Religous Wars

[Azure Trance]

Would violent civil war within a church or inquisitional crusades against 'heretics' be possible underneath the faith of a good-aligned god? I've been intrigued by the Reformation lately and curious on how feasible it would be to implement it in a polytheistic setting with often numerous good gods. Religion has a lot of power in the medieval age, but if an active god can simply message or be communed his wishes on how he wants his faith to act, it could make the potential limiting.

To use a situation which happened in the real world:

Allowing two strong denominations (whether orthodoxy, non, or both) to have high tensions between each other and actively be at odds politically, economically, or militarily. If a war were to breakout, wouldn't the god be compelled to intervene, and ultimately stop the dangerous schicism of his faith? Another spinoff off that is the possibility of the faith of one good god being antagonisitic with the faith of another good god, where it would seem there would be twice as much for the gods to take care of and perhaps intervene.

In any case, conflict is good (for story telling purposes only). Why limit yourself to the standard evil tyranny next door when drama can be a next door neighbor away?

 

[Darth Shoju]

You've got a point there. It's pretty tough to have a civil war based on interperatation of your god's tenets when you can simply ask him/her for clarification. A couple possible ideas though:

1)The god loses the ability to communicate with his followers. Perhaps he has been attacked by another god and incapacatated, perhaps there is some planar-wide disturbance. You could either have all the clerics of the religion lose their powers, or say they still have access to their spells (or maybe only up to a certain level). That way the followers don't have clear answers over such questions of faith. Since either no one has powers or everyone does regardless of actions (since the god can't take them away let's say), it's impossible to tell right from wrong. People's alignments may shift or some evil individuals might infilitrate the order, and then all of a sudden you have a schism on your hands.

2)The god decides to test his followers and refuses to answer their questions. Now, this would be unlikely for a truely good god to just stand by and watch his followers butcher each other just to learn a lesson or weed the bad seeds out of the order, so it may be more appropriate for a more Lawful-Neutral type god (perhaps St. Cuthbert of Greyhawk or Tempus of FR).

Any way you slice it, if you can manage a schism in a good-aligned order it should make for some entertaining roleplaying.

[edit; if you do go with the god has been incapacitated by another god story, perhaps some sort of "tricksy" god, like...I dunno Mask or somebody starts impersonating the original god and granting powers to the followers regardless of their actions, thereby fomenting (is that a word?) discord amongs the order and gaining power from doing it! Probably some evil chaos god would be best for this, but Mask just came to me off the top of my head. ]

 

[Tonguez]

I had planned a religious war IMC by having a groundswell from the provinces/lower tiers of the Church Hierarchy and a corrupt Leadership.

Basically the PCs were 'Inquistors' sent out to recover religious artifacts and to investigate and stop the rise of heresy amongst outlying congregations (with low level/non-cleric pastors). One particular Heresy was a sect claiming that the Church had moved away from the True Teachings of the diety and had allowed worldly influences to affect the Faith

Clues were uncovered about corruption and even into demonic rituals amongst the 'Church Leaders' and the Sect was proven correct. The game was never completed however but I had hoped that the PCs would switch alliegances and start a war...

 

[Argent Silvermage]

Read Piratecat's story hour. there was a civil war within one of the churches in it and it was dealt with very well.

 

[LuYangShih]

Yes, but the fact remains that when you can use Commune and other methods of direct communication with your deity, a religious war is unlikely. The only reason it happened in Piratecats world was because of a direct interference with those spells and other methods of communicating directly with Aeos. Unless you are going to do something similar, it is far more difficult to have a valid reason for a schism in the church.

 

[Coik]

Would violent civil war within a church or inquisitional crusades against 'heretics' be possible underneath the faith of a good-aligned god?

Well, one word answer for the latter: Paladins.

For the god-bothering thing, how often do the gods really deign to talk to mortals? Unless they're insufferable micromanagers, probably not very often. Unless any particular schism became *really* serious and followers actually started killing each other over it, the gawd in question probably wouldn't give a firk about doctrinal disputes. He's still getting the worship he needs, so why should he care? Gods are incredibly selfish like that...

Another spinoff off that is the possibility of the faith of one good god being antagonisitic with the faith of another good god, where it would seem there would be twice as much for the gods to take care of and perhaps intervene.

Why not? If you're so concerned about alignment, just have the dispute go along the law/chaos aspect. It's perfectly reasonable to think that a CG faith would see a LG one as insufferable meddlers sticking their noses into everyone elses' business, and the LG faith might see the CG as dangerous dissidents formenting lawlessness and questioning authority for shats and giggles.

 

[Piratecat]

Read Piratecat's story hour. there was a civil war within one of the churches in it and it was dealt with very well.

That's a lot to read.

This is not almost possible, it's highly likely. Churches split based on orthodoxy all the time; a divide can be based on the interpretation of scripture, the personality of a leader, the possession of a holy relic, or any number of things. Heck, if you've read The Name of the Rose, you'd know that a major issue of the Catholic church surrounded the issue of whether or not priests were allowed to accrue wealth.

So yes, it would be normal to have any quantity of splinter groups. Fun, too! Note that this is true even with Communes. I can posit any number of situations where being able to talk with God wouldn't necessarily bring together two splintered sects.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Yes, but the fact remains that when you can use Commune and other methods of direct communication with your deity, a religious war is unlikely. The only reason it happened in Piratecats world was because of a direct interference with those spells and other methods of communicating directly with Aeos. Unless you are going to do something similar, it is far more difficult to have a valid reason for a schism in the church.

Easy solution.

1. Gods speak cryptically.

2. Gods don't asnwer petty questions.

Follow those two rules and it is easy to have religious strife.

 

[Teflon Billy]

... I can posit any number of situations where being able to talk with God wouldn't necessarily bring together two splintered sects.

Could you do that? I could actually use some examples

 

[Storminator]

Commune examples:

Sect A: Are we right?

God: Yes.

Diametrically opposed Sect B: Are we right?

God: Yes.

If the god, thinking impossible divine thoughts, can reconcile these two sects to its satisfaction, it gives the above answers.

But the mere mortals see things different. "Our high priest has affirmed our way of life, so the other side must be wrong. In fact, they can't possibly be talking to God, or they would know we are right. I wonder who they are talking to? They must be heretics. Smite! Smite!"

PS