More musings on Earthdawn.

[gridlore]

Note these posts now have their own tag. Collect the whole set!

One common feature in most fantasy games is deities of varying strength and morality who actively intervene in mortal affairs. Usually this is through their clerics by way of granted powers. Once I started reading history, I was greatly amused by D&D's attempt to graft a polytheistic set of competing pantheons onto a medieval society. Lose a central, all powerful Church and you lose a lot of good plots and opponents.

But what about in Earthdawn? How would the residents of the kaers handle religion? I see a couple of options here.

• Prior to the coming of the Horrors, religion was much like it was on Earth. A collection of tales and legends to explain natural phenomena and provide a moral framework. People worshiped, but didn't expect daily deus ex machina interventions. The Horrors pretty much ended organized religion as there were other concerns (like survival). After the opening, religion might be on very shaky ground with kaer-folk. This would be a religion-free game, for the most part.


• The gods were real, intervened in the classical Greek way, and granted insights and gifts to their followers. It was the gods who warned about the coming of the Horrors, taught how to defend a kaer against them, and then rode out to buy time in one final Götterdämmerung. In this option, everyone knows the Old Gods are dead, but perhaps there were vague prophecies about a new race of gods rising from the ruins. This could lead to a really epic game as time goes on and great heroes begin finding the roads to the vacant deityships.


• The gods were real, but either ran off or were shut out as the Horrors advanced. After the bulk of the Horrors are exiled back to their dimension, the gods return. They demand immediate worship. What would the reaction be among the populations that just spent the last 400 years fighting unspeakable nightmares without divine help? This could set up some very interesting scenarios as presumably weakened deities work to rebuild their position. Even more interesting if they face competition from ascending mortals.


• The gods were the Horrors. Just like Dionysus' mother, who died when she demanded that Zeus reveal himself in his full glory, when the barriers between the mortal and divine realms became to week we suffered the full power of the gods. The gods themselves might not have even noticed fully what was going on, it was just another eon for them. But when the full power of the God of War is brought to Earth, there will be war. Think about the classical Greek pantheon and imagine each aspect turned up to 11 with no off switch. This might be fun because the gods might actually wonder why no one worships them anymore. "You destroyed our entire culture! Millions died!" "I didn't mean to, so why don't you get with the burnt offerings and we'll call it even."

Comments welcome on these ideas, and if you have another one, feel free to add it.

Comments

[dalen-talas.livejournal.com]

That would really depend on what kind of feeling you want to instill in your game. From the previous post, I figure you want an "epic adventure" type of a setting. For that, I think the second option would be most appropriate - what can be more epic than reaching godhood?

[guppiecat]

How about:

The gods were/are real. However, due to a botched power play by a lower-order subjugated god (think Titans, if you want to go with the Greek metaphor), an illness spread throughout the pantheon. The gods' powers surged, turning them into horrors. The illness isolates their consciousness from their powers... mostly. When they get glimpses of what's really going on, they feel terrible, but are powerless to prevent anything.

Meanwhile, the surges/horrors are powerful enough destroy many of the subjugated races, but they also broke down the prisons holding many of their other enemies. These are roaming free on Earth and the nearby planes.

This allows the players to fight off the terrible stuff going on on Earth, while they embark on a heroic journey to rescue the gods themselves.

[crankyoldgoat.livejournal.com]

well - if there are Horrors, why wouldn't there be gods?

Then the question becomes what exactly do the gods get from humans? by and large, most ancient religions imply that the gods created humanity as a servant species. Servants to do what?

What,then, do the Horrors have to do with gods and what the gods want humans to do for them? Are the Horrors another servant species of the gods who have rejected their subjugation?

You've suggested that the gods and the Horrors are one in the same, so is it internince warfare between two factions of very powerful beings?

if the gods can be destroyed, then it raises the quesiton of just how "godly" they are? mortality in any form implies they aren't "gods" but simply a more advanced lifeform with ego problems.

[fusijui.livejournal.com]

Pre-Horrors, there was no religion or belief in spiritual/mythological powers. Post-Horrors, there is: the Horrors, euhemerized. (If that's really the word for it, in this case.) It would be a game world without divine intervention (or clerical spells or whatever), but with a still relatively fresh sense of religion... or foul cults, as you like it.