Religion in the Conan stories are generally dark, brutal affairs, full of secrets and monstrous priests. Most of the stories give religion a rather unholy, unclean air. A primitive time with primitive religions is the world Conan the Cimmerian strives to conquer and tread. This volume in the Conan the Roleplaying Game series is designed to enhance the role-playing aspect of scholars, cultists and religious leaders in the Hyborian age.
In the Conan stories, it is left unclear as to whether the gods exist or not. The descriptions for the Hyborian age gods, which may or may not be real entities, do not include 'statistics', such as might be found in many d20 and OGL sourcebooks. Even if the Hyborian age gods are considered to be real by a Games Master, they would be powers on a scale that no mortal could hope to defeat them, even the mighty Conan, thus the need for monster-like statistics for these gods is still unnecessary. Conan does not come into armed conflict with Set but only with Set's priests. Keep in mind that just because a certain demon claims to serve a deity, that demon could be lying or may have the same misconceptions about the gods as some mortals have.
Since this volume does not contain useless statistics for the gods, the question becomes, what does a priest of a god worship and why does he worship it? This volume is designed to answer those questions, not to become some sort of 'divine bestiary' of fiends and foes for Conan the Roleplaying Game characters to fight and defeat.
The religions are divided up largely by culture, detailing even a few heresies and alternate religions at variance with the 'official' religion of an area. New feats, spells and other concepts are also detailed. |
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