Troperville
Editing Help
Tools
Toys
|
"Not the regular Jesus, but one of the several space ones."
Any fictional religion, such as those found in a Medieval European Fantasy, which possesses attributes stereotypically associated with Christianity ( especially Roman Catholicism) — such as priestly vestments, nuns and their habits, confessionals, the designs of houses of worship, and crosses — but which centers on a deity other than the Christian God, like an animistic spirit or pagan-flavored god. Often there will be a Yahweh analog but not a Jesus one.
In numerous cases, in order to finalize the separation, the deity worshiped is a goddess. In these cases, they are usually just called "the Goddess". (This may be based off the common use by neo-pagan religions of this term to denote the main female deity.)
In anime, these substitutions are intended for local flavor more than specific evasive metaphors, considering the widespread idea that Nuns Are Mikos; the Jesus Taboo may be an exception, though. Western productions typically don't engage in this trope since they have to worry about offending someone; however, they may utilize Crystal Dragon Jesus as a satire on Christianity, in which case the offense is sometimes intended. They may also use it simply to use Middle Ages tropes without having to deal with Christianity directly. Also if one wants to use a religion that most people get the gist of, but want the setting to take place in a different world that isn't directly Earth (and thus it would make sense for the real Christianity, or any other of the Earth religions to exist).
The name itself is a bit of a Dead Unicorn Trope, as few writers are quite willing to literally use a Crystal Dragon, but it does get the idea of random in-universe creatures and new-age crystals do everything belief as a Christ figure idea across.
Compare Hijacked By Jesus, What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic, King Of All Cosmos. See also You Mean Xmas and God Of Evil. Not to be confused with Fantasy Counterpart Culture Christianity; a key element of Crystal Dragon Jesus is that it keeps the trappings of Christianity but substitutes a markedly different being in the deity's role. Sometimes it might occur alongside God Is Evil, specially if the work is meant to be a critic to Christianity
This trope might be tied to The Force, or else be a Path Of Inspiration but it's always a good name for a rock band
Examples
Anime
- Subverted in One Piece: God Eneru of Skypeia can hear (literally) everything on the whole (sky) island, and thanks to his power as a lightning incarnate, he can smite the people that insult or disobey him, and all of his subjects fear him like an actual god — but then Gan Fall, Skypeia's former ruler, says that the title "god" is simply that: a title for Skypeia's ruler. Turns out Eneru is just out of his gourd.
- The false religion practiced by Father Cornello in Fullmetal Alchemist incorporates many aspects of Roman Catholicism. This is especially noteworthy because, in later episodes, it is revealed that Christianity itself is a dead religion; the show implies the timelines of the fictional universe and "our" universe split about a millennium in the past, around the time alchemy is discovered.
- In Trigun there is a character, Wolfwood, who certainly dresses the way we'd expect a Protestant pastor to dress, and he does things like listen to confessions. There is a fair amount of analysis of the conflict between, on one hand, pacifist ideals, and, on the other hand, the obligation he feels to protect the innocent even if he must kill in order to do so. The major departure is the standard ludicrous weapon given to most characters; in Wolfwood's case, an allegedly portable pistol armory in the shape of a 7-foot tall cross, which he jokes is heavy because it's "full of mercy".
- In the anime version, it's revealed that the various Christian/Protestant trappings are more a disguise/mockery then anything else, as Wolfwood is intended to be the next Chapel of the Church of the Gung-ho Guns, implicitly a cult religion created by Knives for the purpose of paying homage to him. Given this is Knives we're talking about, it wouldn't be that out of character..
- The church of Mauser in Scrapped Princess has many of the Christian trappings, with a fair amount of local color.
- In Record Of Lodoss War, the archetypal High Fantasy anime, priests and paladins can be seen wearing crosses on their vestments/armor — even if they worship separate gods.
- In Those Who Hunt Elves, the holy symbol of Elvish priests looks an awful lot like a Greek Orthodox cross. There are also at least a few small rather Christianesque churches (including stained glass windows!) which may have only a single Roman Catholic-ish-looking priest and/or nun as staff, though the holy symbol seems to be more of a capital X in a circle for these. As of episode 9 there's not a whole lot of theology being discussed, though.
- Of course, given the ending of season one wherein the two universes are merging, this might be an aversion; that could really be 'real' Christianity leaking through.
- The Saint Church of Ancient Belka in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha even has Jesus and Shroud of Turin analogues. The main character then adopts (Clone) Jesus by the end of the third season.
- The Holy See religious order of Berserk is a full on Catholic Church approximation, complete with Pope, bishops, and Inquisition. It is also strongly hinted at that they actually worship the Godhand instead of the Four Elemental Kings, with shots of branded skeletons and Mozgus' story suggesting that the dungeon-cum-inquisition tower was rebuilt as an homage to Void's rise to the Godhand, and the Pope recognizing Griffith as the "Risen Savior".
- Chapter 83, the so-called "Lost Chapter," was never reprinted at the author's request because it supposedly gave too much of the story away too quickly. If you accept it as canon, you'll see that the symbol used by the Holy See wherever you would normally see a cross or crucifix in Catholicism is actually a stylized representation of the Idea of Evil, also known as the God of the Abyss and the "ungodly god born of man," a powerful creation of mankind's collective unconscious whose sole purpose is to cause pain and suffering so that humanity has someone else to blame for their problems. Yeah, Berserk's cosmology gets pretty weird, not to mention depressing.
- In Slayers there's a literal dragon-worshiping church, with suspiciously cross-like sunburst symbols and temples that tend to look rather Catholic. Their god Ceiphed sacrificed himself to save the world, too, and left behind four elemental dragon gods. Large factions of the church tend to extremist policies about what's right in saving the world.
- In Haunted Junction, Haruto Hojo is selected to be one of the three members of the Holy Student Council (the others being a Shinto miko and the son of a Buddhist monk) because his father is a Christian priest. The denomination is extremely vague... the priest's vestments are similar to a Jesuit's robes but in all white, he can marry and have a family, has the icons in his church that bear a strong resemblance to the Virgin Mary, and is skilled in the ways of Hermetic Magic with no qualms about teaching his son enough to make a spirit trapping spell. (Note that some rites in the Catholic Church allow priests to marry; just not the Latin rite, which is the largest. I doubt that was what was intended, though.
- In 07-Ghost the Church is identical to the Roman Catholic church (pre-schisms), right down to its relationship with the secular government, except that in addition to God they worship seven 'ghosts' that are more like crosses between saints and angels.
- In To Aru Majutsu no Index there are many references, such as the fourth arc with the Archangel Gabriel who possessed Sasha Kruezev's body and Touma, who is speculated to be the person higher than God and compared to the Messiah, trying to save the people despite the fact that they are sinners.
Comic Books
- In Planet Hulk, the religion of Sakaar seems very... familiar. Particularly, their legends of Sakaarson and the Worldbreaker present a clear dichotomy resembling that between Christ and Antichrist. They also refer to "the prophet" as one to whom thanks should be given, indicating a figure similar to Muhammad, as well. Later, Axeman Bone would kill children of Shadow descent until he found the true Son of Hulk, Sakaarson, the savior.
- Korg and the Kronans' faith is basically straight up Catholicism with the words changed, down to a Mad Libbed version of the Lord's Prayer; Being stone men, instead of asking their lord to forgive their sins, they ask that He forgive their cracks.
- Which is missing a golden oppurtunity to create a pun with 'faults', which suffers from not being quite so obvious a joke.
Film
- The Force is part this and part Eastern beliefs. The ins and outs of Forceism can be found in detail here
 ; like so many things, it's become more complicated than Lucas could have possibly imagined.
- The prophecy of the Chosen One fits this trope almost perfectly. Of course, what actually happens makes Luke more Christ-like, redeeming his father through his suffering and all. And knowing George, that's exactly where he was going with all the "hanging" imagery in Empire.
- Lucas always claimed to be re-interpreting traditional forms of myth. But Redeems his father is interesting because it is not standard Christianity but may well fit some Gnostic Christianity where the True Divinity is beyond comprehension using the normal intellect of the 'created' world and the 'creator' Jehovah is a kind of schizophrenic subpersonality or in some versions lesser deity that got away {{mad, bad and dangerous to know}} like the (corrupt) universe of its creation. A prayer (or meditation) attributed to Valentinus has the believer 'redeeming myself' from 'this Aion' (order of existence) through the Divine Incarnation (stereotypically in Jesus but standing for in all of us in Gnostic belief) {{'as did IAO'}}, that is, the Greek version of 'YHWH'. So reversing the orthodox (and most other Gnostic!) belief that Jehovah's incarnation as Jesus 'redeemed' mankind, in the Valentinian view, Jehovah's incarnation as Jesus redeemed the demi-urge Jehovah by bringing him into awareness of the greater divine spark in humanity. I have heard devout Roman Catholics say something similar that "God understands us because he becam one of us" - which raises the question of why experience was necessary for the Omniscient.
- For further reading on this massive subject, consult the nonfiction book The Hero With a Thousand Faces, a study of Messiah and hero figures across cultures and history, the author of whom was consulted extensively by George Lucas when writing the original stories.
Literature
- Omnianism, in the Discworld novels, is more of a parody of aspects of Christianity, but does worship Om as a bull or an eagle (or, later, a tortoise). More obliquely, in the novel Feet of Clay, Pratchett writes about a conflicting dead religion from the same region as Omnianism, which given the fact that its "priests" make Golems, might be the Crystal Dragon Jesus version of Judaism.
- Note that "Omnianism" could mean "Everythingism" (Latin, omnia) and the name of the Great God could be a back formation. So what? Well, since "catholic" means "universal", "catholicism" might be parsed as "everythingism" too. Not that Pterry is anything other than scrupulously even-handed over religion, of course.
- Interestingly, although the series' Klatchians are clearly Arabs, they are not explicitly linked with Islam other than through a few throwaway references to houris. This is because "Klatch" is both a country (that's half the mythical Araby and half the modern Middle East) and a continent which is basically a stand-in for Asia. The polytheistic religion of Klatch-the-country, complete with temples covered in erotic carvings, is closer to a Crystal Dragon Jesus version of Hinduism.
- And the History Monks are Crystal Dragon Buddhism.
- Averted in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn novels by Tad Williams, in which the religion of Usires Aedon is clearly Christianity with the proper names search-and-replaced (he was the avatar of god, he died nailed to a tree and arose, etc.), in keeping with the books' setting in a very overt Fantasy Counterpart Culture of Medieval Europe.
- The Earthsea novel, The Tombs of Atuan, might qualify, as it presents a Caucasian race with temple priestesses who dress essentially as nuns and their religion is strongly opposed to witchcraft. In this case though, they are actually worshiping evil spirits demanding human sacrifice and the wizards are the good ones of the series. Arguably, this was a subtle way of stating that God Is Evil.
- The comparison here is dubious at best; beyond the virgin priestesses and the opposition to witchcraft, both of which are elements common to any number of real-world religions, the religion of the Nameless Ones bears no resemblance to Christianity.
- The Elene church in David (and Leigh) Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli trilogy is a Catholic substitute. There is no direct proxy for Jesus himself though.
- In an intriguing accidental example, in the Dragonriders Of Pern novels, author Anne McCaffrey explicitly states that at some point in the past, mankind "outgrew" religious superstition. But, ironically, the culture seen in the novels still maintains many, many characteristics of one bound by religious orthodoxy — with the dragons and their riders taking the place of the church — including tithes to the riders, severe caste distinctions and a "priestly" class, and the virtual heresy of anyone who doesn't have an adoring view of the dragons as being perfect good. Since both church and the dragons have the same basic reason-for-being, saving mankind from immutable threat, it makes sense that one set of religious practices would be replaced by another, revealing perhaps a basic human need to worship a savior. This was probably not intentional on McCaffrey's part.
- Au contraire. In Dragonsdawn it is explicitly stated that the colonists who originally went to Pern were ruthlessly screened to winnow out anyone who held a belief in a higher power, thinking that mission effectiveness was enhanced with people who believed the only salvation could come from themselves.
- The Faith of the Seven, the predominant religion on the continent of Westeros in George R.R. Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series, is closely modeled after Roman Catholicism, centering around an analog on the Holy Trinity (the Father, Mother, Warrior, Maid, Smith, Crone, and Stranger being aspects of the same deity), and complete with monastic orders, dormant military orders, and a Pope (the High Septon). Another common religion, the worship of R'hllor, bears a great similarity to Zoroastrianism, although R'hllor is quite a bit more active than other gods.
- There's also worship of the Old Gods, which frequently invokes shades of various druidic and pagan faiths of pre-Christian Europe.
- The faith of the Drowned God in the Iron Islands is somewhat more closely based on Christianity than even the Faith of the Seven, being based around a god who died and came back to life, with the most important ritual being immersion in water (literal drowning and resuscitation, at least for those entering the priesthood). It can be interpreted as the 'Protestant' counterpart to the 'Catholic' Faith.
- Although there's distinct elements of Cthulhu to the creed.
- In the Dune novel series, located on a distant future of our own universe, the Orange Catholic (generally referred as the O.C.) is an echo of what used to be the Christianity on our planet.
- Except that the quotations from the O.C. Bible given in the novel tend to reference the Qur'an more than Christianity. Ex: "From water does all life begin."
- This is because the O.C. Bible was a conglomeration of the various religious texts, created in order to end religious disputes.
- ...And why has nobody done this in real life?
- Because even within the fiction, it's established in Herbert's notes on religion (at the end of most version of Dune) the creators of the OC Bible were either killed, or recanted their decisions to write the thing on the grounds that it managed to spectacularly do nothing beyond offend some people. Doesn't stop it becoming a part of the culture by the time of the Atreides arrival on Arrakis.
- It's been tried, over and over again. The ecumenical movement, the Baha'i faith, the Unitarian Universalist church, etc. The fact of the matter is, people believe their religion is the Word Of God (or gods, whatever), and if you, say, get your Qu'ran in their Bible, it is, by definition, no longer Word Of God.
- Actually huge portions of what people believe about Christianity are basically Word Of Dante and adaptions from local cultures. In fact pretty much every successful religion has this to one extent or another, especially Hinduism.
- ... Which brings us back to Dune, seeing as the Fremen are said to have a religion consistent with "early Zensunni beliefs", which is apparently a mixutre of Zen and Islam. Bearing in mind, of course, that the Bene Gesserit themselves had officers in their ranks named "Manipulators of Religions", So Yeah.
- Paul would seem to be the Fremen's Crystal Dragon Muhammed... which is all the Bene Gesseret's fault for grafting their Kwizatz Haderach bits onto said Zensunni religion. Then he becomes everybody elses Crystal Dragon Muhammed via jihad. And then theirs his son.
- What we've seen of the worship of Khersis in Tales Of MU is very much like Christianity, except in a world where gods are known to speak to mortals, demons are real, and exorcism works. Considering the one passage from the Khersian holy book that's been referenced parallels the gospels directly and one creation myth says he was born of a great dragon from a crystal egg, he may be a literal "Crystal Dragon Jesus". We don't know if he has any dark secrets yet, but some of his followers are assholes.
- Inverted in J.R.R. Tolkien's book The Silmarillion. Eru (God) has a lot of similarities to the Christian deity (as to be expected from a Catholic author), but the way in which his creations worship him is very different from traditional Christian practice. There are very few ceremonies, only a couple per year. And worship is never carried out in buildings; indeed, temples and churches are associated with evil by worshippers of Eru. In Númenorean worship, only the King or Queen could speak to Eru directly and make (bloodless) offerings, and most prayers or hymns seen in the mythology are addressed to one of the Valar (who roughly correspond to archangels or pagan gods).
- Replace "Crystal Dragon" with "Talking Animal" and you have Narnia's Aslan. This was intentional. Especially in the later books, Aslan was not so much Crystal Dragon Jesus as he was just plain old regular Jesus, but super-extra huggable.
- Be careful how you hug him, though: he's not a tame lion.
- Narnia reads to me more as a subversion or inversion of the trope (well before it became common) than an example thereof. Narnia doesn't have an institution that looks like the Catholic Church with the serial numbers filed off but with a different deity in place of the Christian Trinity; on the contrary, it has an incarnate God who comes and goes as he pleases like the Cat Who Walks By Himself, roughly isomorphic to Jesus in a lot of important ways, but its religion is not particularly organized. (You can, however, make a case that Tash in The Horse and His Boy is a Crystal Dragon Allah, since the setting of that novel is basically an Arabian Nights pastiche with a pagan religion substituted for Islam without as much cultural change as such a substitution would probably entail.)
- Also, CS Lewis's Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Voyage to Venus / Perelandra and That Hideous Strength) was entirely based around and driven by this trope. It won't surprise anyone that he was a lapsed Christian who rediscovered his faith.
- Um, not really. For one, Lewis started out as an atheist from his childhood, then converted in Oxford. Secondly, the "religion" of the Malacandrans is pretty much spelled out as being literal Christianity, only with the second person of the Trinity being known as Meleldil. Each planet in the solar system is also supposed to have a protector-eldil (angel) called an Oyarsa—-only in the case of Earth (Thulcandra, the "Silent Planet"), the Oyarsa was Lucifer. The fact that Meleldil=Jesus is literal is hammered home in Perelandra and That Hideous Strength.
- The Church of The General's Civil Government bears a striking resemblance to Orthodox Christianity — at least so far as rites and church buildings go. It's even got inquisitors, known as "Viral Cleansers", and heretics for them to hunt.
- That's because the main character is strongly based on the Byzantine general Belisarius and so is the Empire he serves. Amusingly the Islamic culture to the southeast is a standin for the pre-Islamic Persians.
- In Nick Perumov's Keeper of the Swords series of fantasy novels, there is an evil Crystal Dragon Jesus called "The Saviour", who resembles actual Jesus very much. Creepy.
- In The Wheel Of Time, the organisation of the Aes Sedai is pretty much a gender flipped version of the Catholic Church, with novices, habits (white dresses and shawls), solemn oaths, a Pope expy and various claims of working in the name of the Creator.
- The Children of the Light on the other hand definitely resemble a merger between the Knights Templar and the Inquisition.
- The Quintaglio Ascension trilogy features a species of intelligent Tyrannosaurs who worship a planet they call "The Face of God".
- Charles Stross' ongoing Merchant Princes series features an alternate world in which the dominant church in Europe and eastern North America is a church that looks very similar to Roman Catholicism, is headquartered in Rome, but which worships Sky Father and Lightning Child—-it is implied that at one point the pagan Vikings conquered Europe entirely and a syncretistic religion built on the skeleton of the Roman Church came about.
- In Guy Gavriel Kay's novels The Lions of Al-Rassan, The Sarantine Mosaic, and The Last Light of the Sun, "Jaddites" play the role of Christians in a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of medieval Europe, despite the fact that Jad is a sun god.
- It gets even more confusing, though. Belief in the Jaddite Christ figure, named Heladikos, is actually a heresy of Jaddism, being the rough fantasy counterpart of Arianism. Heladikos's story resembles that of Phaeton, the son of the Greek sun god Helios, who lost control of the chariot of the sun. Jad is more of a conflation of Helios and Jehovah, then, instead of a direct Christian analogue (and maybe some Apollo, too). Off to the side, you also have the Kindath (Jews) who worship the moons, and the Asharites (Muslims) who worship the stars. Everyone thinks everyone else's choice of veneration is insane, for various reasons.
- The followers of Gird in The Deed of Paksenarrion. Gird's right-hand-man/saint/apostle was Luap, which is just Paul spelled backwards.
- Somewhat averted, though, in that Gird is definitely a saint, not a god. And since different religions are popular in different regions and everyone acknowledges that there are many gods, you get many Church equivalents, each with its own Crystal Dragon Jesus type, that more or less coexist peacefully.
- The cult of Daniel Christ (yes, the Old Testament Daniel) in Avram Davidson's The Phoenix and the Mirror.
- Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker is a thinly veiled (and some would say highly idealized) version of Joseph Smith.
- The cult on the planet Pardal in David Weber 's book Heirs of Empire is this. What they're actually worshipping turns out to be a voice-activated ship's computer that's been on the planet for ages. "Initiating rite of Fire Test!" indeed.
- Dexterity Jones in Karen Miller's Godspeaker Trilogy as well as the historical figure Rollin who was killed for his beliefs.
- Could easily have been named for Irene Radford's Dragon Nimbus series; the plot takes place on a planet with transparent dragons, and the human inhabitants worship stranded space travelers who are themselves Christians.
- In The Fionavar Tapestry, the king of the dwarves (and therefore the dwarven culture) is spiritually bound to a lake inhabited by a literal crystal dragon. It's not explicitly a deity, but it does decide whether the would-be king lives, dies, or goes crazy.
- The Young Wizards series seems to suffer Crystal Dragon Jesus mood whiplash. In the beginning, the main deities of the universe seem to be the 'Powers that be', which are essentially sufficiently advanced Energy Beings, and not intrinsically above most creatures. Later in the series, the One is revealed - it who created all things, has a terrible foe in the Lone Power, has the Powers (several of whom are archangels) working directly for it, and is the source of all life and good in the universe...
- Stephen Hunt's Jackelian novels have Circlism, which is a strange take on the trope as it has the form of Anglicanism but it's substance is a sort of Buddhist/pantheist.
- DragonLance has the church of Paladine, which greatly resembles medieval Catholicism. The followers of the gods of Light even have a "holy triad" of Paladine, Mishakal and Kiri-Jolith and a "sign of the triangle" that are very similar to the Holy Trinity and Sign of the Cross.
- No Crystal Dragon Jesus in Kate Eliot's Crossroads trilogy but pretty much Crystal Dragon Everythingelse. Beltak, god of the Sirniakan Empire is a Crystal Dragon Allah, the Silvers' Hidden One is a Crystal Dragon Yahweh and the Merciful One of the Qin and the Golden Road nations they conquer is a Crystal Dragon Buddha.
- Robert A Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land is an extremely thinly-veiled allegory for the life of Jesus Christ, starring a beautiful blond human boy raised on Mars. He ends up starting his own cult and, in the end, is murdered by an angry mob and ascends to a higher plane of existence.
Live Action TV
- Origin in Stargate SG-1 is — like the rest of the villains in it — a dark alien parody of an Earth religion, in this case the conservative fundamental Christian one (with just a few touches of Mormonism). Not only do they have their own priests and missionaries, they have their own Jesus figure (Adria) and a distinctly King James-styled holy book. The only difference: the religion's "gods" are Sufficiently Advanced Alien Energy Beings with a fire-and-brimstone motif.
- Notably, though, the main characters are quick to bring up the similarities. Mitchell in particular often compares the Priors and their preaching to his Bible-thumping grandmother.
- On the other hand, in one episode they were oddly hesitant to liken Vala's pregnancy to that of Mary's, instead comparing it to the births of King Arthur and Darth Vader.
- This particular case may be at least partly attributed to the Rule Of Funny. Everyone expects the cast to point out Jesus (especially with the aforementioned parallels between Origin and fundamentalist Christianity), so it's funnier when Teal'c answers with Darth Vader (a callback to Teal'c having watched Star Wars 9 times since coming to earth) instead. If you watch the rest of the cast's faces, it's clearly unexpected to them, too. As well, Mitchell suggesting King Arthur is probably partly influenced by the fact that the legend of King Arthur got them into the whole Ori mess in the first place, so it would be on his mind. Carter's reaction to Mitchell clearly show she was about to say Jesus herself. This is compounded by the fact that Mitchell has repeatedly mention how often he went to church with his grandma as a kid.
Vala: (About her spontaneous pregnancy) Have you ever heard of anything like that? (The rest of the team looks around hesitantly)
Teal'c: Darth Vader.
Vala: Really? How did that turn out?
Mitchell: Well, actually, I was thinking about King Arthur.
Carter: Really?
- Mind you that Daniel also mentions how the Ancients, the good, shiny, all in white heaven like counter part to the Ori (And creators of Humanity) changed human outlook from Fire = Good to Fire = Bad. Essentially, that the Ancients showed themselves as God/Angels in shiny white armor, and depicted the Ori as the Devil/Demons with fire and brimstone hell.
- The show tended to shy away from making ANY connection to Christianity or any other Abrahamic religion in the first few seasons, besides the introduction of a Goa'uld masquerading as Satan - and they even tried to give that one trappings of Egyptian myth (with of course, the completely wrong Goa'uld). This is of course probably due to the American public.
- The Bajoran religion from Star Trek: Deep Space 9 would qualify as well, as a side effect of their status as Space Jews. Ben Sisko is the Jesus figure, although for most of the series he's uncomfortable with this.
- The Klingon Jesus was Kahless the Unforgettable, the first Emperor, who was prophecied to return one day (he sort of did).
- The Vulcans, meanwhile, could be said to have Surak, the founder of their philosophy of logic, though they don't attribute any divine attributes to him. He's more of a Crystal Dragon Buddha or Gandhi.
- The Minbari religion from Babylon 5 has Valen, who was a Minbari not born of Minbari that came from nowhere, defeated the darkness, united all the Minbari peoples, brought a thousand years of peace, and is prophecied to return. He (sort of) does in that he was Jeffrey Sinclair until he went a thousand years back in time and became half Minbari.
Tabletop Games
- The Church of S'Allumer in Ironclaw, which even has heterodoxies and heresies based on actual doctrinal disputes of historical Catholicism.
- The polytheistic religions of the various Dungeons And Dragons settings usually have a lawful good deity whose religion is a direct parallel of Christianity.
- In particular, the church of Paladine (an almost literal Crystal Dragon Jesus who takes the form of a platinum dragon) in the Dragonlance setting has many direct parallels to Roman Catholicism, including having formerly wielded an incredible amount of political power, and having had an inquisition-like purge against wizards, non-humans, and worshippers of non-Good deities (or more accurately, non-Paladine deities). Of course, said inquisition was rather on the extreme side, and lead directly to the "departure" of the Gods in the Cataclysm, where they "dropped a mountain on the city of Istar". The Gods themselves spent quite a bit of time attempting to avoid such things.
- It should be pointed out that the Dragonlance lore has stated that Paladine is more like the mysterious Highgod in character than any of the other gods, so the Church of Paladine having a resemblance to Christianity might not be entirely unjustified...
- Also notable is that Paladine is Dragonlance's direct parallel to the ubiquitous dragon deity Bahamut, also a Platinum Dragon Jesus, who also takes Tyr's place in post Spellplague Forgotten Realms.
- Eberron's Church of the Silver Flame, which has many paladins in its service and bears similar parallels to Catholicism, including ruling an entire country and leading its own inquisitorial purge against lycanthropes and their shifter cousins back in the day. It's worth noting that Keith Baker, the setting's author, designed Eberron so that clerics of a given god do not have to share that god's alignment, allowing for Knight Templar villains among the ranks of good churches as well as Anti Heroes among the darker faiths.
- The Triad of Forgotten Realms — Tyr, being the oldest, ruling over the other two, despising evil and injustice, and having the most power at his command, is analogous to the Father. Ilmater, being a selfless and highly merciful god, whose clergy are encouraged to sacrifice of themselves to aid those in misfortune, and whose message of hope appeals greatly to the poor and oppressed, is similar to the Son. Torm, with his inspiring courage, his sense of duty and obedience to Tyr, and his conviction in combating or destroying undead and evil forces, is much like the Holy Spirit. And then there are paladin orders, most prominently Tyr's.
- Note that Tyr (as in Ravenloft, see below) is literally an aspect of Tyr of Norse myth. In the 4th Edition version Forgotten Realms, the Triad is broken. Tyr leaves the Realms after killing the god Helm in a duel over Tymora(!!), Ilmater leaves the House of the Triad for Brightwater (the home of Sune, Lliira, Sharess, and Waukeen), and Torm steps up to fill Tyr's place (assuming most of his portfolios) in the Pantheon.
- Still, in the everyday life "The Triad" is not linked. Moreover, Tyr is by far more important than other two, while both Lathander and Helm are nearly as prominent as Tyr and all five or their churches eagerly band together in any combinations... but chaotic Tempus grabs at least as much of spotlight as any of them effortlessly. Other chaotic and neutral deities are more active than their churches, but most powerful are, probably, ladies anyway: Mystra (has so much power she must lend part of it to human co-pilots), Selune (one planetar per temple, functional or not, is a whole celestial army on Prime), Shar (has the Shadow Weave). So, the only "Triad" bundle-venerated on Faerun is more from Wiccan History.
- The Ravenloft setting features the Church of Ezra, which, despite it's centering on a goddess, is a faith in many ways very closely mimicking Christianity, and Catholic Church in particular. Apart from a generally very similar hierarchy, it's history includes internal schisms, a branch sect mirroring the Anglican Church in the in-world version of England, and possibly very corrupt ties with an in-world version of the historical Borgias. Fanon takes this further, with devoted fan-made documentation describing the Church of Ezra's impact on the "faith of the loa" (an analogue of real world Vodun practices) in the Southern-Gothic themed domain of the setting. Faiths in Ravenloft tend to be more inclined toward actual monotheism than is common in many other fantasy settings where, while gods may rival each other or war outright, it is common that the majority still acknowledge that the others exist.
- Note that Tyr is, literally an aspect of the Norse God Tyr stuck in a different setting. And that Ravenloft very specifically mentions that the Gods can't (or won't) interfere directly in Ravenloft: It is *strongly* hinted that whatever powers cleric grants are in fact granted by the Dark Powers... For outlanders visiting the Domain of Dread it is specifically mentioned that this loss of connection should be played up. Natives of course, never experienced anything else and expects the gods to be distant or absent.
- Monte Cook's "World of Praemal", in which he sets most of his popular "Arcana Unearthed" series of products for the D&D game, features a "Mother Church" that's basically Catholicism with the serial numbers filed off.
- Praemal is the world in which "Ptolus" and associated products are set, and they have the Church of Lothian. "Arcana Unearthed" has very limited religious presence and no large organized religions. There is no Mother Church in Monte Cook's products.
- The World of Greyhawk has St. Cuthbert, whose church is quasi-Catholic, and is named after St. Cuthbert of Lindesfarne, a 7th-century English saint. Maybe this is a case of Crystal Dragon Sainthood, but still...
- The worship of the Emperor of Mankind in Warhammer 40K is always depicted as having a distinct Roman Catholic flavour. Not only that, but 40K fluff has it that the Emperor was born in 10,000 BC, and spent pretty much the whole of human civilization guiding humanity from the shadows until he went public round about the year 30,000 AD to lead the crusades to reunite the human space empire. There is a strong implication there is that he was Jesus. Took him that long to realize that Love and Peace wasn't working. Seeing how he decided on an atheistic stance before he got mauled maybe he just realized that faith just strengthened Chaos anyway. Also, there is at least some fluff which indicates that, though he saw the value of warfare in defense of humanity, the more over the top racism and xenophobia of the Imperium crept in after his "death".
- It's also hinted that the Emperor of Mankind was Saint George in the Book "Mechanicum".
- The Imperial religion in Warhammer Fantasy Battles is "Roman Catholicism meets the Greek pantheon".
- In 7th Sea, the Vaticine Church, Objectionist, and Ussuran Orthodox Churches stand in for Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Russian Orthodoxy in Theah, a swashbuckling, sorcerous version of medieval Europe. The Vaticine Church also subtly incorporates a few elements of Islam as well. Avalon, the local version of England, even has is version of the Anglican church.
- The Church of Tal in Magic The Gathering held an inquisition against magic and were perhaps the single most cohesive political entity in the story arc covered by The Dark. Throw in quotes from The Book of Tal in case this doesn't remind you of anything yet. The brilliant part is that the church's role in Terisiare's history is fairly well justified as the natural consequence of the Brother's War (which left the continent divided amongst independent city states in need of a unifying force and with a healthy distrust of the magic and sufficiently advanced technology that got them into this mess)
- Vampire: the Requiem has the Lancea Sanctum, which is more Crystal Dragon Abrahamic Faiths. Their core belief is that Longinus, the soldier who stabbed his spear into Christ's side, was made a vampire with the taste of the Savior's blood, and eventually experienced the revelation that vampires were Damned by God's will, meant to harrow humanity into righteousness. The Lancea Sanctum itself is made up of many different creeds, ranging in flavor from Catholic to Protestant to evangelical to Muslim, but their core beliefs are strongly Gnostic.
- Winterweir's faith of Kaalon, the God of Death, bears a lot of similiarities to Christianity with its focus on charity and resurrection. The Divine Covenant is another example, being essentially all the darker elements of Catholicism and none of the good.
- Mage The Awakening has a curious example; the Seers of the Throne mostly worship the Exarchs as a pantheon, with certain Ministries acting as cults devoted to a particular Exarch. The exception is Paternoster, who regard the Exarchs as emanations of God (similar to the Holy Trinity) with the Exarch called the Father (who is described in a manner similar to the popular conception of God) as the first amongst them and the one they should approach directly, who were predestined to Ascend and were thus inherantly divine from the beginning. Paternoster was founded by a Christian, so there beliefs are essentially a way of reconciling the Exarchs with monotheism. They also keep most of this info secret from the religious figures they use to stifle innovation — not just for purposes of maintaining the Masquerade, but because they believe mortal worship would cheapen the Exarchs.
- Similarly, some quarters of the Guardians of the Veil (the Pentacle's Masquerade maintainers and secret policemen) have their own Crystal Dragon Jesus: the Hieromagus, the one mage who will prove immune to Paradox and lead Awakened society to enlightenment. Until he comes, they'll keep performing all the necessary sins to keep Awakened society functioning, out of the belief that he will absolve them at the reckoning. Needless to say, this belief doesn't get outside the Guardians, because it would make them look even more frightening (and not in a good way) to the rest of the Pentacle Mages.
- The Palladium Role-Playing Game has a number of CDJ's in it's world, with the notable exception of The Pantheon(s) of Light and Dark, which are actually the Gods of Ancient Egypt.
Video Games
- Luminous Arc is pretty much one big Church of the Crystal Dragon Jesus, complete with a very cliche (and entirely expected) "twist". (read anything by Lovecraft and you'll understand)
- This is extremely common in video games. Breath Of Fire 2, Xenogears, and La Pucelle: Tactics are just a few examples.
- In the Silent Hill series, the local religion looks definitely as a mix between Judaism and Christianity, even though the gods are 100% pagan.
- The movie makes the Crystal Dragon Jesus connection obvious — the villains (at least the human ones) are such obvious renegade-Puritan, Carrie-White's-Mother stereotypes that you're actually shocked to not hear them talking about Jesus.
- Churches in the Tales Series.
- Tales Of Phantasia has the ubiquitous Church of Martel, though it's really more background fluff than anything (though you do meet Martel herself a couple of times). However, the civilization of Fenrir built a huge cathedral to worship... well, Fenrir, complete with stained glass, a giant organ, and a heavy organ BGM called "Perverse Religion". By the time the game actually rolls around, the entire Fenrir civilization has risen and fallen, and the cathedral's been abandoned for years, to the point where the door is heavily iced shut.
- This is given a Shout Out in the prequel, Tales Of Symphonia, with an offhand reference to a legend about Fenrir in the icy regions. Presumably this later sprouted into a full-fledged religion.
- Tales Of Eternia has the Church of Seyfert, with churches dotting the countryside (and willing to let you rest for free) and a massive cathedral, stained glass and all, atop Mt. Farlos. When you get to Celestia, you find out that Seyfert (and Nereid) are real, and that there's more to the story than a simple creation myth.
- Tales Of Symphonia, set four millennia before Phantasia, depicted a very different Church of Martel, based almost directly on Roman Catholicism, Pope and all.
- One of Colette's hand gestures when casting spells looks exactly like the sign-of-the-cross. But then, so does Keele's in Tales Of Eternia, and he's as close to atheist as you can get when your world is bursting at the seams with nature spirits and you base your entire career on asking them to do things for you.
- Colette originally had (and still has in the Japanese version) an ability called "Holy Cross", which would cause a large cross to decend upon the enemy. It is included in the sequel.
- At one point, the characters all express disgust with the way the Pope treats his half-breed daughter. Nobody mentions that it might be odd for the Pope to have a daughter, half-breed or otherwise. This was not, however, not entirely unheard of, particularly during the Renaissance.
- Fun fact expanding on this. The Other Wiki says that it wasn't uncommon for a pope or high ranking bishop to be the child of another high ranking clergymen. ''source''
- In Tales Of Symphonia Dawn Of The New World (which takes place 2 years after Tales Of Symphonia) the Church of Martel still exists, but to a lesser extent since the whole Chosen of Regeneration thing doesn't exist anymore (most people went to church to pray for their world to be regenerated).
- Several scenes in "Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World" have the characters saying that they doubt that the church of Martel would last for much longer, which makes its existance 4000 years later surprising (or a case of the writers overlooking that small detail).
- Tales Of Hearts has the Church of Velleia, which worships the "Great Winged Whale", and yes, has a holy city and a cathedral. There's a church in each city, and the main character can go into it and confess. It's not a Path Of Inspiration this time; they have a near-monopoly on the magical weaponry Soma and on the curing of The Heartless-induced Despir Sickness. Also, All Myths Are True, and the bishop is the only one who knew what was really going on the entire time and just had some bad ideas on how to go about dealing with it. (The Winged Whale in question, however, turns out to be the villains' base.)
- Definitely present in the Golden Sun series. Despite the fact that everyone in the party can summon mythical pagan gods to reduce their enemies to smoldering piles of ashes, they still feel obliged to go to a sanctum staffed by a suspiciously Christian-esque priest and monks to get rid of evil spirits.
- Oh, and don't forget the "Priest" and "Cleric" classes.
- There are ten of these in Romancing Sa Ga the most prominent being Elore (For Humans), Saruin (For Gecklings and certain humans), and Nisa (For Taralians/Terranites) Even Death is a god in addition to being the brother of the Big Bad
- To get magic you buy the spells in their respectable temples Which increases alignment and can allow said deity to aid you in battle with a benediction of theirs (Elore Restores LP, Nisa restores HP, etc)
- The Elder Scrolls series features two religions that descend from the same source - the creation of the physical world. The former, which is not only the oficial religion of the empire, but has been called the religion of Man, is worship of the divine beings who took part in the creation, the Aedra. They are formulated into a polytheistic faith called the Nine Divines. The cathedrals serving them are notably Gothic and its knights (seen in the expansion) wear Knights Templar-like armor. Previous games gave each god heir own knightly order, though that may be a practice of only the Iliac Bay region.
- It's worth noting that one of the gods worshiped, Talos Stormcrown, was once mortal.
- For bonus points, the deities themselves include Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time, who looks suspiciously similar to Raptor Jesus.
- The plot of Morrowind focuses on a trinity religion called the Tribunal. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the Catholic Church - hagiography, apocrypha, an Inquisition, sainthood, and the idea of a "new covenant" supplanting the older Daedric cults of the Dunmer.
- In geopolitical terms, though, it very strongly resembles Judaism during the time of Jesus, complete with Roman (imperial) occupation, and struggles against paganism (Daedra worship) and so forth. Oh, and a promised Messiah (Nereverine).
- The Legend Of Zelda, being sort of based on Arthurian legend, has a fictional religion with many parallels to Christianity; the Temple of Time resembles a Christian sanctuary, the young Zelda wears a wimple like a nun or passion bearer and the three goddesses and their Triforce can be seen as a parallel to Christianity's Holy Trinity.
- In Ocarina of Time,, Rauru, the Sage of Light, is dressed similar to a Franciscan monk.
- This was stronger earlier in the series. The "Book of Magic" in The Legend of Zelda is a "Bible" in Japan; Link's shield in the first two games bears a cross; in A Link to the Past (Triforce of the Gods in the original Japanese), Sanctuary is a Christian church, the kanji for the priest there are "holy father" (where Agathnim's kanji are "master of rituals"), and the artbook depicts Link in Sanctuary, kneeling before a crucifix.
- In every Harvest Moon game, there's "The Church", with obligatory priest-collar wearing pastor and "confession" as an occasional option. But the deity they worship is, in fact, the Harvest Goddess. The HM games are generally an intentional mash-up of Japanese culture, Western farming culture, and paganism.
- More recent games have revealed that there's a Harvest Lord as well. Also, Harvest Moon: Island/Sun adds a nun character into the mix of the universe's religion. In fact, the nun is coincidentally named after a demon hunter.
- Final Fantasy XI's nations all have different ways of honoring the same Goddess Altana; however, many of these are at least subtly reminiscent of Christianity, and San d'Oria's church very strongly so.
- The classic SNES game Actraiser is somewhat of a unique example, as you are Crystal Dragon Jesus, with some obfuscating Greco-Roman elements tossed in. As the one true god of the gameworld, who was sealed and forgotten as evil overtook the land, you have to revive humanity and lead them to prosper while destroying the demons that have conquered the earth.
- The creators of Actraiser have been quoted saying that it was based off of Judeo-Christian monotheism. In the Original Japanese, the player's character was God and Tanzra was named Satan.
- One of the best-known video game examples may be the Dragon Quest series. They may not use the Crystal Dragon Jesus heavily in the plot, but every game requires players to go to "confession" in a church to save the game. The buildings are also heavily influenced by Christian churches — large cathedral structures in the cities, and small huts with some pews and an altar in the farm villages. Dragon Quest VIII used a Goddess, and VII used a thinly-veiled analogue of the Judeo-Christian God (who was also a Bonus Boss), but the rest of the games were vague about just what the deity in question was.
- In the DS remakes of Dragon Quest IV and V, the thinly veiled catholic religion's deity is consistently called "the goddess", and many people venerate the Zenith dragon, a so-called dragon-god, along-side of the goddess as her greatest servant. The zenith dragon lives in a sky castle with a race of winged humans who are referred to as Angels by at least one NPC in DQIV. His newly created cg appearance makes him look like he is made out of crystal or silver.
- Also, according to Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime, the well known Slime enemy from the series worship a slime equavelient of the Goddess.
- In the Warcraft series, the Church of the Holy Light is pretty much a mix between Catholic Christianity (huge cathedrals, monasteries and zealous crusaders), Buddhism (meditation and the lack of deities), and The Force (a holy power binding all living beings together).
- World of Warcraft's Crystal Dragon Jesus(es), the Naaru, actually look to be made out of floating, glowing crystal. In case it wasn't painfully obvious that these were more or less gods, one of the characters from the previous game has become more and more attached to the Naaru. According to Chris Metzen, they're literally the physical embodiment of the Light.
- The Naaru, as crystaline and Jesuslike as they are, are specifically referred to as not being gods. They're more like Christian angels.
- However, it was averted in Warcraft I, where the humans of Stormwind worshipped God and had concepts of Heaven and Hell. It was, however, since retconned into the current "nontheistic" religion of the Light. Elune might also qualify to an extent, since she's described as "the only true god(dess) in Azeroth" and had a "half-deity" son, Cenarius. (Whose father was a demigod stag. Squick.)
- In addition, the head Titans are expies of Greco-Roman gods, while the lesser ones correspond to Norse gods. They fight against Eldritch Abominations with oddly familiar names like C'Thun and Yogg-Saron. Finally, there's the trollish pantheon of Voodoo gods and Mayincatec animal spirits.
- In Heroes of Might and Magic V, the Holy Griffin Empire worships Elrath, a literal dragon, whose cult is nevertheless a thinly-veiled (or, actually, not veiled at all) stand-in for Christianity, with churches, monks, inquisitors, saints, and angels.
Female Androgynous angels with ridiculously huge swords.
- Might And Magic VI, VII and VIII had the Path of Light, complete with robed monks, cathedrals and churches that would not have looked overly out of place in medieval Europe.
- That said, the angels are actually human Precursors engaged in a war with the demonic-looking alien Kreegans.
- Organized religion in Ivalice has all the trappings of Christianity, specifically Catholic ritual, from the Glabados Church of Final Fantasy Tactics, to the Kildean religion in Vagrant Story. The latter finds ample representation in the Church of St. Iocus, a Catholic send-off in all but name that wields great political and military power, and whose sacred icon, called the Rood of Iocus, resembles a cross with four arms instead of two; also, the Cult of Mullenkamp, a heretical offshoot of the Kildean church whose adepts display an upside-down version of the Rood, called the Rood Inverse.
- Final Fantasy Tactics is especially blatant about this, to the point where it feels like all they did to Christianity is replace a few names. Start replacing "St. Ajora" with "Jesus" and see how much sense it makes. In the remake, instead of "God" you get "gods".
- Thief has the Hammerites, who worship the "Master Builder", but basically look like medieval Roman Catholicism with steampunk trappings and the Heathen-smiting turned Up To Eleven. The Hammerites undergo a schism between the first and second games, and naturally regard their offshoot brethren the Mechanists as arch-heretics. This is due to the Mechanists' favour of lots of automation (over only a little bit of automation) and of course some good ol' fashioned chauvinist outrage (the Mechanists accept female acolytes). There's even a Mechanist's diary explicitly stating some guys did joined just to brawl with Hammerites. Does This Remind You Of Anything?
- In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time a lot of the (first) plot revolves around the conflict between the atheist Airyglyph and the highly-religious Aquaria. Despite having churches and nuns, the Aquarians worship a goddess, and all the pastors are female.
- In Drakengard, the hierarchs are the priests or spiritual leaders of a vaguely-defined religion with a multitude of unnamed gods. They carry staves and have ornamental robes and cast spells, so they resemble D&D clerics. The game's sequel gives them more definition, with the Knights of the Seal as the spiritual side of the organization, dedicated to the seals' continuity and defense.
- In Ace Combat 6, the Emmerians worship a historical figure dubbed the "Golden King", and have a huge golden statue of him bearing his armor. It is quite clear that the Emmerians hold some kind of religious awe over him similar to that of Jesus or even God, but it mainly seems to be just to differentiate the Emmerians from the apparently secular Estovakians.
- When you take the out-of-game fluff (that is, pages upon pages of news articles, historical texts, blueprints, etc. that is always published on the web and nowhere else) into account, the Golden King seems like a thinly veiled King Arthur expy; it's just that the Emmerians are really, really fond of him. Incidentally, a handful of passing references to Christianity and Christian-derived holidays are made throughout the series.
- Devil May Cry 4 has the island of Fortuna, where the capital has a congregation called the Order of the Sword that worships Sparda. The architecture has a medieval feel, the Innocent Bystanders and Redshirt Army wear hooded monk-style robes and the leader Sanctus looks very much like a pope. The Order turns out to be a rather corrupt bunch of Knight Templars that want to Wipe The Slate Clean with a demonic invasion and the creation of a false Savior so that they can usher in a new Utopia.
- Though the tenets of the religion in Diablo aren't gone into much (or at all), the architecture and appearance of the various figures makes the similarity rather obvious.
- The novels expand on the tenants of Zakarum a little more, and it's typical Christian stuff, such as forsaking evil in your heart, as well as preaching gentleness and forgiveness. More cynically, the church is also said to be very open to donations.
- Fire Emblem games commonly do this, generally draping stories of "past hero" around a Bishop-class character. Usually the head deity/hero of the church will have the title of Saint. They aren't an actual God, just a really cool person. The Sword of Seal and The Sword of Flame have Saint Elimine.
- Actually played straight in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn with the Begnion Empire. It is a theocracy which structure is almost identical to the Catholic Church, with the Apostle serving as a female pope of sorts and the nobles of the country akin to the College of Bishops. These individuals are more than just leaders; they are respected members of their religion, as they are believed to be chosen by the Goddess herself. They honor Ashera, who is the Order component of the goddess Ashunera. Ashunera, the 'Goddess of Dawn', incidentally caused a world-wide flooding that wiped out almost all civilizations of the world after she lost control of her divine powers. The guilt caused Ashunera to split into Ashera (order) and Yune (chaos). Yune is treated as an evil figure, and even referred to as a 'dark god'. So we have the 'good' goddess, Ashera, and the 'bad' goddess, Yune. God-Satan anyone?
- Although in the end it turned out Yune was the good one that loved beorc and laguz while Ashera was the evil one that would rather turn all sentient beings on the planet to stone rather then have them violate her idea of Order
- The Order in Strife are a bunch of religious zealots who worship a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere and oppose all human reproduction, choosing to instead extend lifespans with cybernetic enhancements. They also rule the world and you have to help La Resistance defeat them.
- In Terranigma, the main character acts as both Crystal Dragon Jesus and Crystal Dragon Moses.
- Despite largely being based of Norse Myth, Shadow Bane falls under this too. While the All-Father is presumed to be absent, incapacitated, or dead, prayers to saints and archons still work (much to the relief of the prelates and bishops). There's also an even more militant offshoot faith that likes burning heretics a little too much...
- In the Japanese version of Faxanadu, gurus held crosses, and their churches had stained-glass windows depicting Jesus' crucifixion. These were removed for the international release, though a couple of churches did have crosses at the very top.
- The little known Seige of Avalon Anthology almost averts this by replacing every single mention of religion with "spirits" but somehow still has crosses in the chapel. And the graveyards. And on monks' robes. This is completely ignored in-game, with no attempt to handwave it or explain what, exactly, the religion is. Maybe the creators just used the cross because they thought their target audience would immediately associate it with religion, but that would take far more developer laziness than shown in any other part of the game, which includes at least 20 books which have no use, no useful information, and ridiculous amounts of completely unnecessary history that has no actual bearing on the game and even fails to put anything in context. Why do we care about the giant fire that burned down City X in Country Y, when neither the city nor the fire is referred to at any other part of the game, and why don't any of these books explain the game's religion at all?
- In the game Guild Wars: Prophecies, the prophet who makes the titular prophecies is, quite literally, a Crystal Dragon.
- In the game ZPC, the player takes the role of a [1] Crystal Dragon Jesus. With Psychic Powers.
- Played fairly straight with the Chantry in Dragon Age. Andraste is one part Jesus, one part Virgin Mary, and one part Joan of Arc.
- Amusingly enough there is an example of a cult worshipping a dragon that they believe is a reincarnation of Andraste.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- The various Transformers continuities have various incarnations of the god Primus, who has been portrayed as alternately an extremely powerful but tangible being, an actual god, or a tangible Transformer creator figure whose vehicle mode just happens to be the planet Cybertron. When in his most god-tastic form, Unicron often plays the Devil to his God.
- Word of God suggests that The Fallen is playing this role in the live action movies.
- In Moral Orel, this was the obvious purpose of Orel's short lived dog Bartholomew, who was killed because he spread too much joy to the townsfolk.
- Completely intentional, but the Super Adventure Club in the [[South Park]] episode, The Return of Chef, is clearly meant to mock and mirror Scientology.
- In Invader Zim Santa Claus is basically used in this capacity.
Web Original
- The Truth of El Dios in Open Blue is more or less the Roman Catholic Church under a different name, with a couple of differences, namely, the lack of a Jesus, and the fact that the God they worship is a drunken bastard who likes armwrestling with an expy of Cthulhu.
|
|
