False Idols of the Known World

   

 

At man's height, the heresy of Syncretism took root. In our hubris, we sought to interpret the Gospels to better understand them, and grasp the totality of Heaven. We can do this no more than mice grasp the scope of a behemoth, and our efforts were futile. But so titanic were the engines and sorcery and artifice bent towards this end, that Creation itself grew strained, and broke. Space distorts, time bends, the Un-Worldly slip through the cracks and grow in number. For all the succor to the spirit that the Gospels give, they could not mend such a tear, and the world was thereafter changed without hope of reversal.

Is it any surprise so many have run back to the old faiths, the forgotten gods, in the hope that they will find something which will? Oh, each of these is a path to ruin, for certain. Be it in the long centuries of decay or damnation in the present, any faith devoid of Heaven's Gospel allows the seed of Primeval Sin to take root. Only those which demand a sacrifice greater yet forestall such an end, and only do so to bring about a different one.

Our Ancestors

Common to the midlands and their knightly orders, chroniclers are mysticists who follow those of prominence and hear the weekly accountings of those who are not so, scribing the deeds of their lives so they may be judged upon death as worthy of veneration as ancestral saints. A subtle kind of necromancy, where the souls are bound by written word and remembrance to serve as vessels for the prosperity of the living. While it may seem comforting that the dead protect the living so, it must be remembered that they are still creatures of Primeval Sin; their protection may be sincere, their guidance of good intent, but the ancient anthropophagic urge does not so easily diminish with death, and indulgences begin to slip in. Accidents and allowances, justifications in extremis. By the unrelenting march of time and decay, all their wisdom is never enough to stop their descendants from eating their realm from the inside out.

A character may hire a chronicler as a hireling. For each session survived, add a point of "Remembrance" to each member of the party. If a character dies, then their Remembrance pool is accessible to any party members. For 1 point, they can reroll a save. For 2, an attack roll. Once exhausted, they cannot be regained. The player of the deceased character may veto any uses, and if reanimated as an undead, loses access to the pool and must start from scratch (assuming the chronicler would wish to associate with such a thing!)

The Oracles

An abiding vice among the seemingly most sophisticated of realms, occult oracles and prophets abound, writhing in mist of incense and illusory smoke, calling forth predictions of the future from the movements of the planets, or the balance of the humors, or any number of strange principles. Almanacs purporting to foresee one's fate are regularly disseminated among the cities, and followed zealously by adherents who swear by them. Of course, sufficient financial incentive to these oracular institutions can sway predictions one direction or another, for even if their gift is true, it need not be directed at the benefit of the whole when it can just as easily enrich the temple. At their best, they offer no path to good living, merely to secular success. 

You can find almanacs for sale in most cities, but the ones purported to have actual oracular predictions and horoscopes in them are always pricier. Buying such a product grants you one automatic success to each of your attributes, and an additional one per level that may be spent on any roll. However, they must be spent this year, and do not refresh until next year's almanac.

The Chymical Orders

Faith? Merely another manner of gnosis, they sneer. Good? Evil? Constructs of the mind. Only the mathematical principles of the world are of any use. To plumb mystery, to discover the root of creation, that is what is good. Progress and innovation at any cost, wonders and nightmares brought to life by the mad proliferation of unfettered scholarship. Places where the esoteric orders of Chymistry dwell venerate the prime elemental principles as amoral, fundamental forces of existence, and seek to exalt themselves through their understanding of those secret powers. In material terms, they often teem with innovation and boons to life. Salves and poultices, great thrumming machines, the mysteries of flesh and sky and earth unveiled and put to work. Some have even made carriages without horses, cannons which move on their own, or vessels which fly through the clouds. But these bastions of scholarly secularity rarely last. To kneel to the principles of the divine requires humility. To abide by the Gospels denotes stagnation. In their hubris, for all the worldly power they command, their ignorance of the spirit leads to the proliferation of wickedness which they deny as psychosis or delusion, treatable by medicine instead of faith. Inevitably doomed to failure. The relics from their short-lived utopias, however, can be found across the Known World.

Chymical Orders do not demand worship, or they would not call it such. They are as a cult, but dedicated to reason and study, believing that creation may be ordered by learned men and the superstitions and gods of lesser folk can be consigned to history if they are false, and bound by sorcery and science if they are true. Such individuals are often bereft of spiritual defense and vulnerable to possession and temptation by predators of the soul, but the lands they rule grow tall and mighty like no others, at least until their terrible collapse. 

Titan Worship

A fearful practice that erupts like wildfire, burning itself out as its own adherents devour one another until raving giants stalk barren fields and emptied cities, picked clean of bone and offal. So one would think. In truth, there are times when a grim manner of hierarchy can emerge, hunger restrained sufficiently than an order of size and power allows for a kind of stability, and this inevitably requires justification when its serfs are lowered even further into cattle. So it is that these lands turn to venerate the Titans; some do so as children mourning their long-dead parents, who could not restrain their appetites. Others see their smiting by Heavenly confluence not as punishment, but as apotheosis. As dreaming pareidolia, they have left their bodies and sins behind, and thus have become true gods. And the last manner of such adherents see the charnel pits they made of the world as something to aspire to, with themselves at the table and not atop it, of course.

There are no spiritual benefits to this sort of worship. If you are open about it, most will fear and revile you. But in such cannibal kingdoms you will be welcomed as kin, and if you are worthy will be easily given what you need to grow further, provided you swear loyalty to their cause. 

The Gods of the Earth

Though the pagan gods which strode the soil are much diminished, they do persist in some form or another, incorporeal and distant. It is said incarnations still hide among the truly wild places, but if that is so even they are but a shadow of their former glory. So too are those who would seek to return to the days before sin, and live as beasts among the shadows of the trees and mountains. Though it may seem paradoxical that organized faith can exist among such adherents to barbarity, most followers are half-hearted in their efforts, calling to the wilds for strength and shunning the niceties of developed civilization, but still raising wall and forge for the sake of their own. Only the truly mad shun reason and tool entirely, but among the lay folk they are venerated as saints. Mixed among their lot are romanticists, who have only ever known the farm or garden and envision communion with nature as freedom from the burden of living. While their efforts to preserve the land have some merit, the world has long borne the scars of ancient humanity's war against it, and such wounds are not easily forgotten. There is malice in the woods, and to worship it is to let that malice take root in oneself as well, given time.

Adherents of terrestrial paganism may reroll reaction rolls for plants and animals, taking the better result. If you are a normal human, you may become Barbarous if you wish. If you become some manner of terrestrial chimera, there will be no risk of failure or disfigurement.

The Gods of the Sea

While the Titans hunted the gods of the land, those of the seas were never tamed. They remain at their height, prideful and cruel in their animal way. For them, man is an enemy, it is sure, but one now muzzled by the Gospel, or so many surmise them to think, and thus vulnerable to their own touch. The Marinal Gods are some of the most potent of the transactional deities. Desecrate temples in their name, offer sacrifice at their altars, break the dams and flood the lowlands, make converts through baptism of salt and blood. Do this, and gold, concubines, power, shall be heaped upon you. Though few realms are so overt in their worship, many a coastal land at the least curries their favor, if only to keep their ships from being sunk.

The institutions of the Marinal Gods are as sophisticated as any True Faith, bolstered by the wealth of their patrons who care not for the baubles they divest themselves of. Unlike their cousins upon the earth, they are sly and wilful, preying upon the needs of mortals and fulfilling it through their ceremony and blessings. Indeed, they promise, if you but bring ten more converts into the flock, your own riches shall be multiplied a dozenfold! Preach submission to them, stain the oceans with the blood of sacrifice, and bring converts to their cause, and you will be rewarded in wealth proportional to your contribution.

The Dreamed Ones

The Oneiric spirits that suffuse the Known World feed on the psychic humors of the soul, bidding their puppets to submit to the mad passions they instill in them be it through pleasure, fear, or despair. Though hardly higher beings, their capriciousness and power make appeasing them the route that most take when dealing with such beings, and for some it is turned to worship. For to appease these powers is to make them comfortable among you, as feeding the beasts of the wild causes them to lose their fear of humanity. When the dreaming ones are among mortals, mortals change to suit them. When a community is wholly consumed by fear of earning their ire, they become but playthings to these half-real spirits, revering them as their masters.

The lay faithful of such places are less adherents to a coherent gospel and more pour souls laden with superstition and afflicted with irrational passions, puppets with their strings pulled in whatever way pleases their masters. But every flock needs its sheepdogs, and some among the herd are used to this end, if they demonstrate sufficient wit, will, and pliability. Should you be one of these people, then you will no longer have to deal with the whimsical and roundabout dealings of the dreamed ones that they inflict on everyone else. They will break character and speak to you plainly about their wants. You are a stage hand now, not a member of the audience. This comes with certain expectations and privileges, and should you exceed them, you will be rewarded with induction into the ranks of your masters.

Angel Cults

It is a common failing among those, who through some tragedy become separate from the clergy of the True Faiths, to worship the angelic messengers of Heaven over the Gospels themselves. Born into being by the expression of Numinous Miracle, angels embody the Gospel they are aligned to in ways humans never could, but are as ignorant to Heaven's nature as we are. To look to them for guidance as spiritual heads is folly, but in their benevolence and naivete some may seek to assume the role anyway. In such cases, they may hold a flock together for a time, but if the Gospels are discarded in pursuit of false idols, no matter how pure, the end result of anthropophagy will be the same. And of course, there is always the risk that the empyrean spirit will become afflicted with worldly, carnal desires, and assume a body of flesh and blood to live among mortal folk. Such fallen angels are a danger to themselves and others, and near inevitably bring despair be it through ignorance or decadence.

Angelic cults are deeply personalized and parasocial affairs. It is rare for a divinity to be so direct in their desire to help or, in the case of fallen angels, so human in nature. For the former they are like caged songbirds, wheeled out to bring succor to the adoring masses and guided to conclusions which fit the biases of their captors. For the latter they are like spoiled princes, kept sedate with concubines, feasts, or wanton slaughter as per their newfound predilections until their gifts may be used to some end or another. To be one's adherent is as a chaperone or an adoring fanatic, beguiled by an incarnated fragment of heaven brought too close to earth than is ever safe. They offer few benefits beyond naive snippets of wisdom, but should you gain its friendship you will have one of the most powerful allies possible in the Known World.

Devil Pacts

Even the Titans held love for one another, at least before madness took them. And even then, some wept as they butchered their brothers and sisters. They took the flesh of their kin for the sake of power, to grow greater or to fend off those others who did. Their actions were not cruelty for its own sake. Not so for the twisted denizens of Chthon. They are a thing unto themselves, devoid of reason or sensible origin yet found crawling and wailing across all the dead worlds scryed by man, spreading as cancer across Creation, bringing degradation, torment, and the ruin of all which makes life worth living.

To pledge oneself to the forces of the underworld is to be utterly free of consequence. Once they are satisfied and their dark gifts taken, you pay pillage, murder, and violate as it pleases you, for death merely means the start of your new life as the foulest of the damned. Only the day that Heaven is brought to earth, and history ends in truth in a final perfected state, will you ever face true retribution for your wicked deeds. If ever such a thing shall happen. But once walked to its end, this path can never be escaped. The very will to do so no longer exists within you.

Syncretism

Each Gospel is as a whole truth, full and undiluted. A pure road to salvation. And yet, each seems to contradict another. Like mice grasping at the nature of the elephant, humans cannot comprehend the  totality of the idea they call Heaven. Faith, blind faith, utter devotion to a singular Gospel, is the only path which has reliably stymied the self-destructive curse of Primeval Sin without some other, equally terrible loss to compensate. All others which do not exact their price merely delay its onset, allow it to sink deeper into a faithless or misguided people, and bring ruin tomorrow, if not today. 

Syncretism is perhaps the deepest of heresies. It is the greatest hubris, the sweetest lie. The idea that the  Gospels may be conjoined by human hands, the teachings of the disparate Saviors united, and the true totality of Heaven comprehended.

All attempts have led to utter ruin.

They have also lasted the longest of any false church. Bearing traces and fragments of the True Faiths, they provide but a spark of protection against that ancient curse, and so create the false hope that this time, the next time, will be the true uncovering of Heaven's will, if even it can be said to have one. But such embers are not enough to burn away the darkness in the hearts of men, and so the clergy of these institutions inevitably turn venal and corrupt. Indulgences, nepotism, abuse of their flocks, the perversion of faith in the name of power, all hidden under a cloak of divine mandate, built atop a fear of ending up like those other misguided fools, praying to uncaring divinities so unlike their own pure truth.

========================================================================

 

I understand it may be somewhat contentious to explicitly denote some religions as true or false, especially if they draw inspiration real-world philosophies or faiths similarly suppressed in the real world. The parallels to the abrahamic treatment of secularism and progressivism, "pagan" religions, wicca, and so forth are not unnoticed by me. The goal of this setting is to present the idea of a single righteous force as palatable to a modern audience while still calling up the unease and even dread at knowing it to be so, from the perspective of a non-believer, or one who would wish it otherwise. I consider myself to be fairly secular, humanist, and progressive. The idea of the best possible future being one of blind obedience to a fundamentally unknowable "thing" whose motives cannot be discerned, even if it seems to do more good than harm from what history tells us, is a bit unsettling. So, what if it were true? What if all our philosophical progress was not escape from a regressive dark age, but hubristic self-ruination and denial of the truth that would bring us salvation? 

An astute reader may notice some subtext here, of course. Primeval Sin, the innate cannibalistic urge within the humans of Anlil, is the reason these other paths lead to destruction. Without the spiritual immune system of the True Faiths, people become trapped in endless cycles of tyrannical ogres and other monsters, even if the times between them may vary depending on the particular religion followed. Perhaps without that burden, these other ways of living would not be so bad. It is perhaps a tragedy that these paths are closed to us, by virtue of the crimes of our ancestors. Maybe the world could have been a kinder place if they had not chosen to turn against one another. But that cannot be answered.

The Syncretists also serve a meta-role in the story of Anlil. Namely, they are the archetypal corrupt church of other stories, the hypocrites and powermongers who use their faith as a tool to confirm their own biases and do what they would have done anyway. Some among them may be good, but by virtue of holding to their own principles. The True Faiths reshape the minds of their most devout believers into superhumanly moral individuals. Syncretism does not, so it has all the problems of a normal religious institution. Sussing out which denominations are falling into syncretism and which abide by a single Gospel could be a plot seed, campaign, or just an ambient hazard for players who care for the True Faiths. It exists to contrast against the conceit of the setting, that the majority of these institutions are in fact to the benefit of civilization, with this particularly virulent lie being the odd one out.

In addition, it should be noted, followers of a religion besides that of the True Faiths are not necessarily doomed to be evil or antagonists. Indeed, after the fall of the Reasoned World, they have become quite common. Think of it, as I have said before, as lacking an immune system, but in terms of a culture rather than specific people. Individuals with strong principles may be able to avoid the call of Primeval Sin in their lifetimes, but as a whole, humanity can not. Bereft of the protection of Heaven, they will inevitably slip, they will indulge in their fixations, and monsters will rise from a broken people. One could live an entire life at the apex of this cycle, dying peaceful and fulfilled before the slide into horror. Multiple generations could, even. But it will come. 

I must be honest, I have been so busy with other projects I think I have stress-induced brain fog. But I like this blog and enjoy contributing to it, so have fun with this while I recover.