Paper Dungeons’ world: faith

Matter of faith

The adventures of Paper Dungeons happen in a typical world of medieval fantasy: magic, elves and dwarves, monsters, treasures and ancient dungeons.

Sometimes people focus only on fantasy, but the medieval factor is fundamental to understanding how society works.

In the medieval period, like feudal France or Britain in the 14th century, the religion was a powerful force: kings, nobles, merchants, and peasants had to obey the rules created by the priests.

In Ditomea, the continent where the main events in Paper Dungeons’ history occur, the inhabitants need to observe and respect the Prophet’s Church.

Origins of the Prophet’s Church

Unlike other fantasy worlds, such as the Hyborian Age of Conan or the Faêrun of Forgotten Realms, most of the people in Paper Dungeons’ world believe in a monotheistic religion: the Prophet’s Church.

The Prophet’s Church was founded by a mysterious spiritual guide one thousand years ago. The name of the founder was lost in the sands of time, but the message of order, charity and light touched the hearts of the people.

The first believers of the Prophet took his word to the enslaved and poor workers of the Volsco Empire. In that time, the main religion was the Dodecahedral Cult, a pantheon formed by twelve deities worshiped by the Emperor and by his most loyal followers. According to the priests of the Prophet’s Church, the Dodecahedral Cult was based in fear, tyranny, and violence: slaughter, slavery, shadow magic and pacts with demons were common practices to the leaders of the cult.

Some scholars of the Council of the Magic disagree with what the clerics say. According to these academics, Dodecahedral Cult was a plural religion with gods connected to war and madness, respectively Laranus and Migor, but also to harvest and knowledge, like Ionas and Baiar. Of course, the Prophet Church claims these studies are some type of heresy.

After the fall of The Volsco Empire, the faith in the Prophet can propagate throughout the continent and establish temples and churches in every village or town. During three centuries the Prophet’s Church fought against the Dodecahedral Cult to establish the new religion. The conflict between the old gods and the new god became known as the War of the Priests.

At that time men and women of faith perished in the hands of the old religion, but many of them worked miracles to avoid a terrible fate. They received the name ascended and are honored to this day by the faithful people. The clerics of the Prophet’s Church can pray to ascended like Khar, who walked on the waters to rescue a group of innocents, or Priscila, who turned night into day to defeat a pack of vampires, to receive inspiration and protection.

In the end of the War of the Priests the Prophet’s Church defeated the old religion and established a new age for Ditomea.

Religion today

After the War of the Priests, the Church, as it is called on a daily basis, created bonds with nobles to enforce the Church’s authority. It’s a mutual relationship: nobles’ army collect taxes to Church and clerics support the crowned heads in their preaching to the peasants.

The connection between the leader of the Church in Banc and Leonia’s Throne elevated the city’s clergy to another level. Today, the High Priest of Banc rules the main aspects of the Prophet’s Church within the borders of the realm. The current High Priest is Cellestius III, an experienced diplomat and a notorious supporter of Queen Aldalia. 

The most important ally of the Church in the current days are the Realm of Leonia. The Leon House created a stable and secure environment for the Church’s plans. Priests who spoke out against the Queen or the Crown will be severely punished.

With the Council of the magic the Church has a complicated relationship. In general priests don’t like to interact with wizards, but the knowledge about sorcery is a good weapon to fight demonologists and remnants of Dodecahedral Cult. The Church is suspicious of the magicians, but knows it is better to have them around to try to control their curiosity.

Dwarves, elves, halflings and the faith

The Prophet’s Church is a human religion, but the clerics of the Prophet can preach to other races. Over the years, a great number of dwarves and elves are converted to the Prophet’s faith.

Traditional families in both races disapprove of the “new faith of humans” inside their domains. The Prophet’s Church is tolerated in great cities, like Mindartis, but it’s very difficult to find a priest of the Prophet in small towns inside Mountain Republic or Free Cities of Forest.

The traditional religion of dwarves is ancestor worship: every family has an altar dedicated to honor the clan’s founders. You may find these altars in the guild’s fortresses, to honor the great masters, and in the town centers, to remember legislators and political leaders. When dwarves travel, they carry with them small statues of stone of their ancestors to ask for advice.

Elves’ religion is a type of animism: they believe that objects, trees, animals, places and all creatures possess spirit. The Lunar Magic, a special type of magic created by elvish magicians, is a development of their religion and uses the powers of the spiritual world to create marvelous effects similar to the legends of the old days.    

Last but not least, we have the halflings and their odd way to look at religion. In general the little ones don’t like to talk about their religious beliefs.

Just like everything else that surrounds the halflings, it is a mystery to tall folks. If you ask halflings what their faith is, they answer one thing. If you ask again you’ll receive a completely different explanation about gods, miracles and “faith stuff”. Maybe they don’t have a need to explain the events of the world through supernatural forces.

Apart from the little ones, religion is still a crucial part of society. If you need to understand the world, you need to understand religion.