probablyquestionablerpgideas:

The concept that even dead/sleeping gods still have influence over the mortal world.

Here’s some ideas as to how that could work out for player characters, or NPCs (feel free to add if you have any ideas! These were just off the top of my head):

• Thousands of years after a god’s passing, you come across an ancient, long forgotten temple dedicated to them. It’s difficult to read some of the writings, whether it’s because language has evolved much since it was written, or that time as eaten away at the inscriptions on the walls, but you feel like you /need/ to know what is being said. You work until you understand, and the moment you do, your mind becomes flooded with images; visions of the worship, of the symbols of this god, of the place where they died–and oddly enough, a place where you feel as though you need to travel to. It is now your assigned goal to bring this dead god back to life.

• Your family is one of the last to remember the deity that you collectively worship. While the deity’s influence seems to be gone from this world, the ideals they stood for are still very important to follow (either in general, or it is just deemed as such by the family). Once per generation, a family member is chosen, and taken into a ritual chamber that only a select few members even know about–whoever gets taken in emerges with the loss of their sight, in exchange for prophetic visions. They alone are the only person in this world who can communicate with the deity. (It could also be interesting to change this up a bit and make it a demon cult sort of thing)

• You’ll never forget the day when your god was struck down–clerics, paladins, priests, everyone felt their connection to them severed all at once. There was anger, weeping, and confusion, how could this happen? Who did this? You would pray, and pray, travel to the most sacred shrines and temples, to no avail. Your calling in life was sufficiently dead, but you weren’t alone in this, so many people were lost because of it. After years of trying to learn about this tragedy for naught, you retire to the country side, and decide to become a farmer. It’s a long time until you pick up a blade again–you need to fight off the goblins that are trying to destroy your home and family. Your desperate shout as you slash your sword in defense of your loved ones strikes more fear in your attackers than you were expecting–you feel the old, but familiar divine energy well up inside of you. Your journey to try figure out what happened to your deity is going to begin once again.