Relations With the People

Then, the DM can determine what sort of relationship the faith has with the population. All faiths exert some control over the flock, by helping interpret or define what the flock believes; some faiths exert more power, some less. Some abuse that power, and some don't. Some faiths rule the people, while others are the people.

The DM needs to ask himself these questions:

Is There A Priestly Caste?

That is, is Priest the full-time job of the priest, making priesthood something a little distant from ordinary humanity; or do most priests only act as priests part-time, having other occupations most of the time, and making priesthood something that any ordinary person can attain?

Just because Priest is a character class in the AD&D® game doesn't mean that the campaign culture has a priestly caste. In a specific culture, a character could be a blacksmith and also priest of the god of metalwork, or a soldier and also priest of the god of the sun, or a scribe and also priest of the god of death. The character's profession does not have to have any bearing on his priestly role . . . though it would be inappropriate to be a soldier and a priest of the god of peace, for instance.

In such an arrangement, the character lives in his home, works to make his living, and is an everyday fellow. On occasion, he puts on his priestly vestments and attends to his priestly duties (performing marriages, arranging and performing rituals, giving guidance to those who ask it of him, praying to the god for favors). Most of these events take place at the god's temple or church, but most of the faith's priests do not live there; only priests with no other quarters, and followers of the chief priest, would live there. (A priest could live in his own home while his followers lived in the temple!) With this sort of arrangement, priests are very definitely men and women of the people. They are not supported by tithes (though tithes probably led to the building of the temple), and just about anyone in the culture can become a priest.

However, if priests are a distinct caste in the society, then priesthood is (in addition to everything else) a job. It is the priest's principal occupation. Most priests live in the temple or in properties owned by the faith. It may be considerably more difficult to become a priest; someone intending to become a priest may have to go through years of education and enlightenment before becoming a priest. (This isn't all that important from a campaign perspective; player-character priests still start out at first level, but with the understanding that they've gone through all this teaching and training before they enter the campaign.)

Can The Faith Inflict Serious Punishments On Non-Believers?

This is a reflection of the faith's political power in the campaign culture. Does the faith have the power to inflict punishment on those who do not follow the faith's principals? Can they imprison, interrogate, or even torture or execute non-believers or worshippers of other faiths?

If they can, they're a very powerful faith in the culture, and one which can guide the culture into periods of religious terror (whenever they try to purge the land of heretics, or to conceal elimination of political enemies by pretending they're heretics and purging them) or into all-out wars with cultures of different faiths.

Giving a faith this right in a campaign means that there's always the danger of religious persecution in the campaign. If it's the campaign's main setting where a faith has this power, the player-characters may find themselves hired to oppose or even to help such an effort of persecution. If it's a foreign power, the heroes may find themselves helping fugitives escape that land, or may even face the oncoming juggernaut of an army when that faith decides it's time for a holy war.

Is The Faith Indigenous To This Population?

Did the faith in question spring from this culture, or was it introduced to this culture by immigration or war?

If it sprang from this culture, that's fine.

However, if it was introduced into this culture and supplanted an earlier faith, the DM has the opportunity to introduce some interesting story elements because of friction between the two faiths.

If the new faith conquered and eliminated the old faith almost completely, then there will be hidden, secret sects of the old faith still in existence . . . sects which plan to re-establish the preeminence of their god.

If the new faith has dominated and absorbed the old faith without destroying it, you can deal with changes to the culture resulting from that absorption. What if, in the old culture, female priestesses and their goddesses were dominant, while in the new faith male gods and their priests are in power? Or, what if the reverse is true? Or, what if the old faith oppressed one gender and the new faith treats them as equals? In any case, there will be ongoing struggles, especially struggles of politics and traditions, where believers in the old faith try to keep things traditional and familiar while believers in the new faith try to impose their own beliefs on the population.

As a variant of that, a campaign setting, or even an entire campaign, can be built around a missionary situation, where priests of one faith have been introduced into a setting where a different faith reigns . . . and have appeared with the intent of converting the local population to their beliefs. This is especially interesting where missionaries of a more sophisticated culture are sent to a more primitive region.

The priests of the new, intruding faith are sent with the purposes of educating the "natives," challenging and defeating their priests (if any), and converting the native population to the new belief. The priests might have to oppose soldiers of their own land, who are raiding and exploiting the natives, or may cooperate with them for the glory and profit of their own temples, depending on whether the DM considers this a "good" or a "bad" faith and cause.

In such a setting, player-characters could take on any number of tasks. They could be the new priests, spreading the new faith. They could be enemies of the new priests (perhaps they're priests of another faith altogether!) working to defeat the missionary efforts of the new priests. They could be warriors or foreign defenders of the native population, fighting the soldiers who steal the native culture's treasures and take natives as slaves. They could be those exploitative soldiers. In as complicated a situation as this one is, there are many opportunities for adventure . . . and for tough ethical questions for the DM to introduce into the campaign.

What Secondary Roles Does The Faith Fill?

The DM also needs to decide if a faith fills one or more cultural niches which are not intrinsically religious.

For example, a faith could be the principal educator of a society. Each temple would then also serve as a school, and all priests would have nonweapon proficiencies which allowed them to teach subjects or preserve knowledge. A faith with this privilege will be a powerful one in the culture, because it influences the thinking of each new generation.

A faith might have a secondary function as a shelterer of travellers. Each temple would have a wing or annex which was a sort of hotel for travellers, with many of the brothers and sisters of the faith "running the hotel." This makes this faith a principal waystation for rumors, and the church would be the first place that people would turn to for news.

The faith of the god of Wisdom might be the only one which could supply judges and advocates in trials. The faith of the god of Strength might supply all judges and marshals to athletic events. Perhaps only priests of the god of metalwork can mint coins.

It's extra work to introduce these small cultural elements into a campaign setting, but they add a depth of detail to a campaign for the DM who is willing to do that extra work.

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