I put it back in the In work folder because I wasn't happy with where the submission ended up going. It wasn't intended to be a treatise on the religion of Earth, but rather an exposition on theology in my fantasy setting, and how rather than being made of absolutes, it is organic, grows, changes, and so forth so that pantheons rise, super-deities fall, and it all keeps rolling.

After languishing in work for over a year, I accepted the fact that I'm not going to give it the time and energy to bring it back to where I want it, so I #CultofDone 'ed it and put it back out. Rather surprised it ended up on the front page again, I've done this before and the submission will generally go back to obscurity. Go to Comment

I like it but it is rather Western orientated. Go to Comment

I was tempted to say something horrible about Islam here, but this board is not the place for such a thing so I won't. :) Go to Comment

While I'm certainly not offended by this piece, I will say that it doesn't sit well with me. I'm not sure it's possible to link the various 'stages' together into a single coherent whole, nor even that there is a linear progression down the list from the first style of religion listed to the last. You start the piece off as exploring a potential evolutionary path of religions, but I'm not seeing much to connect each stage to the next, nor why there is reason to change from one style to another, aside from outside pressure of conformity (which just pushes the problem back to the pressuring religion and how THEY got where they are).

As something of a small sidenote, not all monotheistic pantheons are going to require a vast hierarchy, either celestially or clerically. Since the best known monotheistic religion would be Christianity, I'll use it for my example. You certainly see the listed hierarchy within Catholicism for instance (pantheons of angels and demons, and a rather large hierarchy starting with the Pope and moving down from there), but you won't see that within the localized church movement, which claims Scriptural support for a local body of believers independent from any 'ruling body'. Certainly they interact with each other, but they don't all answer to a higher clerical body of some sort, or even necessarily convene to discuss how each body of believers is doing. Most Evangelical Christians would even call into question the vast celestial hierarchies of angels and demons as well. (not the existence of either party of the supernatural battlefield, but rather the particular organization and variations within the sides)

In all, this is a decent submission that makes a good attempt to organize the development of religions and faiths for our games, but I feel it fails at it's purpose. Improvement could be made in showing a better progression between the various stages, as well as a slightly better shading of the sub-variants available within each stage. Go to Comment

Okay, I'm not quite sure how offensive this can be. I've read stuff like this before, not sure where though. Different order on the last two in a few of the ones I read. I guess it all comes down to the 'impartiality' of the writer. Go to Comment

I'm not sure either, but I'm glad it did. This has some great bones for world building. I think your categories of faiths are broad enough to extend beyond Western-style religions. I think you've covered roughly all the major world religions in here.

I like the mention of syncretism in Unified Paganism. Syncretism is fascinating to me, diverse and myriad faiths adopting each other's gods and practices. I'd like to see more of that discussed in this article, but that's probably personal bias. Go to Comment

a perfect concise treatise! not only is it a great tool for introspection, but I got a tremendous amount of inspiration from this for upcoming submissions! Go to Comment

Confucius say...BUMP! Now add the eastern rigmarole! :D Go to Comment

A great sub that belongs in a worldbuilding folder for sure! Go to Comment

vote and well deserved BUMP! Go to Comment

the comments date back to 2006 though, I think perhaps it was taken down into private draft and then put back up after an edit? Either way, glad to see this here! Go to Comment

4.0/5

Might have been lost and resubmitted? Submission is dated in 2014.

A good sub, and I agree with Muro, it is a good tool for introspection. Go to Comment

The article is decent and useful for designing a patheon based on western ideas. I agree that the eastern religions need some attention to round it out. Maybe another article or an additonal section to flesh it out would be good. Go to Comment

Not really sure how a sub from 2006 wound up back on the front page as a new submission, but it's handy for world building, giving a GM some solid concepts with which to added various myths and religions to their game world with less effort. Go to Comment

Military Station (MS) Five

Codename: Ramiel

MS-5 'Ramiel' is an automated military station in geosynchronous orbit above Kinshasa, Africa. This large type II station houses 150 heavy drone aerospace fighters, and a mercenary contingent of seibertronians (secretly in detention/thrall to the station L/AISC) with aerospace fighter bodies. The L/AISC controller of Ramiel (aka Ramiel) has become sentient and self aware, but is enormously prideful of it's perfect defense strategy for holding the line between Federation Africa and SAUR Africa.

As Ramiel has a 100cm heavy particle projector cannon and the ability to hit things on the surface of the earth within a 7 foot circle of accuracy, it has seen to it that it's defensive lines have never broken.

(re: Neon Genesis Evangelion, the 5th Angel)

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Federation Scientific 66

Codenamed Leviathan

Leviathan was built as a Class III habitat in the orbit of Saturn. Easily hidden in the radio noise and static of the rings and the moons, Leviathan, and its AISC Lucifer, were given free reign to work on bleeding edge arcanotechnology, dimensional science, and other projects that were considered too risky to work on at the Phobos Research Center. The AISC Alcubierre was involved in questionable research and was contaminated by an unknown biological agent. The station vanished with all hands presumed lost. The gap in Saturn's ring lasted a year and a half before filling back in.

Leviathan has a dimensional gate drive, and the station attempted a dimensional jump, killing most of the crew, and turning those that survived into insane bubbling monsters that were as much the suits they were wearing as they were viscous alien slime. The station is an unholy amalgam of metal turned to flesh, plastic turned to skin, and former human crew members turned to slumping cybernetic zombies.

The station is heavily armed with arcanotech weapons, prototype equipment, and it's defensive components, space mecha and aerospace fighters, have all been corrupted and turned into squadrons of hekatonkheires.

Inspiration: 2/3rds Event Horizon, 1/3rd Leviathan from the Hellraiser Franchise.

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Actually, I can see an entire cyberpunk campaign being run in one of those stations, so section 5 isn't the only interesting thing aboard by any means.

I like the way you've linked it in with the rest of the setting, and can vividly image lots of PC shenanigans happening on board.

You could do with a few hooks and denizens, but given these are essentially cities, a GM can inject his own ideas as desired.

Nicely done! Go to Comment

Cool Squared :) I think Derek would like one of these...

This also seem perfect for adding an AI to.
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Very useful for guarding things like tombs as well. Go to Comment

These are really good - though I can't imagine something powerful enough to snuff souls not being detectable as magic.

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