I see most deities fitting into one of three different roles in Society. The priests of Community Deities focus on bringing their faith to the people, priests of Insular Deities concentrate more on the act of worship and veneration, but still have some interactions with the community, while priests of specialist deities tend to worship the deity by facilitating their specialism, rather than specific acts of worship. However, it is important to remember that deities might have different roles to different populations. A God of magic (Nethys, for example) is probably a specialist deity in most places - but could well be a community deity in a city full of wizards, sorcerers and magi.

NOTE: This, as much as anything else, guides the way I build NPC faiths. It isn't written as a set of rules that must be followed, instead it is guidance. If a PC wants something completely different - they can build it. It might even result in these guidelines getting changed. Half of the stuff on this site, has been generated in conjunction with players :)

My starting point for Community deities is the Community Domain - if a deity has that, then their priests (certainly NPC priests) will be looking to build on that. For PC priests it is a bit different. They might not have chosen the Community Domain as part of their build, and they may wish to emphasize a different aspect of the deity - that is their choice.

Erastil is a good example of a Community Deity. A LG deity, he has a lot of standards that the 'flock' are supposed to follow, his priests use religious building for community, as well as religious, purposes and are heavily involved with the local people. (According to the description in Kingmaker). In my mind, his priests build Holy Houses, Chapels and Temples to serve the community and preach the 'Word of Erastil' to their flock. The faith is an integral part of the local community.

Abadar and Asmodeus, another two lawful gods, also want the local population to do things their way. Few other deities try to influence the whole population of a region in the same way.

Hmm. There must be a better description than that. However, in this context, it means deities that focus on something that is broadly applicable to a community, but not the main focus.

Pharasma is a good example. Everyone needs Pharasma at some point in their lives - Births, Deaths, Funerals etc - BUT the people don't go to church every week - or at least very few do. Instead, they go to the Pharasmins occasionally, on those occasions when Pharasma is directly relevant to their lives. Some Pharasmin sects concentrate of burials and guarding the remains from becoming undead. A different Pharasmin sect might be more concerned with slaying existing undead. A third sect might concentrate on remembering the Dead, perhaps in Chantry or Memorial sites.

None of which demand buildings with a large public area. However, there are still ceremonies to be performed, obligations to be made, sacrifices to be performs etc. This type of faith. This type of faith often has building focussed on worship. There might be a small public worship area, but the main altar is probably reserved for priests to carry out their religious obligations. Within the Campaign Rules that generally means Holy House, Priories and Abbeys.

Gorum (with his call to batle), Iomedae (with her military Forces) and Irori are all good examples of Insular Deities.

Specialist deities generally are only followed by a small part of the community or during an occasional activity. Some examples might include a brothel, with a shrine to Calistria as an addition, a wizard's lab with a shrine to Nethys or one of Desna's roadside shrines. They rarely have any significant religious buildings. (although you should remember that they might be much more significant in other parts of the world)

Torag (in my game world) is an example how a deity can change. Up until now there have been a Holy House, one GT Shrine and a handful of basic shrines dedicated to his worship - making him a Specialist Deity However, one of his priests has just negotiated an arrangement to build a priory, which will take him to Insular Deity Status and greatly increase his importance and relevance - in the game. Were the whole area to be over-run with Dwarves, Torag's Priest might build a temple and try to build a flock …

There is very little difference between a Priory and a Temple, for example. The Temple costs slightly more and gives an extra Loy+1. In my mind that represents the large public worship space and bonus Loyalty that comes from preaching at the local community of as regular basis. *Shrug* other than that, there isn't any real difference. Shape and size doesn't matter - that is down to the way the PC Flavour.

The insular Pharasmin Sect that I NPC - is all about graveyards and crypts - and (if I had to describe it) would probably be very gothic. The insular Church of Torag (NPC) will have a Priory - but that will probably be circular with a great forge in the middle and accommodation for priests scattered around the outside. The (PC) Community Church of Abadar has a traditional Cathedral - as well as a bank and a marketplace. The NPC Church of Erastil (Community Based) has a a series of small buildings (the largest is a Chapel) with Great Shrines are just community halls run by Priests of Erastil.

The descriptions and flavours that people come up with - give the world colour and a sense of being :)