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Message: <blockquote data-quote="fusangite" data-source="post: 374997" data-attributes="member: 7240">A thought I'd like to add:One of the aspects of the Runequest style of deities that hasn't necessarily been coming through in our discussions: the role of the actual cults/sects. In modern times, when most of our social organization is secular, we tend to focus our discussion and conception of gods on issues of morality and cosmology. But in fact, morality and cosmology are relatively minor compared to the important functions religions perform in my campaign.Membership in a religion is usually required to purchase magic items, especially those that are custom-ordered -- even if magic items are sold elsewhere, they are sold at a much higher rate. Access to arcane spell books, similarly is something that is regulated by religious hierarchy. Membership in certain cults is often a precondition for positions in civic government and similarly, membership in a religion can be used as a kind of passport for characters entering a new community. Major priests sometimes produce letters of introduction for characters. Also, a temple can be a place of refuge for an adherent who is facing persecution. Scarce goods are sometimes stockpiled by temples and many religions raise separate militia or armies which co-operate with but do not amalgamate with large state forces. Cosmology is interesting, yes, but a truly polytheistic culture will involve regular interactions with religious officials and discrimination (both negative and positive) based on religion -- also it will involve channeling into certain occupations -- not just character classes but trades from farmers to mathematicians. Because years of playing Runequest drilled this into me, I don't produce a lot of documentation about it but my players are sometimes mystified that their religion matters as often as it does. While alignment change isn't a big thing for me, cults in my game will blackball certain members based on their conduct which is, in a sense, a more impactful consquence of inconsistent behaviour.</blockquote>

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