Physical Religion: Difference between revisions

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* There are many real gods in the ''[[DCU]]'' outside of [[Vertigo]]-based series. For example, the [[New Gods]] are quite prominent ones, most notably '''[[Darkseid]]''' for '''[[Darkseid]] Is'''.

* In one ''[[The Mighty Thor|Thor]]'' storyline, humans started worshiping Thor as a god, even declaring themselves the true religion since, well, Thor IS a god and you can actually SEE Thor in action.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* The cults of the Old Gods and later, the Lightbringers from ''[[Arcia Chronicles]]'' worshiped the respective [[Physical God|Physical Gods]] until they were killed or abandoned Tarra. The modern predominant religion is basically a [[Crystal Dragon Jesus|fantasy counterpart]] of Christianity (minus Christ).

* In the ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'', the Tayledras, Shin'a'in and K'Leshya, collectively known as the Kaled'a'in, are called as such because they worship the Star-eyed goddess Kal'enel, who routinely provides divine intervention of the kind that cannot be mistaken for anything else, as well as being able to communicate with her devotees in 'the moonpaths'. Also in the Valdemas world is the god Vkandis, worshiped by the Karsites {{spoiler|and the Iftellians}} who actually sent a lightening bolt to vaporize a false Son of the Sun (like their pope) who wasn't abiding by his doctrines, choosing a new one himself through a statue of him, even going so far as to prove it wasn't a trick by removing the crown which was a permanent, non-removable part of the statue and placing it on the new Son of the Sun and putting the statue back, crownless.

* [[David Eddings]] tends to rely on this trope for his plots. [[The Belgariad]] universe has eight gods and two godlike consciousnesses of the universe, and [[The Elenium]] has more deities than anyone can count.

* Regarding ''The [[Wheel of Time]]'', Robert Jordan has used the following quote to explain the lack of organized religion: "This is a world where what might be called the proofs of religion are self-evident all the time. It seemed to me there was no necessity for the trappings of religion, which by and large are to reinforce us in our faith and to convince others. If your beliefs are made concrete and manifest around you at any given time there is not the need for that".

* [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Chalion]]'' series, with its four or five Gods, depending on which sect you belong to. (There is no doubt about the ''existence'' of the Bastard, the fifth God. The argument is over whether or not he should be ranked up with the other four.)

* The Valar for the peoples of [[The Silmarillion|Middle Earth]]: the Elves are on first-name basis with them. The Númenoreans don't have any organized religion either, until Sauron introduces it for his own purposes.

* ''[[Warhammer]]'' / ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'''s Chaos gods. They exist, show up in person, and give [[Body Horror|gifts]] to people.

** Also from [[Warhammer]]: Sigmar, god of [[The Empire]]'s religion.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has a large pantheon of gods, and nobody really questions their existence, seeing as they, again, show up in person and grant spells. Except for Ao in [[Forgotten Realms]], who is so powerful he doesn't care.

** In the setting of ''[[Eberron]]'', the [[Physical God]] trope is averted. The true gods, if they exist, do not manifest themselves physically. There are tales of them doing it, but that's nothing more that myths and legends. However this trope still applies, as ''faith'' powers divine magic, so someone believing in the divinity of a mortal can still have divine magic. This leads to certain mortal beings having become the "God" of their churches.

*** The [[Lizard Folk]] of Q'Barra worship the Dragon Rhashaak, who rules over them as a god.

*** The Church of the Silver Flame worships the titular Silver Flame, a cosmic force of good manifested in a pillar of fire in their capital city, the location of a battle between a Couatl, a Demon Lord and a Paladin. This particular pillar has the mind of all three beings composing it, but it's worth mentioning that the Silver Flame itself is a cosmic force not limited to that single pillar; a left over of the spell cast by the Couatl to seal the Demons in Khyber.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' people worship Goddess of Harvest. Not only is she very real: you can screw her.

* [[Arcanum]] gives us interesting example. Most mainstream religion in a world is worshiping a powerful elven wizard called Nasrudin, who lived long ago. They got most of the events right, except the fact that {{spoiler|Nasrudin didn't die}}

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* [http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Primus Primus] and [[Planet Eater|Unicron]] in the various ''[[Transformers]]'' 'verses.

** They do, on the other hand, have expressions like "Thank Celestia!", "In the name of Celestia!" and "As Celestia as my witness...".