Religion of Evil: Difference between revisions
m
→Tabletop RPG
No edit summary |
m (→Tabletop RPG) |
||
Line 154:
** Both subverted and played straight in the new fourth edition of ''D&D''. Some evil gods actually have large (rational) followings that aren't typically seen as "evil". For example, non-evil worshippers of Bane (god of tyranny) might see him as the patron of "rightful and strong authority", and Grummsh (god of savagery) is worshipped by many as the "god of strength and conquest". A new deity, [[The Trope Without a Title|the Raven Queen]], is worshipped as a personification of Death without the evil overtones (and is basically a mixture of Wee Jas and Morr from ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]''). On the other hand, for those who like this trope straight, we still have Lolth, Vecna, Torog, etc., and also a lot of classic Demon Princes who are worshipped as gods by deranged cultists. And even then, some of the more "evil" gods can be justified: for example, Torog's domains include jailers and torturers—necessary? Perhaps. Likeable? No, not at all.
*** The Raven Queen also has a good bit of [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]], as plenty of her worshippers are a bit overenthusiastic. (Shadar-kai especially tend to end up as random encounters.)
** The one that takes the cake is probably Tharizdun, the god of [[Omnicidal Maniac]] who has been imprisoned since the dawn of time by all the other deities (good, neutral, and evil) working together. ''He still has worshipers'' and most of them are insane. A worshipper of Tharizdun even has a special trait unique to them called a Madness Score.<ref>This score is equal to half his class Level as a cleric, and he adds this score to his Wisdom Score whenever Wisdom applies to spellcasting. However, it has a disadvantage: for anything else that involves Wisdom he ''subtracts'' the Insanity Score from his Wisdom Score.</ref> To be fair, however, few members of his cults directly worship him or even know the cult is dedicated to Tharizdun. For example, most of the cultists in [[The Temple of Elemental Evil]] thought they were worshipping the destructive side of nature, and most of the leaders thought they were paying homage to Demon Queen of Fungi, Zuggtmoy. Only a select few called Doomdreamers knew who [[The Man Behind The Man]] truly was.
** ''[[Pathfinder]]'' has a number of these. The Church of [[Satan|Asmodeus]] controls [[The Empire|Cheliax]], while their
* In the [[New World of Darkness]] game ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' there's Belial's Brood, a covenant of vampires that are debauched and cruel even by vampire standards. And this is a [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Sick Sad World]] where being a [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire]] is a pipe dream. So trust me: "Debauched and cruel by vampire standards" means they aren't so much at the bottom of the barrel as outside of it holding up a liquor store. Their cults believe that the [[Enemy Within|inner "Beast"]] that all vampires struggle with is actually a fragment of divinity caged by imperfect humanity; so, in an effort to "liberate" and master the Beast, they deliberately lead their followers in acts that drive the [[Karma Meter]] down faster than mercury in Antarctica.
** The Brood are a Religion of Evil''er'' to other vampires, while the Lancea Sanctum have set themselves up as a Religion of Evil to humanity, as they act as a dark mirror of Christianity (and other mortal faiths to an extent). Their message is "don't sin against God, or you will be [[Cursed with Awesome|cursed like us]]."
| |||