Thanks! I feel it works pretty well with the assumed stranglehold the Dark Powers have on everything that goes on in the Dread Realms, including a follower's connection to, and relationship with, their own god. Regardless of what (or whom) the deities in Ravenloft actually are, even their influence and their very natures are reflected by the people who act in their name. For example, as the Lawgiver's clergy doubles down on their ceaseless demands of obedience and rigid stratification even while they pursue their personal debauchery in direct defiance of their own faith's tenets, the Lawgiver becomes less a god of unquestioning capitulation and master-servant classification. Instead, he becomes (and his faith subtly but inexorably alters to represent) a deity of ultimate hypocrisy and flagrant abuse of authority, with the old goose-and-gander aphorism eventually becoming a loudly espoused tenet of the faith.HuManBing wrote:Interesting, so it takes the theme of "carrying your own torment within you" and applying it even to religion. I like this interpretation - flavors of Frazier's Golden Bough and moral relativism, with a decent helping of anthropology.
Some of the religious alterations will be more subtle than that, and there are some that just don't provide much room to work with, such as the Wolf God; after all, a deity that represents the superiority of beast over man, and is venerated by creatures that already act as little more than slavering, brutish destroyers doesn't leave much potential for any real alterations. Perhaps if Alfred Timothy's clerical influence on the Wolf God's faith grows, and his own weaknesses and inability to lose himself in a lust for slaughter like other werewolves begin to pervade the Wolf God's religion...even then, I would imagine most werewolves would abandon their god if he started demanding tactical combat and strict emotional control. Then again, a suddenly organized and militarily competent army of lycanthropes could be a terrible, terrible problem for the Core to deal with.