IC: A Grand Pilgrimage through Post Apocalyptic Fantasy
Hi Abi. ^_^
So here are a few thoughts:
1. I think each of the grand monuments should reflect one of "The Pantheon's" major greater deities. The theory behind this is that back in ancient times when the monuments were first erected, the monuments were just channeling a fundamental truth: the world was held together by the gods of "The Pantheon." By the combination of gods, and their influences interweaving and acting in concert. This together created a network of faith that held back the decay and entropy of outer forces, the anger of the gods, or whatever else is responsible for slowly wearing away at the world.
So for example, one monument site could be dedicated to Thelisandra, Goddess of Life. It would be brimming with life - lots of animals, large green plants, fruit trees, sparkling ponds, etc. Another could be to Arodath, the God of Fire. This would be a pretty hot and metallic place, although not so much it was inaccessible to the faithful. And there could be say...10 such unique pilgrimage locations, one for each of the 10 major gods of the pantheon.
2. Another idea is similar to idea #1, but instead of dedicating each monument site to a specific god, all 10 of them are dedicated to "the gods" as a whole, although they do apprear cosmetically different from one another. The whole point, though, is that the monuments together create a faith-network that helps hold the world together. However, over time it does need to be "Recharged" by these pilgrimages, but it's been hundreds of years since a true pilgrimage has been conducted. Especially since the gods (and the monuments) know when true faith is involved or if people visit just for lip service.
3. What is decaying the world? One idea is that it is the "Deeper Dark," or sinister chthonic outer forces who have had their sights on the world for millennia, but who could not encroach due to the power of the gods. But a god's power is generated at least half through faith as much as innate might. And with the world's faith waning so much...the gods' power has waned and it is causing instability in the world as dark powers leak in.
Another idea is that it is the gods themselves causing the chaos and decay. The gods are punishing the world for its impiety, although they always respond well to true faith. And it's not like the gods just started acting up one day - the gods started out slowly, and gave mankind hundreds of years of signs and omens and gradually-escalating decay to try and let them know. But well...you know how arrogance goes, and man was blind in its hubris. So now, the gods have had enough (but they still favor a handful or two of faithful here and there, hence the pcs and similar npcs existing as needed). This would be a race to re-establish the web of faith using the monuments.
4. As for the PCs themselves, I like the idea of there being a pantheon of gods rather than "one true god," however it is a pantheon where all gods are associated with one another. A "one true pantheon" if you will. The focus of the game shouldn't be about who's religion or god is right - they all are right. It's more about man vs god, faith vs faithless, and salvation versus damnation as players make their pilgrimage to the different monument sites to try and stabilize the world.
This also justified the different concepts, classes, and powers/abilities the players can have, since there's "one true pantheon" rather than a single dominant religion. The gods together as a whole are what mankind needs to direct faith at.
5. Now let's talk about the world. The PCs should absolutely be "true faithful" or "chosen" of the gods, and overall favored and touched by the gods in many ways to boot. I'd even go do far as to say that not just anyone can do the pilgrimage - it takes special people touched by the gods to do it. Think of Yuna from Final Fantasy 10 - not everyone could summon and commune with the faythe, as well as dance to put the souls of the dead to rest. She was semi-unique in that regard, escorted by a group of friends and guardians. In this game, I'd expand it so that each PC is like Yuna - specially favored by the powers that be, and anyone else with the group are friends and guardians.
Now what about everyone else in the world? They are important too...just because most people cannot activate or work the monuments, and thus do the pilgrimages, the monuments still are receptacles and beacons of faith. And the VAST majority of the world's faith is generated by the masses as a whole. So while the PCs are important in that they can calibrate and activate the monuments, as well as contribute their own enhanced faith to them, the monuments are still beacons or receptacles of the world's faith as a whole. and while the world is far less faithful than it used to be, there still is a large chunk of faith in the world. Especially in the light of the end times - it's hard to deny the divine when the world is falling apart. But the PCs role is to catalyze the scraps of faith left in the world by doing the pilgrimage.
Some NPCs should probably be truly faithful and chosen like the PCs but as a group this should be extremely rare - maybe there's 20 such people in the world at any one time, and the PCs are the largest concentration of this potential, but I think we'll see things like factions warring with one another, factions trying to curry favor from the players, factions trying to work against the players (or a bit of both in some cases), and so on so forth. Not everyone should be an enemy - some governments, people, factions, etc. should be neutral or even friendly to the pcs. But there should be others who either are neutral in a standoffish way, or opposed to the pcs in that they want to use them directly, try to manipulate them for their own uses, or even a few factions may want to try and stop them. The interplay of allies versus enemy factions is important.