The Godless Lands – Concept

An alternate cosmology for D&D, Pathfinder, other d20 fantasy RPGs, etc.

Hey, it’s been a while. Like 2 years to the day. But I’m still around.

As it turns out, I’m planning 2 new D&D campaigns in the coming weeks and I was perusing the “Cosmology” part of the Dungeon Master Guide. I wasn’t overly inspired by the options, I didn’t feel like the generic gods nor did I feel like creating a pantheon whole cloth.

What I did know was that I felt like playing something a tad darker than my usual fare (unlike this piece with the Fearie Dragon.)

Then one night, as I was falling asleep, I played my old world-building “What if” game. (Bear in mind that all of the following is stolen, borrowed from other sources.) I had these questions pop up:

• What if players could interact with the world as either corporeal beings or ghosts? (John Harper’s Blades in the Dark, Monte Cook’s Ghostwalk)
• What if all of the world’s gods were dead? (A common trope of mine)
• What if divine casters could no longer raise the dead?
• What if necromancers and arcanists could transfer recently deceased souls into the living bodies of others? (the Altered Carbon TV series / book)

Then I had the foundation for a setting:

The gods all died in some sort of multi-planar conflict, leaving the PC’s world relatively unscathed, except with an Outer Planes refugee problem and several crises of faith.

The decaying bodies of gods, floating in the Astral Plane still provide divine energy to those who know how to tap into it, but it is the divine equivalent of a non-renewable energy.

Divine magic is only possible to those trained in it, and in possession of relics from the divine dead. The stronger the relics, the more powerful their magic can be.

Many people stick to the Old Faiths, and new ones have arisen, influenced by the presence of Fiends and Celestials now walking the lands, waging the same wars that killed those they used to serve.

Some divine spellcasters continue to believe their prayers are still heard, that they get their powers from very much alive gods . Such deniers rationalize the use of relics direct channels to their patrons now required since the end of the Divine Wars. Others, more practical casters. see the waning powers of the divine corpses as a ressource to be exploited as fast as possible.

Raise Dead and Resurrection no longer work (or don’t work as intended). Souls no longer travel to the Outer Planes so the spells can’t find their “targets.”

Necromancers and Arcanist have stepped into the “Return from the Dead” business… and made it a racket.

Necromantic trinkets and devices are commonly available for rich folks (nobles, merchants and adventurers) to capture one’s soul upon death.Some more elaborate devices allows recently de-incarnated souls to influence their environment until retrieved.

Souls from such items can be imprinted into other living humanoids. Popular belief is that a body’s original soul can be returned to it host. This returns the “person” to life, with all its memories and, usually, none of the host”.

The service is cheaper than what divine magic originally required. Strangely cheaper.

The poor, the criminal and the exploited often trade (not always willingly) their souls in return for a promise that their loved ones will be cared for or as punishment for their sins. The “deal” is akin to indentured service. People sign a contract that their soul will be returned to their bodies (or an equivalent) after a set period of time (usually 5 years).

Of course, there’s a catch: a body’s original soul is what fuels the ritual, becoming consumed during the implantation of a new one.

Soul Transfer is a dark world, filled with manipulation, excesses, betrayal and power plays. Getting raised that way is too often leads to a Faustian deal that pulls people into a web of deceit and quasi-inevitable corruption.

Life is cheap in the Godless Lands, especially for those of means. And can this cycle of necromancy and decay be broken? Can new gods ascend from the ashes of whatever horror caused this mass deicide?

It’s a setting I would love to explore.