Ghost Legions Lore or Faithzap Part 2?

In my last Deathzap post, I mentioned that I’d be looking to build out the setting by adding in all the various Religions that theoretically would exist… across a few… roughly Earth sized planets… a quick google search tells you that Earth has over 4000 faiths. My Deathzap setting includes the habited planets of Kannis, Jendar, Gnossos and Ashnyr (there are moons too, and colonies elsewhere… but let’s forget those for now). Kannis is sort of its own thing, ruled over by a cult leader, so it probably has a much reduced number of religions overall, but if we take just three planets into account (and assuming some overlap) I could be looking at a conservative number of around 8000 religions. That’s pretty nuts! You might argue that I should only include the religions that would have a significant impact on the setting, however that entirely depends on where the fighting is. Who is involved, and how likely their religion is to play a part in any conflict.

Although, even if I were to strip it back to the major world faiths, that still leaves Earth with roughly 18, although I could draw the line at 12. That would still mean I’d likely need to produce around 20 religions, to have the setting feel about right. A pretty tall order!

A cheeky thought emerged in my brain while pondering all of this… what if Ghost Legions took place in the same ‘universe’ and what if my Ghost Legions Lore was also the basis for one of my Deathzap religions? Two birds with one stone! Two afterlives with one religion? Not sure about that one just yet, but here’s what I’m thinking for Ghost Legions so far…

After the dawn of the universe as the great Spirit separated light from dark, they also separated death from life, the world above from the world below. And they placed the world above on twelve great pillars, and installed five lesser spirits as the rulers of the world of the dead.

Each soul descends to the underworld upon death, escorted by one of the five ‘Deaths’, whichever can claim the soul based on their means of death. The five Deaths are Violence, Fortune, Want, Time and Pestilence.

But the system was not perfect. If a warrior is slain in battle, may be claimed by Violence, but if his slaying was due to a lack of armour would Want claim them instead? Or if the strike was clumsy and the warrior tripped into the blade would Fortune claim him instead? Or the warrior were to survive the initial strike, but pass away later from infection, would Pestilence claim him instead? Or if the warrior was struck as his shield arm failed to raise in time to protect him due to age, would Time claim him instead?

Despite their frequent disagreements, the five Deaths maintain a certain order. Their only failure being the great city of Nomenostra, one of the first built by men, but hidden from the Deaths by sorcery, its inhabitants remain in this life, as old as humanity itself. And now a new enemy is arising, and their influence is growing rapidly. Kassira, a daughter of the great Spirit, born to a human mother, promised immortality but slain by an unknown sickness, has grown an army of the dead and now threatens to bring down the twelve pillars and have the overworld fall into the underworld. The Five Deaths have amassed their loyalist legions, however, Nomenostra’s influence can be felt once again as the ancient sorcerers are now lending their immortal wisdom to Kassira and her followers.

It gives me something to get my teeth into at least.

I can plot out a good map of the underworld, the pillars, and build forces for each of the deaths, as I bet not only do Pestilence’s forces look different from Fortune’s but they’ll also have different abilities I can build on top of Featherstone’s Chimera.

In opposition, I also get to have a think about Kassira and Nomenostra’s sorcerers, along with how their opposing army works too. Of course the conspiracy is the Sorcerers caused Kassira’s death themselves in order to spark the revolution and free humanity from death entirely. But that’s just a conspiracy!