(a broadside)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

More Old Time Religion

In further discussion of the nature of RPReligion, how's about ancestor worship? This particular brand of religion comes up every once in a while, maybe as a single race or otherwise small population (eg: the dwarves of Iron Kingdoms). When you get down to it, you could very easily make an entire campaign out of such a religious view.

Come to think of it, you could probably use any of these alt religion ideas to create a campaign. I'll go reexamine the atheist version, sometime . . . maybe make a post to collect all the alts and create settings around them. Hm.

So, let's go ahead and say there's either no gods or no known gods. Maybe they ran off for somewhere nicer. Maybe they just don't interact with the world . . . like a really bad game of Populace.

In a world where the only beings worshiped are one's ancestors:

  • Would they grant divine power to your clerics? Is that power dependent on the potency of your ancestor, ancestors, or your house?The most powerful houses having the greatest share of magic prowess?  Could anyone draw such power (albeit weaker) from a lesser house?  This would mean that being dead in and of itself grants some measure of power.
    • Would they really be clerics? Wouldn't they be more like temple guardians, or some sort of special attendant that enforces your household's honor, since the idea of standard churches don't really factor into things, anymore.
      • Or do they? Would especially great families have whole churches dedicated to their ancestors?
  • The Underworld would certainly become a factor.
    • Would such a place be an "As Above, So Below" situation (like Exalted), where the Underworld is a bizarre carbon copy of the Really Real world. Perhaps the Underworld would be a place where the dead themselves are powered by the honor that their descendants bestow upon them? That would make the above ideas a circular system.
    • Would there be an Underworld at all? Perhaps The dead dwell upon the world itself, "living" in cemeteries and family mausoleums (and temples), just kinda hanging out? Imagine a singular place where all of your ancestors sit around and chat with each other for eternity.
      • Can't fathom them all liking one another...hell, I don't even like everyone in my immediate family, I can't imagine liking everyone in my family throughout all time.
      • This also paints a sorrowful vision of folks who don't get themselves a proper burial. 
    • Perhaps, instead, ancestors dwell in family artifacts? Maybe your family founder dwells within a special weapon that has been wielded by every male member of your family since time immemorial. (Pressure!)
  • Such a place would have a special relationship with the undead.
    • These worlds would basically be haunted by a vast number of ghosts, when you think about it. These would not be scary ghost, really, what with everyone being quite used to them. Unless, maybe, you did something to piss one of 'em off. 
      • Sucks to be you.
    • I like to think of the undead as either Cursed, Created, or Pissed Off. In this setting:
        • Creating undead abominations intentionally, stealing the spirits of loved ones and using their holy vessels as zombie work horses would be a particularly heinous crime. Blasphemy of the highest order. 
        • Going back to the poor sods who manage to get offed far away from home and otherwise improperly buried, such spirits could rise to walk the earth as deadly apparitions of horror and badness, cursed to wander the world/area in which they died until such a time as their proper burial. The Hungry Ghosts of Asia come to mind. Perhaps a potent curse could tear oneself away from the ancestral cycle, cutting you off from your family for all time unless a certain condition was met. All sorts of ideas could arise, here. 
          • Heh. Arise.
        • Getting your family pissed off at you would be a bad, bad deal. Poltergeisting could be a problem. Also, good grief do you not want to cheat on your spouse in such a setting. Oiwa of Japanese legend comes to mind. Yeesh. 
          • Getting someone else's family pissed at you could blow, too. Maybe your slight must be avenged, death be damned. I can see 
    • Grave robbing would be a risky, risky job, man.
      • Sucks to be you.

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