THIS IS WHY WE PRAY: So This City Will Stand By The Gods' Will

I saw a Reddit post where a DM tried to figure out how a city in their campaign could exist and feed itself. But in the end, after many hours with Excel spreadsheets, it couldn't. And they were disheartened.

But I thought instead it was actually a great justification for fantasy adventure gaming's active and close gods who meddle in mortal affairs. Most of the time we ignore this, but why? Why not give a very strong reason your mortal population is praying to the gods.

How can a city exist when it can't produce enough food or have access to water?

The city exists because the gods allow it and will it to. And this is why we pray.

This is why we pray...

To ensure continued mana from heaven on the holy days, to ensure each tree yields 10 times its bounty, and the statues of St. Neptune pour forth water into pearlescent basins with fish we no longer see

And sacrifice, because the 100 children let the gods know we remember loss even under their divine continuation-- St. Hades will see their souls rest easy

And wail and lament because our tears are a liquid offering to St. Demeter to bring the oceans of Typhoon back...and sew their parents' mouths shut, so in their weakness, they do not blaspheme

And chase non-believers from our streets, our homes, and our hearts as instructed by St. Hera

And build our statues in gold, toil to polish the silver temple roads, and walk the gods to the once-shore as St. Zeus to allow them to observe the departing sea

And tear down lesser gods, foreign gods, and our seers fight the god beyond-- they will not help the city, they will not love us as St. Venus-the-last-of-the-Sea does

And listen to the serpent maidens, allow the god-mad equoids to roam the streets, and avoid the shadow of Tartarus-- they are the voices of the gods, the hounds of the gods, and they grasping jealousy of the gods

And this is why we wear the mask of St. Ares to let him know we are his legion and move as one as his sword and brace as one as his shield

And observe the celebrations of the verdian moon, Elysium, so that its guardian, St. Diana, will allow us passage to its lands of blue and green- the colors of heaven

HUMANS ACT NOT HUMAN: The Scariest Monster That Has 2 Arms 2 Legs and 0 Magic

 

How many △ do you see?
(The Void, 2016)

One of the prompts on Prismatic Wasteland's blogging list is: "the scariest monster you can imagine that has 2 arms, 2 legs, and no magic abilities".

As cliché as it is, I think it's humans acting in strange ways. Which is why I think cults endure as such common and strong antagonists. A couple of recent examples that spring to mind are Midsommar and even Obsession, or Firefly's reavers. Oh, even The Purge might be a good example.

I think the creep factor comes from someone looking normal and relatable, but losing the ability to:

1. predict their behavior or their threat level (i.e. a tick or ticking-time bomb)
2. match behavior to age or profession (i.e. children are the killers)
3. display empathy/sympathy on a human-to-human level (i.e. why don't you care I'm hurting)

That last one in particular, when it's expressed as non-supernatural sadism- like in Reservoir Dogs when Mr. Blonde cut off the ear of a tied up cop or Midsommar's bear scene. Even many slasher films, which have many non-supernatural deaths dealt with common everyday items. Scream is a good example, the killers aren't really supernatural, they are just willing to kill their friends. I also think of Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" -the indifference of the crowd willing to stone to death one of their own simply because they drew a different lot.

Pet Cemetery (2019)