July 2026 RPG Blog Carnival: Small Gods, Saints and minor divinity!

Welcome to the new month for the RPG Blog Carnival - our topic for July 2026 is "Small Gods, Saints and minor divinity!" You can find some deeper background on the RPG Blog Carnival on 'of Dice and Dragons'. Write what you like around the prompt or see the suggestions below. This month, hosting is being shared with Sea of Stars - see their launch post for yet more inspirational ideas.

If you want to join the carnival, write up your own entry and post it in a comment below, send me a link (my username at gmail.com) or ping me on the 'blog-carnival' OSR discord channel or find me bluesky or mastodon. I will gather all the participants into a wrap-up post on August 8th.

For d6 prompts:
1. Talk about how your divine magic system works e.g. Who hears your oath?
2. Describe some of the minor divinities e.g. d14 small gods of the animal-lings
3. Share some shrines or locations e.g. d6 Sites of the Long Wars
4. Tell of aspects of the divine e.g. d8 natures of this quasi-godlike entity
5. Write up a specific god or saint e.g. Small god: Lady Deephome
6. Describe a faction or cult e.g. Commission for the ethical sourcing of construct souls

For my own take, I wanted to revamp my house rules from Who hears your oath? - d100 roll under your level, +10 per factor in your favour.

In the back half of the #Hexcrawl25 campaign, after one player swore themselves to an old, forgotten deity and another became a devotee of a small god of the swamps, the players began attending more to the divine around them in general. I liked to encourage this, having divine magics and the small gods be more than just 'something the cleric/paladin does'. The players got quite into 'pre-battle prayers' and making sacrifices for boons.

The results were *all over* the map - on the best side She Who Hides From Site favoured her living saint with sustained invisibility while on the 'counter side' where someone prayed for a blessing before battle on the site where they had previously summoned a hellhound, something from the deep hells that was not their targetted god responded.

Prayers to Small Gods (MOSAIC Strict)

Small gods can grant short lived boons such as blessing, cures or amulets. This is where the ordinary folk of the locale get their hedge magic. Location and alignment with a sites resident spirit becomes important.

Refining from 'who hears your oath' - the magics or effects requested should be the type of thing commonly available or doable by minor clergy. For each of the below you do, gain +10 to the target then roll under that target with d100:
- do a thing aligned to the small gods intention
- act in a place sacred to them
- gather materials harmonious to the purpose you are trying to achieve
- have a vessel worthy of containing the blessing
- make a worthy sacrifice
- invoke a specific small god
- ritualist is mighty in a way aligned with the small god

Recognise this minor boon will fade.
- consumed by use - if it deflects or avoids any major harm, it functions once and then fades
- affects a single target - it it directly affects someone else, it will do so once and fade
- by next dawn - small gods can only watch over you for so long, they have other things to do

Typical boons would be an automatic success on the first of a certain kind of test or a magical effect that persists longer than normal.

Adventure potential for this type of thing includes a grievously cursed or wounded comrade could be maintained in the shrine of a small god by someone watching over them and daily reinvoking the blessings of that god while their friends go for assistance. Another would be getting whatever weapon is available blessed so as to strike some monster plaguing the community - a werewolf where no silver is available. This fits with image of the gutsy peasant having to sneak up on the sleeping monster for the one fatal blow, as opposed to the adventurers who might tramp boldly into a lair to slay a monster.