quote:
Originally posted by Willfor:
<STRONG>I believe in the wonderful effects of fiber, but that doesn't really make fiber any closer to attaining godhood.</STRONG>
Because, you know, we don't live in a fantasy world.
I guess.
Well, I must admit I prefer the idea of powerful gods doing whatever they want, and you struggling in the middle.
Let's suppose two massively prayed gods are member of the same pantheon. They have lots of followers within your fortress.
And, for whatever reasons, they're at war against each other. And you have to deal with it.
Here, the concept of the divine power linked to the number of followers has got a gigantic potential.
First, it enables a possibility to get rid of a god (thus giving an interest in religious wars).
Secondly, it gives gods reasons to fight, apart from there sphere being opposites.
Thirdly, it allows you to personnally act in the war.
Let's say dwarves get happy thoughts from praying their god. The more they prey, the more they believe (though they have a basic degree of devotion). Some of the most devoted can become priests, acting like missionaries : talking people into their faith, little by little (the more competent and/or noble and/or popular the dwarf is, in whatever skill, the easier he will convert other dwarves).
Then, once a month/year, the sum of the percentage of devotion is added to a sort of "divine power jauge". I like the idea more than directly depending on the number of followers, because it allows a god to save his power in case of emergency (last hope attack or something like that), whereas if it's directly related on the number of followers, once the latter is low, the god wouldn't do much thing.
Here, a god lives as long as his power jauge isn't empty. It lowers when his followers are directly attacked by another god.
For instance, the god of fire decides to burn the left eye of one/every follower of the god of leaves and birth - for fun. This requires using some of his power. The god of leaves and birth can protect his followers by using some of his own power - this will act as a skill check, the same way world gen battle are done. Even though he succeeded in protecting his believers, his power has decreased.
Yet, he decides to play dirty and successfully manages to curse every follower of the god of fire, who won't ever have children. At the scale of your fortress of course.
This way, when this generation dies, the god of fire's followers will be far less numerous.
Once every time, the same way moods are, a dwarf would claim he's a prophet of that-god-there. This could be false (he would be something like 100% believing) or true, in which case his god would use his power to give him skill points, protect him from other gods' attacks. This could be announced as moods are, or just happening in your back, but you would see if you check some of your dwarves "has attended a speach of a [that-god-there]'s follower", "has been converted to [that-god-there]'s faith".
When the situation is getting really ugly, borderline from civil war, you could order sacrifices to one or both gods, thus making their attack less likely and calming down their respective followers.
Damn, that's quite good. If you want to use these ideas Toady, I'd like you to. Except from you, I'll keep them for one of my own games