Deities for a setting (my first time homebrewing)

[DrunkPrivateer]

Be honest but gentle, it be me first time.

Religion

Holifex
Holifex, the god of purity, is lawful evil. The church which worships him treats him as if he were a lawful good god. His clerics consists of those who are themselves evil and use the righteous facade to further their own gains, and a few of those who through a combination of denial and naivete manage to be unaware of there patron deity’s true nature. The Church of Holifex is the state church of Londovia and the latter usually finally see the truth and are subsequently taken care of by the church’s Inquisition. His title is the white flame. Holifex promotes unchanging social classes or “knowing one’s role and place” , the conquest and conversion of all others, and the merciless suppression and extermination of heretics. The domains he is associated with are Evil, Knowledge, Law, and War. His favored weapon is the halberd. His followers are composed of almost all of the inhabitants of Londovia. His worship is more or less uniform among the politically, socially, and economically elite. Those less fortunate either merely give resentful lip-service or immerse themselves in blind devotion to their cruel master.
Rumor has it that Holifex used to be one of a wide pantheon of gods but either managed to destroy the other gods or use his influence to make them unworshiped, and thus irrelevant.

Deci’ni
Deci’ni is the prankster god of the ancient Londovian pantheon, and is chaotic good. Deci’ni’s title is the Guilty Grin but is often known simply as the Prankster God and his followers are known collectively as the Cult of the Prankster God. Deci’ni promotes freedom, disdain for authority, the simple pleasures of life, and practical jokes. While he is still know as the Prankster God and is as fond of lighthearted merriment as ever, his personality has somewhat changed as he has acquired the role of the leader of an armed and desperate resistance. The domains he is associated with are Chaos, Luck, and Trickery. His favored weapon is the sap. His worshipers consist of those who oppose Holifex and who have been lucky enough to be found by the cult without being found by Holifex’s inquisition.

[brian c]

I like the idea behind Holifex, but you have to do some major rule-bending to get it to work in D&D. If his alignment is lawful evil, then clerics should only be allowed as LE, LN and NE. If they treat him as LG, does that mean that the clerics are LG and he just tricks them? Or do you just mean that the clerics are LE (technically) but they have a different perspective on good?

[Squatting_Monk]

Given a corrupt society where the evil have enough power to squelch the voices of any paladins, Holifex fits in very well. Are the heretics his followers try to exterminate simply followers of other gods, or is there more to it (IRL, many that the Inquisition declared heretics had different theological views, but were not necessarily conforming to a different religion; some were also just economic and political threats). What are Holifex's (not his clergy's) goals?

[DrunkPrivateer]

Hmmm. Good questions. Perhaps all clerics in seminary (or the equivalent thereof) are either killed or simply not allowed to graduate if they are perceived to be actually LG and not just tongue-and-cheek LG.
Heretics would be anyone suspected by a person of religious authority to be in any way differing from official dogma. The heretics that are actually putting up a fight (and are actually undeniably heretics) are the worshipers of Deci'ni. He is the only other god of the ancient pantheon still worshiped (or even remembered for that matter.)

As for what he wants...
hmm. I guess to be the only god.
(what do other deities want?)

Oooooh! Or maybe to ensure the purity of the world! The point at which he went from LG to LE was when he decided that humans were essentially corrupt, and that to encourage purity was not enough, that it must be enforced!

[DrunkPrivateer]

where the evil have enough power to squelch the voices of any paladins

Could they be Blackguards that think of themselves as paladins? That would be cool.

[Old_el_Paso]

Could they be Blackguards that think of themselves as paladins? That would be cool.

Try this right here. ---> http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...yClassFeatures

Blackguards have demon and undead followers, and it would take some serious bluff checks to convince the populace that a blackguard is a paladin.

[DrunkPrivateer]

Try this right here. ---> http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/cl...yClassFeatures

Blackguards have demon and undead followers, and it would take some serious bluff checks to convince the populace that a blackguard is a paladin.

Awesome, thanks.

[DrunkPrivateer]

I was thinking for a name for the setting, "Everything You Know is Wrong"
heh

[magic8BALL]

I like the idea behind Holifex, but you have to do some major rule-bending to get it to work in D&D. If his alignment is lawful evil, then clerics should only be allowed as LE, LN and NE. If they treat him as LG, does that mean that the clerics are LG and he just tricks them? Or do you just mean that the clerics are LE (technically) but they have a different perspective on good?

...not everyone who worships is a member of the Martial Order of the church, who's devotion to the diety see's them granted with the ability to cast spells. In fact most people are not. Most people are level 1 commoners. These people may think that a LE god is LG. Quite easily.

But really, if you are that devoted, you would either:

-know your dieties true adgenda, and seek to further it in a manner that allows the perception of his goodness to rmain in tact.

-truely believe that they are good, and hence there is no evil in what you do for their furtherment of the cause. You would think you are good, when in fact, you are evil.

The Goa'uld from Stargate are a great example of fiction where this occurs. While very, very evil when viewed from an external standpoint, members of the society often see them 'their Gods' as just and fair, as they enforce laws strongly. Doesn't make them good.

I think the trick is where you stand when measuring good and evil. I think it's improtant to mention which side of the fence you are when you make a statment about this sort of thing:

"I'm good. I sacrifice inocents every day for my god."

This may actually be a nice ritural for a god of purity, as only the innocents are pure enough for Holifex to accept.

[DrunkPrivateer]

Thanks for all the input guys. Lots of really good ideas.

Oh. What plane do the gods reside on? Can they have their own planes? If so, I'm gonna give him one that looks like the archetypel idea of heaven (clouds connected by marble bridges and golden gates, that kind of thing) inhabited by twisted abominations of celestials.

[brian c]

Thanks for all the input guys. Lots of really good ideas.

Oh. What plane do the gods reside on? Can they have their own planes? If so, I'm gonna give him one that looks like the archetypel idea of heaven (clouds connected by marble bridges and golden gates, that kind of thing) inhabited by twisted abominations of celestials.

Gods generally have their own private plane or demi-plane, especially if they're major gods.

[Squatting_Monk]

Could they be Blackguards that think of themselves as paladins? That would be cool.

Well, me mentioning Paladins was concerning those outside Holifex's clergy. There's going to inevitably be some Paladin somewhere (perhaps a PC?) who's going to call attention to the fact that they aren't being very good at all, and if the people realize he's right... well, Holifex has got quite a sticky situation on his hands.

Perhaps there is a group of Paladins who have formed sort of a splinter faction of Holifex's clergy that wants to purge the rest of the church of its impurities (e.g., Puritanism)? That kind of infighting would be pretty nifty, as well as begging the question of whether or not Holifex was truly evil. (On a side note, if he just wants purity by any means, he's likely LN, since questions of morality bore him as long as he's achieving the ends he wants.)

[knightsaline]

You could just say that the LG clerics and pallys don't draw their power from Holifex, they just THINK they do. The LE clerics don't count them as true worshippers, much like how St. Cuthbert has LE clerics, but the LG and LN clerics don't count them as true worshippers.

[DrunkPrivateer]

On a side note, if he just wants purity by any means, he's likely LN, since questions of morality bore him as long as he's achieving the ends he wants.

Really? Even if the means are clearly unjustified by the ends and are whole-heartedly supported by the deity himself? And even so, I guess it would be justifiable to take down a LN god if he and his church were killing innocent people.

I was also playing around with an idea for an extremely powerful magical item that would alter the appearance of everything in the city (each city might have one or maybe just the capital or something) making things seem better than they are e.g. hiding piles of waste in the streets, making the emaciated, sickly poor look healthy. Another idea was having some homebrewed magical beast live in the city water supply releasing a tasteless, clear liquid that calmed the masses.

I was reading Complete Divine and thought any of the extra domains of Community, Domination, Inquisition, Madness, Mind, or Purification would all work really well for Holifex. I think that would give him a grand total of 10 domains. Is that a little much?

Oh, also, even though I have no idea what I'm doing, I started trying to homebrew some creatures for either his plane, the capital, or both. What do you think?

[DrunkPrivateer]

Creatures

Angelix

The True
Medium Outsider (Angelix, Extraplaner, Evil)
Environment: Holifex’ Paradise
Alignment: Neutral Evil
Description: Like all Angelix, The True appear as homogeneous, winged, comely humans but with glaring, inhuman deformities. The True are all female and lack a mouth on their face and have a grinning maw on their abdomen.

The Just
Medium Outsider (Angelix, Extraplaner, Evil)
Environment: Holifex’ Paradise
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Description: Like all Angelix, The Just appear as homogeneous, winged, comely humans but with glaring, inhuman deformities. The Just are all male and have no lower body but rather two upper bodies connected at the waist and all four arms clutch warhammers which they constantly flail and beat against the ground.

The Righteous
Medium Outsider (Angelix, Extraplaner, Evil)
Environment: Holifex’ Paradise
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Description: Like all Angelix, The True appear as homogeneous, winged, comely humans but with glaring, inhuman deformities. The True are all male and lack eyes. They also have open sores all over their bodies which ooze foul-smelling black liquid.

Oh, and I'll probably try to come up with a better name than just " Holifex' Paradise." I dunno.