Why yes, I am an eldritch abomination posing as a god!
Hello there, my lovelies,
And welcome back to part 6 of this series, where I discuss what I do when I create a new setting or campaign. In a nutshell, I try to create an immersive setting by strategically placing flavourful concepts and terse descriptions, rather than diving into massive exposition dumps. By sprinkling a few evocative statements here and there, it fires up the player’s imagination, and they weave these ideas into their own unique mental map of your world.
If you want to read the previous entries, please use the links below:
Creating a Campaign Part 1: Creating Concepts
Creating a Campaign Part 2: Character Creation
Creating a Campaign Part 3: Shopping!
Creating a Campaign Part 4: Artefacts
Today I am going to go over everyone’s favourite subject (other than politics), religion. I will be honest, I am not sure I have cracked the code of making in-game religions that feel real. I think very few TTRPGs or even computer games manage to achieve this; they often feel like they have fallen into a contextual uncanny valley. They look and sound like a real religion, but somehow lack. Perhaps this is just a limitation of the medium. In the real world, religion is so deeply interlaced with culture that the society is very much a product of its religious traditions as well as its civic values.
There are exceptions to this, and I will discuss one in particular later. The majority of this post will describe types of religion that fit well in a TTRPG, and the considerations that might make them feel more real.
Tea-Set’s Note
Obviously, this is a HUGE topic, perhaps worthy of its own series of posts. So consider the following in this post as an overview, rather than a deep dive.
Aniamism
Animism is one of the earliest forms of religious belief. For the animist, the world is full of spirits found in every object, environment and location. These spirits have power and agency to change the world around them, just like us. This can make them very dangerous if angered. So animists seek good relationships with the environment and provide rituals and offerings to the spirits.
A good example of a modern animist religion is the Shinto religion of Japan, which venerates spirits (kami) of the land. It is full of ritual and shrines that attempt to bring peace and harmony to the environment.
Polythesim
Polytheistic religions are the most common form of religion in TTRPGs. The advantage is that it creates instant diversity in the setting and gives your players more options when building their character.
One thing I have noticed is that these gods tend to be iconic characters, meaning they do not change; they are eternal personifications of their domains. In the real world, gods in pantheons tend to have strong interpersonal connections. They are either related, lovers, or even enemies. This makes them deeply flawed characters and painfully human in their behaviour. The best example of this is Zeus and Hera. Zeus gets horny, turns himself into a sexy animal or object, and then seduces a young fair maiden. Rather than address the issues in their marriage, his wife, Hera, takes her anger out on these poor women and curses them in various ways. Creating a set of myths for your pantheon would take a lot of effort, but it is worth considering.
Pantheons in the real world also tend to face their own threats. The Greek gods have the titans, the Norse gods have to reckon with Ragnarok, and even the Hindu gods face the threat of the Asura.
When designing your pathenon, there needs to be a conscious choice between typical Iconic gods and the community of gods you tend to find in real-world religions. If you opt for the former, it is worth asking yourself why it is iconic. Why do they not change? My personal answer to this question is that they are eldritch beings of immense power, but unlike the old ones and elder gods of Lovecraft, they are deeply invested in the direction and well-being of humanity.
Monotheism
Monotheistic religions are particularly hard to implement in a fantasy setting, as they have to have a reason why people would reject the alternatives. If clerics exist, who are powered by their faith in that god, then surely that is evidence that their religion has truth to it.
So if you want to implement a monotheistic religion, there needs to be a philosophical underpinning and a good narrative story for people to believe it. One game that does this really well is Shadow of the Demon Lord, and its wannabe monotheistic religion, The New Faith.
In a nutshell. The prophet Astrid is visited by “the new god”. A mysterious deity that gifts her with the four truths.
The soul is eternal; death merely leads to the next life.
The gods need the faith of mortals; without it, they are powerless.
Through evil action and deed, the soul can be corrupted, which will doom them to hell. Only through a moral life can a mortal escape this threat.
Seeking a path to escape the cycle of death and rebirth, such as undeath, is an abomination.
She spends most of her life spreading these truths, but ultimately disappears, and there is debate as to what happened to her. But many feel that she either ascended to heaven or was martyred.
Every aspect of Shadow of the Demon Lord’s cosmology is exceptional. The New Faith is one shining example. It works because:
It is similar to real-world religions (Christianity in particular).
It has a VERY clear set of beliefs that are internally consistent and make sense in the mythology of the setting.
It has a protagonist prophet who follows a strong narrative path. Revelation leads to enlightenment, which leads to preaching and persecution, which ends in martyrdom.
If you want to implement your own monotheism in your game, give it a clear philosophy and a good narrative.
Evil and Extremism
Sadly, you do not need evil gods for people to do evil things in the name of religion. You just need people willing to interpret religious tenets in a way that brings about destructive behaviour. Many years ago, I used to play a lot of LARP, which used an alignment system of Evil/Good, Chaotic/Lawful. As a result, you would get the phenomenon of what was dubbed as Fascist Good. A goodly character who brutally punishes and kills anyone committing an evil act, no matter how petty. These characters were morally inflexible and often scary to deal with. What I mean is that even in the name of good, people can commit all kinds of horrors.
Consider the following:
Followers of a god of law believe that any infraction should be brutally punished. A paladin’s vows turn a member of the clergy into something akin to Judge from 2000AD.
Followers of a god of freedom might see any form of authority as benevolent as tyranny; they espouse that society should live according to natural freedoms, in total anarchy.
Followers of a god of nature might turn to regular human sacrifice. The natural world is by definition red in tooth and claw, and life continues at the cost of others dying to give it the energy it needs to persist.
Followers of a god of knowledge may forego ethics to achieve new breakthroughs. Human life is cheap compared to the devotional duties of one pushing the boundaries of knowledge for their god.
Conclusion
Adding religions to your games is a harder task than most because religion is such a ubiquitous part of culture. However, because of its diversity, there are so many ways to sprinkle it into your games to add real flavour.
Consider what your gods are. Are they iconic? Do they have relationships with others? Are the gods under threat themselves from other beings?
Religious tenets will need some thought, especially if you create a monotheistic religion.
Are there extremists? How do they pervert the tenets of that religion?
I know this was not as practical-minded as previous entries in this series, but I hope my thoughts on this matter have been useful.
Tea-set
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