What setting has the most interesting religion and gods?

What setting has the most interesting religion and gods?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I guess Lovcraftian mythos since the entire setting revolves around the gods.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Fun fact: Yog-Sothothery fulfills the defining traits of mythos in theological sense.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Okay, how exactly does he do that again? Back this claim up please.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Do you have a moment to talk about the Lord?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Yes

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    For me it's Al Qadim alalalalalala

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Inshallah!

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Probably earth. But I've always had a sweet spot for the more esoteric Elder Scrolls stuff

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Does anyone else like the Eberron method of religions? The Eberron method is more "realistic," for lack of a better term: different competing models of the divine, some of which are compatible with one another, some of which boil down to faith in gods whose existence can never be truly verified.

    A religion is more akin to a real-world religion in that it presents its own "rules of the divine," which may or may not be compatible with other religions. There is no one universal pantheon in Eberron that all gods get filed into.

    Do you like it when a fantasy setting uses this method for distinguishing its religions?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Never read Eberron stuff

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Do you mean in regard to how the people interact with it or for the classes who's "divine" power sources interact with it?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >The Eberron method is more "realistic," for lack of a better term: different competing models of the divine, some of which are compatible with one another, some of which boil down to faith in gods whose existence can never be truly verified.
      I haven't read Eberron, but this is similar to what I do. Every region has its own religion, and most of the cultures within a region have their own spin on it, but all religions involve eight divinities that comparative religion types agree are PROBABLY the same underlying presences. They just disagree about their names, natures, and so on.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      The most "realistic" is to not have a canon cosmology.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >The Eberron method is more "realistic," for lack of a better term: different competing models of the divine, some of which are compatible with one another
      I wish the FR was allowed to keep the model Greenwood had before it got to print. Where yes gods are probably real but they're part of regional pantheons.
      Some gods exist across multiple regional pantheons and may or may not have different names or interpretations, but others are in only one.
      One of the few fragments of that lore to make it into AD&D (but would later be retconned during 4e) was a heavy implication that the Dawn Cataclysm was actually a holy war between two or more human cultures with conflicting pantheons and the shit about gods dying or becoming more powerful was just because their worshippers were either killed off or successfully converted other groups.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >probably
        >Type gods are provably real
        >Phone autocorrected to probably
        Google apparently tipping their fedora today.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Eberron is great when it comes to religion.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I kinda do this in my setting

      The most "realistic" is to not have a canon cosmology.

      this. If you don't plan to use the cosmology then it keeps things grounded if it doesn't even have an explanation. it's just as much as mystery to the NPC's as it is to the players

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >What setting has the most interesting religion and gods?
    I like Pathfinders. Lots of good stuff in there. Lots of neat gods, neat demigods, and neat not gods.

    • 2 years ago
      QMA

      good demigod of trannies

  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Golarion's were fun to engage with at least

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    How do you feel about the idea that the gods actively need worship for some reason, like in picture related, and if they don’t, why do they want worship at all? Also, if they DO get sustenance from worship, how would that realistically change how the church is structured?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Why are you bumping the thread? It's run its course.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        bump!

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        bump!

        >bump!

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous
    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      God, that artstyle is horrendous.
      Anyway, I like to use that system for minor gods/ascended mortals who can gain some power from their followers, while the capital G gods exist independent from their followers.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Alright, that makes sense to me. What are some examples of each in your setting?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Tam was originally just some girl who was good at finding lost goats, So a few villages in the highlands put up little shrines to her. Whenever people were looking for a lost goat, they'd sometimes see some guiding Wil O' Wisp or the like that led them.

          One character in the party, who were all from that village, styled himself as Paladin of Tam (counted as just a regular Fighter) and decided one of his tenets should be owning no more Gold than it takes to buy a herd of 50 goats. So he'd spent a LOT of money giving to hospitals, orphanages and the like, all in the name of Tam.
          So by now there is a growing urban following of Tam, including a more cleaned up image of her as the protector of children. Eventually she became popular enough the player actually got to become a proper paladin.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Kino

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I really do enjoy the concept of The Warp reacting to the thoughts of people to the point that gods can spawn if you believe in them hard enough.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The Qunaris are legit the only interesting part of Dragon Age.
    Just disregard everything in 2 and 3.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      They were good in 2 as well. 3 just had them by the sidelines. I don't want to know what they're planning for 4.

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Early Vegeta would 100% blow up the cube for fun

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Late Goku would do it because the muslims told him that Allah was mightier than all else.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Late Goku would do it because the muslims told him that Allah was mightier than all else.

      The Kaba has been destroyed and rebuilt before. It’s destined to be destroyed again when the end times start and the world is embroiled in a series of bloody wars which will end with the return of Jesus and the defeat of the Dajjal (antichrist in christianity).

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Instead it will just be destroyed for fun.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Maybe by the people who do it but it will lead to decades of bloody war all over the globe and millions will die. It will be pretty metal honestly.

          Whoa... This Dajjal guy sounds strong! Hey, do you think you can take me to him? I want to fight him! Oh man, I'm gettin' excited!

          He is supposed to come from somewhere between Syria and Iran so probably Iraq.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Have fun blowing up drone soldiers, I guess? The prophet (PBUH) would have to rise from the grave for the prophecy to be accurate.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              The prophet Muhammed (PBUH) doesn’t have much to do with the end days really. It’s mostly led by the prophet Isa/Jesus and the Mahdi (PBUT) who’ll lead the battle against the Dajjal/antichrist.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Isa (PBUH) is busy with the prosperity gospel.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          That does sound like how the end of the world would get kicked off nowadays. Some moron doing something for kicks and everything spirals out of control.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            When you put it like that it sounds like a dark comedy.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              To me it resembles the beginning of WW1.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Whoa... This Dajjal guy sounds strong! Hey, do you think you can take me to him? I want to fight him! Oh man, I'm gettin' excited!

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Dont get your hopes up goku. Antichrist literally just means 'the opposite of christ'. They dont get magic powers, they just embody the exact opposite traits of jesus, so instead of a carpenter israelite who denounced the working class, hung out mostly with lepers and prostitutes, and said you should pay your taxes and give all your money to charity, the antichrist will probably be a rich greedy land developer who says you shouldn't pay taxes, hoard all your wealth, and denounces the terminally I'll and sex workers.

          The reason the antichrist is a big deal is that the day humanity becomes willing to follow someone as obviously evil and selfish as the antichrist over the teachings if christ is the day no more souls can be saved and the rapture can begin. No magic required, just base human ignorance.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >denounced the working class
            Where?

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              ruling class, sorry.

              >the antichrist will probably be a rich greedy land developer who says you shouldn't pay taxes, hoard all your wealth, and denounces the terminally I'll and sex workers.
              ...that's a pretty accurate description of someone.

              I know, minus the sex-workers bit. That the irony is lost on them is the exact sort of thing the bible was prophesizing.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >the antichrist will probably be a rich greedy land developer who says you shouldn't pay taxes, hoard all your wealth, and denounces the terminally I'll and sex workers.
            ...that's a pretty accurate description of someone.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Yeah but what's his power level?

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous
          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            IIRC, American Dad did something like that in their Rapture episode. For example, since Jesus was a carpenter,his opposite is terrible at making things, so a trap the Antichrist made falls apart easily. One wonders why he even tried.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >rich greedy land developer who says you shouldn't pay taxes, hoard all your wealth, and denounces the terminally I'll and sex workers
            That's just Frieza, if you swap terminally ill and sex workers with Saiyans.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            See, I was told the Antichrist either would be a 'false Christ,' who can fool most people into thinking he's the Second Coming but the truly faithful will notice something is off, or that he would just be Emperor Nero come back from the grave somehow because 666=Neron Caesar. Now, obviously, these takes are from two different sources.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              I was told that the anti-Christ was whatever politician we don’t like this week.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              The mark of the beast has gotta be the stupidest thing in the world, and I can't believe the fuss idiot religious people make about it.

              It's a religious injoke based on math. Jesus' number was 777. Why? Cause 7 is the most mathematically perfect number (the most common number with two dice) and since things are always better in threes, that means Jesus' number is three sevens, 777. 666 is the mark of the anti-christ because 6 is one less than 7, so it's as close to being perfect while still not being perfect, and again better in three's, so it's 666. It's a metaphor about something being close to as powerful as Jesus but not quite. It's not a literal neon sign that's meant to make every baptist bring out their torch and pitchfork when they spot it or pretend they spot it, it's not something that's actually going to pop up even if you believe in all of the religion.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Glorantha.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      My Digijelm.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Elder scrolls is the only setting that has ever gotten me interested in the gods. Most settings have very basic boring gods,

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      What exactly did the Elder Scrolls do right with gods then? Don’t leave us hanging anon.

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Are muslims allowed to watch anime ?

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Yes. But pokemon cards are banned in Saudi Arabia and Iran I think for alleged connections to satan.

      Otherwise anime is as haram as anything else.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Media is haram according to its contents. If a movie is glorifying fornication for example it would be haram.

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I don't know but I hope whatever god exists punishes you for spamming these threads.

  15. 2 years ago
    Anonymous
    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous
  16. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    what could possibly be more interesting than drinking camel piss?

  17. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Why do they always envision themselves having a week's worth of shitty stubble?

  18. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    Seconding I think Forgotten Realms has one of the better developed and more interesting gods and pantheons

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      What about them makes it so great? Remember, not everyone here is familiar with them.

  19. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    How do you prefer to handle domains when it comes to gods? How many is too many, and how inherent are they I mean. Also, when designing gods for your settings, what’s your process for doing so?

  20. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Gonna say Glorantha. It's made by someone that loved mythologies and it shows. It's full of gods and religions and the way they are integrated feels very natural rather than an afterthought.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Do you have something like thayfor the Orlanthi pantheon?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Here's the Storm part atleast

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          And the Earth half

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          wait, that's the mountain you frick in KoDP

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Indeed it is. And that's not even the tip of the iceberg of weird things that can happen in Glorantha.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              And the Earth half

              Here's the Storm part atleast

              Gonna say Glorantha. It's made by someone that loved mythologies and it shows. It's full of gods and religions and the way they are integrated feels very natural rather than an afterthought.

              These are awesome. Someone really took the time to make a genealogy of gods.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                And that's just a fraction of all the deities that can be found in Glorantha. The geneaologies are based upon the research of a bunch of wizards called The God Learners, who tried to fit all religions and gods into a monomyth.

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                funny how human mind works. I am aware Glorantha is much older (not to mention indian two-skin-tone god depictions), yet when I saw your pics my first thought was "they ripped fricking elder scrolls off"

              • 2 years ago
                Anonymous

                Well the newer geneaology charts that will be in an upcomming book takes on a very different artstyle

  21. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I've always liked Lovecraftian deities, but I think its especially fun if they take on a human form briefly and show some personality in less horror focused campaigns.

    Recently I homebrewed a setting where there's an Arabesque civilization run almost entirely by Demons who had some kind of collective "True Name" discovered and were forced into abiding by an in-depth legal code that's actually made them turn into pretty alright people. Most everyone in the region is a tiefling of some sort now.

  22. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    I like the gods of The Dark Eye, theres a lot of them and it goes really into detail while still keeping them mysterious due to always describing things from mortal perspectives. Also while the gods do have set domains some aspects can change depending on who is worshipping them.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Okay, this sounds pretty cool. Please go into more detail on this.

  23. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Folk religion
    >Every race and ethnicity has their own pantheon or patron deity
    >Rebirth through bloodline and honor
    >Wide variety of regional and local cultures
    >Variety of customs and festivities

  24. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Real life

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Real life lore is the most convoluted thing Ive ever experienced. Just when you think you have it all figured out, know who's what and where, new bits of info pop up that recontextualize everything

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Okay, it’s that bad then? Surely you’re exaggerating, especially for those religions no one follows anymore. You are, right?

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          My friend, look up bible debates. There was a time when the catholics worshipped vampires.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            The frick? I thought that vampires wee supposed to be unholy monsters.

            • 2 years ago
              Anonymous

              Yeah, but they're unaging and never decompose (like saints), which led to heretical discussions and possibly even a bit of worship until the pope stepped in and went "you fricking morons, they're not even real."

              This video is separate, but also relevant to this discussion:

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Okay, it’s that bad then? Surely you’re exaggerating, especially for those religions no one follows anymore. You are, right?

        The fact that even the most mainstream religions aren't handled consistently across worshippers, let alone regions, really makes it hard to keep track. It's wild.

  25. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The real world.

  26. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Muslim is a religion of evil

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >giving charity and abstaining from harmful things like drugs is evil

  27. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Real life. Elder Scrolls has tons of fun stuff with the Tribunal and Chadgoth, and I do have fun with the gods of Warhammer. Especially when you start throwing in the God of Atheism and Ulric to really throw newbies off.

  28. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The elder scrolls actually has a pretty interesting cosmology.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      How does it work then? Give us details please anon.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        There's a few layers.

        First there's an entity that just exists minding it's own business. Then it meets another entity, the two get into a fight over a girl, the girl dies, and the entity goes into a coma.

        In this coma gods are going about doing god stuff an intangible immutable ethereal beings. Until one of them, Lorkhan, either tricks or convinces the other gods that making reality would be a sick idea, so they go about doing that. However as they do so, the realize that the act of creation is making things more defined, and limiting their ability to do anything and everything. So they decide to kill Lorkhan, and the chief god of time (who is a dragon) kills him, his body becomes the moon, and the shoot his heart over the horizon where it lands and forms the worlds largest volcano.

        However in doing this, they've created the first definitive event, and in doing so create time, locking them in place. Some of the gods become the 'worldbones' (laws of physics) a bunch decide to just peace out tearing holes in reality that form the stars and sun, some of them just didn't partake in the process and keep their infinite power but are limited in the mortal world (daedra), and the ones left standing are the main pantheon of gods (aedra). There's also the sentient Hist trees, which used to cover the land but most were killed in the war with Lorkhan and the survivors stay in the swamps.

        Then there's the elves and humans. Elves claim direct descendence from the Gods and consider Lorkhan a demon. The men consider themselves a byproduct of the creation, and so view Lorkhan has a hero. This split informs most of the religious differences in the setting. There's also the beastfolk, but nobody is sure where they came from.

        There's also the Redguards who fled to the dimension after there's collapsed from having reached the end of it's creation cycle, and have their own pantheon of gods from that cycle.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Don’t the elves want to destroy the world because of that, IIRC? So they can be deities again.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Not all elves. But it's believed that it's the ultimate end-goal of the Thalmor, who are a rising power. The (almost) world spanning empire collapsed from demon invasions from one of the games, and a faction called the Thalmor took over the land of the High Elves, and then took over the land of the Wood Elves and cat-folk. It's believed their end-goal beyond elven supremacy is the undoing of reality which they believe will let them become gods again. Reality is tied in place by various 'towers', and a few of these have been destroyed thus far, but a few are mountains, and one is a giant robot that has dissapeared off the face of the earth.

            All of this fascinating lore, yet Bethesda shits itself with anything more complex than a kill quest.

            Eh, personally I'm not too interested in esoteric high fantasy stuff. I prefer some practical stuff like 'Hey the Nords are racist and want independance, lets explore that'.

            Also I love how Nord history can be summed up as 'a bunch of Nords show up. Look around. Say to themselves 'frick these elves'.'

            Yeah, but they're unaging and never decompose (like saints), which led to heretical discussions and possibly even a bit of worship until the pope stepped in and went "you fricking morons, they're not even real."

            This video is separate, but also relevant to this discussion:

            Oh you want some crazy catholic shit, try Holy Werewolves.

            It's the height of the witch-trials, and a bunch of people in northern Italy are claiming that they have been chosen by god to turn into spectral wolves as they sleep to hunt demons preying on the innocent. Naturally this springs talk of heresy, but these guys are so sincere in their beliefs, and claim to be all up in Jesus' buttcrack that nobody can claim that they are doing any actual devil worship, so eventually they are just dismissed as crackpots and ignored.

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          All of this fascinating lore, yet Bethesda shits itself with anything more complex than a kill quest.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        I hope you get banned again soon, the board was such bliss while you were gone

  29. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Mine.

  30. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Any Lovecraftian inspired games.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Lovecraft is cringe. For starters, he was incredibly racist.

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