Could you guys review my religion section and give comments?

[danbuter]

Gods of Gaia

Sol (The Sun)

Holy Symbol: Golden disc.

Alignment: Lawful Good.

Favored Weapon: Broadsword.

Areas of Concern: The Sun, Fire, War, Weather, Justice.

Sol's religion is based around cathedrals found in cities. Abbeys dedicated to him are found in the countryside. His followers include nobles, clerics, monks, judges, city watchmen, soldiers, and paladins.

Luna (The Moon)

Holy Symbol: Silver disc.

Alignment: Neutral.

Favored Weapon: Scimitar.

Areas of Concern: The Moon, Prophecy, War, The Sea, Magic.

Luna has small churches in cities and in the country. All lighthouses are dedicated to her. Her followers consist of clerics, mages, generals, and sailors.

Gaia (The Earth)

Holy Symbol: Mountain inside blue circle.

Alignment: Neutral.

Favored Weapon: Staff.

Areas of Concern: The Earth, Animals, Plants, Healing, Farming.

Gaia's faithful gather in parks in the city and sacred groves and stone circles in the country. Her followers include druids, rangers, farmers, witch doctors, midwives, and herbalists.

Faerie lords

While not technically gods, the lords of the fae are so powerful that they can grant their priests spells just as a god would.

Oberon (King of the Seelie Court)

Holy Symbol: Oak tree.

Alignment: Neutral Good.

Favored Weapon: Spear.

Areas of Concern: Animals, Pacts, War.

His followers include druids, rangers, nobles, merchants, and soldiers.

Titania (Queen of the Seelie Court)

Holy Symbol: Tiara.

Alignment: Neutral Good.

Favored Weapon: Dagger.

Areas of Concern: Plants, Love, Poetry, Song.

Her followers include farmers, midwives, poets, bards, rangers, and druids.

Mabb (Queen of the Unseelie Court)

Holy Symbol: Crescent moon.

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Favored Weapon: Wand.

Areas of Concern: Magic, Trickery, Lust.

Her followers include mages, thieves, harlots, and gamblers.

Demon Cults

There are three major demon cults.

Asmodeus, Lord of Hell

Holy Symbol: Flaming Spear

Alignment: Lawful Evil

Favored Weapon: Spear

Areas of Concern: Pacts, Destruction, Evil, Fire, Pacts, War.

His followers include nobles, generals, merchants, and assassins. His temples are usually austere and spartan, with braziers and bonfires present.

Malcanthet, Queen of the Succubi

Holy Symbol: Nubile tiefling woman

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Favored Weapon: Dagger

Areas of Concern: Lust, Illusion, Evil, Greed, Knowledge, Subterfuge.

Her followers include scholars, harlots, thieves, and merchants. Her temples are often houses of ill-repute.

Orcus, Master of the Undead

Holy Symbol: Skull-head mace

Alignment: Chaotic Evil

Favored Weapon: Mace

Areas of Concern: Chaos, Undeath, Evil, Gluttony, Wrath.

His followers include berserkers, necromancers, and psychopaths. His temples are often in out of the way places like sewers, swamps or the darkest forests.

The Devourer Wyrm

The Devourer Wyrm exists beyond normal reality, and desires nothing more than to destroy it. If it manages to manifest, all creation will be horribly changed and possibly destroyed. All depictions of it show a giant with its maw open, and its body looping back behind it. Exposure to its creatures leads to madness. The servants of the Devourer Wyrm include creatures such as gibbering mouthers and winged horrors. The Church and even demon cultists will try to destroy any cultists of the Devourer Wyrm that they find.

Tomes of Madness: Strange books occasionally appear in libraries, or are unearthed by adventurers exploring ancient ruins. These tomes are large (1 x 1 x 5), with heavy leather binding that has strange symbols on the cover. Anyone who finds one of these books must make a Wisdom saving throw, or succumb to a strong desire to just flip through its pages. Once a person starts reading, he must make a Wisdom saving throw or lose 1d6 points of Wisdom. He must make another Wisdom saving throw in order to stop reading. For every minute spent reading, another Wisdom saving throw must be made or the reader will lose an additional 1d6 points of Wisdom. Once a person reaches 0 Wisdom, he is permanently insane. He will gain the knowledge to summon aberrations into the world, and will act on this knowledge at the earliest opportunity. Aberrations can be summoned after a ritual that takes one hour to complete. One creature will appear. It will leave the caster alone, instead slipping out into the world at large to accomplish its goals (which range from immediate wanton destruction to initiating a long-term plot to topple nations, depending on the creature). The madman will continue to summon aberrations until he passes out (2d6 hours). One last aberration appears as he passes out and eats him, after which it disappears (it apparently lives on the souls of summoners). This means that any given summoner will unleash 1 to 11 creatures upon the world before the final monster destroys him.

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Any comments would be appreciated, especially regarding deity weapons, area of interest, and followers. Thanks!
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Dan
http://home.comcast.net/~danbuter/candc.html - my Castles and Crusades webpage

[danbuter]

Animism

Many primitive people are animists. They believe everthing in the world has its own spirit, including the sky, a local river, and even a large boulder near the village. They often talk to these spirits, even if it is a one-way conversation. More civilized people may consider the animist to be a little bit crazy. Of course, some of the spirits will grant spells to the local shaman or wise woman. These people are considered blessed by the local tribesmen. An animist priest must have a spirit patron, and focus his spell selection upon what that spirit would be interested in. (Ex. A shaman who has a river spirit as his ally will have many water-based spells).

Just another section I'm adding in.
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Dan
http://home.comcast.net/~danbuter/candc.html - my Castles and Crusades webpage

[Franklincense]

But I thought you were going to avoid real-life mainstream religions.

All of those demon cults have churches around here...

Frank

[Coleston the Cavalier]

I'm at work (church) but will give it a complete going over when I get home tonight.
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John Adams

[danbuter]

This isn't for a commercial project. Just the homebrew that I have up on the web. My current religion section found there is too organized for the swords and sorcery style of world that I'm creating. It is much more medieval in form, which is too rigid.
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Dan
http://home.comcast.net/~danbuter/candc.html - my Castles and Crusades webpage

[Otto von Grunwald]

I like the symetry of the set up (3 groups of three beings each). It feels a bit dark-heavy to me, but that may be the effect you were aiming for!

What about giving the "Gods of Gaia" proper names as the other 6 listed. Sol, Luna, and Gaia could be taken as proper names but iff'n it were me (which it ain't), I'd name them something less traditional and have them be symbolized by the Sun, Moon, and Earth.

My 2cp anywho.
-Otto, god of nerdy, white-guy dancing. Symbolized by a Rubik's Cube.

Holy Festivals are Thursday's around 6pm - 10pm.
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Happiness isn't having what you want; it's wanting what you have.

[Coleston the Cavalier]

Looks good. I like it. You've put a bunch of work into this - it should serve you well.

I have no criticisms to share.

Although I think I had to buy and read several "Tomes of Madness" in college. I ma still have a few in storage...
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John Adams

[TheNewGuy]

It works, and works well, for the flavor you seem to be seeking.

A little more real-world/history-based than one usually sees, but that's certainly not a bad thing. I have many gripes with existing fantasy rpg pantheons, not least of which is that the powers typically seem to be lazy knock-offs of historical deities, who were then named using a random syllable generator!

"Oh, look, it's Apollo -- errr, I mean, Snarfugulon! -- the lord of the sun!"
Your stuff, by contrast, shows genuine thought, and an internal consistency most other fantasy pantheons lack.

So, no criticism here. May your creations serve your game well!

TheNewGuy