Church of the Lesser God

A religion from the world that birthed the Divided States and Vieuxlyons. This "faith" existed well before the seminal events that tore these two domains into the Demiplane of Dread.

Mythos

The church upholds the belief that the material universe was created by its deity on a whim, out of envy for the works of superior powers and to see whether he could. The 'lesser god' made the universe and all life, but has no love for it and holds no plans for his creation, and may indeed have lost interest in it by now. The deity offers no judgment, no protection, no aid, not even an afterlife for those who believe in him. Life and existence have no purpose or value; they are but the product of an envious godling's whim and curiosity; a temporary abstraction that will end in oblivion.

Notions of the soul, civilization, morals and ethics are the work of other powers, who invaded the lesser god's creation and tampered with the 'sad apes' (humanoids of all kinds). They will not survive the universe's destruction. (Needless to say, the church has no positive relations with other faiths.)

Sects

Original Sect

The original version of the church built no shrines or temples, but would ritually consecrate, then later desecrate meeting halls, libraries and the like. Here, the faithful would hold meetings to reaffirm the belief of the community that life was pointless and death the end of everything. Church leaders would invite scientists to hold lectures - so long as these supported their beliefs. The faithful were called upon to take pride in the fact that they knew and accepted that their existence was as their god had willed it, and to preserve their dignity. Gatherings were also used to network, allowing the community to pool resources and get ahead in society. (A temporary existence being much improved if accompanied by wealth, power and comfort.)

Church of the Beast

In the wake of the Big Boom, and the disintegration of civic order in the Divided States, a new sect has seceded from the original "faith". Calling itself the Church of the Beast, this sect openly proselytizes about the pointlessness of existence, and argues that civilization, culture and personal restraint are pointless. Every creature should embrace the beast within and live wild and free. To do otherwise is blasphemy.

The second sect enjoys desecrating the holy sites of other faiths to hold its wild ceremonies, but is just as likely to squat on garbage dumps, in swamps and other defiled land, glorifying in rot and decay. Rituals in the church of the beast tend to end in bloodshed and cannibalism, as either a sacrificial victim or the leading priest is slain and devoured.

Holy Book

The Book of Reality contains the mythos of the lesser god, scientific articles that support the church's claim that there is no afterlife nor a grand scheme to creation, and a number of ritual prayers that allow priests to receive divine magic spells from the deity - but no explanation as to why a disinterested and possibly absent god would grant any magic at all. It is possible that the deity is less disinterested in the Prime Material Plane than his mythos claims, and that he wants his clergy to be powerful enough to perpetuate his church, or else that he wants his creations to be able to see evidence of his power.

The original sect would also include helpful references to local psychologists to help people cope with the senselessness of existence, as well as sympathetic doctors willing to assist those who had chosen suicide to end their suffering. In contrast, the church of the beast offered no such guidance in their version of the book.

Prayers

Lay followers do not pray to the deity, for there is no point in doing so and he does not ask for it. Only divine spellcasters, such as Clerics or Druids, pray to him. They pray at sunset, when darkness falls, and feelings of futility and finality set in.

Taboos

The church considers the creation of undead and attempts to magically prolong life to be abominations, as they fly in the face of the deity's intention that all life be transient and end in oblivion.By extension, the church of the beast is opposed to art, museums and the written word, as these perpetuate the words and deeds of the dead and create an illusion of continuity.

Unholy Symbol

The symbol - and idol - of the church was a male humanoid figure, arranged like Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

In contrast to the actual Vitruvian Man, this figure was intensely muscular, completely hairless, and stared into the distance in a manner suggesting blindness - or willful disinterest.

Alignment

Lawful Evil

Cleric alignments

• Lawful Evil - shared equally between both sects;
• Lawful Neutral - more common in the original sect;
• Neutral Evil - more common in the church of the beast.

Domains

Creation, Envy, Fate, Law

Favored Weapon

Unarmed strikes and/or natural attacks: the weapons the deity granted to his creations at their birth.

Trivia

• The (Dark) One, darklord of the Divided States, holds a loathing for both sects, but especially for the church of the beast. As it knows full well that the soul and the afterlife exist, the church's message angers and offends it.
• Even in the Divided States' current climate of tyranny and anarchy, the church of the beast is not universally welcome. Its proselytizing has led to several city-wide riots, followed by the destruction of said cities. Even brutal tyrants tend to take exception to cults that might wreck their territory by driving people into despair and madness with their message.