Fallen and False Deities (from Faiths and Philosophies)
What is a god? In the Pathfinder campaign setting, there are several answers. In one sense, a god is whatever a character chooses to worship as such, from an inarguable deity such as Sarenrae all the way down to a particular stone idol or fetish. In a more technical sense, however, a deity in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is any entity capable of consciously granting spells to its worshipers and adherents—a creation that acts as a conduit for divine magic. Thus, the title of god can be applied to the oldest and most powerful deities like Asmodeus and Erastril, ascended mortals like Iomedae or Cayden Cailean, or demigods and powerful outsiders such as demon lords the Eldest or empyreal lords.
With such a wide range of creatures classifying as gods, what then counts as a false god? Though the term may be thrown around loosely by members of various faiths to disparage those who disagree with them, a false god is any worshiped creature or patron that doesn’t actually have the ability to grant divine magic to its worshipers and adherents—a creature that acts as a conduit for divine magic. Thus, the title of god can be applied to the oldest and most powerful deities like Asmodeus and Erastil, ascended mortals like Iomadae or Cayden Cailean, or demigods and powerful outsiders such as demon lords, and the Eldest or empyreal lords.
With such a wide range of creatures classifying as gods, what then counts as a false god? Through the term may be thrown around loosely by members of various faiths to disparage those who disagree with them, a false god is any worshiped creature or patron that doesn’t actually have the ability to grant divine magic to its flock. For instance, the god callers of Sarkoris worship their summoned eidolons, yet these gods could be called
false. Similarly, a kobold tribe that worships a dragon may receive great benefits from the creature’s protection, wisdom, and magic—yet without divine spell-granting, this would also be a false god. Yet the most insidious form of false god is not the creature worshiped mistakenly, but the entity with deliberately claims godhood and uses subterfuge to fleece the unwary of their offerings.
The following pages detail several prominent false gods, as well as a god whose apparent death has robbed his church of legitimacy. Some of the worshipers of these “gods” are sadly misguided, while others couldn’t care less about the god’s legitimacy, so long as their homes are safe and their bellies full.
Aroden (from Faiths and Philosophies)
Aroden, a powerful and well-regarded god heavily involved in human affairs, was prophesied to return to the mortal realm in 4606 AR to usher in the Age of Glory. Instead, storms wracked the Inner sea for weeks. When the storms abated those, who worshiped Aroden found their prayers and divinations unanswered, and their prophecies increasingly inaccurate. Though none know the cause, in time mortals came to accept that Aroden was dead.
The goddess Iomadae, herself a worshiper of Aroden before she became a goddess, accepted many worshipers of Aroden into her church. Even powerful clerics of Aroden found that if they accepted Iomadae as their divine ruler and patron, their previous mystic powers returned in full. This is one of only a very small known number of cases where a divinity extended the full power of her clergy to those who had once worshiped another god.
For a few generations, the worship of Aroden straggled on in limited cults and ridiculed sects. Some faithful believed Aroden was simply testing their loyalty, and even though more than a century has passed since Aroden’s death, some still believe their faithful worship of a god that gives them nothing in return proves theirs is the truest religion. Others still worship in the hope that if they can restore belief in Aroden among a large enough population his power would return, and thus use arcane magic and trickery to imitate full clerical powers. In recent generations, a very few dedicated and honest acolytes of Aroden have found they do have divine spells available. This appears to be a result of Iomedae taking pity on the noblest of her former lord’s worshipers, giving the best of them her own divine power despite their misguided worship of the dead god whose mantel she now carries.
Cults of the Failed (from Faiths and Philosophies)
Since being placed in the Starstone Cathedral in Abaslom, the Starstone ahs elevated only three mortals to godhood, but thousands of aspirants have plunged into the building to face the Test of the Starstone, never to be seen or heard from again. For each of these failed aspirants, a small place of honor is erected in the nearby Shrine of the Failed. Whatever is known about the aspirants is noted, as is the best guess of local theologians on what kind of god the mortal would have become if successful.
While most of these shrines quickly fall into disrepair and are forgotten, this list of thousands of gods-that-never-were is too much temptation for some hucksters. Many cheats and criminals see it as a ripe resource for creating a false cult, whose religious fervor can be harnessed for their own purposes. The gullible always want to be told they are special, allowing these hucksters to convince a small following that some mortal is a god, if a very minor one, and to demand that action be taken to bring her to full godhood.
Much rarer, but more tenacious, are groups who believe they can elevate a failed Starstone aspirant to godhood by spreading his world. Like some of the faithful of Aroden, these worshipers truly hope that by pretending to have divine powers, they can bring immortality and divinity to their object of worship. To them, pretending to have the power of clerics is a holy calling and not truly a “lie,” as in time that their efforts will be rewarded by the granting of the powers they pretend to already have. Thus far, however, no one has succeeded in bringing about a failed aspirant’s apotheosis by sheer force of will.
Razmir (from Faiths and Philosophies)
Razmir claims to be a mortal who faced and passed the Test of the Starstone and thus became a Living God. Like Geb and Nex before him, he used his magical powers to build a nation—yet unlike those arcanists of antiquity, however, he wraps his rule in a shroud of religion. Those who worship him feel that fact that Razmir continues to exist is itself proof of his godhood. After all, what mortal would be so bold as to claim to sit among the ranks of the gods, and what gods would allow an upstart to claim false equality with them?
Outside of the Living God’s pet nation of Razmiran, however, skepticism about his divine nature runs high. The most common assumption is that he’s in fact a powerful arcane spellcaster who draws on his magical powers to warp the minds of his followers and duplicate many of the miracles that saints and champions of other faiths claim as divine gifts. Skeptics are quick to point out as well that, given his presumably vast arcane powers, have clerical powers of their own, though-covert spells and magic items.
Despite such defamation, Razmir’s tenet—promoting the acquisition of wealth and power—continue to draw many “faithful” to support him. Whether or not they truly believe his story, the fact that his rule allows them to claim a divine mandate to benefit at the expense of others makes Razmir’s adherents ads militantly loyal as any other clergy.