I'm creating a secluded logging village for my island campaign. I want the residents of the village to be like the Mormons of the early United States. Tightknit community, fairly isolationist, polygamous, devout, prothletizing, conservative, militant. I'm trying to find the right god to have them worship. My campaign is set in Forgotten Realms but I dont mind borrowing from other settings. Any suggestions?

Does the god need to be powerful enough to influence things? Does the god who they worship need to actually align with them or do they worship some interpretation of the god? Does the god who they worship need to even exist in the lore or could it be that they made up one?

I'm partial to the thought that they worship an interpretation of a god who could be something else altogether and nothing like the god they've assumed who they worship. One can find chaotic trickster lesser gods of any G/E alignment in the expanded FR lore who might consider messing with such a community for amusement, for nefarious purposes, or for parable. Upon encountering the society, the initial impression will include the incorrectly assumed deity.

That's a very interesting idea. I never considered that they could be tricked by a chaotic god. Or better yet, a mortal being, like a Joseph Smith type. They could worship a bastardization of an established religion that is designed to keep them subservient to a particular family. Thankyou for the inspiration! Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

Quote from Ivar_Wyrmgutt >>

I'm creating a secluded logging village for my island campaign. I want the residents of the village to be like the Mormons of the early United States. Tightknit community, fairly isolationist, polygamous, devout, prothletizing, conservative, militant. I'm trying to find the right god to have them worship. My campaign is set in Forgotten Realms but I dont mind borrowing from other settings. Any suggestions?

 Just going to make a few corrections as I am a Mormon (we prefer "member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints", but its fine if you don't say that).

You're right, we are fairly tight-knit, but always accept more.

I don't think we're isolationists, the only reason why we left to Utah was because of persecution. We do like interacting with other people and religions, but avoid pressing our beliefs on others.

Devout, yes.

Proselytizing, yes, we have about 71,000 full time missionaries right now. Again, we don't press our religion on anyone.

Conservative, generally yes, personally no, same with most of my family. (by most I mean about 70%, the others are hardcore conservatives)

Militant, I don't think we are quite aggressive, we try to be as nice as possible, but there are certain members that are less "open". It all depends on your personal experiences with us, it's fine if you use this idea.

I like the idea of a community of mainly religious, tightly wound community of a certain deity. I've personally used this idea in some form or another in a few campaigns. Maybe have a "speaker" of the community, a Joseph Smith or Brigham Young figure, but make sure they're worshiping someone, a real power. Maybe Fraz-Urb'luu, or Asmodeus, or an Archdevil. If you want to have it be a "real" god, maybe try Tyr, Helm, Lathander, or Ilmater (I'd have Ilmater be Jesus, Lathander be God)

I just wanted to put my two cents out there. I don't care really if your portrayal is less than accurate, just wanted to let you know about some stuff if you didn't already.

Thankyou for your response, I really appreciate it. I apologize if my portrayal of the Mormon faith was somewhat of a caricature. I admit to knowing very little about the church of latter day saints. The Mormons I've met in my life have all been exceedingly kind.

I've been watching the show Hell On Wheels lately and while I have no doubt their portrayal of early US Mormons is less than accurate, that is the type of faction I was hoping to work into my campaign for narrative purposes. In the show they are somewhat militant but only when it comes to protecting their family and people encroaching onto their land. The Lion of the Lord, Bingham Young is portrayed as a sort of devious and manipulative character.

I'm designing an island campaign and the main source of lumber comes from this "mormon" village. So I was hoping to play around with the relationship they have with the other free towns, the encroaching Amn colonists and the elves who were the former stewards of the island. Thankyou for your suggestions, I will for sure look into those deities.

Alternatively, a 'Fallen' Angel or Celestial could be a neat twist.

Kicked out of the Heavens for a doctrine that even the most hardline Angels found distasteful and stripped of most of their divine powers, as well as their ability to return home, the figure is still divine in nature and ultimately does want to do good, but with a radicalized take on the normal Angelic mission and some hilarious or horrifying misconceptions about how Mortals work, or should work, this figure has gathered multiple enclaves of survivalists and outsiders to form their community.

Have the polygamous angle be mostly to produce as large a pool of 'soldiers' as possible, and possibly be the reason the PCs come a'calling when there's rumors that somebody fled a cult and is talking about people being forced to have children at an accelerated rate to serve as 'Shining One'. In truth, the community is mostly okay with the polygamous, and make sure that both women and men are openly in positions of leadership, and women can have multiple husbands as well as men having multiple husbands. The fallen Angel just wants mortals to stop fighting each other and focus on the Lower Planes, and doesn't have any truck with the whole 'one gender dominant' angle being a (albeit misguided) manifestation of the concept of 'Good'.

Conservative being that the cult/community doesn't tolerate races with a 'known tendency' for evil. Of course, being isolated and under the control of a Celestial who might be a few feathers short of a full wing could take that in a hilarious fashion, with Hobgoblins and Drow being escorted everywhere by a dozen militia members and then being politely 'ejected' from the community's borders, and Half-Orcs and Tiefling treated coldly if cordially for their stay, but the more exotic races, who haven't been seen before, such as Dragonborn, Tabaxi and Aarakroa, could evoke absolute chaos because, on the one hand, nobody knows what these people are like and there's an undercurrent of fear and paranoia, but on the other hand, they're being led by a Celestial and that includes tolerance and compassion, but the locals are trying to treat you as one of them, as a potential convert and presumably another Human with Human needs, despite the PC's actual biological needs.

Rrothletizing. Oh my god, they won't shut up. This fallen Celestial is the bee's knees, everything they do is sublime, the entire community slavishly follows the Celestial's examples, and the Celestial itself ... doesn't really understand fashion, social constructs and moores and has a tendency to treat every problem like a nail, in need of a good hammering. And what's worse than a rambling, somewhat confused Celestial? Their Aasimar children who are one hundred and ten percent behind anything their parent does and do not take kindly to 'outsiders' who don't stick to the 'social norms' they have been raised to obey.

You guys are doing great.  I'm going to drop this here anyways as a reference point, in the event things start to make quick left turns.  Try to watch out for generalizing/stereotyping religions, which tend to be prominent triggers.

2e. Posting Unsuitable Content

The following topics are not to be discussed on D&D Beyond.

• Religious or Political opinions/debates.

Keep on keeping on!

Quote from Sedge >>

You guys are doing great.  I'm going to drop this here anyways as a reference point, in the event things start to make quick left turns.  Try to watch out for generalizing/stereotyping religions, which tend to be prominent triggers.

2e. Posting Unsuitable Content

The following topics are not to be discussed on D&D Beyond.

• Religious or Political opinions/debates.

Keep on keeping on!

 Thank you, I'll be sure to remember that.

Quote from HalfOrcHeavyMetal >>

Alternatively, a 'Fallen' Angel or Celestial could be a neat twist.

Kicked out of the Heavens for a doctrine that even the most hardline Angels found distasteful and stripped of most of their divine powers, as well as their ability to return home, the figure is still divine in nature and ultimately does want to do good, but with a radicalized take on the normal Angelic mission and some hilarious or horrifying misconceptions about how Mortals work, or should work, this figure has gathered multiple enclaves of survivalists and outsiders to form their community.

Have the polygamous angle be mostly to produce as large a pool of 'soldiers' as possible, and possibly be the reason the PCs come a'calling when there's rumors that somebody fled a cult and is talking about people being forced to have children at an accelerated rate to serve as 'Shining One'. In truth, the community is mostly okay with the polygamous, and make sure that both women and men are openly in positions of leadership, and women can have multiple husbands as well as men having multiple husbands. The fallen Angel just wants mortals to stop fighting each other and focus on the Lower Planes, and doesn't have any truck with the whole 'one gender dominant' angle being a (albeit misguided) manifestation of the concept of 'Good'.

Conservative being that the cult/community doesn't tolerate races with a 'known tendency' for evil. Of course, being isolated and under the control of a Celestial who might be a few feathers short of a full wing could take that in a hilarious fashion, with Hobgoblins and Drow being escorted everywhere by a dozen militia members and then being politely 'ejected' from the community's borders, and Half-Orcs and Tiefling treated coldly if cordially for their stay, but the more exotic races, who haven't been seen before, such as Dragonborn, Tabaxi and Aarakroa, could evoke absolute chaos because, on the one hand, nobody knows what these people are like and there's an undercurrent of fear and paranoia, but on the other hand, they're being led by a Celestial and that includes tolerance and compassion, but the locals are trying to treat you as one of them, as a potential convert and presumably another Human with Human needs, despite the PC's actual biological needs.

Rrothletizing. Oh my god, they won't shut up. This fallen Celestial is the bee's knees, everything they do is sublime, the entire community slavishly follows the Celestial's examples, and the Celestial itself ... doesn't really understand fashion, social constructs and moores and has a tendency to treat every problem like a nail, in need of a good hammering. And what's worse than a rambling, somewhat confused Celestial? Their Aasimar children who are one hundred and ten percent  behind anything their parent does and do not take kindly to 'outsiders' who don't stick to the 'social norms' they have been raised to obey.

 

 Some good and less good ideas here. 

First, there are some good and bad things here, some slight stereotypes (I don't think you meant it, I mean no offense, and I'm sure you didn't either). I like the kicked out of heaven story line, I'm currently playing Descent into Avernus, and I love Zariel's lore. I would use the radiant idol from Eberron: Rising from the Last War stats if you have it, I love that they have the disguise self spell. This could be the religious leader feeding them information, possibly disguised as a hidden leader of the community. 

Second, just a slight correction. Early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints plural marriage was only between one man and multiple wives, never the other way around. As soon as polygamy became illegal in America, the Church stopped the practice of it. There are still a few radical families that practice it, but they are not at all supported. Polygamy could be an interesting spin in this "cult"-like community, possibly run by a fallen angel, but I don't know if I would use the forced to have children part in a campaign, that feels like an unspoken line that shouldn't be crossed in most games. If your players are fine with that, I think this would be perfectly fine, just make sure you know the real information. Again, no hard feelings or anything.

Third, this aspect of the community could make sense for this cult, just tread lightly.

Fourth, I like that a part of this community are secretly aasimar (I'd have them be fallen aasimar). This is a cool aspect, you enter into a seemingly nice village, filled with giving people who share everything, and they treat you warmly. Then you slowly notice some strange behaviors, a person dressed strangely staring at you, seemingly following you around, but never meeting your eyes. Next, you see other races being treated strangely, the humans, elves, and dwarves, other normal races, are treated nice, and they help you out as much as you need, but the stranger races, kenku, kobolds, yuan-ti, and Gith are ignored, treated coldly, not harshly, but cold. They seem to not exist, and are mentally shunned. You notice this is strange, and you can look into why, and discover a dark conspiracy, run by a fallen heavenly being that plans to gather enough worshipers to become a god.

Good ideas! Just be careful.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Some really awesome ideas here. I knew joining this forum would provide endless inspiration.

This is really neat! I'm a member of the Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, too, and l love that you are able to mine this real-world concept to build such interesting lore/background/NPCs in your world. I bet this will really benefit your players, to have such richness developed.

The 'forced to have children' part, I agree, it could cross a line. Explicitly or implicitly check to see if your players opt in to that sort of thing, if you haven't already.

I think the fallen angel angle is cool, too. Secret angel! "Secret tunneeel!"

Quote from Gryuhr >>

This is really neat! I'm a member of the Church if Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, too, and l love that you are able to mine this real-world concept to build such interesting lore/background/NPCs in your world. I bet this will really benefit your players, to have such richness developed.

The 'forced to have children' part, I agree, it could cross a line. Explicitly or implicitly check to see if your players opt in to that sort of thing, if you haven't already.

I think the fallen angel angle is cool, too. Secret angel! "Secret tunneeel!"

 

 I agree, nice to find another member here! I wouldn't go as far to do the RPG Consent form, just ask them what they are and aren't comfortable with. It's also okay some times (very rarely) to add something leaning on the line, but don't cross it.

would the god be super important or would the god be more of a place holder? And what would the god be doing?

Quote from Enobmort2005 >>

would the god be super important or would the god be more of a place holder? And what would the god be doing?

 The god would be super important, a main part of their lifestyles, it is up to the DM to say what the "God" is, it could be a fallen angel, a demon lord, an archdevil, a real god, or just a person. The god could be doing any number of things, but here are some ideas:

• Gaining followers to become a god (if they aren't already)
• Try to gain souls for the blood war (if they're an archdevil), an ancient ritual (for anyone), or to create an artifact (anyone)
• Unite the people in a war against a nation to wipe out a different culture/race (could be anyone)
• Gain rulership of the world (anyone)
• Gain popularity (a normal person or angel)
• Just to corrupt (demon lord, real god or a normal person)

Ya know, slight tangent, but my wife and I ran a game where we had a community of Halflings that were, more or less, Quakers.  Community driven, weekly meetings to determine the future of the community.  A little isolationist.  Very pacifist.  Lots of fun.

One of our PC's had to convince the ENTIRE meeting hall of halfings that he should NOT get married to a girl he was engaged to right before he got struck with wanderlust and left "The Shire".  Good times...