Which God Would You Follow/Worship? (not which civ)

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

Just to be a smart-ass, but if you went along with the sort of belief that "Hey, I'm going to worship the God that gives me the most benefit" you might be in line more with Mammon than anyone else, having used your intellect to harness an "illicit" gain, and get sucked into his Vault in the afterlife. I would love to see that in a short story somewhere, preferably with a priest of some religion, who say, charged excessive fees to use the temple services

 

[Humakty]

I don't think you can choose your god basing your choice on selfish 'retirement plans'. Heh, do you pretend to fool a god ? Or to sell your faith ?
Me, at the opposite of you, follow Bhall because I'm a true believer.
(Mmmh, maybe too because I'm really cold at my office, some heretic to burn would be welcome, or some sort of eternal pyre...)

 

[Kael]

Just to be a smart-ass, but if you went along with the sort of belief that "Hey, I'm going to worship the God that gives me the most benefit" you might be in line more with Mammon than anyone else, having used your intellect to harness an "illicit" gain, and get sucked into his Vault in the afterlife. I would love to see that in a short story somewhere, preferably with a priest of some religion, who say, charged excessive fees to use the temple services

That is a pretty interesting point. I need to write a story about mammons hell in general one of these days. Its a vast walled city in the center of a wasteland. There is usually a long line of souls waiting to enter.

When a person enters the city he is given a coin and at the center of the city there are enourmous gates which lead out of this horrible place. It costs 21 coins to use the gates.

So the entire city is a place where individulas are attempting to gather 21 coins through any means nessesary. Mammon's demons patrol the city and make sure that it doesnt break just into simple fights for the coins (though people are commonly jumped in shadowy places).

Groups try to handle the problem through "fair" means setting up pyramid schemes or lottery's (either croocked or the eventual victim of an overthrow). Some have given up trying to escape and instead run businesses in the city where they offer incrediaby luxurious services to those willing to give up a coin. Some of the most effective at taking coins through various means dont want to leave but stay in the city getting an occasional coin and turning it in for a month or so of luxary. Groups exist to try to steal coins, or to try to gain the coins by other means (including sham temples to about every god except Mammon).

As for not losing your coin, the games are endless. Many pretend like they have already lost it but people are watched closely from the time their coin is given to them and its difficult to fool the groups that are looking to take them, especially if you keep the coin on you.

There is a slow trickle of people that get enough coins to leave the city. An occasional powerful group leader, or someone that betrayed a powerful group leader at the last minute. But often some simple nobdy who was living in squallor will approach the gates and show his surprising cache of 21 coins he has been gatehring for a few centuries.

Any way it happens no one gets out of mammons hell without sacrificing any personal integrity they may have. They become completly subjected to their desires any willing to cause suffering in anyone else in order to fulfill them.

 

[Mewtarthio]

And where do you go once you turn in the coins? Does Mammon "promote" you into a lesser demon, or do you get resurrected?

 

[Kael]

And where do you go once you turn in the coins? Does Mammon "promote" you into a lesser demon, or do you get resurrected?

A deeper hell. I dont remember which one it was. I think it was Camulos's battlefields where you were forced to wage horrible violent war for centuries until you begin to delight in the pain and suffering of others (the next stage after willing causing pain and suffering in Mammons hell).

All of the evil gods vaults where interconnected and were created to process human souls into demons. Humans started at different levels depending on how twisted they already were in life. A few were do evil that they bypasssed the entire process and were transformed directly into demons.

edit: I know that Mulcarns hell was the 1st hell in the chain. It was generally sloping down away from a great mountain and it got colder the higher you got. Its real purpose was to drive people down into the next layer through their own pain and suffering, and to serve as a block for those that were trying to escape hell by going through it backwards. It was possible to escape any fo the hells by showing the virtues opposite that which your current hell emphasized to the degree of a saint. Great compassion in Camulos's, self sacrifice in Mammons, etc. That process would end with the long trek across Mulcarns frozen hell, climbing up and up, as it got colder and the terrain got rougher until you reached the top of the mountain and could, in theroy, leave the hells and go out into the ether.

 

[TheJopa]

But when processed into demon he would still be lesser demon, right? That was once alive? So not Balor or stronger?

 

[Kael]

But when processed into demon he would still be lesser demon, right? That was once alive? So not Balor or stronger?

Right, definitly a lesser demon. Greater demons were never mortal.

 

[xienwolf]

And on to another, and another, and another... until you are FINALLY ready to become a demon!

 

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

How exactly did the Bannor get out of Hell, and where exactly were they in the scheme of things? I got the impression that they were in some sort of Bhall influenced area of Agares's domain, but I could be (very) wrong on that score......

 

[Kael]

How exactly did the Bannor get out of Hell, and where exactly were they in the scheme of things? I got the impression that they were in some sort of Bhall influenced area of Agares's domain, but I could be (very) wrong on that score......

The important thing to remember about the Bannor is that they weren't souls (petitioners), they were living people dumped in hell. They weren't petitioners, they didnt earn their position in hell so they werent going through this process. They fell directly into Agares vault, though it was partially transformed from the dark ruins of Nyx into a burning wasteland by the arrival of Bhalls slumbering form.

I dont have their activities mapped out. But I always assumed everything they did took place just in that single vault. They were probably attacked in the ruins of Braduk in hell and taken deep into Agares domain and held in oubliettes. Then Sabathiel came through, rleased them from their imprisonment and lead them back through hell to the ruins of Braduk where the fractures Bhall created between creation and hell still existed and they used them to get out.

 

[Mailbox]

Why did each of the 7 evil gods fall? Was it all just Agares' manipulation or did each god have different motives, and were the gods different before their fall in any major way?

 

[zxcvbnm]

I'm having a tough choice between Oghma and The One.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Can't speak to their motives, but most of the evil gods were quite different before they joined Agares. Some of them are now the exact opposite of what they were created to be, but others were corrupted in other ways.

Agares: Hope->Despair,
Camulos: Peace->Chaos
Aeron: Physical Strength-> physical rage/baser instincts,
Mammon: Foresight -> Greed/selfish shortsighted schemings,
Ceridwen: Dimensional in the sense of holding planes together turned -> tearing them apart
Bhall: fire/rapid change to protect good and destroy evil -> to destroy evil

Mulcarn: didn't really change, as is appropriate for the god of Stasis. He just disliked men because they were agents of change. He was the least evil of the bunch, and still fulfilled his original purpose although he sided with Agares against The One.

 

[TheJopa]

How exactly did Sheaim leader Tebryn (Ran) got his soul captured? Shouldn't his soul upon his death move to appropriate vault?
Also, who moves to Arawns vault? He has not many real followers, and yet most dead come there?

(BTW I love threads like this one)

 

[Algeroth]

And I've allway thought that Ceridwen is the only one of fallen gods that didn't change her domain. She (I assume that she is she) wants still hold planes together, in fact she wishes to merge them into one place.

And how does her hell look like? How deep it is? And what Emyrs do? qustions, questions...

 

[Algeroth]

How exactly did Sheaim leader Tebryn (Ran) got his soul captured? Shouldn't his soul upon his death move to appropriate vault?

His soul was tormented in Aegar's valut, but it seems that Ceridwen negotiated with Aegar and then made Tebryn offer he couldn't refused....

 

[Kael]

All the dead were supposed to come to Arawn. But the gods are grabbing them (one of the things the compact allowed).

Tebryn negotiated his soul to be saved from death (an assassin was about to kill him). When he died years later the contract was collected and he was sent to hell where he remained until Cerdiwen negotiated for his release. He will do anything to stay out of hell, including becoming nothing if the world is destroyed.

Im not sure what Ceridwen's vault looks like. I've never really thought about it like I have some of the others.

 

[Ur_Vile_Wedge]

What happens to say, the soul of an infant that dies at three days old? (which is probably tragically common in a world like Erebus) does Arawn get them? And the petitioner, does it appear with the knowledge and experience that it had in life, or does it start fresh? Do petitioners have physical forms? If they do, can they be harmed? You mentioned Camulous's vault was a battleground, what happened to people who got "hurt" in there?

 

[Kael]

What happens to say, the soul of an infant that dies at three days old? (which is probably tragically common in a world like Erebus) does Arawn get them? And the petitioner, does it appear with the knowledge and experience that it had in life, or does it start fresh? Do petitioners have physical forms? If they do, can they be harmed? You mentioned Camulous's vault was a battleground, what happened to people who got "hurt" in there?

There are many varities across the vaults (and even different types within a vault). I imagine that in Cernnulos's vault some of the petitioners are physical people, but I think that is rare, most would be animals or even sentient plants living in the world.

Petitioners could be harmed in all the planes I set games in. Death wasnt permanent, and had different repercussions in the different vaults.

In most circumstances the infant would go to Arawns vault. There are exceptions if the child was sacred to a particular god or what have you.

Memories and emotions were whatever the god wanted. Some have complete memories, some have none. Most remember their life as if it was a dream, vague and insubstantial compared to their new life.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

So, In Erebus, do newborns have a newly created soul? if so, who is creating them?