began. The Crying Plague could lie dormant fro weeks, then kill in days, causing the person’s blood to erupt from his eyes until he died. As if that was not enough, sometimes then the pale dead would rise and seek blood from the living.

People flocked to the temples, crying for the gods to save them. And the gods were silent, for did not Men rule in Herath?

People from all over the Empire were in the capitol for the festival and when they fled, they took the plague with them. It bloomed like a vast red flower in the heartland, following the roads and rivers to even the most isolated parts of the Empire. The great cities fell first, then the churches, then the villages began to die. Trade stopped, cities disbanded and all the works of the Heron became as nothing and dust. For three years the plague killed, until the last of the royal line of Heron died. Then the gods relented and held their hand once more over the people.