Systems · Divine/ Spirit · Defining
One Deity Fantasy
This scroll is for posting monotheistic religions to be used in games.
Codex introduction
Most gamers think 'Fantasy' requires 'Many Gods'. A trend that is only exacerbated by DnD, which is the training wheel system for most gamers. To a point, there is nothing wrong with it. Many gamers choose a many gods option because it is required, in their minds, for game worlds. Many gamers choose a many gods option because they think, they can seperate their reality and their fantasy (even though a significant portion of the world's population is polytheistic) and avoid offending someone's religious beliefs (like most Christians are not offended by polytheism/ or would take an adverse view of any game/ story that had a less than perfect priest in it ... Like The Three Musketeers). The inspiration of this many gods option came from Conan and many early works of fantasy that inspired the early gamers.
Yet some of the best fantasy fiction, especially fiction based on Medieval history, are monotheistic. Historical and Historically styled games need a monotheistic religion. It is almost imperative to have one, if you want a real medieval feel.
Now some people feel uncomfortable using the Catholic faith as their game's religion (though there is plenty of source material to study about it). I can understand that. If you are not running a strict historical game, there are lots of ways you can create a monotheistic game religion. This gives you all the medieval feel without being bound by 'real' religion.
That is what this thread is about. Post your ideas for a primary single God religion. (One religion per post if you can.) While most of these will be analogs to Abrahamic religions (Judism, Christianity in all its forms, and Islam) or Zorasterism, other options are possible (A single Earth Mother Diety or so on). (You can also crib ideas from other books/ works of fiction).
And remember, just because it is a religion with a primary diety, does not mean it can't have minions beings (like Angels, Devils, etc).
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This is a great idea. I for one fall into the category of multiple Gods in my system. They began with four major and four lesser gods, but it all just blended together over a period of time. At one point in my history before the War of the Gods I had up on fifteen or so Gods. Having said that.
After doing all that work to define the Gods I kept as well as define the basic premise of the Gods that didn't make it through the war. It is a lot of work. A single diety world probably would have been much much easier and less time consuming in some parts but not as flexible in others.
I personally have a hard time thinking that a single religion could house more then one priest type. but then I think that it would be far easier to have priests and clerics of a single diety to make it far easier to deal with mechanics wise.
That could be what cults are for, false religions, etc. I realize this doesn;t specifically affect the codex of one diety worlds, but I felt an explanation of opinions was in order.
Lets see. The Faith has the following priests:
Priests - (Then there are deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, and so on... some of which might be non-priest class in a religious context).
Friars, Monks, Nuns (members of religious orders who are not always priests)
Bishops and Cardinals, which are priests, at least in initial training, but then have administrative functions and power in the church).Then there are various ranks of similar posts.
Exorcists and Healers: These are two subsection of priests, those who have studied these rigerous arts. There are Investigators and various Orders in the Church were the priests have different functions.
Oh, and we can't forget Jesuits.
Doctors of the Church: Pretty self explanatory, go to seminary and to medical school.
Missionaries: Could be priests, but according to my research, they actually get some intensive and different training.
This is just off the top of my head.
Sooo... it is a matter of function and granularity for your game (i.e. can you make your character really different by the skills they take when compared to the base abilities for their type).
How in the world can such a wonderfully conceived and monstrously informative treatise have only one vote and comment?!