Under Sleeping Suns: Liber Deus

Some more World Building Theory this week. Today, you get some resources that I hope will help you as you proceed down the path toward getting a more complete, richer, fuller campaign world.

Back over here in "The Hour's Getting Late," I brought up a couple of points about religion in the real world, and how I built the Church Of The Nine to reflect the various aspects of churches and how they interact with their faithful – making the faiths of Loris far more than just Stop-And-Heal shops for adventurers.

I talked about how churches meddle, how they expect certain behaviors from their faithful and their priests, and how there's a very large difference between belief and worship in the context of a Fantasy RPG. All very important things, and worth paying attention to as you build up your game.

Now, I've got seven years of higher education under my belt to tell me about the ways and methods of organized (or not) religions and how they get their believers to do what they need to have done. But most of you reading this won't – nor should you. So how can you get that information? How would it be best to really get a good overview on how the various aspects of a religion might interact? How they could, for instance, take eight different Gods (whether they're part of a single pantheon or not) and make them all not only work together, but still maintain their individual flavors and foibles?

Well, the first and most common answer is to base the religion and church on what you know. I know a lot of people who, when building up the faiths for their game worlds, took inspiration from their Catholic or Protestant upbringings, and based the clergy of their fantasy religions on the authority figures from their real-world faiths. This works fine, and is the basis of many a good game I've played in.

But what if you want something a little different?

I'm going to point you at an old book. It's from 1990 and it is one of the "core four" of the "Complete Handbook" series, published by TSR (before they were bought out by Wizards Of The Coast), and was written by the very awesome Mr. Aaron Allston (who I freely admit wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Galatea in 2-D, check it out). The book in question is a valuable and incredibly under-stated resource for tackling all the big, grand, sweeping themes of a religion, as well as all the "fiddly, crunchy bits" that so often get left out when creating an in-game religion.

I am of course referring to The Complete Priest's Handbook. Don't buy in to the 1 or 2-star reviews, those people have (in my opinion) completely missed the point of the book. Where many of the other 2nd Edition "Complete" series brought in the power-creep that would become so common in the non-Core supplement series (seen very clearly later on once 3rd Edition hit the shelves), the Complete Priest's Handbook did exactly what it said on the cover: It provided rules and guidelines for building priesthoods and religions that were well developed, well-put-together, and different from the "generic cleric" of the main game. Yes, many of the options "reduced" the power of the Priests and Clerics in the game, but they all made sense, and they all fit together quite well. They pulled the Priest out of the "healbot with a hammer" role and added layers of depth and complexity that enabled roleplayers to craft pacifistic worshipers of the Gods of Peace, or heavily armored Crusader Clerics of the Three Sisters Of Battle, or anything in between. The point of the book was not to provide "more powerful" clerics, it was to provide GM's and players options for depth and detail in their game world's religions.

If I said that the bulk of the original inspirations for the Church Of The Nine didn't come out of this book, I'd be lying. As I started building up The Nine in my head, using my love of mythology and my classes in philosophy and religion as a starting point, I got my hands on this book at my Friendly Local Gaming Store, and didn't put it down for a week. I scribbled down notes and page numbers almost non-stop during my waking moments, and when I wasn't in class or at work, I was poring over this book, deciding all manner of things that had never even occurred to me. I keyed upon the concepts of give-and-take in the powers and abilities of the various clergy of The Nine. It was here that I decided... no, more like discovered, really... that the Lightbringers could not wear armor, nor could the Woundhealers. Their combat capacities as a whole were grossly lacking, but as a result of this, their healing magics were greater and broader than those of, say, the Keepers of Moran. Although Moran was a more powerful god than either Kalis or Tara, the breadth of the powers of his clergy was fewer, and their role more specific. It was this book that made it clear to me that it was okay if not every member of a Deity's church could cast spells – sometimes it was okay for the gift of a God's magic to go to only a select few, those "Adventurers" who were destined for greater things.

Moreso than any textbook or book on myths, the Complete Priest's Handbook quickly became the most valuable piece of literature in my collection in regard to making sense of the Church Of The Nine in terms of a roleplaying game. It provided me with the differences between the concepts of celibacy and chastity, and how those played in to the formation of certain strictures in real-world religions, and how to translate them into a game world without breaking the "feel" of that world. It gave me ideas on how and why clerics of certain faiths could, for instance, cause the undead to flee while others might be powerless in their presence. It brought up the concept of traditions and routines, the idea that nearly every real-world religion has certain basic, fundamental behaviors that they cling to above all other things (circumcision, for instance, or the concept of communion through transubstantiation of foodstuffs). It gave me insights into the differences between inherently peaceful and inherently warlike faiths.

Now, I realize that this entire essay thus far sounds like I'm basically trumpeting this book, and let's face it: I am. That book did for me what I am attempting to do for you with these essays: it took the ideas and knowledge that I already had and showed me a way to put them together that not only made sense, but felt like it was right. The book helped me to fill in the gaps in my campaign setting, helped me to solidify the various bits and pieces of the game world that I hadn't even realized were missing, and brought me a good, clear shot of consistency training when I needed one. Mr. Allston, in the event you ever read this: Honestly, thank you.

So where am I getting with all of this, besides go buy that bloody book? Well, first, if you are looking to understand how religion can be applied consistently and persistently across a game world, go buy that bloody book. Yes, parts of it (a lot of it) is repeated in later books by other authors. Yes, a good portion of it no longer applies mechanically to "the game," and yes, it is 20-some years old. But it is a damn good resource, and I can't say enough nice things about it. Secondly, my point with this essay is this:

It doesn't matter if you have meticulously researched your Grecian Mythos, or your Egyptian Dynasty Of Kings, or your Eastern Orthodox Christianity. You can recite names and dates and the complete lineage of Popes all you want, until you're blue in the face – none of that will matter if you can't put it all together in a way that feels like it is right. Take a moment to reflect on what I've talked about so far with the Church Of The Nine.

* It's an intruder religion. The Nine are, for all intents and purposes, usurpers of the power of the Eternal Kings. It doesn't matter if Astares and Graalis were orphans of The Sunfall (rather like their cousins Alzin and Alfin). The Eternal Kings had that power, and The Nine took it.
* The Nine either stole that power, or they took it back, using Astares and Graalis as conduits for it.
* The Nine had to ask the people of Loris to worship them. As a result, the interaction between the Church and the Gods, and also the People and the Church, is a bit of a tricky one.
* The various Gods of The Nine each have their own unique roles to play, and each of them has their own power and influence within the Church itself, as well as society as a whole.
* The Church Of The Nine influences society by maintaining a constant presence in the lives of the people – the children of the Allied Nations are educated, medicines are distributed, crops are tended. The Church Of The Nine is everywhere in society, keeping the wheels of civilization turning.
* The Church maintains statuary of the Gods, including Kolas The Outcast.
* The statues of Kolas are kept standing, but with their mouths and eyes carved out – the Gods of the Nine can apparently see, speak, and hear through their statues (or so it is believed).
* The Nine and Kolas speak to their faithful through songs – the importance of music and song is a longstanding and multi-cultural keystone in most real-world religions, taken to a higher level in Loris.

Last week, I talked about the difference between the Toybox, Sandbox, and Vacant Lot methods of world-building. I'd like to give credit where it's due and say that it was The Complete Priest's Handbook that pushed Loris out of the Toybox and into the Sandbox. All of the things I just mentioned about The Nine and their Church are a result of using the ideas, methods, and suggestions found in that book and applying them to my existing knowledge (and the things I would learn later in school and on my own) in a consistent, methodical fashion. And there's that word again: Consistency.

It would be easy to say that the only thing you really need to worry about when you're building a campaign setting for any RPG is consistency. Easy, but also wrong. Yes, consistency is a large part of it, but so too is information and comprehension. I've said this before, but as I continue on with these essays, I plan on showing you – whether you're the experienced GM or player, or the newcomer-to-the-hobby with your first set of dice and a ton of questions – how I put things together, why I put them together that way, and what it means in regards to the rest of the campaign world. I hope to provide you with information (what I did), comprehension (how I did it and why I did it), and consistency (how it impacts the rest of the game world).

Hopefully you've figured all of this out already, as you've been with me for the last quarter-year as I've trekked through these wilds. But, just in case you haven't, I hope that makes it clear, and gives you a good reason to keep coming back. I will if you will.