D&D 5E Need advice: Making Religions, Not Just "Here's The Gods. Pick One"

[Fergurg]

I want to create religious systems and doctrines within D&D, and stay out of the traditional pantheon systems.

There will, of course, be the gods around, but a lot of it feels like comic book hero discussions. "Which is better: Lathander or Pharasma?" I want to move from there to developing actual doctrines, especially in a world where all of the gods can exist and be real, or just some of them, or even none of them.

Any advice?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I want to create religious systems and doctrines within D&D, and stay out of the traditional pantheon systems.

There will, of course, be the gods around, but a lot of it feels like comic book hero discussions. "Which is better: Lathander or Pharasma?" I want to move from there to developing actual doctrines, especially in a world where all of the gods can exist and be real, or just some of them, or even none of them.

Any advice?

Man, too much.

One thing you might want to do: start with the suffering. Gods are important in places where there's uncertainty, and uncertainty becomes important in places that can cause a lot of pain and suffering. This is why you have gods of agriculture, of the hunt, of death and life - these are beings you can ask to give you more certainty over some very important things in your life.

So, like, if your campaign world involves an army of orcs beating down the walls of civilization, you might just have a war god around locally who is the most important - a god of civilization and protection who stands as a bullwark of protection against a barbarian army. Perhaps gods of stonework and law become key in this society (things that spare them from the orc hoard outside the massive walls). If it's a walled city, consider gods of disease/healing, and trade/famine as well.

Alternately, if your campaign world is, I dunno, about a necromancer causing a global ice age, you could think of gods of life and fire and light vs. gods of death and cold and darkness. Agricultural gods and gods of the wilderness might be in opposition.

That, at least, can give you a start, and anchor your pantheon in the stuff your campaign world really cares about, rather than going for just a big list of assorted things that, for some reason, have a divine watcher, but nobody really knows/cares/etc.

 

[zeldafan42]

I can sympathize with this post as turning the deities of my homebrew setting into actual religions is something I've given a lot of thought to.

One thing I find helps is to come up with actual myths and stories that followers of that religion might tell.

One of the deities I've come up with is an Elven God of Death. Rather than most deities of death, he's not seen as dark or evil but rather a necessary part of the cycle of life. He is not just the God of Death, but also God of the Hunt and God of Winter. However, Winter was not an original part of his portfolio. Legend has it that his wife, the Goddess of Life and Growth had begun a season of growth that was unending. At first, the elves praised it. Fruit grew in abundance and they knew no hunger. But soon the plant life began to grow out of control. Weeds grew just as rapidly as crops. Ferns and other undergrowth grew huge, making hunting difficult as the animals could hide more easily. The warm weather caused bugs to multiply in greater numbers, including things like mosquitoes and ticks that spread disease. So the elves prayed to the God of Death. Hearing their prayers, he went on a great hunt, eventually tracking down a great elemental of ice. He slew it with a single arrow, and from its body crafted blizzards and snow storms, and brought them to the world, and thus he made winter. The moral of the story is that growth unchecked can be dangerous too, and that all things must die to allow the new growth to find its own place. It's a guiding tenant of his followers that "All things must die" and more than anything else his order abhors those that seek to usurp the natural order of life and death, especially sentient undead such as liches and vampires.

Myths are tools that real world religions use to teach lessons and impart morals, so designing them for your deities can do wonders at shaping their dogma.

 

[pukunui]

For the religions in my homebrew, I borrowed heavily from other fantasy worlds, particularly Game of Thrones and Dragon Age. This enabled me to lift large chunks of detail written about those settings' religions without having to think it all up myself.

 

[Li Shenron]

I want to create religious systems and doctrines within D&D, and stay out of the traditional pantheon systems.

There will, of course, be the gods around, but a lot of it feels like comic book hero discussions. "Which is better: Lathander or Pharasma?" I want to move from there to developing actual doctrines, especially in a world where all of the gods can exist and be real, or just some of them, or even none of them.

Any advice?

You have a HUGE range of possibilities!

Why not taking inspirations from real-world religions? Check out from Wikipedia bits of knowledge about Aztec/Maya/Incas religion, ancient Greek or Egyptian or Indian, Chinese and Japanese folklore etc. Then change their names to suit your setting, and freely take only what you find interesting, adding your own twists.

You keep everything fuzzy about what is really true and what is just belief, so if you are accidentally inconsistent during the game you can blame the fantasy world itself

 

[delericho]

Any advice?

Start by thinking about how important an element you want those religions to be in your campaign, and also how important you expect them to be to your players. Because if the answer to either of those is "not very", you probably don't want to put in an enormous amount of work detailing stuff nobody will ever actually use much!

I want to create religious systems and doctrines within D&D, and stay out of the traditional pantheon systems.

You might want to pick up the 2nd Ed book, "The Complete Priest's Handbook" which details several options. It's one of the more useful books on the subject. Also, Sean Reynolds did a series about the Greyhawk deities in late editions of the print Dragon, and then a very similar series about the Pathfinder deities in Paizo's Adventure Path product - I found that very useful not only for detailing those parts of the world but also for establishing a format for how they might be detailed. So you might want to hunt down one of those issues to use as an example.

One final thing: don't include a God of War. At least, if you want your PC Clerics to choose any other patron deity... (Actually, the same can be true of any system where there is a clear 'right' choice. Better to make all the religions at least somewhat attractive but also manifestly flawed in some measure as well.)

 

[Herobizkit]

Keep in mind that the Gods that have already been established are relevant to the Lore of the world(s) in which they exist.

Some things Gods tend to have in common:
* they look like the people who worship them
* they're called upon when people don't know how to or can't do something themselves.
* Cultures value certain concepts over others, but many cultures share certain concepts. Fertility/agriculture, sun/moon.

 

[Imaculata]

I spend a lot of time writing out how different cultures in my world worship the same gods in different ways. I put a lot of thought into what the statues of these gods look like from culture to culture, how they pray to these statues, and what religious festivals may be associated with the religion. What role does religion have in every day life? Do people keep miniature shrines or statues in their own homes? Do they confess at the local temple? Do they perhaps bring tribute to the goddess of love before a big festival, in the hope of getting lucky?

I based one of the religious festivals in my campaign on real life Christian celebrations. During a festival for the Lady of the Waves, a golden chariot is driven through the city, while everyone tries to throw a blue flower on the chariot, and tries to touch it for good luck. Later that day, in the evening, there is lots of drinking and games that are themed around water.

But part of fleshing out the religion, involves also lending actual effect of the gods on the game world. Praying in front of the god of merchants and travel, actually improves the luck of the players before a big journey. Holy shrines with lit candles, can actually keep other evil beings at bay. And once a church or holy ground is dedicated to a particular deity, lesser godlike beings are kept out. When a storm rises, people believe the god of storms is angry, and that an injustice has occurred to incite his anger. They make tributes at his statue to calm his fury, and try to find a reason for his anger.

I thought about the hierarchy of these deities. Which gods are the strongest, and which are lesser gods? Which gods are old, and which are relatively new to this world? And do these gods actually look like the way they are portrayed, or is this simply a case of man projecting their own image on these figures?

I also thought a lot about how the villains in my campaign look upon these gods. Perhaps a noble god to one person, is an evil god to another? And what about the creation of the world? What are the creation stories that exist in my world? How people believe the gods created the world, will change from culture to culture.

In the civilized parts of my world it is commonly believed that the goddess of the sun once did battle with the goddess of chaos, and it was this exhausting battle which covered the world in 30 years of darkness. But the barbarian tribes believe that Barbas, the great sea serpent, swallowed the sun. And it was the great bear who ripped open its stomach, after which the great owl lifted the sun back into the sky. They also believe the terrible monster Loknar will some day swallow the world whole. And some cannibal tribes believe the goddess of the sun is evil, since she brings drought. They believe the goddess of chaos is there to set things right. These tribes are of course the villains in my campaign. But who is to say who is right?

 

[5Shilling]

I would suggest starting by thinking about the themes of your campaign and/or campaign setting (eg secrets, sacrifice, good vs evil, etc). You can use the gods and religions to underline or reinforce the themes of the world as a whole, or of the individual cultures which worship them. Write down these themes and decide which ones apply to which religions.

Next ask some questions:

1: Beginnings & History. How did the religion start, and when?. Do all religions date back to the dawn of time or a some newer than others? Was religion X founded by a prophet, a group, or did the god intervene directly? Are certain places, people or things tied into the early days or other important periods of the religion?

2. Priesthood. How is the priesthood structured? Is there a strict hierarchy? Do they have names for the prests of religion X or are there different names for different ranks? How powerful is the person/people at the top, relative to kings or other rulers? Are there restrictions on who can become a priest? What kind of temples do they build? What other assets do they have? Is there even a priesthood, or is everyone free to worship in their own way and be their own priest? Are there well-defined sects within the religion and if so how do they get along?

3. Worship. What kind of people are drawn to religion X? Is it based on location, race, social class, profession or something else? Is worship mandatory? If it is then by law or by social pressure? How do they worship? What kind of offerings are made? When and where do they meet to worship? How involved can a layperson be in the running of the temple or religion? What do non-members think of them? Do the priesthood freely teach everything about the religion and god or are there secret doctrines and mystery cults?

Use wikipedia to explore real religions with the above three aspects in mind. Look at one or two religions you find particularly interesting and one or two religions that you think you know very little about. Then like Li Shenron said above you can start mixing, matching, adjusting, renaming and springboarding.

I used this approach recently when I wanted to create a monotheistic religion for a horror-themed campaign. I knew I wanted something politically powerful and oppressive so I read a lot about the medieval catholic and orthodox churches. I learned a lot and ended up with a result I am pleased with, in which clerics choose a domain based on their patron saint (each is very loosely based on a real abrahamic saint). It's not a fast method, but it is rewarding.

For a quicker method there's always the fast mashup - pick any two religions, or a religion and a culture from different continents, and smoosh them together!

 

[Imaculata]

Yes, I forgot to mention this. But prophets and saints are also something to think about. A temple would probably have statues and paintings of the gods, but also of local saints and figures from religious stories. In my campaign, a lot of churches are named after a specific saint, and I also make up the details of that saint's life. Often they died in a way that is surrounded by myth and is important to the faith.

For example, I had a Saint Anna in my campaign, who proclaimed to be a messenger of the gods. But she was burned as a heretic, and many years later that she was recognized as being the real deal, when stories of her miracles became widespread. A church was named after her, which was build on the location where she was executed.

And another important figure in my campaign is Saint Germaine, who according to legend went on a long sea voyage to do battle with evil, but never returned. His demise is shrouded in mystery, and there is a rumor that he carried with him a powerful weapon. They named a small chapel after him, and kept his last written words as an important religious relic. A golden book, richly decorated with beautiful gems, is on display in the church, and people pray to it. It is but a copy of the real thing though, since the original pages are kept in a vault, and are quite fragile.

These are just a few examples of how you can build quite a story around just the name of a local church. It also makes it easier to fill in the details of what the church looks like on the inside. The church of Saint Germaine would obviously have a statue dedicated to him near the entrance, and perhaps paintings, or stained glass depictions of his voyage. There might even be an empty symbolic tomb in the center of the church dedicated to him. And just like that, the whole building comes to life in the minds of your players.