History Main / PathOfInspiration

* Okay. Follow this closely. ''{{Deadlands}}'' has more {{Cult}}s than you can shake a jackalope's foot at, and at least a few of them masquerade as legitimate religions. Then there's the most visible example and/or subversion, the Church of Lost Angels. Beginning as a standard Protestant sect, many people suspect the Lost Angels' leadership to at least be involved in power grabs centering on the scarcity of food near the eponymous City of Lost Angels. (It's amazing how much someone listens when you're giving them the only hot meal they'll have all week.) Then there's TheReveal: [[spoiler:the "hot meal" is [[ImAHumanitarian made of people]], and their ''raison d'etre'' is the corruption of the unsuspecting.]] Two centuries later, though, the Angels are most definitely [[SaintlyChurch on the side of, erm, angels]]. Subversion? Inversion? Double Subversion? You decide!

** The religion started by [[ManipulativeBastard Shift]] and [[AntiAntichrist Puzzle]] definitely counts. Originally, Shift is just decieving creatures into believing Puzzle is Aslan so he can get whatever he wants. Then things escalate and he teams up with some equally opportunistic Calormenes to create the worship of "Tashlan", a mash-up of Aslan and Tash that true believers of both are equally horrified at, so that he can get rich selling Narnian resources (including its ''people'') to Calormen.

* The Church of Optimology from the ChzoMythos, which [[WordOfGod by Yahtzee's own admission]] is Scientology in sheep's clothing.

* The Qunari in ''DragonAge'' are this. It's not a religion (despite having a priest caste) but instead a way of life for them. Each Qunari has their place as part of the whole, where they're given a role to play in their lives.

* ''GrandiaII'': You know that war that happened 10,000 years ago between Granas, the benevolent creator, and Valmar, the destroyer? And how Granas won? [[spoiler: That was a bit of a lie. The truth is... when they both defeated each other, Granas was the one who died and Valmar was split into multiple pieces. And the highest members of church knew this and kept it from the general populace, to keep order.]]

* In the ''SengokuBasara'' series, Xavism (the resident stand-in for Catholicism) is portrayed in this light. Its 'founder' Xavi appears to have founded it to make himself rich, although his extreme {{Cloudcuckoolander}} LoveFreak nature makes it ambiguous: It's possible he actually believes his own insane dogma and is just too loony to recognize the inherent hypocrisy of his teaching. It's normally played for laughs more than anything.

* ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber Nine Princes in Amber]]'' suggests that this has been done by the Amberites in at least one Shadow.

** The Blood of Vol from the same setting is a lesser example. To the common man, it is a slightly creepy but otherwise okay religion that views blood as a gateway to immortality, and venerates the positive benefits of undeath (as in Eberron, undead creatures are not AlwaysChaoticEvil). Considering that the afterlife of Eberron consists of a drab wasteland that slowly erases your memories until you're a mindless wandering shade, you can see where they're coming from. The truth is a little harsher: [[spoiler:The Blood of Vol is actually being manipulated by BigBad Erandis Vol in order to advance her agenda in Khorvaire, with the actual dogma being an altered form of House Vol's beliefs preserved by elves fleeing Aerenal]].

* A most terrifying example is the Holy See in ''{{Berserk}}'', who do not even know that the four "angels" they worship and their MessianicArchetype are actually the five members of the Godhand, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who each crossed the MoralEventHorizon by sacrificing a whole load of people each (and who knows what else) and are subservient to a GodOfEvil. Oh, and they torture people. They are CRAZY obsessed with torturing people, often for no reason at all.

* There were a few episodes ("Return of the Archons", "The Apple", "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky") of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' where the primitive inhabitants of a planet displayed a cult-like zeal to a divine father figure, often manifesting strange practices. In all cases their "god" turned out to be a [[AIIsACrapshoot computer tasked with governing the society]].

A religion that appears benign, but was carefully designed from the ground up long ago for a nefarious purpose, usually either to force the subjects of a state to behave as its founders would wish, frequently specifically to never attempt to rise in station or do anything but what they're told (popular with constructed state religions), or to [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly empower]] an [[GodOfEvil evil god]] or [[UltimateEvil force]] without anyone realizing that said god or force is in fact evil. The end result is a VillainWithGoodPublicity. This church is widespread in a large country or even the world, and accepted without question -- after all, questioning the Path of Inspiration is a heresy punishable by death. Members are sometimes clearly {{brainwashed}} from an outside perspective.

* ''Series/{{Stargate SG-1}}'': "Hallowed are the Ori". Interestingly, after [[spoiler:the Ori are killed, in ''Film/TheArkOfTruth'', their former subjects take up Origin as a legitimate religion, albeit with some changes. "Can you take out the parts about burning people alive?"]]

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has an interesting variant. Dak'kon follows the teachings of Zerthimon, one of two leaders of his race who led a species-wide rebellion against a race of evil psychics. After the rebellion was successful, Zerthimon argued against the other leader's declaration that their race's goal should now be to hunt down every one of the psychics and destroy them, and the race split in two halves that have been at war ever since. [[spoiler:Hints in his holy text (The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon) indicate to you that Zerthimon may have been under mind control at that time, and that his actions were influenced by the evil psychics who sought to split the rebels. In other words, the teachings of Zerthimon may have been used to turn his entire species into less of a threat to their former masters, and Dak'kon reveals that suspicions about this have always plagued him. Later, you discover a hidden passage in the text indicating that Zerthimon's mind was untainted and that he had genuinely good reasons for splitting off. Ultimately, however, you discover that the Unbroken Circle was created by a previous incarnation of yourself; it was intended purely to keep Dak'kon from getting a crisis of faith. Although it is unlikely that the texts were made by the previous encarnation of yourself, as his knolwdege and interest in the Circle was minimal, his stats in-game forbid him of going higher than the Third Circle of Zerthimon and the texts are so well developed that they can even fool a scholar in the teachings, Dak'kon.]]

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has an interesting variant. Dak'kon follows the teachings of Zerthimon, one of two leaders of his race who led a species-wide rebellion against a race of evil psychics. After the rebellion was successful, Zerthimon argued against the other leader's declaration that their race's goal should now be to hunt down every one of the psychics and destroy them, and the race split in two halves that have been at war ever since. [[spoiler:Hints in his holy text (The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon) indicate to you that Zerthimon may have been under mind control at that time, and that his actions were influenced by the evil psychics who sought to split the rebels. In other words, the teachings of Zerthimon may have been used to turn his entire species into less of a threat to their former masters, and Dak'kon reveals that suspicions about this have always plagued him. Later, you discover a hidden passage in the text indicating that Zerthimon's mind was untainted and that he had genuinely good reasons for splitting off. Ultimately, however, you discover that the Unbroken Circle was created by a previous incarnation of yourself; it was intended purely to keep Dak'kon from getting a crisis of faith.]]

* This trope is named for the state religion of Riedra, created by the Quori forces of the Dreaming Dark in the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' DungeonPunk setting TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}, because it both oppresses the masses ''and'' helps empower a great evil. The books go out of their way to stress that life under the Path of Inspiration is not bad at all: [[HappinessInSlavery its followers lead a life of relative peace and sanctity]]. The only ''major'' point of contention from the point-of-view of an informed outsider is the whole "tricking followers into helping empower a great evil" bit.

{{Plato}} himself [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans advocates doing this]] in ''The Republic''.

* In the ''ConanTheBarbarian'' movie, Thulsa Doom's rather Manson cult-esque snake-worship religion is "for the lulz".

* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''JohnCarterOfMars'' novels, the religion of the red Martians, which encourages the old and infirm to make a pilgrimage to the South Pole in search of heaven, was created and is controlled by a society of cannibals who use the pilgrims as their primary food source. ''Their'' religion is in turn the product of another sect of cannibals who feed on ''them''. When John Carter discovers these facts, and relates them to the world at large, he's nearly executed for heresy before he manages to prove it.

* Morninglight from ''TheSecretWorld'' is part ChurchOfHappyology, part [[CharlesManson Mansonesque]] hippie {{cult}}. And they [[spoiler: secretly worship an EldritchAbomination (although most members are blissfully unaware of that fact) ]].

* Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' books feature the Church of God Awaiting. It was designed by a pair of megalomaniac Luddites to prevent the last colony of humans to survive the wrath of the alien Gbaba from ever {re}-developing advanced tech and also to feed the egos of the megalomaniacs in question by making them into "Archangels." The original idea for the colony was that they would abandon advanced tech for a few centuries to hide from the Gbaba, but preserve records of tech and the existence of the Gbaba so that the colony would know what to avoid doing until they had tech advanced enough to destroy the Gbaba. In the eight centuries between then and the present day, the members of the Church of God Awaiting, ignorant of this, also make it into a CorruptChurch.

* According to Creator/JackChick's famous works Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and above all Roman Catholicism (in addition to numerous other Christian congregations that do not focus on the "True Message Of God") are examples of this. There is a reason this example isn't listed under RealLife. Oh, and [[NightmareFuel Chick is completely serious about this idea]]. He's not trying to be funny, or [[CrossesTheLineTwice Cross the Line Twice]].

* ''Morninglight'' from TheSecretWorld is part ChurchOfHappyology, part [[CharlesManson Mansonesque]] hippie {{cult}}. And they [[spoiler: secretly worship an EldritchAbomination (although most members are blissfully unaware of that fact) ]].

* ''Morninglight'' from TheSecretWorld is part ChurchOfHappyology, part Mansonesque hippie {{cult}}. And they [[spoiler: secretly worship an EldritchAbomination (although most members are blissfully unaware of that fact) ]].

* ''Morninglight'' from TheSecretWorld is part ChurchOfHappyology, part Mansonesque hippie {{cult}}. And they [[spoiler: secretly worship an EldritchAbomination (although most members are blissfully unaware) ]].

** Then subverted in the final installment as in some case, they were GoodAllAlong.

* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has an interesting variant. Dak'kon follows the teachings of Zerthimon, one of two leaders of his race who led a species-wide rebellion against a race of evil psychics. After the rebellion was successful, Zerthimon argued against the other leader's declaration that their race's goal should now be to hunt down every one of the psychics and destroy them, and the race split in two halves that have been at war ever since. [[spoiler:Hints in his holy text (The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon) indicate to you that Zerthimon may have been under mind control at that time, and that his actions were influenced by the evil psychics who sought to split the rebels. In other words, the teachings of Zerthimon may have been used to turn his entire species into less of a threat to their former masters, and Dak'kon reveals that suspicions about this have always plagued him. Later, you discover a hidden passage in the text indicating that Zerthimon's mind was untainted and that he had genuinely good reasons for splitting off. Ultimately, however, you discover that the Unbroken Circle was created by a previous incarnation of yourself; it was intended purely to keep Dak'kon from getting a crisis of faith.]]