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Sins of the Scorpion Age: Deities, Gods, and Religion
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<blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8428558" data-attributes="member: 6790260"><p>I am...less keen on ultra-bleak perspectives on the divine, but I suppose this gives a different tack we can consider. These gods were inspired by Conan, so why don't we take that a step further? Go all the way to the Hellenic idea of heroes who challenge the gods themselves--and sometimes even <em>become</em> gods (Hercules, Psyche, Asclepius, Ariadne, Ganymede).</p><p></p><p>If The Flower is really a power of some kind, it implies one of three things:</p><p>1. The prayer roll can be expanded through human effort. We can <em>make</em> gods, including more-benevolent ones.</p><p>2. You can't add to the roster, but you can alter it--the gods are not static, but can be changed.</p><p>3. You can't add to the roster...but the roster wasn't comprehensive before. Who's to say it's comprehensive now?</p><p></p><p>This gives rise to both a dark perspective and a bright one. The dark perspective is, quite simply, Vecna: people who dream of becoming gods, or of having power/immortality/whatever because of rewriting a current god or discovering a god that will bless them. The bright perspective is, more or less, saying that the success of The Flower can be repeated, and that, with time, the divine may be more mixed (or even net positive) rather than cruel and bleak. This then gives rise to two possible organizations, of the "loose cult" variety: the ambitious cult that wants to usurp the powers of the gods for their own benefit, and the benevolent cult that wants to reform/replace/overthrow the cruel gods that currently exist. Sort of a miniature version of "defilers" vs "preservers" from Dark Sun.</p><p></p><p>Whether or not either of these efforts has any chance of success might be best left as a DM's-choice kind of thing, much as "can Athas be fixed" is very much a case-by-case thing. For some, it would ruin the appeal; for others, it makes the heroic striving actually worthwhile, so long as it's legitimately difficult but still <em>possible</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EzekielRaiden, post: 8428558, member: 6790260"] I am...less keen on ultra-bleak perspectives on the divine, but I suppose this gives a different tack we can consider. These gods were inspired by Conan, so why don't we take that a step further? Go all the way to the Hellenic idea of heroes who challenge the gods themselves--and sometimes even [I]become[/I] gods (Hercules, Psyche, Asclepius, Ariadne, Ganymede). If The Flower is really a power of some kind, it implies one of three things: 1. The prayer roll can be expanded through human effort. We can [I]make[/I] gods, including more-benevolent ones. 2. You can't add to the roster, but you can alter it--the gods are not static, but can be changed. 3. You can't add to the roster...but the roster wasn't comprehensive before. Who's to say it's comprehensive now? This gives rise to both a dark perspective and a bright one. The dark perspective is, quite simply, Vecna: people who dream of becoming gods, or of having power/immortality/whatever because of rewriting a current god or discovering a god that will bless them. The bright perspective is, more or less, saying that the success of The Flower can be repeated, and that, with time, the divine may be more mixed (or even net positive) rather than cruel and bleak. This then gives rise to two possible organizations, of the "loose cult" variety: the ambitious cult that wants to usurp the powers of the gods for their own benefit, and the benevolent cult that wants to reform/replace/overthrow the cruel gods that currently exist. Sort of a miniature version of "defilers" vs "preservers" from Dark Sun. Whether or not either of these efforts has any chance of success might be best left as a DM's-choice kind of thing, much as "can Athas be fixed" is very much a case-by-case thing. For some, it would ruin the appeal; for others, it makes the heroic striving actually worthwhile, so long as it's legitimately difficult but still [I]possible[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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