Forbidden Magic, Fantasy Religions, and other Thoughts

[Arith Winterfell]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

Fantasy religions are usually backed by actual gods with very real power, which makes atheism and agnosticism silly notions for those worlds. Many of them are also polytheistic, which essentially means that no single church can lay public claim to having the "one true morality", but instead have to acknowledge that their chosen god is just one aspect of the world. There will certainly still be those who are too dogmatic to acknowledge non-believers as people.

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City- and nation-wide bans on various types of magic are more likely to come from whatever government is in place than from religion(s) (theocracies being a special case). From them you're likely to see bans and heavy restrictions on any type of magic that has a risk of causing major damage, disrupting the economy or otherwise usurping the minds, abilities or wealth of those in power.

Some good points (both in the above quote, and from everyone else more broadly too!) What follows is what I'm toying with so far.

I'm pondering more of a Lovecraftian approach perhaps like that taken by the video game Fear & Hunger where there are primeval god-like beings, but they are deeply alien to humanity. These would offer real Power Investure, but are so distant, alien, and often cruel that they have largely faded from human society except as cult fringes. (Could potentially use Symbol Magic for these, maybe?)

Potentially more recent human based gods are actually illusions built around concepts and spells empowered by collective belief and sanctity levels reflecting strength of shared belief in the holiness of locations. Power is drawn to power spells (which really still use the casters fatigue anyway) from collective belief in an illusion that there is a divine consciousness behind a concept (like The Sacred Light faith).

Or maybe clerics use Threshold Magic system, representing that calling down too big of miracles (exceeding their Threshold) demands too much from the pool of collective belief and distortions of reality result. Perhaps the churches interpret such backlashes as divine punishment for calling too much for a deitiy's power for unworthy purposes.

Thoughts?