Crystal Dragon Jesus: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''Not the regular Jesus, but one of the several [[No Such Thing as Space Jesus|space ones]].''"|'''[[Alt Text]]''', ''[[Worst of the Time Lords]] [http://community.livejournal.com/doctorwhy/70795.html #257]''}}

 

 

In numerous cases, in order to finalize the separation, the deity worshipped is a goddess. In these cases, she is usually just called "the Goddess." (This may be based off the common use by neo-pagan religions of this term to denote the main female deity.)

The name itself is a bit of a [[Dead Unicorn Trope]], as few writers are quite willing to literally use a Crystal Dragon, but it does get the idea of [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|random in-universe creatures]] and [[New Age Retro Hippie|new-age]] [[Power Crystal|crystals do everything]] belief as a [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|Christ figure]] idea across.

 

 

This trope might be tied to [[The Force]], or else be a [[Path of Inspiration]] but it's always [[A Good Name for a Rock Band]].

== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==

* Hidan in ''[[Naruto]]'' worships a god named Jashin who's creed is "Thou shalt kill thy neighbor." He does this by using himself as a voodoo doll. His death inflicts judgement on others. Except that he's immortal, so he actually makes it out alive. He can also walk on water, but that's normal in ''[[Naruto]]''.

* The false religion practiced by Father Cornello in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' incorporates many aspects of Roman Catholicism. This is especially noteworthy because, in later episodes of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]], it is revealed that Christianity itself is a ''dead'' religion; the show implies the timelines of the fictional universe and "our" universe split about a millennium in the past, around the time alchemy is discovered.

** The Ishvalan religion seems to qualify as Crystal Dragon Islam. The Ishvalans have a vaguely Middle Eastern feel, and they are monotheists who worship a deity called Ishvalah, which sounds a lot like Allah (as well as Ishvala, the Sanskrit word for "god", so it could be coincidental).

** In the anime version, it's revealed that the various Christian/Protestant trappings are more a disguise/mockery than anything else, as Wolfwood is intended to be the next {{spoiler|Chapel of the Church of the Gung-ho Guns, implicitly a cult religion created by Knives for the purpose of paying homage to him. Given this is [[A God Am I|Knives]] we're talking about, it wouldn't be that out of character.}}

* The church of Mauser in ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'' has many of the Christian trappings, with a fair amount of local color.

** The losely connected spinoff ''[[Rune Soldier]]'' heavily features the Church of Mylee, which closely resembles a crusader order, except that it's exclusively female. (Male priests of Mylee play an important part in Lodoss War as well, it's possible that there are separate orders for men and women, though there is no rule of celibacy.)

* In ''[[Those Who Hunt Elves]],'' the holy symbol of Elvish priests looks an awful lot like a Greek Orthodox cross. There are also at least a few small, rather Christian-esque churches (including stained glass windows!) which may have only a single Roman Catholic-ish-looking priest and/or nun as staff, though the holy symbol seems to be more of a capital X in a circle for these. As of episode 9, there's not a whole lot of theology being discussed, though.

* ''[[The Seven Realms Series]]'' gives us the Church of Mathus, which forbids the use of magic and considers wizards to be heretics, and two briefly mentioned beings known as the Maker and the Breaker. However, the Church doesn't generally play a major role in the series. They're essentially the by-product of ill-will towards wizards brought about by the Demon King, a wizard that nearly destroyed the world a thousand years before the start of the series.

* Averted in the ''[[Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn]]'' novels by [[Tad Williams]], in which the religion of Usires Aedon is clearly Christianity with the proper names search-and-replaced (he was the avatar of god, he died nailed to a tree and arose, etc.), in keeping with the books' setting in a very overt [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of Medieval Europe.

* The [[Earthsea Trilogy|Earthsea]] novel, ''The Tombs of Atuan'', might qualify, as it presents a Caucasian race with temple priestesses who dress essentially as nuns and their religion is strongly opposed to witchcraft. In this case though, they are actually worshiping evil spirits demanding human sacrifice and the wizards are the good ones of the series. Arguably, this was a subtle way of stating that [[God Is Evil]].

** The comparison here is dubious at best; beyond the virgin priestesses and the opposition to witchcraft, both of which are elements common to any number of real-world religions, the religion of the Nameless Ones bears no resemblance to Christianity.

*** If anything, the beings they worship are [[Eldritch Abomination|very much akin to Lovecraftian great Old Ones]].

* The Elene church in David (and Leigh) Eddings' [[Elenium]] and Tamuli trilogy is a Catholic substitute. There is no direct proxy for Jesus himself, though.

** Understandably. With no Jesus proxy around, [[David Eddings]] is thereby free to parody [[Incredibly Lame Pun|the hell]] out of dogma by making the Elene Church [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|a massively complex and encroaching institution worshiping an aloof and distant sort of god]] (well, by comparison to the panoply of ''present'' gods in the books). One of the gods actually [[Anvilicious|complains about the fact the Elene God is a crotchety old bugger obsessed with making up rules]].

** Also, there seems to be no religion or clergy in Narnia; rather, the emphasis is on one's personal relationship with Aslan.

* Also, [[C. S. Lewis|CS Lewis]]' [[The Space Trilogy]] (''Out of the Silent Planet'', ''Voyage to Venus'' / ''Perelandra'' and ''That Hideous Strength'') averts this in a similar way; Maleldil the Young is clearly implied to be merely the name for Christ in the alien language, not a separate being.

** That's because the main character is strongly based on the Byzantine general Belisarius and so is the Empire he serves. Amusingly, the Islamic culture to the southeast is a stand in for the pre-Islamic Persians.

* In Nick Perumov's ''Keeper of the Swords'' series of fantasy novels, there is an ''evil'' Crystal Dragon Jesus called "The Saviour", who resembles actual Jesus very much. Creepy.

** And [[Destructive Savior|Rand himself]] is born to a Maiden (though not a virgin), suffers wounds to his palms, takes a wound in the side from a staff (according to Tarot symbolism, iconographically the same as the Spear of Longinus), and is crowned king with the Crown of Swords aka the Laurel Crown (plants + sharp points = crown of thorns).

* The ''[[Quintaglio Ascension]]'' trilogy features a species of intelligent Tyrannosaurs who worship a planet they call "The Face of God".

* In [[Guy Gavriel Kay]]'s novels ''[[The Lions of Al-Rassan]]'', ''The Sarantine Mosaic'', and ''The Last Light of the Sun'', "Jaddites" play the role of Christians in a [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] of medieval Europe, despite the fact that Jad is a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|sun]] god.

** It gets even more confusing, though. Belief in the Jaddite Christ figure, named Heladikos, is actually a ''heresy'' of Jaddism, being the rough fantasy counterpart of Arianism. Heladikos's story resembles that of Phaeton, the son of the Greek sun god Helios, who lost control of the chariot of the sun. Jad is more of a conflation of Helios and Jehovah, then, instead of a direct Christian analogue (and maybe some Apollo, too). Off to the side, you also have the Kindath (Jews) who worship the moons, and the Asharites (Muslims) who worship the stars. Everyone thinks everyone else's choice of veneration is insane, for various reasons.

* The followers of Gird in ''[[The Deed of Paksenarrion]]''. Gird's right-hand-man/saint/apostle was Luap, which is just Paul spelled backwards.

* The cult of Daniel Christ (yes, the Old Testament Daniel) in [[Avram Davidson]]'s ''The Phoenix and the Mirror''.

* [[Orson Scott Card]]'s Alvin Maker is basically Joseph Smith plus magic.

* Could easily have been named for Irene Radford's ''Dragon Nimbus'' series; the plot takes place on a planet with transparent dragons, and the human inhabitants worship stranded space travelers who are themselves Christians.

* In ''[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]'', the king of the dwarves (and therefore the dwarven culture) is spiritually bound to a lake inhabited by a literal crystal dragon. It's not explicitly a deity, but it does decide whether the would-be king lives, dies, or goes crazy.

** It's more a matter of the religious elements being more explored rather than newly added. The One is ''mentioned'' as the source of all life in the very first book (it's in the Wizard's Oath), but isn't talked about that much till later. The Powers being archangels and the like is mentioned in High Wizardry; the first unfallen Power the main characters meet says that it was Michael, Prometheus, Athene, and Thor.

*** Also in the first book, the Lone One talks on the phone to "Mike" - implied to be the Archangel Michael.

* ''Wrapt in Crystal'' by Sharon Shinn postulates descendants of Earth colonies who have liberally mixed aspects of Catholicism with other stuff. They think of God as female, and one order of nuns are sacred prostitutes.

* Mitra in [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] stories is often portrayed this way. While Set isn't directly analogous to Satan, he is definitely the main evil god in that universe and Mitra's followers think of him as directly opposed to Mitra in ways other gods aren't.

*** The very first Conan story features the ghost of a prophet of Mitra who battled Set, possibly on a personal level.

** Mitra seems to have a lot more in common with [[God|Yahweh]] than Mithra, what with it preaching strict monotheism, belief in Heaven and Hell, [[The Missionary|missionaries]] and the oppression of the cult of Asura who come off as [[Space Jews|a fantasy take on Judaism]].

* In [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Seekers of the Sky]]'' duology, the setting is an [[Alternate Reality]] where Jesus was killed as a baby, forcing God to come up with a new plan. This time, he gets Mary and Joseph to adopt the one baby to survive the massacre. He becomes the Redeemer (no name is ever given) with the power to put any object or living being into another dimension (apparently, Hell). The resulting religion shares much with Christianity but has differences as well. For example, there's no Devil, and to speak of him is heresy of the highest kind. Hell is a frozen wasteland (making the well-known phrase irrelevant). The symbol of the Churches (there are two with one leader) is the Holy Pillar, to which the Redeemer tied himself to before disappearing. There are bishops, monks, priests, cardinals, paladins, nuns, large cathedrals, holy wars, etc. Vatican is called Urbis for some reason. Judas was the only loyal disciple of the original twelve. Murder is not a sin unless done more than twelve times (except if involving children and elderly). Mary is hardly ever mentioned. Instead, the adopted Sister of the Redeemer is as revered as him. The Antichrist is scheduled to appear before the Second Coming of the Redeemer, except he is called the Tempter.

* The Hanged Redeemer in the ''Cale'' trilogy. Played with in that Jesus of Nazareth is known, but seems to be confused with Jonah.

* Sin Washer and his followers, the Washers in Laura Anne Gilman's ''The Vineart War'' trilogy although their power structure seems more decentralized than Catholicism, more like Presbyterianism.

* Madragore in ''[[Chronicles of Magravandias]]''. The similarity to Catholicism extends to the various local gods of conquered lands being treated as Madragore's subjects like how various pagan gods were adapted into Catholic saints.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Notably, though, the main characters are quick to bring up the similarities. Mitchell, in particular, often compares the Priors and their preaching to his Bible-thumping grandmother.

** On the other hand, in one episode, they were [[Jesus Taboo|oddly hesitant]] to liken Vala's pregnancy to that of Mary's, instead comparing it to the births of King Arthur and Darth Vader.

*** Also notable is that Paladine is Dragonlance's direct parallel to the ubiquitous dragon deity Bahamut, also a Platinum Dragon Jesus, who also takes Tyr's place in post Spellplague [[Forgotten Realms]].

** ''[[Eberron]]'''s Church of the Silver Flame, which has many paladins in its service and bears similar parallels to Catholicism, including ruling an entire country and leading its own inquisitorial purge against lycanthropes and their shifter cousins back in the day. It's worth noting that Keith Baker, the setting's author, designed Eberron so that clerics of a given god do not have to share that god's alignment, allowing for [[Knight Templar]] villains among the ranks of good churches as well as [[Anti-Hero|anti heroes]] among the darker faiths.

*** Note that Tyr is literally an aspect of the Tyr of Norse mythology. In the 4th Edition version [[Forgotten Realms]], the Triad is broken. Tyr leaves the Realms after killing the god Helm in a duel over Tymora(!!) (then is [[Killed Off for Real|killed in action]] fending off a demonic invasion), Ilmater leaves the House of the Triad for Brightwater (the home of Sune, Lliira, Sharess, and Waukeen), and Torm steps up to fill Tyr's place (assuming most of his portfolios) in the Pantheon.

*** Still, "The Triad" veneration is limited. It appears when they have to present an [[Church Militant|united front against a threat]], e.g. as patrons of hard-pressed folk. Janessar, [[La Résistance]] in corrupt Calimshan, venerate them along with Mielikki. In recently shattered Tethyr their main feature is united Knights Kuldar order based in one combined abbey, lots of people venerate them separately. Otherwise, Tyr is ''by far'' more important than the two others, with both Lathander and Helm (though he has a setback over Time of Troubles) being about as prominent. All five of their churches eagerly band together in any combinations, but [[Blood Knight|Tempus]] grabs at least as much of the spotlight as any of them effortlessly. Other chaotic and neutral deities are more active than their churches, but most ''powerful'' are, probably, the ladies: Mystra (has so much power that she ''must'' lend about half to mortal "co-pilots"), Selune (one planetar per temple, ''functional or not'', is a whole celestial army on Prime), Shar (has the Shadow Weave) and Chauntea (main agricultural deity plus joined Earthmother aspect). And another "Triad" [http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/The_Three bundle-venerated] on Faerun is more from Wiccan History.

** The ''[[Ravenloft]]'' setting features the Church of Ezra, which, despite centering on a female founder, is a faith in many ways very closely mimicking Christianity, the Catholic Church in particular. Apart from a generally very similar hierarchy, its history includes internal schisms, a branch sect mirroring the Anglican Church in the in-world version of England, and possibly very corrupt ties with an in-world version of the historical Borgias. Fanon takes this further, with devoted fan-made documentation describing the Church of Ezra's impact on the "faith of the loa" (an analogue of real world Vodun practices) in the Southern-Gothic themed domain of the setting. Faiths in Ravenloft tend to be more inclined toward actual monotheism than is common in many other fantasy settings where, while gods may rival each other or war outright, it is common that the majority still acknowledge that the others exist.

*** Also, the Ravenloft setting's Church of Hala has been depicted as having chaste nuns living in convents. The Order of the Guardians, though ostensibly non-denominational, also closely resembles a Christian monastic sect, right down to many followers' observing vows of silence.

*** Ravenloft very specifically mentions that the gods can't (or won't) interfere directly in Ravenloft. It is <s> * strongly* </s> ''inconsistently'' hinted that any divine powers clerics receive are, in fact, granted by the Dark Powers instead. For outlanders visiting the Domain of Dread, it is recommended that this loss of a close connection be played up to increase divine classes' sense of insecurity. Natives, who have never experienced anything else, expect the gods to be distant or absent.

* In ''[[Seventh Sea|7th Sea]]'', the Vaticine Church, Objectionist, and Ussuran Orthodox Churches stand in for Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Russian Orthodoxy in Theah, a swashbuckling, sorcerous version of medieval Europe. The Vaticine Church also subtly incorporates a few elements of Islam as well. Avalon, the local version of England, even has its version of the Anglican church.

* The Church of Tal in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' held an inquisition against magic and were, perhaps, the single most cohesive political entity in [[An Arc|the story arc]] covered by ''The Dark''. Throw in quotes from [[The Bible|The Book of Tal]] in case [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|this doesn't remind you of anything yet]]. The brilliant part is that the church's role in Terisiare's history is fairly well [[Justified Trope|justified]] as the natural consequence of the Brother's War (which left the continent divided amongst independent city states in need of a unifying force and with a healthy distrust of magic and sufficiently advanced technology that got them into this mess).

** Avacyn from the ''Inistrad'' block is a curious example. Her church is clearly modeled after medieval Christianity, but the dogma is vastly different (for starters, afterlife is a blessed sleep, and both [[Our Angels Are Different|angels]] and [[Our Demons Are Different|demons]] are physical beings rather than otherworldly ones), and Avacyn herself is mankind's saviour in a more direct sense, since she kills the monsters. In addition, she is essencially a moon goddess, like the greek Selene. And a goth.

* ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' has the Lancea Sanctum, which is more Crystal Dragon Abrahamic Faiths. Their core belief is that Longinus, the soldier who stabbed his spear into Christ's side, was made a vampire with the taste of the Savior's blood, and eventually experienced the revelation that vampires were Damned by God's will, meant to harrow humanity into righteousness. The Lancea Sanctum itself is made up of many different creeds, ranging in flavor from Catholic to Protestant to evangelical to Muslim, but their core beliefs are strongly Gnostic.

* ''[[Winterweir]]'''s faith of Kaalon, the God of Death, bears a lot of similarities to Christianity with its focus on charity and resurrection. The Divine Covenant is another example, being essentially all the darker elements of Catholicism and none of the good.

* ''The Palladium Role-Playing Game'' has a number of CDJ's in it's world, with the notable exception of The Pantheon(s) of Light and Dark, which are actually the Gods of [[Ancient Egypt]].

* In ''[[Anima: Beyond Fantasy]]'', the Church of [[Meaningful Name|Abel]] is this complete with a crucifixion (though this guy didn't come back), and purge (which continues to some extent) against anyone who isn't 100% human. The closer to the setting's present day one gets, the more tenuous the parallel becomes but it doesn't disappear completely.

 

* [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays that take place in non-Christian eras have pagan gods by name, and Christian rituals and doctrines.

** In ''Winter's Tale'', they consult the oracle in Delphi, and talk about the doctrine of Original Sin.

** This is possibly attributable to [[Small Reference Pools]]. The majority of the people watching the plays when written would have been Anglican and relatively uneducated (at least as far as Greco-Roman worship practices were concerned).

* The titular ''[[Starlight Express]]'' is essentially God as worshipped by [[It Makes Sense in Context|the anthropomorphic representations of a young boy's model railway.]]

* This is extremely common in video games. ''[[Breath of Fire]] 2'', ''[[Xenogears]]'', and ''[[La Pucelle]]: Tactics'' are just a few examples.

* In the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series, the local religion looks definitely as a mix between Judaism and Christianity, even though the gods are 100% pagan. It apparently began as a merging between local Native American religion and Christianity.

* Churches in the ''[[Tales (series)]]''.

** ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' has the ubiquitous Church of Martel, though it's really more background fluff than anything (though you do meet Martel herself a couple of times). However, the civilization of Fenrir built a huge cathedral to worship... well, Fenrir, complete with stained glass, a giant organ, and a heavy organ BGM called "Perverse Religion". By the time the game actually rolls around, the entire Fenrir civilization has risen and fallen and the cathedral's been abandoned for years, to the point where the door is heavily iced shut.

* In every ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' game, there's "The Church", with obligatory priest-collar wearing pastor and "confession" as an occasional option. But the deity they worship is, in fact, the Harvest Goddess. The HM games are generally an intentional mash-up of Japanese culture, Western farming culture, and paganism.

** More recent games have revealed that there's a Harvest Lord as well. Also, ''[[Harvest Moon]]'': Island/Sun adds a [[Moe Moe|nun character]] into the mix of the universe's religion. In fact, the nun is coincidentally named after a [[Nuns Are Mikos|demon hunter]].

* ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'''s nations all have different ways of honoring the same Goddess Altana; however, many of these are at least subtly reminiscent of Christianity, and San d'Oria's church very strongly so.

* The classic SNES game ''[[Act Raiser]]'' is somewhat of an unique example, as you ''are'' Crystal Dragon Jesus, with some obfuscating Greco-Roman elements tossed in. As the one true god of the gameworld, who was sealed and forgotten as evil overtook the land, you have to revive humanity and lead them to prosperity while destroying the demons that have conquered the earth.

** The creators of ''Actraiser'' have been quoted saying that it was based off of Judeo-Christian monotheism. In the Original Japanese, the player's character was God and Tanzra was named Satan.

** In the DS remakes of ''[[Dragon Quest IV]]'' and ''[[Dragon Quest V|V]]'', the thinly veiled Catholic religion's deity is consistently called "the goddess", and many people venerate the Zenith dragon, a so-called dragon-god, along-side of the goddess as her greatest servant. The Zenith dragon lives in a sky castle with a race of winged humans who are referred to as Angels by at least one NPC in ''[[Dragon Quest IV|DQIV]]''. His newly created cg appearance makes him look like he is made out of crystal or silver.

** Also, according to ''[[Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime]]'', the well known Slime enemy from the series worship a slime equivalent of the Goddess.

* In ''[[Ace Combat]] 6'', the Emmerians worship a historical figure dubbed the "Golden King", and have a huge golden statue of him bearing his armor. It is quite clear that the Emmerians hold some kind of religious awe over him similar to that of Jesus or even God, but it mainly seems to be there just to differentiate the Emmerians from the apparently secular Estovakians.

** When you take the out-of-game fluff (that is, pages upon pages of news articles, historical texts, blueprints, etc. that is always published on the web and nowhere else) into account, the Golden King seems like a thinly veiled King Arthur expy; it's just that the Emmerians are really, ''really'' fond of him. Incidentally, a handful of passing references to Christianity and Christian-derived holidays are made throughout the series.

* Though the tenets of the religion in ''[[Diablo]]'' aren't gone into much (or at all), the architecture and appearance of the various figures makes the similarity rather obvious.

** The novels expand on the tenants of Zakarum a little more, and it's typical Christian stuff such as forsaking evil in your heart, as well as preaching gentleness and forgiveness. More cynically, the church is also said to be very open to donations.

* The little known ''[[Siege of Avalon]] Anthology'' '''almost''' averts this by replacing every single mention of religion with "spirits," but somehow still has crosses in the chapel. And the graveyards. And on monks' robes.

* In ''[[Guild Wars]]: Prophecies'', the prophet who makes the titular prophecies is, quite literally, a Crystal Dragon.

* Andraste in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' can easily be mistaken for a Crystal Dragon Jesus, but is in fact much more of a Crystal Dragon Jesus/Mary/Mohammed/Joan of Arc amalgam. She was chosen by [[Lowest Cosmic Denominator|The Maker]] rather late in life to be his prophetess (Mohammed) for being exceptionally devout and a true believer (Mary, Mohammed, Joan). She then unified the factions of dissenters against the religious establishment and created an army which she led on a highly successful [[The Crusades|Exalted March]] (Mohammed, Joan). She was later betrayed by some of her closest generals and advisors (Jesus) and burnt at the stake (Jesus, Joan). However, she was never regarded as a child of the Maker, nor was she ever resurrected.

** The Andrastian Chantry is somewhat a mix of the Byzantine Orthodoxy and the Catholic Church, however.

** Amusingly enough, there is an example of a cult worshipping a dragon that they believe is a reincarnation of Andraste.

** There are also the Qunari, whose teachings are a lot closer to a strand of extremist, decidedly non-pacifist, Buddhism. However in the game, they clearly stand in for the expansion of Islam into Southern Europe during the middle ages. Comming over the sea, they settled some parts of Thedas and converted the people to the Qun (Spain, Southern Balkan), which caused the Chantry to call for Exalted Marches to push them back (the crusades), and they regard it as their duty to spread knowledge of the divine law to the infidels, which goes hand in hand with expanding their empire. There are also some aspiring converts in Kirkwall, which causes (local) terrorists to plan attacks with weapons of mass destruction to fight the spread of the heretic techings of the Qunari.

* In ''[[Runescape]]'', most humans worship Saradomin, god of order. Saradominist churches and clergy have a Christian appearance to them. Zamorak, god of chaos, is treated as a Satanic figure by Saradominists but enjoys a strong following among [[Exclusively Evil|certain monsters]] and some humans.

* The ''[[Iron Grip]]'' series has Trithinism, worshipped primarily by the Fahrong nation (who even made it their official state religion). Though not much is shown of its theological nature, its history seems to mirror the developments of both [http://www.irongrip.net/index.php?view=3963 Christianity and Islam] in several ways. There is also some mention of a concept similar to the belief in reincarnation. Trithinite worshippers are usually portrayed (at least in [[Expanded Universe]] fluff) as either [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] [[Church Militant]] fanatics or more humble and peaceful missionaries spreading the faith by word, charity and medical treatment of the needy. [[Grey and Gray Morality]] indeed...In addition, some levels of the second game feature Trithinite churches with paintings and small idols of the religion's One God, Sa.

* ''[[Ogre Battle]] 64'' features the Holy Lotus Empire, a theocracy led by a Pope which dominates its surrounding countries. Since the Empire is the big antagonist for most of the game, ''[[God Is Evil]]'' may apply.

** Lotus/Lodis is responsible for nearly ''everything'' bad that happens in the series that isn't instead the result of demons. They're major antagonists in both ''[[Ogre Battle]] 64'' and ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'', and a negative political influence in the backstory of the original ''[[Ogre Battle]].'' The only game in the series so far where they ''aren't'' antagonistic in some way is ''[[Tactics Ogre]]: The Knight of Lodis''. [[God Is Evil]] may or may not apply, but [[Path of Inspiration]] or [[Church of Evil]] are fairly plausible.

* ''[[Grandia II]]'' effectively has Catholicism in the game, what with Granas (God), Valmar (Satan), a second coming, the Pope, churches and priests.The only thing missing is Jesus.

* In ''[[MARDEK]]'', the most prominently featured religion is the Church of YALORT, who is a dragon.

* [[Septerra Core]]. The whole thing with the son of Creator fighting the incarnation of Evil feels like this. Also, the monks from 3rd Shell have Christian habits.

* ''[[The Sims Medieval]]'' gives us the Church of The Watcher. It is divided into two denominations: the "Peteran" church and the "Jacoban" church (Essentially the [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|equivalents]] of medieval Protestants and Catholics, respectively).

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* ''[[Strange Candy]]'' features two parodies in its Fantasy-RPG story arc. The first parodies [http://www.strangecandy.net/d/20060914.html Falun Gong]. The other is [http://www.strangecandy.net/d/20060725.html Hubbomadaster], religious zealots who derive their name from [[L. Ron Hubbard]], Mohamed, and Zoroaster. They "cleanse" people and launch wars on other nations for [http://www.strangecandy.net/d/20061130.html being infidels]. And their king uses words [http://www.strangecandy.net/d/20071129.html like "misunderestimated"].

* Subverted in ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]''; when Durkon [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0073.html reflects on "What Would Thor Do?"], it isn't very useful.

** It would have been useful had he still had his top two divine spells for the day. Well, the dungeon-smashing bit. Not so much the "return to the afterlife and drink a lot of beer" part.

*** Blasphemy. Durkon is ''always'' up for drinking a lot of beer.

* ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' considers [[Batman]] to be a god. [[Word of God]] assures us that Zombie Superpowered Batman is indeed terrifying.

{{quote|'''[[Green Lantern]] Batman:''' YOU'RE ALL FUCKED.}}