On Religion

So I only have a generic idea of religion in Daen Ral (wierd considering my profession...) but I've been giving some of the fringe elements a bit of thought lately. I mean, I did a post on Clerics last week or so (and as soon as I can figure out why IE won't let me paste a link, I'll get one in here...argh). Anway, that post was mosly crunch, not much fluff.

Religion in general:
There's a Creator God. There are angels. Some of those angels "fell away" - some of the fallen angels repented (and weren't granted re-entry into heaven until the consummation of history - the end of times - whatever - so they walk Daen Ral as the Firstborn, elves/exiles and gods of the world), some remained fallen (demons and devils).

Through the turmoils of the ages, worhsip of the Creator has continued, though the religion has seen its dark eras, too. Still, when humanity was forced from the shores of Daen Ral by the Elves and the Dwarves (the Great Storm - thousands of years ago), some remnants of humanity, and worship of the Creator God, remained in hidden pockets (the Knights of the Crescent Moon, for example). When humanity re-discovered the New World (Daen Ral), they brought with them a very different religion than what developed over the eons in the secret pockets of humanity in Daen Ral. Thus, while there is officially one Church/Religion for humanity, there are multiple sects - the Way of the Master and the Church of the Path being the two major examples of worhsip of this One God. More fringe groups also exist, The Eternal Order, the Freethinkers, and others, but they give at least lipservice to one or the other heirarchies of the Church.

But other fringe groups exist that have nothing to do with worship of the Creator God. The most sinister of these being the Churches of the Elemental Gods - Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Void/Darkness being the five points of the Elemental star - yet these themselves were born of Chaos, the Primoridal element (for out of chaos the Creator God brought all that is...). These gods are fallen angelic beings of eternal age and tremendous power. I'll be using Cthulu-esque creatures here. Then there are the other Old Gods (all the elemental gods are Old Gods, but there are others as well - like life and death and chance and...well, there are 13 total - another post for another time). Worship of the Old Gods is carried out in secret, even by members of the clergy of the Way of the Master of the Church of the Path. It is forbidden, it is heresy and it is a path to temporal power (since the "gods" are real beings who can grant real power to their worshippers, though at a cost to themselves).

There are many Local Gods - Firstborn or Firstfallen who crawl out of their eternal slumbers and set themselves up over villages, cities, kingdoms if they can. Some choose not to reveal themselves, to work behind the throne as it were, some fabricate huge armies of mostrous creatures and threaten war.

And other more bizarre/fringe religions sprout up as well: the Cult of the God's Eye (worshipers of the comet that circles the planet), Children of the Fire (a cult that uses fire in its worship), Watchers of the Night Sky (worship stars)...okay, not that bizarre - I'll work on it...

On Clerics

So clerics - not much to change here.

I'm pretty sure it's BtB that clerics get a whole range of prayers (spells) at their disposal. They may only be able to use one first level, but they have the whole list (in theory) of first level spells to choose from. So, that makes sense to me. I'd also like some cantrip like abilities (called orisons in Dragon Magazine) that would be available at will.

Clerics get to turn undead and they have a lot of weapons and armor available. If they don't advance in fighting ability, they need to advance in abilities like turning.

I'm thinking of giving clerics a variation on bless - to increase as the cleric increases in level.

Clerics will also get to make and use scrolls and relics.

I guess the one area that I would houserule on clerics is that they would have a chance to succeed in a prayer/rite/spell that is higher level than they can currently pray/accomplish/cast. With diminished chances for success, of course. So - like one level higher might be at only 50% chance to succeed - 2 levels higher 25% - keep halving it? 3 levels 12%, 4 levels 6%, 5 levels 3% and 6 levels 1%... I'm not sure if the 50% isn't still too generous. I'll have to think more on that.

In Daen Ral I'd like PCs to belong to the Monolithic, Monotheistic church of the Way of the Master, giving them some specific abilities geared toward that faith. Druids and clerics of other faiths exist, though their powers are varied from the standard "cleric" which is of the Church of the Way of the Master... Druids, for example, draw on nature and can accomplish some powerful magic as rituals (especially when combined with other druids), and clerics of the Old Gods or the False Gods will have powers specific to their deities (the Old Gods being elemental beings, the False Gods being demonic beings - the Firstfallen of the Host of Heaven).

So, clerics as a class are generally analogous to Medieval Catholic Priests...sort of...

Oddly, considering the fact that I played a number of clerics in the past, I don't have much to say about specializing them...