No dinosaurs today, I'm afraid. That was my big opening bit, and while I'll be putting in just as much work to the rest as I did into that one, I doubt it'll end up as high quality. Whole situation is tragic, really. If only I wasn't an idiot.
Before I get into any real writing, I should pause a minute to talk a little about the cosmology of the world, or at least the lack of it.
I call it psuedo-cosmology, but in all honesty, it's just a regular cosmology, but I like the name. Psuedo-cosmology. It sounds interesting when you say it, a lot more interesting than when it's explained.
Because that all sounds dreadfully boring, I'll also talk a little about a small priesthood at the end, because to do anything else would probably lose me what few readers I have.
The Cosmology, or Lack-Thereof
Most of my writings take place on one world, because I've been running that world in various shapes for my D&D group for years. I enjoy worldbuilding, but I enjoy even more watching people actually interact with the world, discover things about it, and change the way its run. Besides the fact that I do my best to build things in a way that's slightly alien and non-traditional, the world has one other quirk that I should probably disclose at the beginning.
One thing that's always frustrated me about roleplaying games is how the great spiritual mysteries are always spelled out for you. Where do we go when we die? We go to the Seven Heavens, or possibly the Nine Hells, and I can confirm this for absolute fact because I've been to both myself. How was the world made? The overgod did it, and I can confirm this for absolute fact because I've talked to them. How and why did life begin? The gods made it, and yet again, I can confirm this for absolute fact because I've talked to them.
This fucking sucks. It's boring. It stifles your ability to make interesting cultures. It stops you from making interesting characters. I once played a barbarian who believed that mortal spirits were imprisoned on the world in a cycle of reincarnation, until they eventually proved themselves virtuous enough to ascend to a higher plane of being, and that it was thus the most moral thing to do to kill a sinner now and give them another chance at redemption, instead of letting them waste their time in this life. That character was fun, and had unique interactions with the world and the party, and he's probably my second favorite character of all time. I keep bringing him back whenever I need an idea on short notice.
The entire time I've played that character, I've always been bothered by the fact that as a player, I know for a fact that he's wrong. His entire worldview is bullshit, and whenever there's any sort of theological discussion, everyone else can just ignore anything he might believe because their gods speak to them one-on-one.
So, I've decided to do away with cosmology. No one knows where you go when you die. No one knows how life started. No one knows any of that shit. A lot of people have a lot of very firmly held beliefs about it, and it's quite obvious that the clerics are getting power from somewhere, but on one could conclusively tell you where that is.
Combine this with the idea of foreign angels. For that matter, you can insert foreign devils, and foreign demons, and foreign functions-like-angels. For an example of that, look at the dinosaurs that headline this blog. Everything becomes so much more wonderfully confusing. The beliefs of every religion are true, but maybe not as true as they think. There are definitely dwarf-gods out there, and dwarf-demons, but are those gods really the gods who forged reality itself? Are the angels really even angels, or are they just a different, more beautiful kind of demon whose purpose is to convert people to the worship of the wicked dwarf-gods instead of the true rulers of creation, elf-gods? Where do we go when we die? Who made the universe? Why and how did life come into existence? Plenty of people will say they know these things, but you can't be certain. They could be wrong. They could be lying. It's wonderful.
Almost every religion in the world tells you that their gods are the true rulers of everything, and that all the other gods are simply demonic deceivers. This is by far the most common view, but it's not the only one. One of the more interesting groups who break with this view are the infamous atheist-priests
Atheist-priests aren't actually atheists. They're called atheist-priests because although they always wear the clothing and bear the mannerisms of priests, there aren't any recordings of them actually doing any of the important things priests do, like offering spiritual wisdom, giving sermons, or preforming sacraments.
This is because of the god the atheist-priests worship. This god has no name, as this god refuses to be named. The atheist-priests call this deity "The Great Abstainer".
Atheist-priests are all very devout believers who go out of their way to practice their faith at all times. They hate it when people call them atheist-priests, and they would love to go yell at you about how you're an idiot and they're not anything close to atheists, but they know to do so would violate the sacred doctrines. But they really want to. Sometimes they decide that maybe they can just sin a little bit today, and then they'll berate you and whack you with the walking sticks they carry everywhere, because you are an idiot and probably deserve it for all the lack of abstaining you do, you filthy sinner.
Great atheist-priests are known to abstain from food or drink, and their starvation is venerated. Even greater atheist-priests abstain from food, drink, and death itself. They are venerated from abstaining even from the inevitable cessation of life. The priests believe that the more things they abstain from, the closer they come to their god. The end-goal is to abstain from all things, and ascend to become one with the Great Abstainer.
Side note - The Great Abstainer abstains from using pronouns. Refer to the Great Abstanier only as the Great Abstainer, or the atheist-priests will judge your sin harsh enough that they cease abstaining to beat you with their wooden walking sticks and yell at you.
This is the most common action taken by the atheist-priests. People annoy them enough, through disrespect or grievous sin, that they cease abstaining long enough to beat you with their wooden walking sticks and yell at you. They often travel in packs, and their wrath is simultaneously hilarious to witness and mildly horrifying to receive.
The atheist-priests are begrudgingly tolerated almost everywhere in the world. They don't do much harm, nor do they attempt to convert the populace to their wicked ways, and it is really hard to scare them away from going somewhere. You can outlaw everything about them, and they will just abstain from acknowledging those laws or being afraid of the punishment.
They aren't common, but you'll probably meet at least one in your life. It's gotten to the point that some people say that atheist-priests emerge fully-formed from rocks, because there's no way a group this niche could have so many members. Most rational people reject this idea, because it is ridiculous, but so are a lot of other things. Still, it's probably false.
But enough with the digression. I initially mentioned them because of their unique view on the world's cosmology, and so I'll get back to that.
Their view is not so dissimilar from what you might think, as a reader. The Great Abstainer is the highest and greatest god, of course, but the Great Abstainer is not the ruler of reality. After all, the Great Abstainer abstains from all rulership. In his stead, the other gods have come forth. In the eyes of an atheist-priest, reality is governed by hordes of squabbling children with unfathomable power. It's quite similar to the material world, which is ruled by similar but different and weaker squabbling children with unfathomable power.
Is it much surprise they take pleasure in beating idiots with a stick every now and again?
No comments:
Post a Comment