>Pantheon has a diversity of gods
>One is the lady of joy
>Her priests and priestesses are notable casters that roam the land in large groups, bringing joy and happiness wherever they go
>They're all incredibly hot and promiscuous
>Everyone thinks they're basically professional prostitutes paid by the gods who visit good towns as a reward
>They actually cast shitloads of pacifying magic that makes everyone happy when they stop in a town
>The empire's bureaucracy secretly depends on them to keep citizens content
Is this magical realm or a neat concept?
>>46783236
Kinda realmy.
I mean, you could just have them be something like Cardinals who are big deals wherever they go and bring that pacification with them under the guise of some kind of aura of faithfulness.
Hell, that's basically the Ethereals for the Tau, though with less religion and magic and more dogma and pheromones.
>>46783274
It is. This fact is not in dispute. And we're on an website modelled after Japanese anime boards.
What does that make us all?
As long as the rest of the pantheon and their followers are up to stuff
Like the god of Hedonism and his followers doing dirty deeds to ensure booze remains cheap and plentiful
>>46783274
>Complaining about anime on a Roman hieroglyph painting
>>46783236
>government depends on them to keep citizens content
well, why aren't they "normally" happy?
>>46783236
Yeah you basically recreated the church of Sune in forgotten realms.
>Everyone thinks they're basically professional prostitutes paid by the gods who visit good towns as a reward
>They actually cast shitloads of pacifying magic that makes everyone happy when they stop in a town
Stop dodging the question and say it, do they or do they not put out?
>>46783478
There is the line
>They're all incredibly hot and promiscuous
that seems plausibly objective.
>>46783543
No but assuming they do have sex, is the sex ritualised and religion coloured so that the people going to the priestesses expect a spiritual experience. Or instead do the priestesses have off-duty time were the nun dress and habit come off and they just happen to be very promiscuous in their personal time.
I need more context before I can get hard!
>>46783401
Same reason as anyone else. Big empire, lots of neglected parts. Aristocracy is uncaring about the plights of the common pleb. Bad harvest season. Taxman too harsh. Taxes go to fund foreign wars instead of repairing that old shitty mill, etc. Pick whatever answer you want, really.
It's not that the empire is going out of it's way to be shitty to it's people, but running a large empire means there's always a fire to put out somewhere. Without telecommunication sometimes a problem gets out of control before anyone with the ability or will to handle it even knows what's going on. Shit happens.
>>46783626
They roll into town with a mission of lifting your stress to their goddess for her to banish. Some of it is ritualized confessions, therapy, massage and medical help, or just plain old getting people off. They decide how best to help you, with the objective being to ease suffering and instil joy. Sometimes they just put on a good comedy play. But there's never a shortage of people just needing a weekend's worth of mindblowing, tension dissolving sex to re-adjust their cranky world-view.
>>46783802
Yeah, quite Magical Realm. You might get away with it, especially if you are using some established Forgotten Realms deity (and the players know about it) but like >>46783288 said, you could easily have cardinals or peacekeepers or healers rolling through town instead, radiating magical happiness and Charm Populace and have things turn out just about the same.
Hell, it would probably work better if the people were busy happily fucking each other rather than the rare priestess parade that comes into town.
You're also asking for a bit of discomfort unless you know your players will be fine with talking about sex parties every couple of sessions.
>>46783274
>Complaining about anime on a Dutch stamp collecting forum
Here's your (You)
>>46783236
All just depends on how it's handled in game.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, and other literature, the priestesses of Ishtar were professional prostitutes, so it's not like it's a bold new concept.
>>46783236
>Pantheon has a diversity of gods
Usually, sure
>One is the lady of joy
Makes perfect sense
>Her priests and priestesses are notable casters that roam the land in large groups, bringing joy and happiness wherever they go
Sounds like something they'd do
>They're all incredibly hot and promiscuous
You fucking shitkid, if you want a priesthood that engages in sacred prostitution there's a fucking THOUSAND ways to do it, why something as broad as "JOY"? Are you such a thirsty, desperate virgin that you only think sex will make you finally happy? You're wrong. Get a fucking job and some real friends. Yes, this is magical realm. Make the damn priestesses of fertility or love or whatever the whores, not fucking JOY. The priests of joy would go around hosting feasts and shit, jesus.
>>46787380
Okay, this anon has a good idea. Almost certainly-unsuccessful threadjack incoming!
>Pantheon has a diversity of gods
>One is the lady of [x]
>Her priests and priestesses are notable casters that roam the land in large groups, bringing [x] wherever they go
>They're all incredibly [y]
>Everyone thinks they're basically [z] paid by the gods who visit good towns as a reward
>They actually cast shitloads of pacifying magic that makes everyone happy when they stop in a town
>The empire's bureaucracy secretly depends on them to keep citizens content
So, for instance, could have priests of Harvest, who everyone just thinks of as overrated bakers, who go around throwing feasts, but the food they serve pacifies the population.
Any other portfolios that might make for interesting civilian pacification?
>>46787425
Priests of Competition/Sports, priests go around playing each other.
Jesus fucking christ, why is everyone so keen to damn this as magical realm? The sexuality of this is mild, and OP has clearly stated they use both magic and other means to achieve their goals. It's a well justified plethora of activities to spread the will of their god, and if people can't handle the idea of grown adults having consensual sex with one another, then they really need to get their shit together.
Sex is normal, and priests throughout history have both given and taken plenty of dickings. You have plenty of precedent.
>>46787879
For me it's less an issue of magical realm the whole thing is kind of flawed in concept since the priests that serve the joy goddess seem to just be in it to manipulate people to not realizing they're being fucked over which seems contradictory in the longer term
Also it just seems sort of vague as a portfolio. This would make more sense to me if it was literally a goddess of sex
>>46783236
Sorta both
>>46783236
Depends on what's actually happening here.
>Oh boy! Them? I hear it's a fucking sexfest and everyone's got a shit-eating grin for MONTHS after they pass through a town!
>Here they come! oh man, they ARE hot!
>*NERVE STAPLES*
>*SHIT EATING GRINS*
and the priests continue to next town
Because see, this way would be sinister as fuck.
How the fuck /tg/ is able to misunderstand such a simple fucking concept as Magical Realm to this degree is beyond me. Magical Realm is strictly when the GM tries to make his players engage in his fetishes. The presence of sex in a society is not Magical Realm. Stop being fucking stupid.
>>46783236
>One is the lady of joy
>Dedicating a god to a single emotion
That's a very easy way to get a bland and uninteresting god. The idea of them being prostitutes also makes very little sense. Carnal pleasure only brings a limited level of happiness and sex with a prostitute who doesn't actually give a damn about you isn't typically that satisfying or enjoyable, its just something you do to satisfy an urge. If they use magic to pacify everyone anyways why would they have to waste their own virtue fucking a bunch of ugly peasants.
>>46783236
It can be both. Who says it can't?
>>46791538
that's why it's "everyone thinks" and not "they basically are" professional prostitutes. they're just good-looking and cast their magic and move on and not a damn person would complain because they feel good anyway.
>>46791580
OP already said they fuck everyone and are believed to be paid by the Gods for it. So they are possibly prostitutes. Except we don't know if the gods actually pay for it so they may just be a bunch of sluts.
It's also a cheap and artificial way for the God to get her joy from people. Whats to stop the Cult of Sorrow from just following them around and casting a counter spell that makes everyone suicidaly depressed?
>>46791450
There is no way to have this be a meaningful element of the setting without engaging the players with them in some capacity, and no reason to write them this way unless it's the GM's fetish.
>>46791730
>and no reason to write them this way unless it's the GM's fetish
I forget Brave New World was Huxley's Magical Realm.
>>46791779
>I always pull in professional writers of amazing books to try and justify random anon's bullshit.
>>46792489
Have you read the book? The one where the totalitarian government pretty much forces its citizens to do drugs and have lots of promiscuous sex in order to be content? Yeah, it's that book. And if you can't see the difference between forcing the players to piss into a troll's mouth, and having a religious sect which uses sex and magic to keep the population content, then I think you need to think it through a little longer for your own benefit. If OP is doing it because he wants the game to be centered around his player's characters having hot orgies with religiously promiscuous hunks and skanks, then that's Magical Realm. If the game is about or involves the government relying on a cult which uses mind control magic and pleasure to get away with what would otherwise be intolerable conduct, then it's not Magical Realm. Unless OP has actual sexual boners for Brave New World, of course, in which case it'd be Magical Realm to put them in such a situation so heavily inspired by it.
>>46791779
I wasn't aware that soma was a codeword for sex parties.
>>46792898
No, but "orgy porgy" was.
>>46792898
No, the soma and the sex parties were two separate citizen pacifying practices they used.
>>46783236
I like it actually
That's an interesting moral dilemma waiting to happen. Say your adventurers are staying in a village that's dangerously close to revolution for good reason - the local Lord is taxing the populace to starvation and working men to death in his mines, anyone who disagrees has their entire family purged Stalin-style.
Then a parade of priestesses come to town, casting pacifying magic and spreading magically-enforced happiness. The lord used some of his ill-gotten gains to make a sizable donation to their temple in exchange for coming to his town and blissing the entire population into accepting his rule without question. The party is unaffected because they were out fighting a troll in a cave when the priestesses began the blisskrieg.
So, what do?
>>46796243
>blisskrieg
I like you, man. Knowing murderhobos, I imagine the first response would be to kill the lord, which doesn't really solve anything.
>>46783236
Basically both.
If you want to avoid MR remove their promiscuity. Its pretty simple.
>>46796938
And then loot his treasury and run off.
>>46797101
Donate it to the temple, fuck the clergy. I hate murderhobos so much.
>>46791450
>he presence of sex in a society is not Magical Realm.
It is if it's the GM's fetish as you just admitted.
>>46796243
Steal everything in town since they're all too blissed out to care for awhile.
>>46783236
Neither, and it's stupid.
>>46787547
So, pro sports teams pacifying the countryside?
So, exactly what we have irl?
>>46796243
OP here, that's what I was hoping for.
>>46801503
for a given value of pacifying, I suppose
>>46802378
You could make it less magical realm by making them creepy monks, but I guess having a bunch of hot nuns do it makes the players less instantly suspicious.
>>46803150
You could make them creepy old monks who disguise themselves with magic to look like a bunch of hot nuns.That is probably someone's fetish, as well.
>>46803150
>creepy monks
Yeah. Considered that, but you get the immediate Asian dictatorship forced smile creepy factor like you said.
With the party sluts/boytoys of the Goddess of Joy, who stroll into town and give everyone a good time from sex to comedy to massages and a shoulder and everything else, there's a lot less suspicion from the general populous. Everyone's happy by the time they leave because they're fun, awesome people with the divine gift/mission of spreading happiness and relieving stress.
If creepy monks come in and leave everyone happy, it raises eyebrows.
>>46803398
Not creepy old monks, just regular lads and ladies of various ages.
Part of the service to the goddess is that their true face is never seen again. The pacifying aura is part of a permanent glamer that makes the priest or priestess appear eternally youthful and hot yet innocent and funloving, no matter their real age, appearance or condition. The goddess uses whatever material she can get, basically, and has to make do as she has no real transformative power.
Story hook is the party trying to work out why their base's caretakers are suddenly coming down with diseases normally carried by extremely ill people or the Undead. Turns out the goddess uses whatever she can get to extend her reach and it is a *long* way from the nearest proper temple.
Not OP, but:
>Pantheon has a diversity of gods
>One is the god of death
>His priests and priestesses are dedicated to slaying undead and vengeful spirits and those that have cheated death
>They're all dressed in black with skull masks
>Everyone thinks they're basically a bunch of death obsessed zealots paid by the local towns to clear evil spirits for no reward other than the joy of sending their enemies to their god and should they die are brought back as special sanctioned undead to continue their work
>They actually swing shitloads of blunt weapons in a much larger scale conflict than most people know about
>They do the world a great service by traveling in roving bands slaying all the the vengeful spirits and misused or otherwise unholy undead they can
Is this magical realm or a neat concept?
>>46810785
Should clarify they do take a little payment to sustain their travels but they mainly do it for their duties.
>>46810785
'sup humakti
