What if only Wee Jas and Erythnul?

[Particle_Man]

I was just kicking around this idea. It would be a two-god world but portrayed internally as a monotheistic world and a ton of "demonic cults". Wee Jas is strick but seen as the only game in town, all the various demonic cults as heresies to be stamped out, etc. No one would worship Erythnul as such.

The official church would always be lawful but could have enlightened or corrupt members. The cults could have member that vary from CN to CE to NE.

Any thoughts that spark off of this idea?

 

[Akrasia]

Why Wee Jas?

 

[Lackhand]

I hate the cleric as much as the next DM, but this does leave gaping game mechanical holes.

I don't believe either of those faiths can spontaneously cure or turn undead (maybe they can? Dunno?), which means you're going to house rule this and say "wait, yes, they can".

There are also a ton of unavailable domains now, which is really neither here nor there.

Maybe I've misunderstood? It looks like you want all the cults to be devoted to Erythnull. If that's not the case, then this makes more sense.

 

[GwydapLlew]

It's an interesting concept. Goddess of vanity, death, and magic who overthrows all the other deities? Hrm. Neat concept.

You could have some 'cults' of the other gods remain, but have the common man think of them as lunatics or deviants.

"Those Pelor cultists in the hills? Yeah, they are a bunch of hippies. Always going on and on about 'may the sun protect us' and smashin' up the Ruby Lady's servants [undead]. Nothin' but trouble, if you ask me."

 

[Particle_Man]

LG clerics of Wee Jas can cure wounds and turn undead. LN and LE would do the inflict thing. And as of ToB, there are such things as Paladins of Wee Jas. All of that is RAW.

As for CN clerics of Erythnul, they do the inflict thing. It is a hard, cruel world.

And the way I was thinking of cults is that they would worship Erythnul but not know that they were doing so. Basically there would be tons of little cults, sometimes competing, and all the names of all the gods of the little cults would just be different names for Erythnul. He is called "The Many", after all.

As for why Wee Jas. I was thinking of a "No Good god" world where the choice is between a lawful grim god and Evil. Wee Jas seemed suitably grim.

I was thinking less of an "Wee Jas overthrew the other gods" idea and more of a "there only ever were two gods" idea, but haven't crystalized that yet.

 

[Ry]

I ran a world like this once - not Good vs. Evil but more like "Sanity vs. Insanity"

Put a lot of aberrations in Erythnul's camp and it'll work like a charm.

 

[frankthedm]

It sounds like the Warhammer world with magic and melee juxtaposed.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

A friend of mine did something similar, and I liked it so much that I stole the idea for one of my own campaigns.

My suggestion is that you divide Wee Jas into subcults, so that you can have intra-religion strife. That is, there should be a subcult of Wee Jas that can spontaneously heal (and can't be evil), a subcult of Wee Jas that must rebuke but which can be good or neutral, and a subcult that must rebuke, gets the tomb tainted soul feat for free, and must be neutral or evil. Give all of the subcults somewhat conflicting goals (the reason for their schism).

Now, all of these subcults hate each other, even to the point of open conflict at times, but they also work together at times to fight the demon cults (IE Erythnul).

Now, go through all the domains in the PHB and Spell Compendium and divide up any new domains that make sense among these subcults. A priest can belong to any subcult, but can switch to a new one at any time, changing his domains, via a special ritual. The catch is, the switch has to be in the Evil direction.

Ken

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I hate the cleric as much as the next DM, but this does leave gaping game mechanical holes.

Arcana Evolved. No more cleric issues ever again.

 

[Lackhand]

(not to derail the thread: I've played Arcana Evolved, but have my own issues there. We should move it to a different thread if we actually want to phanboi about it.)

As for the cult thing: Awesome!
I too favor schism'ing the Grim Lady's followers as an excuse to put in a few more domains.
What are you going to do, if anything, about Druids (and Rangers)?
What's the church's stance on them, do they even exist?

Similarly, what about Celestials? Do they exist? They seem too... good... for the theological model you're proposing.

Might be kind of fun to have the "angelic beings" of your world be the Baatezu...