If anyone has read or played Forgotten Realms you know the gods get their power from how many worshipers they have. In De Otha Side the big baddie said he didn’t need no power from worshippers and that the jailer gives it all now. What other books use this sort of idea also?
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Even for my kind, pain still hurts. If you move and act in the material world, then the material world acts on you. Pain hurts, just as greed intoxicates and lust burns. We may not die easy and we sure as hell don’t die well, but we can die. If we’re still loved and remembered, something else a whole lot like us comes along and takes our place and the whole damn thing starts all over again. And if we’re forgotten, we’re done.
- As portrayed in American Gods (2001) by Neil Gaiman, Ch. 13
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Nice thread OP. I find the concept pretty tantalizing tbh.
It’s a tiny moment in the movies, and doubt that it’s been confirmed or even thought of by the creators but in The Mummy movies, the Anubis and his Army are shown to be healthy and whole at their prime, when summoned in ancient times, and when they are summoned in modern times, they are decrepit and decomposing almost.
I always liked to think that that was due to the thousands of years of not being worshipped or given offerings.
This clip has both the scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTepzxirUBA&t=151s
The manga Chainsaw Man sort of has this but in the opposite affect. The more you’re feared in the world determines how powerful you are as a devil. If a devil manages to become less fearful and even “worshiped” they start getting weaker.
One also knows that the Planes are shaped by Belief.
Belief even shapes the Inner Planes(as shown by Planescape Torment where belief allows the Nameless One to cease existing in the Plane of Death) though the reality of Fire, Water, Earth and Air makes their form more concrete in comparison to Death and Life!
When the Inner Planes were blended into Elemental Chaos the belief in the Elemental Planes caused them to reappear beneath the Elemental Chaos above Shadowfell(Plane of Shadow) and Feywild(Plane of Fairies)!
The Elemental Chaos now has Muspelheim, Jotunheim, Cresting Spires(Realm of the Elemental Lord of Water), Root Hold(Realm of the Elemental Lord of Earth), Sky Home(Realm of the Elemental Lord of Air), the Undying Pyre(Volcanic Glass Realm ruled by the Elemental Lord of Fire) and the Abyss in it…
Are we going to get a plot twist that the Shadowlands is shaped by belief then? What would be the Feywild counterpart to Shadowlands?
Can’t be Ardenweald as the Realm of the Unseelie Fae is in the Outer Planes AKA the Afterlives! More specifically Pandemonium.
Well, while not a book, I’d be remiss in not pointing out this is how things work in Final Fantasy XIV as well. The Gods of that world are all Primals/Eikons, and their strength is tied to the fervor of their worshipers as well as the supply of crystals fed to them. Both are necessary components. Even the 12 which the player races worship function this same way, and the new expansion even has some revelation about powers older still.
The power that’s being gotten is the anima from their souls.
That power can be either given willingly in the form of worship, or the being can simply decide to take it predator style the way the Jailor and his cohorts are doing by funneling all souls into the Maw.
Honest, Shadowlands seems like Age of Sigmar to me. Perhaps not as disrespectfull, but still nonsensical and bad.
OP this theme was used a lot. Even in one of the Merlin movies and a lot of universes, books and games. It’s almost like a trope nowedays.
Except Warhammer has Chaos as an enemy.
Warcraft simply cannot create an enemy like Chaos that even comes laughably close.
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They’re trying with the Void Lords and to say it’s coming off as anything less than dull and unimaginative is an understatement
i would really prefer if it’s not just “worship” granting some metaphysical power just because, but rather the acts of the followers. sacrifice, offerings, praise actually being some kind of anima-based spellwork that siphons some anima from the worshipper to the god.
there’s nothing worse than a magic system where things just happen because “magic”. there should be some logical flow, a transition of power, something for something. that’s how wow worked for the most part before.
it sucks how most of the devs are probably annoying dnd players that probably only got into dnd because it became trendy, and now try to force dnd crap into other universes. keep that junk to dnd, i don’t want it here.
Speaking of Warhammer 40K I have seen Fans suggest the possibility that Ahzek Ahriman is Tzeentch’s past self!
Considering the guy’s face is a Void of Screaming Warp Energies despite his claims to have an unchanged face this is not hard to imagine! He might already be the Chaos God and not know it!
I must’ve read his book series once or twice and still cannot grasp the twist.
I would read it again but his constant Tizcan melancholy drives me up the wall. You’d think adapting to the fact that your battle brothers are souls trapped in armor wouldn’t be your biggest worry in galaxy looking to squash you.
I like the concept but tbh its kinda of half dumb because very often something that is feared will actually end up maybe/probably being worshipped just because it is powerful unless you have something better to worship
Like how the mantid worship Y’Shaarj and the old gods not because they are mindless minions like the rest of the old god spawns but because they think that the old gods are unstoppable and so trying to stop them and worship anything else is certain doom
also on a side note : it kinda shows how messed up and evil and also cool Y’Shaarj was , he created an entire sentient race only to fear him and worship him throught fear because he wanted and liked the feeling to feed on it
PS : I almost want to kinda compare it to real life religions too because tbh real life religions are on themselves kinda messed up with a lot of them being “be a good servant and believer or end up burning in hell for all eternity” what again is mostly worshipping that comes from the fear of punishement rather than the love of the gods on themselves