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Need advice: Making Religions, Not Just "Here's The Gods. Pick One"
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6889607" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>Man, too much.</p><p></p><p>One thing you might want to do: <strong>start with the suffering.</strong> 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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 6889607, member: 2067"] Man, too much. One thing you might want to do: [B]start with the suffering.[/B] 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. [/QUOTE]
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Need advice: Making Religions, Not Just "Here's The Gods. Pick One"
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