05-07-2017, 02:50 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Help building a religion
In my modern secret magic game I want to add the beginning of a new over encompassing villian. The idea in the future will be a uber catholic branch of the faith. Very hell fire and brimstone with a iron hold on various branches of the local government, and even high levels. I want to give the feeling of a cold and unfeeling stone tower monster of faith. They will have a very different view of the Bible....almost a modern version of the Middle Ages church, with secrets, code word, new sayings etc. To give a feeling of the old is new again and an oppressive church that will then move into the future for a future plot...when this new branch proclaims alternate faiths as devil worship or worse. This will then impact a few pcs and major npcs that are of odd faiths such as Wicca or Norse.
My question is what is the best way to start these seeds? I was thinking that on my world the former Vice President was very religious in a scary way, and even traveled with his own bishop. I'm thinking of maybe having him come back in to the light, with a lot of backing and money. Or maybe a new bishop or cardinal rises in the US in a special way and begins a grass roots faith building that is almost cult like, ala Brother Blood of D.C. Comics. I want the pcs to start seeing the rise of this over the next months with a few bad feelings and when it is finally is seen as the big bad, it's to late. I want this to be the religious version of the nazi party...a slow build and then before you know it they are your overlords. Thoughts? My US is already messed up due do major city riots five years back, high unimployment, meat and milk is high still due to a major disease that killed many cows three years ago, and a major fallen city in Idaho due to a nuclear incident and have become a place of the dregs of the world. Yes the "true" Catholic Church itself might be at war with them or in silence rebuking. Or maybe they are branding as a hate group, but their power in government stops anything from happening. I want this to be a slow build, and in he end a major background villian that delivers another layer of oppression and coldness to the world. I imagine the local Wicca store being burned down to clean the streets due to their dark rites the church speaks of, roving groups of thugs to police the streets for the faith, and more.. Thanks |
05-07-2017, 06:31 AM | #2 | |
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Re: Help building a religion
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After that, you need to figure how they're going to subvert American symbols, such as the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore to their purposes, or are they simply going to destroy those things as "works promoting a false faith." This is probably going to be a religion that gets very little purchase outside the U.S., so one thing you could do to help your dystopia along is play up the almost complete absence of tourists, the cession of immigration and the outward flow of ethnic minorities trying to escape back to the safety of home. |
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05-07-2017, 06:36 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Help building a religion
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It's a perfectly good cinematic plot but trying too hard to build a plausible mechanism for a faith that actually demands something from the populace to take over is not going to work well. I recommend making it a totally new faith, that way you can push the weirdness mostly to "lots of people converted to this first" rather than "lots of people were OK with some other faith being in charge". Of course this means the new revelation is actually popular, and the PCs resisting it really are in some senses villains who will not receive passive public support. With more time, you might be able to install dictators from a faith that doesn't particularly demand things - winning the support of the large fraction of the population that doesn't actually care very much about religion one way or the other - and then have them or their heirs become more concerned with doctrine over time, but that doesn't give you the sudden religious oppression you seem to be looking for.
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05-07-2017, 06:46 AM | #4 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: Help building a religion
Fiction that might provide inspiration:
Heinlein's novella "If This Goes On—," Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and Mick Farren's novel Armageddon Crazy.
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05-07-2017, 07:26 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: Help building a religion
The history of Christianity taking over the Roman Empire might be instructive, you'd just have to telescope it by a few hundred years. Some things that might help lead to your outcome:
-Some malaise or scandal or situation that makes eisting religions unappealing or inhibited. -World events that could suggest the new religion has an actual path to truth and/or divine favour. -Celebrity endorsements and rapid uptake among power elites. |
05-07-2017, 09:17 AM | #6 |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: Help building a religion
See also Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, or the TV adaptation currently being streamed on Hulu.
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Rob Kelk “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” – Bernard Baruch, Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950 No longer reading these forums regularly. |
05-07-2017, 10:45 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Help building a religion
As said they need to build a popular base.
Declaring that God has abandoned the people and that is why so many bad things have happened is one possibility. People like to blame others for things. Using the media and social media to attack other religions based on real and fake scandals can both raise general discontent, distract from the true threat and lure followers to the new hope. If they can perform miracles or something no one else can do that will also lure followers.
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05-07-2017, 12:54 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Help building a religion
Quote:
Last edited by Lameth; 05-07-2017 at 01:00 PM. |
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05-07-2017, 01:30 PM | #9 |
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Bristol
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Re: Help building a religion
Traditionally there is a material base for religion.
Cow provide fuel, milk etc =:sacred Centalised subordination to a single figure head = Abrahamic religions Nature worship or sun worship = early paganistic religons To create one what is the central theme and how did it come about? |
05-07-2017, 03:00 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Help building a religion
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What do people on a desert planet with sand monsters do? They venerate water, make sacred knives out of sand monster teeth, and say God made their planet as a giant boot camp because He couldn't possibly have any motive for making such a miserable place. Then say such things with style and poetry.
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