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self-explanatory title. obviously skaen. but does any other deities end up showing to do that?

In some universes, such as call of cthulhu , berserk anime, demon souls , etc. demonic alien figures created the Universe. what if there was a plot twist in pillars that the deities were created by the engwithians to block these entities from influencing the universe ? i think it could be an interesting twist story-wise (but perhaps too dark for pillars of eternity) . it could also explain the existence of skaen, who could be a weaker form of these entities that did a pact with the gods to keep existing in the pantheon and acting as a diplomat between the gods and the entitites while the engwithians extingued most of the cult of the demonic cosmic entities.

Since i finished the game today i wonder about one point in the conclusion and lore (major spoiler following): Well, maybe i'm just questioning the lore too much...

In BG the purpose of temples was to provide the player with a means to heal, resurrect and identify. This function seemed a little bit redundant to me, provided that there were easier ways to do this. Reload the game instead of resurrect a party member and rest instead of going to a temple to heal yourself. I was thinking on how to make this aspect of the game / world a little bit better and i came up with the following ideas. Let's make a religion system, which is not characterized by the act of *worship*, i.e. the undermining of your own self-respect in order to gain the favor of some "higher" force or entity. In this system priests represent domains more than they are agents of their gods. A little psychology could be used here. Say, for example, that a loved one of the pc is lost. Feeling unable to protect this person the pc (or a companion of the pc), would probably be subject to some nasty rage and guilt - pretty intense, destructive emotions. In this situation a priest (of a god whose domain is rage) could provide means for coping with these intense emotions. The priest could explain to the character that it is natural to feel this way and perhaps could provide him / her with means to get these feelings out of their system more easily. By helping to perform rituals, for example. In essence, what i'm proposing is a pantheon of gods, who represent different perspectives of the human nature. The priests could be avatars (some kind of primitive specialist psychologists) of the corresponding domains instead of agents of malevolent (or ignorant) higher forces. Or, perhaps both. So, only those could be priests who understand (or try to understand) the inner workings of the human nature, specializing to a corresponding domain. You see, the main difference between the usual approach and mine is the message. Usually, religion tells to people that they are subject to the whims of higher forces, but they can gain the favors of these forces by appropriate ways of worship. Either donating large amounts of coin to the temple or carrying out the will of the corresponding higher force does it. The message is that you are worthless therefore you better obey (or else). While my kind of religion (where actually man created the gods and not vice versa) helps people cope with an insanely cruel world around them. So, my kind of priests do not rob people of their self-value, of their illusion of control, but try to restore and protect it. I believe that a perfect mixture of these two approaches naturally yields some nasty power struggles, quest-hooks, and of course, they provide a degree of immersion into a fantasy world, where the feelings of the characters are (almost) real, and their beliefs are quite similar to the beliefs of the denizens of ancient primitive cultures. Where folks sacrificed cows to let the winter pass quickly, or to let the hunt be succesful, you know what i mean. So, i propose that when the party enters a temple and talks to a priest, then - in addition to the usual options of healing and resurrection - they would have the option to talk to the priest (who might join them later perhaps) about what they encountered on their journey and whatnot. The priest then could tell a tale with some moral content or lesson, perhaps could give them a quest or perform a ritual. This could easily lead to very comical or depressing situations. Opinions?

I can't find any topic about that but for this sort of game is very important to have guilds like thieves, merchants, assassines, mages. Player could have some interesting informations from them, special items and abilities, but belonging to guild would require devotion for example - being caught on stealing - and you're thrown out from merchants guild. Another thing is religion and beliefs, you could choose your own God and sacrifice for it items and animals, to have blessings, also philosophical quasi guilds like in Planescape Torment would be nice.

Ok, in many worlds, divine beings are classified very straight-forwardly as gods in a pantheon. They all recognize the existence of the other gods, and they are all very substantially similar. They all belong to the same kind of theological structure. My thinking on this is why not move away from that kind of model and into variations in deity shape, size, nature, and so on. So, let's just imagine One of Many as a god. One of Many is viable a divine concept, but is also moving away from too much focus on 1 person = 1 divine. Another possible model to consider in variation is the Trinity in Christian theology. The trinity is the notion of 3 divine persons in one deity. Unlike One of Many, it's often presented as something that really cannot be understood, and the nature is perplexing in certain ways where One of Many likely is not. Given that cultural clash is a theme(at least last I thought), how will religious clashing take place? Will there be monotheistic cultures running into polytheism and trying to deal with the objective nature of the other divines through self-deception? Will there be notions of spiritual and divine beings, the sort granting divine powers, that don't really HAVE the full power of godhood? So, could there be "spirits" that can be appealed to? Could there be divine beings that claim they are the substance of existence, they claim to be something so transcendent that it avoids the particular nature of a local deity? Can godless priests, like those who follow an ideal, like Fall From Grace in PS:T be acceptable or allowed? If so, would they be accepted, shunned, or what? What about the idea of unknown gods? They may simply hide, or maybe they belong to local groups that haven't entered the region yet, or maybe they just haven't entered the locality of the world yet. So, in Athens the shrine to the unknown god is pretty well known. Can this concept be applied to Project Eternity in some way shape or fashion? Should the idea of a solid pantheon, with unity and all the rest really be the agenda? It may be desirable to give a solid set of religious notions priests created by players have to accept for roleplay immersion, but perhaps not for the world.

Ok, so the recent kickstarter update mentioned that the designers are considering the religious make-up of the world. Well, I want theology. I think the Dragon Age universe did a pretty good job of having some theological framework within it. At least with making the chantry unique and distinct and somewhat fleshed out.(Though mostly as kind of a variant of Christianity) Planescape arguably is similar in being very theological. Well, I think theology makes some sense for religion. Maybe not EVERY religious notion having a clearly defined theology to it, but certainly that individuals are going to develop theologies, philosophical theologies, and so on for understanding the world, and that these can/do have some impact given that religions are true in this world. I think that priests and paladins and explicitly religious figures should actually express explicitly religious beliefs, and theological notions native to their religion, so that they seem like they are really people dedicated to this divinity. I think that a lot of effort should be on either matching the real world nature of religion in a highly devout society(which this would likely be given that gods exist) or if twisting it, that these twists make sense(gods being real and impacting the world in easily measurable ways makes a difference). This may require curtailing the # of religious groups somewhat. Also, when considering how to set up gods, I would like consideration for the following notions: mysticism, spiritualism, issues of divinity and tribal identity, syncretism, church politics, heresy, schisms, denominations, the relationship between individuals and the divine, theological disputes, etc. I mean, if gods are real, then theological disputes may very well be the same kind of thing as we have for political disputes. I'm sure these are all thought about already. However, I'm definitely pushing for depth. I mean, I think the game is better modelling itself after BG2, but I think that in this area, PS:Torment is the ideal role model. This may already be the understanding, but I really do want this as the push with religion.

Hello everyone! I've been thinking about the religion and deities of PE a lot lately and I personally would love to see a much deeper interactions between gods and the PC. I'll never forget in BG 2 when your party goes to retrieve the stolen Dawn Ring and you are asked to swear an oath that you serve Talos. If you lie, Talos strikes you with a lightning bolt! That's what I'd like to see! Because other than that usually gods/deities are just a name or a "perk" you add to your character in character creation. After that they are barely mentioned at all. What I would love to see is a system that allows cleric/priest class to convert religiously neutral or opposing people into your faith. Do deeds and complete quests in the name of your deity. Destroy a whole town of unbelievers in your gods name! By doing so your deity would grow stronger and grant you greater powers, while opposing deities and churches would strive to stop you. By all means this kind of system could also be extended to non-religous classes as well. A fighter or a thief who serves a deity of their profession and excels in his/her job, could attract the attention of the deity or even his/her/its favour. And why not the ire of "opposing" deity? I'm not suggesting anything concerte yet, I'd just like to see what others think of the subject.

I like games depicting deeply flawed societies fleshed out in a way so no obvious solutions to all the injustices come to mind. The rule of law - Regular egalitarian societies are boring, but introducing a prominent social contract theory into the mix would spice things up. - Separate courts of law for aristocracy and commoners are getting old. In "The Book of the New Sun" by Gene Wolfe, I liked the way society as a whole was 99% segregated. Middle age society lived in the ruins of space age society (of the same race). The few remainders of the space age society ruled all, while never interacting with the lower classes or even explaining or giving name to their technologies and motives. Language and education Incredible studies exist on how language serves as a framework for our thinking. If a ruling class were to somehow keep the "high language" for themselves, technological and socio-economical advance of the lower classes would stagnate. It wouldn't make peasants dumb, just unable to visualize and develop certain thoughts. While unlikely in the real world, the Project Eternity setting offers magic. If well done, the player character could undergo a memorable transformation from not understanding many parts of his/her world to discovering it fresh) By the way, I'd much rather have the main quest be internal (PST), instead of external (BG). Wide reaching changes for society should be incidental to choices resulting from personal development. Religion In fantasy games there is usually a good reason to be religious, because (very human) deities interact with the world. I'd rather not have that. Leave supernatural occurrences inexplicable. Let there be theories, cults and religions, but no proof. Let there be skeptics and believers, and let religion be abused as a political tool. I'd love to see unique characters, such as the Weaver from China Mi