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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MichaelSomething" data-source="post: 4614318" data-attributes="member: 51168">Okay, I'm playing a cleric in a 4E campaign.  The thing is I'm trying to create a unique/new god for my character to worship.  I written up some stuff so far but I would like some good feedback and suggestions.  In case your wondering, I did use the format from the Core Beliefs article series from Dragon Magazine.  The questions I am hoping you would answer are this... 1.  BOB is a filler name but what would be a good real name for a god of fear?2.  Is there any information missing?  Is there anything else I need to add after I finish the myths?  What else should I add?3.  Any good sources you would recommend?  Anyone know good fear related quotes?         BOB Summary Unaligned  BOB is the god of fear. BOB is responsible for the fear we all fear. He supports the presence of fear in many situations, from the “fight or flight” response every animal has to a person running for their life. Few are devote worshippers but many offer prayers when they wish to strike fear into their enemies or wish to be free from their fears. Three popular phrases of BOB are this: -Fear is a perfectly natural feeling. Everyone becomes afraid sometimes. - Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to <a href="http://www.enworld.org/wiki/Anger" target="_blank">anger</a>, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.(Yoda in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999))  -Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. (Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, Pt. III, l. 66 (1711) ) Description BOB is the ancient deity of fear. While many gods are generalists, BOB specializes in one thing; fear. To understand BOB, we must understand fear. So that brings up the question: what is fear? Ultimately, fear is a survival mechanism. The mouse that is afraid of predators and runs away from them is more likely to survive then the mouse that is not afraid and does not run away. Fear forces creatures to either attack or retreat immediately because standing around and thinking about your options would get you killed because you were too slow to react.  Beings with intelligence did things with fear that BOB never imagined. They used it to created conflicts with different groups. Others used fear to control other people’s actions. Fear was used to make money, defeat enemies, and even bring pleasure to those being scared. Fear was being used in so many ways.  The story of Fear is the story of BOB. BOB was originally a neutral good deity in the beginning of time. He would implant fear into everyone so that they would avoid dangerous situations. As time passed, people began to use fear for their benefit. Instead of being outraged that fear was being misused, he became intrigued by its new applications. In fact, one day he encouraged a follower to become a serial killer in order to spread fear. That was the day he became unaligned.  Relationships with Other Religions BOB is friemies with all the other gods. All gods have reasons to both love and hate BOB. Many gods can benefit from fear; weather it be an evil god striking fear into his enemies or a good god gaining from his patrons’ fears of things he oppose. However, fear is not always a benefit. Fear can be used to drive followers away from their gods as well as towards them. Also, BOB knows what the gods fear the most, giving him an unwelcomed edge in divine interactions.  Holy Text These two books contain the tools and information all clerics of BOB should know. The Panphobian (The fear of everything): This book is a collection of scary stories from many authors. It contains everything from old superstitions to moderns tales from popular bards. What all the stories have in common is that they are all scary. Almost all clerics have a copy of this book and either read from it or recite one of its selections whenever a scary story is required or called for. There are generally two version of this book. The modern versions contain stories that will scare people and is the version many clerics have. This book is regularly updated to add new stories and get rid of old stories that no longer scare people. The master version contains all the stories that have ever been in The Book of Scary Stories. Since there have been so many scary stories, it is actually a series of books. Each stories also has a historical section after it, explaining things like when the story was popular, who wrote it and why, and why the story was scary. Master versions are usually found in temple and libraries. The only thing I am afraid of is fear: (from Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington, published 1888) The goal of this book is to explain and examine fear, not to cause it. This book is a collection of essays, stories, and studies about fear. For all intents and purposes, this book is the manual on fear and on being a cleric of BOB. The book covers many topics including information about BOB himself, how to help people overcome their fears, using fear mongering to control people, and why fear exists among many others.  A Cleric’s Role Clerics of BOB are uncommon, making them tough but not impossible to find. Many of the young, and some of the old, are travelers since unfamiliarity is an ally of fear. There are very few actual temples of BOB. Many large cities and some small villages do have outposts and offices where one can find a cleric of BOB. Most clerics are trained via a master/apprentice system where a new acolyte follow and learn from an older, more experienced cleric for a number of years before striking out on his own.  The Clerics of BOB do many things. They can focus on the healing arts like many other clerics since healers are always welcomed. They can be counselors who help people overcome their fears. They can be consultants to people who wish to use fear mongering. They are also natural experts on physiological warfare. Clerics of BOB also make great adventurers. In fact, practically all clerics of BOB were adventurers at some point in their lives. Adventuring is an attractive prospect since the clerics of BOB are natural travelers and adventuring allows them to bear witness to all the scary stuff of the world.  The Clerics of BOB are generally free to do what they wish as long as fear is involved. The one thing they are share is a general creepiness they all posses. Being creepy is one of the requirements of being a cleric of BOB and his clerics spend many years learning how to be creepy. Every 10-100 years, the most powerful clerics assemble together in order to discuss amendments to The Panphobianamong other things.  A Paladin’s Role If a cleric of BOB is uncommon, then a Paladin of Bob is rare. A Paladin of BOB is very unlikely but not unwelcomed among his followers. After all, what’s scarier then a person who can beat the crude out of you? Those who become paladins are usually devote followers who are more skilled in melee combat then they are at the magical aspect. Paladins whom BOB called into service are the rarest kind. There is a trend among Paladins to create fear via prowess on the battlefield. Holidays Scaring Day: Scaring Day is the biggest holiday to worshippers of BOB. At the very least, this is the most popular holiday to those who are not followers of BOB. This day, for all intents and purposes, is a lot like Halloween without the Trick or Treating. It is common practice for people to play pranks on each other with the goal of scaring them. This makes it a popular holiday for Halflings, Gnomes, and other tricksters. Clerics of BOB create things like “Haunted” Houses where people can go to get scared in a safe environment. Many young boys go through it in order to prove themselves and young couples go in order to have an excuse to be very close to each other.  Myths Every Religion has myths. This one is no different.  BOB Cleric NPCs Here are some Bob Cleric NPCs that you can use. They can serve many purposes like contacts, advisors, quest givers, or villains, foes, and antagonist. Nido Sancrek (chaotic lowish level cleric/bard) is a playwright of a large city. He is becoming a hot sensation due to his new play series “Blood Fest,” a horror series that depicts the adventures of a madman who brutally hack apart hot young people. Nido has been known to use divine/arcane fueled illusions and well as real blood and organs to create a truly scary performance. Critics may distain him as simply relying on gore for shock value but his plays always draws steady crowds. Obviously, Nido can serve as a contact in a city’s entertainment district. You could also involve Nido by having him ask for the PC assistance in “research” for his next play. This research can be in many forms like an interview to learn more about monsters and villains or having them be consultants in how to hack things apart. If you wish to use him as a villain, those organs he uses for those plays could always come from an unwilling subject. Lelia Fosnac (neutral evilish mid level cleric) is first and foremost, a propagandist. She specializes in spreading rumors of dangerous things and is very good at it. In fact, she can cause panics in entire city population, even if the city is in reality very safe and secure. Her efforts has caused some locations to increase penalties for crimes and reduce rights for people accused of crimes even though those areas has decreased criminal activity. She does this simply by searching for the rare hideous, gossip worthy crime and keeps talking about it until everyone knows about it. Lelia even manages to make a good living doing this, as she can easily get a high ranking position because she “exposes” an “upcoming” crime wave.  If your thinking this NPC would make a good villain, you would be right. However, if your party discovers that she is a cleric of BOB, then they can always blackmail her because that’s something she prefers be kept secret. Lelia will also assist those who compensate her for her efforts. She can be useful if your party wants to fight its own propaganda war. Then again, they may need information on a city’s underworld activities or even a good spokeswoman. Lelia could even promote a villain to appear to be very dangerous so that the party looks extra heroic when they slay that villain.</blockquote>

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