Fantasy Gods, Races, Settings, Magic Systems and Miscellaneous

thanks

MIA

Nothing for me? Or does my concept come off as dumb and basic?

One or two twists in a story is fine, Shyamlan-esque even. But please don't turn the poor thing into a Twizzler!

...it's fine

MIA

@ewolf2015

Would it be possible to elaborate? What improvements would you suggest to upgrade it from Fine to Legendary? (Skyrim joke)

One or two twists in a story is fine, Shyamlan-esque even. But please don't turn the poor thing into a Twizzler!

Could show me what it is then?

MIA

@ewolf2015

Here you go;

Writing a team of high school aged superheroes who get magical fighting powers through a variety of deities. The gods/goddesses come from real world mythologies and I'll be using the really obscure ones that don't get much exposure. Greek Mythology is out and in fact that whole pantheon is one of the villains (with a couple of exceptions; imagine the Lannister family from Game of Thrones).

Now the powers the kids get are based around which godly mentor they end up tied too. We have Chang'e from Chinese Mythology, Shakti from Hinduism/Vedic, St. Lucia from Christianity (a patron saint but in my lore she's been upgraded to a guardian angel), Quetzalcoatl from Aztec etc.

My concerns are the following:

1. Is it better to just make my own gods/pantheons to basically avoid controversies (assuming this stuff ever sees the light of day)?

2. I actually want to get really creative with the powers and I wonder if I would be limiting myself my having one character have a single patron/mentor god. Can I shift and rotate with the kids getting and losing powers as the plot demands. Learning to adapt on the fly or would that be too convoluted and I should give them a stronger identity?

3. Kind of a tangent BUT I want my magical power rangers team (of six) to have a RPG squad dynamic. I know the video game SMITE sort of does this but can I get some suggestions on which gods would fit into the DPS/TANK/HEALER/MAGE etc dynamic?

EDIT:

Okay so another caveat in my world is that the mythological gods we know have an age old enemy called The Eldritch (wow! so creative right? /sarcasm) and yes they are Lovecraft-Lite entities. In fact it's revealed many of the gods are in hiding or disappeared or otherwise unable to help the heroes. And some are actively on earth but obviously not going around telling people.

The story takes place on an Alternate Universe earth where the Trinity Project i.e. detonation of the first atomic bomb caused the already weakened dimensional barrier to crack and allow all kinds of magical beasts to pour through; some benign while others not so much.

The dimensional barrier was set up as a way to protect/hide humanity as part of a multi-mythology pact. Obviously many tried to break through and hence it was weak. The barrier still functions and is the reason any deity walking the earth has his powers severely reduced as part of the above mentioned pact.

The Native American spirit called Coyote helps the scientists at ground zero of the event survive the initial wave and in return Coyote has been made the patron deity of the US Military & NASA. He doesn't do miracles though, just offers advice and ways to keep evil at bay while being his trickster self.

Cut to modern day; humans can't do magic unless they purposefully get possessed by some demon or spirit and it's considered a huge crime to do so. Lots of paramilitary organizations wielding super science have popped up to keep the monsters at bay. Now it's one thing to use machine guns on Chupacabra's but they are helpless against the Eldritch and their cronies; that's where our heroes come in. And eventually more like them.

edited 11th Dec '16 2:15:01 PM by SmokingBun

One or two twists in a story is fine, Shyamlan-esque even. But please don't turn the poor thing into a Twizzler!

it's ok but i might suggest doing some research while jumping into this.

MIA

First thread I put this in is dead, I'll put this here. I'll had more when I can.

• Elves

Live in forests, but primarily use wood for armors and mud for camouflage, male elves in my setting also maintain beards that are matted with moss and mud to better blend in with the surrounding trees. So much so that some Men believe elves to be more tree than person. While they use the bow, it's predominately a hunting tool and they are well skilled at using axes. Their primary diet of nuts, fruits, and wild game that they've hunted. They will also occasionally trade with any towns or villages of Man that are near their forests.

• Dwarfs

Dwarfs come in two varieties: The most common are the Half-Dwarf. Those are the ones that Men think of when they imagine a Dwarf: Smiths, love their hair, really love their drink. The other, less well-known breed are the True-Dwarf. They are also stocky, but are hairless and blind. Their communication is made of a series of clicks that are indecipherable from all who hear it, except for the Half-Dwarfs. Their diet is entirely any meat that comes into their caves or that the Half-Dwarfs bring to them. While the True-Dwarfs society is relatively unknown, they are the ones who do the mining that produces the ore the Half-Dwarfs use to produce the weapons and other goods they make with their forges.

• Unnamed race

These peoples are cat people. They were the result of Chimera testing by the Empire of Alaster. Don't really have much to say about them, since I'm making them up as I go along. One of my characters is a member of this race and she's named Pei Wekat, named after this. Might try to go with Cat Sidhe(or some corruption) as a species name, but I'm still trying to figure it out as I work.

• Chimera

This one I really wish I could figure out a better name for, but this word is the only thing that comes to mind. Basically, the Empire of Alaster dabbles in magic that allows them to merge animal and human together to increase the size of their army. It's a time consuming process to produce actual combat-capable ones, but for shock tactics or demoralization purposes a quick merge can be preformed.

(V)(;,,;)(V)

On the topic of magic, I have a wrinkle or two in my system that I'd need a bit of help figuring out. In my story's world, the world itself is magic - it's, essentially, the life of everything that comes out of the world, particularly living things. Things that have magic in them have the natural ability to draw in more from other sources or disperse it out from themselves, sorta like withdrawing/depositing. Mostly it's the people that can do this as they have the necessary intelligence to do so (but I doubt there won't be a few exceptions); they can channel the magic around them into themselves, reshape it, and then put it back out into the world as something else. Probably nothing new, but I'm not trying to break any molds here. A less prevalent group of people (subrace?) are actually made up more of magic than normal humans, and so are inherently more in-tune with magic and all that has to do with it. I'm still not sure what to call them, because 'mages' or 'sorcerers' seem like a bit of a cop-out. Anyways, because of this, it's more difficult for a magic-person to tell when the 'them magic' ends and the 'borrowed magic' begins, thus making them more susceptible to use up their own life energy - everything that has magic can also lose it, which has nasty consequences that you could probably guess. The problem is this: if two magic-people are in a fight, what's stopping one from drawing in all the magic from the other and outright killing them like that? It could easily be a proximity thing, but then what if there's a scene where two enemy MPs are alone?

Side Note, while I was writing this question, it actually brought a much better alternative for a different plot point. Sweet.

(Pulled this from Writers' Block cuz it didn't fit too well in it.

Smoking Bun: I don't have a problem with writing ancient or obscure religions itself—I have a problem when people write them BADLY. People usually think they can just make shit up because nobody's going to care, and that in turn is because they think that ancient/obscure religions are all DEAD religions, and nobody follows them anymore.

Wikipedia is a good starting point for religions, but for actually getting the gods' personalities, you want to look around at translations of the myths like on Sacred-Texts.com, and then try to find blogs from pagans about their deities. Example: Most everyone knows that the Norse Loki is a trickster with a HUGE chip on his shoulder, but his devotees generally agree that he's not THAT bad when you get to know him—he's just not a god who everyone gets along with.

I don't like Loki because while he seems to genuinely want some type of friendship/devotion from me, his way of trying to connect with me is by making jokes that are either hilarious jabs... or the opposite of hilarious because he crossed the line five minutes ago, ignored when I told him that shit wasn't cool, ignored when OTHER deities told him that wasn't cool, and finally realized the punchline didn't land right because now someone's yelling at him instead of laughing.

When Thor found out, he gave me a damn oath that "If Loki is being too douchey, hit me up and I'll get rid of him." No strings attached. On the other hand, both of them are pretty emphatic that while Marvel's version of Loki is a kickass villain and fun to read/watch, he's NOWHERE NEAR that homicidal in real life. I kind of understand Loki better since I don't get mad at him as often, but I can still only tolerate him in small doses, and I usually another deity around.

Meanwhile, the Morrigan of the Irish pantheon is my actual patron goddess. Hell, she's the one who started me on my long and weird path to paganism way back when I was thirteen. She has a reputation as a Blood Knight and I took a lot of time getting used to her, but she's nowhere near as dickish as Loki and now she's basically the first deity I ask when I need help. Hell, before Thor gave me his "throw Loki out first, questions later" oath, the Morrigan was usually the one dealing with him. Usually by punching him until he stopped making me upset. That's her role as my patron—protecting me from less-savory spirits and helping me out when I need a pointer. We don't spend a lot of one-on-one time, but that doesn't mean she's not extremely important.

My shaky relationship with Loki is ironic, seeing as another trickster-ish deity (Dionysus of the Greeks) gets along with me VERY well. Dionysus is the god of wine and partying, Wacky Fratboy Hijinx, theater, Seers, and insanity/mental-illness. For a while we hung out in meditations and I gave him offerings sometimes, and everything was chill until he dropped into my meditation one day and went "hey there, wifey. " It's the dumbest way EVER to find out you're a god's mortal "spouse," but it's definitely in-character for someone whose job is "having fun."

Dionysus said he wants to help me out with my depression, and mental issues are hard to deal with in the usual deity-mortal relationship. We actually work pretty well, because remember how he's the god of insanity? He was Driven to Madness in one of his myths, and he also likes turning people insane if they piss him off. This seems to translate into him seeking out people with mental illnesses or drug addictions to help them out. Not necessarily to the point of god-marriage, but a lot of people who work with Dionysus are grateful because he's NOT the usual healer-god. He's like a former alcoholic who worked through his issues already—he knows not to worry when you have a shitty day and snap at everyone because you want to be left alone. Or when you SHOULDN'T be left alone because you've been antsy since noon and you might buy a six-pack or head to the bar if someone isn't watching you.

As for the "patron deity powers" problem, remember that they're GODS. They're either making the rules, or they can sweet-talk/beat up/ignore the ones who are.

Tricksters will especially LOVE fucking around with the "one power per patron" rules. Are "super-speed and flying" two separate powers that they shouldn't have given to their devotee, or is their devotee just being creative and "running so fast they stop hitting the ground for a while" or "running at superspeed so they get enough momentum to clear a building In a Single Bound?" Plus, do OBJECTS count as powers? If Hermes lends you his winged sandals for a while, it's not like he welded them onto your feet—he could take them back annnnny time he wants, but he doesn't need them back yet because he's a GOD.

If I was in your story, Dionysus could get stoned, "accidentally" give me too many powers, and then go "fuck it, What Did I Do Last Night?" the next morning. People would probably just laugh it off and go "you dumbass, you gave your wife Fertile Feet because you kept falling over and you wanted to stop getting bruised." Alternately, being his mortal wife could give me the very useful not-a-power of having him walk up to people and say, "My name is Dionysus and this is my wife! If you hurt her, be careful about going to parties for the rest of your life. It might be one of mine, and my parties are KILLER."

Are patron-deities the only gods who can give powers at all, or is it "only one power from your PATRON-deity"? Most pagans work with at least two or three gods within their pantheons—patron-gods are just the most PROMINENT gods of a person's worship, not the only ones they work with.

And in mythology, gods hand out powers like lottery tickets. I have a patron-deity and a god-husband, so would I only be able to get a power from my patron or is it a sliding scale of "your patron can give you your strongest power, and other gods can only give you minor powers"? (And Loophole Abuse would still happen with tricksters who give "minor powers with useful side effects," or strong-willed deities who say "fuck your rules, I'mma do what I want," or if Dionysus gets stoned and "accidentally" gives me a game-breaker power under the influence.)

edited 24th Jan '17 3:13:50 PM by Sharysa

I've always liked how Dark Souls handled its panthenon.

Basically the "Gods" were all fathered by this human namdd Gwyn who inherited the soul of light from the First Flame, the source of all life, death, light and dark in the world. Humans are technically older then the gods.

As the First Flame died out Gwyn through himself upon it to artificially extend his Age of Fire and halt the comin' Age of Man, maintainin' the rulin' hierarchy of Gods.

The "Gods" are actually absent. Gwynevere, the Goddess of Feritility is just an illusion conjured by her brother/sister Gwyndolin. Their brother had been retconned in-universe but we know that he was a god of war and that he may have betrayed his kind to the join the dragons.

Other god-like beins arent referred to as gods but Nito, First of the Dead is decidedly more god-like then the other beins that claim godhood.

GIVE ME YOUR FACE

That was mildly fascinating.

I'm glad you were amused. I was worried it might be too long.

A lot of people are only used to monotheism (especially the Abrahamic religions), where God and His servants are distant and ineffable. There are pagan gods who are remote and ineffable, but as a whole they act pretty damn human. Even the gods with the same sphere of influence (like various gods fulfilling The Trickster role) won't necessarily have the same PERSONALITIES.

The magic system of the world I'm working on is based on the seven chakras as a three tier pyramid with each chakra unlocked giving access to a new element. Everyone is theoretically capable of this magic but it takes time and dedication to unlock the first, let alone master it or unlock others. They can be unlocked in about any order, but each one comes with it a specific philosophy thus enforcing personality powers and characters having easier times with their native element (one closest to their temperament) than others. Finally for the basics, there is no natural 'right way' to activate fireball or whatever spell you want to do. The real work is all done in your brain, but it takes extreme concentration and doing the same thing every time you practice is like an associative learning device so that eventually just doing that near instantaneously produces the intended effect. If there is a set standard, it's for ease of teaching and to make sure someone doesn't set a fire because their fireball trigger is something very easy to do on accident.

The first tier consists of the four Material Elements; earth (solids), water (liquids), air (gases), and fire (plasma). Because I am strict with these definitions, my elemental system has some idiosyncrasies like it is earthbenders who can move ice because it is just solid H 2 O and in tropical parts of the world, some waterbenders manipulate lava. Mastering two elements which aren't on opposite sides of the axes grants a new power such as air + fire = lightning generation and water + earth = freezing. Mastery of all four allows you to manipulate living things because they are considered a combination of all four.

The next tier consists of the two Subtle Elements of light and darkness. At beginning levels, light is just manipulation of the visible EM spectrum for while darkness is gravity manipulation. However, mastery of them reveals their true nature. Light is substance and while you begin making holograms/illusions, you will ultimately learn to conjure what you want for real. Darkness is the emptiness between substance, and you will learn to warp space itself. I'm undecided if humans can have these as their native element, but nearly all kitsune are natural at light and the same goes for tengu and darkness.

The Material Elements dealt with the molecular scale, the Subtle elements the subatomic, but the Omniversal Element deals with the prima materia; the complete knowledge that all distinctions are false dichotomies, the universe is one giant interconnected pattern of identical threads, and you can alter it however you please by pulling on them. Or... it is said to be all that. No one has been confirmed to have unlocked the seventh chakra in known history and some modern academics believe it is an intentionally unobtainable goal so mages never stop attempting to refine themselves further. But many still believe in the Immortals and the Ascendant Emperor.

Ok, so there it is. The races will come later along with maybe some history. The molecules-subatomic- fundamental building block of the universe model of elemental magic came first, but I'll admit I was having trouble with the middle tier until a post in this thread inspired me to use chakra as a motif to help build them.

That first part is actually a lot like how the magic system in my Crowley University stories works, albeit in what I've planned for the rules of magic in that universe so far (neither of the paltry two chapters I've written thus far have gone into detail about the magic system quite yet). Although in my case, the role of light- and darkness-aligned magic is played by the fifth element of aether, which corresponds to energy as opposed to the states of matter the other four elements represent, although it still shares the part about light-based magic being used for illusions and conjuring objects.

On another note, I'm currently writing the backstory for my D&D group's next session, and there's a part I'm having a bit of writer's block with. The adventure's plot deals with The Fair Folk, specifically a fae named The Forest Lady. Ten years prior to the party's arrival in the forest village the adventure takes place, a plague struck that left the children of the village on death's door. In desperation, the village elder made a pact with The Lady to cure the children on the condition that she would claim them as her own in ten years' time.

And of course, said elder never consulted the parents of said children on the matter, and has neglected to tell them about the pact and his end of the bargain. By the time, the PCs arrive at the village and are contracted to find out what has been stealing children from their beds and return them home safely, the elder is desperately hiding how wracked with guilt he is.

The part I need help with is making possible diplomatic solutions to the issue once the players confront The Lady. I've been thinking of the possibility of the PCs and/or the elder himself offering an alternate form of payment for the pact. So I'm wondering if anyone more knowledgeable about old stories of The Fair Folk could offer their two cents on what The Forest Lady might consider an equal trade, should my players consider such a solution.

I remember reading about your Alesteir Crowley U idea in another thread and it sounded very interesting. As I see the link in your signature, I might need to check it out.

I don't recall any story of that exact nature, but their Blue and Orange Morality plus Macbeth inspired me for a possible scenario. Have her fey nature make her unable to turn down a deal so when the heroes ask if there's anything they can pay for the children, she has to say something. So, she says something that sounds patently impossible similar to the weird sister's prophecies. If the heroes still manage to provide, then that same nature requires her to respect the deal. I have no idea what she would ask for being completely unfamiliar with Dn D, but your players may be at least tempted to agree with her demand unlike the typical Deal with a Devil, while also make fulfilling it as challenging as just fighting her.

I've got a (non-MLP) Pony setting and I'm honestly not sure what to put in a large part of the continent. Here's a map of it◊, with the "Terra Incognita" circled as well as some other cultures/races (mind you, given that there are some non-Equines I'd prefer that they be inhabited by, you know, Ponies).

Halper's Law: as the length of an online discussion of minority groups increases, the probability of "SJW" or variations being used = 1.

As it is between the middle east and the snowy north which I take as Norse Europe, how about a culture which is settled between the two such as Russia, eastern Europe, or if you want to be anachronistic, the Huns.

As promised, here are the races to the world I'm making. The setting is many years after a great war which left all life mutated.

Man: those who managed to flee underground. They have few very impressive Citadel Cities and smaller less impressive settlements dotting the landscape. The mages are a noble class in the fashion of samurai or knights; they are set above in return for protecting the commoners but in this world, it is usually thought to be against the monsters living in the wilderness. They would have subtle differences from typical humanity such as unusual hair and eye color to show they have been changed as well.

Oni: those who didn't make it to a shelter but survived. They now have a red-purple range of skin colors, 6-7' tall muscular bodies, and horn like growths from their skull. Despite that description, they are not Always Chaotic Evil, and some can even be found living peacefully in the major human cities. Other Oni however are more tribal and consider their brethren sellouts for aligning with the human hegemony. Because of shared origins, half oni are possible but are sterile.

Asura: those who saw the war coming and escaped the planet entirely; planning to return after the world had time to recover to build a new utopia. While there are good in every race, they are culturally based on the Enclave from Fallout and they aren't happy their pristine New Eden is infested with mutants. Ironically, they aren't truly human either as years off world have left them looking more like elves.

Tengu: Not all races are human descendants, as these uplifted crows would show. They have bald vaguely humanoid faces, wing like arms, and talons on their feet. They can't fly the way birds can, but while humans very rarely have an affinity for the element of darkness, most tengu are natural at it and can use it for levitation and teleportation. They try to secluded themselves in mountaintop villages hidden with their magic.

Kitsune: While tengu have secluded themselves from humans, the Fox descendant kitsune marched right in and made themselves at home. They look like literal foxes save their unusual size, coloring, and multiple tails. However, they are naturals at illusion magic and many businesses have suddenly discovered their boss they assumed human counts herself amongst the numbers of the nine tailed. That said, most don't literally have nine tails but having many is seen as a sign of good fortune and beauty in a kitsune's eyes.

Dragons: no one's really sure where the dragons come from. Theories range from snakes uplifted in the same ways crows and foxes were, semicorporal spirits, and even beings who fell to the earth from the stars. Oddly, they possess the abilities of telepathy and telekinesis which seem to be inbred to them having nothing to do with chakra at all. They hoard technology along with metal so there are many stories about brave souls sneaking in to steal some super powerful weapon to kill the evil overlord.

Beastfolk: Created by an evil mage ruler as his 'loyal' army and servants, things could have gone better for him. While the three above look like animals that happen to talk, these tend towards Little Bit Beastly instead. The animals used are themed after the Chinese zodiac though not necessarily all of them and if he managed a dragon hybrid, there's only one. As you can imagine, they betrayed him in droves once they realized his enemies wouldn't kill them on sight for surrendering.

And those are the races with full sapience. Now, here's the origin of the main empire. They have been living in an underground shelter for generations. At first, they would originally send brave recruits outside to see if it was safe to leave. When this grew too costly, they started exiling criminals instead. Even later, with overpopulation a problem, the charges which demanded exile until one man was sentenced for protesting this system. He managed to brave the wilds, discovered magic and returned home to free his people from their self fulfilling prison. His rule lasted fifty years before he left the throne to his daughter. Some believe he then discovered the last chakra and ascended to a new plane, looking down and watching his people.

• Whistles. Is humanity seen as the precursors in that world? And the empire like Olympus or Rome, some kind of model realm or abode of the originals?

Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives

So...I'm completely stuck trying to avert Crystal Dragon Jesus yet still produce a major religion similar enough to play Christianity's role in a sixteenth-century fantasy *Europe, with the added twist that it must unite many different species.

I'd need to know more about the world to suggest the specifics of a religion but as a general rule of thumb: decide which race has the most influence over the others and what they are most likely to worship (pantheon, nature, the force...) as they will probably be the vehicle of your religion. For Christianity, it was the Romans.

To your first question, yes mundane humans are the mysterious precursors of the world.

To your second, Rome. The formula for their culture is basically Italy + (Japan x China).

Question, I'm making a high fantasy webcomic and is it silly if I call my versions of elves fairies?

edited 11th Feb '17 8:33:26 AM by DeadlyAssassin

Children of Dievas - my webcomic about the Northern Crusades

I don't think so. If I remember correctly, "elf" and "fairy" used to mean the same thing before Tolkien came along.

Princess Aurora is underrated, pass it on.

Nah, I wouldn't say it's silly. Granted, some people might find this a bit odd, mostly because of Tolkien, like Demetrios pointed out, but I don't think you'll see people saying "that's stupid, why aren't they just 'elves'?"

Rejoice!

Crossposting this from Pathfinder thread:

So, religion. What I decided on was that each race, in fact, has a different style of religion.

• Elves

This setting of mine doesn't have any "explicit" gods, outsiders with actual divine rankings. The elves interacted with the next best thing: Non-divine ranking outsiders, specifically angels, fiends and fae, depending on the subrace. In fact, they built their ancient empires off the power of their respective outsiders. The High Elven Empire was angel powered, the Dark Elven Empire was fiend powered and Wood Elven Empire was fae powered.

The Empire of the high and the dark elves abruptly collapsed way back when, in large part because their respective outsiders betrayed them. The angels thought that the eladrin had grown too haughty and proud and withdrew their favor. The drow learned why relying on beings Made of Evil is a bad idea. The Empire of the Wood Elves was always a vestigial attachment to the other two. The fae never really abandoned the sylvan but their empire declined and dwindled to nothing after the other two fell.

The reactions to this varied.

• Drow

Before the fall of their empire, the drow were well aware that the entities they dealt with were not nice and bad news. There wasn't any worship here, no. The drow had an attitude of "We got this under control." The core religion of the drow is now The Watchers Of The Abyss, the "Dark Watchers", dedicated to the eradication of all fiendish element.The fall of their empire has largely, in fact, not changed their attitude. Their "control" just involves a lot more violence and extreme prejudice.

The Heralds Of The Nine, the "Dark Heralds", perhaps represent the minor sect of the drow deeply shaken by the mistakes of their ancestors. They no longer seek to control the denizens of the lower planes but have given themselves wholly to those beings. They represent fanatical diabolists, as opposed to more common opportunistic one.

• Eladrin

Like the drow, the eladrin outlook could not be changed by something so sudden as the collapse of their empire. It would weather it or shatter completely. The weathering option, like most opinions on a grand scale, was the favorable one, and the eladrin continued on thinking "We're the good guys on the good side."

Before the fall of their empire, the eladrin poised themselves as mortal peers to their angelic benefactors. Certainly, they knew the score, but the angels were not worshiped. Nowadays, the majority of eladrin do, taking on a fawning, reverential view of the half-remembered, distant celestial figures paramount to their people's glory days. They formed The Listeners Of The Seven, the "High Listeners".

That minority descendant of those shaken and shattered by the fall see it differently. They saw what being the good guys got them, where siding with the embodiment of benevolence put them. The force and power of "good" is a deceitful subversive thing seeking to tear out the backbone of the world. They are the ones who see the truth and will wipe world clean of this weakening angelic taint. This is The Church To A Heaven Raining Blood, the "High Slayers".

• Sylvan

The slow decline of their empire did to the sylvan what the sudden collapse couldn't to their cousins, it changed their outlooks. Their people form the core of the arborealist movement, inclusive worshipers of fae and "native outsiders", especially those of a environmentally natural bent. They welcome individuals of other races into the fold, to dance and sing with them among the trees.

A minority sect, the fairy faith, still exists which call for racial superiority and exclusive reverence of the fae above other, lesser, spirits.

• Halflings "Brownies"

No explicit divinities have ever made themselves known, but that doesn't stop the brownies from making gods up. Both types of brownies, "domesticated" and "wild", share this. They rather the thing they worship is not someone they can actually meet. Their gods can be safely tucked away with them or packed up and carried. For those groups that settle down, there's a tendency for their pantheon to "wander out" and start getting worshiped by other races, especially humans, which is something that brownies regard with some bemusement.

There are theoligans that spend their lives tracking the evolution and origin of the deities worshiped by the brownies. As villages and caravans merge and split, historically settle down or pack up, gods have been similarly merges and split, picked up and abandoned. The Four-Fold Majesty is a quintet of goddesses dedicated to health, safety, community, tradition and death; Hemorrha, Segula, Merina, Ancerntosa and Nul, respectively. The non-brownie cult dedicated to them is widespread throughout the world and highly popular.

• Goblins

Goblins are philosophers more than any kind of worshipers. The unified name for their religion is The Perfect Path, and they the "Path Walkers", a philosophy that will lead adherents to spiritual enlightenment. The different goblin subraces disagree on how to go about this though. The imps, the red goblins, believe that wordly experience and wild living will unshackle their souls from its fleshy confines. The gnomes, the blue goblins, believe that rigorous experimentation and intense self-discipline will lead them to mastery of the spirit. The hobs, the green goblins, believe in trying both those things and everything else too, just to see what works.

Goblins, especially hobs, are pretty inclusive in their belief. They invite members of other races to come, sit and ponder the Perfect Path with them. If nothing else, another perspective might generate a new means of walking the Path, something the hobs are usually to eager to try.

• Beast-Folk

Historically, the origins of beast-folk are known. They are the descendants of animals imbued with humanoid essence, made to walk on two feet, to talk and thing as humanoids do, at the whim of some long ago mage. It turn, they have become animists, their belief imbuing every part of the world with humanoid traits, small gods that can be dealt with, respected or revered. Obviously, the greater the object, the greater the spirit and the better their treatment.

Arborealism often overlaps with this, and beast-folk and sylvan have found common ground here. However, where the sylvan will only revere the nature spirit that reveals itself, the beast-folk commonly assume everything has one, even if they don't see it.

• Orcs

Orcs are, very simply, ancestor worshipers. They carry bits of the dead with them wherever they go, carefully bury the rest and leave offerings constantly. They don't exactly have "converts", as their ancestors are their ancestors, but they never exactly stopped someone from adopting their ways and worship ping their own ancestors.

Orcs, second to humans, tend to adopt religions of other races. Most don't drop their ancestor worship but mingle the two into a single spiritual practice. The philosophy of the Perfect Path is popular. Some have imitated the High Listeners, believing their ancestors must walk with angels now and worshiping both. One orc community that suffered at the hands of fiends were accepted as Dark Watcher. Animism and arborealism are the most common.

• Dwarves

Dwarf religion ties into dwarf, er, anatomy. They are elemental beings, each of their extent subraces explicitly related to one of the four primary elements. The svartalfar, the mountain dwarves, are related to earth elementals, the vikingar, the sea dwarves, to water elementals, the luchrupar, the forest dwarves, to air and the duegar, the deep dwarves, fire.

Quite literally, as a dwarf ages, the element of their races overtake their flesh until, at the death of old age, their mind and living force is snuffed out and a elemental bursts forth from their body. This elemental being will stick around for an indeterminate amount of time, perhaps long enough to grow to greater size and strength, or immediately dick off for their proper elemental plane.

No surprise there then that the dwarves combine the kind of practices seen by the elves and orcs, by worshiping these outsiders as their ancestors. Then, depending on the splinter of their culture, may follow the example set by these elemental to model their own behaviors and/or try to take heed from their follies.

• Dragons

Quite a few dragons prefer to be worshiped. All of them bow their heads in respect towards figures in their historical lore that, well, stood out enough to forever be imprinted in their lore and history. Bahamut and Tiamat, supposedly the Adam and Eve of their race, are the biggest ones. If anything, dragons revere legends.

Philosophically, those two represent the twin aspects of dragon-kind. Platinum Bahamut is the creator, patiently shaping the societies of lesser beings over his long life, adding to his ever growing horde, creating objects of wonder to add to his collection or send out into the world to increase his notoriety. Five-Headed Tiamat is the destroyer, bearing the destructive breath weapon of all five dragon races, devouring great warriors, laying waste to kingdoms and armies at a whim. Neither is meant to be good or evil, as Bahamut creates things of dread as readily as things of wonder, Tiamat smites sinners as well as saint.

• Humans

Humans, a mishmash hodgepodge of the blood of every race, tend to be the same with religion. Hobs and sylvans readily accept them into their fold, and outside their progenitors the brownie gods find the most exposure here. From the drow and eladrin, a hodge podge of their respective splinter sects have formed among humans with varying justifications, worshiping/exterminating angels/fiends. Normally, it's angels good, fiends bad, but a few cults in the vein of "Outsiders Out!" and "I for one welcome our extraplanar overlords" have formed.

Mostly, it depends geography. Humans settled near duegar holds may revere the element of fire, those with territories crossing with orcs will likely adopt ancestor worship and intermingling with the beast-folk will have a lot of animists. Live near a dragon, probably worship that dragon and/or the characters in the dragon's stories. Many of these dragon cults mistakenly equate Bahamut with good and Tiamat with evil.