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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 6277892" data-attributes="member: 53980">You don't necessarily need a "gimmick", but I do find that they can help alleviate jadedness of "yet another fantasy setting". An idea I've been toying with is from Brandon Sanderson's novel, Warbreaker.Therein, one of the major religions worships people who have risen from the dead, called the Returned. It's claimed that only those who died in an extraordinary manner are worthy of this. They have no memory of their previous lives, but their priests claim that their dreams are prophetic. Although ageless, they must consume one soul (called a Breath) each week to survive. This isn't quite as bad as it sounds, as giving away your Breath simply turns you Drab; you lose your "sixth sense" and are more prone to being sick and getting depressed, but largely you're still you. Their worshipers even consider it an honor to give their Breath to one of the Returned. Each Returned is capable of giving away their own Breath to accomplish a miracle that can heal the sick or even raise the dead, but doing so kills that Returned. Other religions outright dispute the divinity of the Returned.I find it interesting because, fundamentally, they're just people who are worshipped as gods. They possess power, but not of the "Zeus strikes you down with lightning from the heavens" variety. I'd probably expand their ability to give away their Breath to accomplishing one godly miracle - which still kills them. In addition, I think it would be interesting for them to invest clerics and paladins with divine power. As such, not only have you met your deity at level 1, but they derive the bulk of their worldly power from you and their other invested followers. I think I'd make the other religion(s) of the "do the gods really exist" variety, just to give them a counterpoint. Do you worship the deity you can see with your own eyes, who is far from omnipotent and therefore might not even be a god, or do you take your chances upon a supposedly omnipotent creator who might not even exist?</blockquote>

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