How to design an evil religion about forest spirits?

Why does it have to be evil? I was thinking about something like the Bosmer, yffre and hircine from elder scrolls in a living Forest that consumes other biomes.

A literal force of nature turning everything into wilderness.

Would be a nice spin of the "demonic corruption killing everything" theme

Human sacrifice performed by sending prisoners into holy forests that can't be navigated without the help of the forest spirits. People sent in for sacrifice wander aimlessly until they succumb to the elements.

Add in a large helping of hatred for civilization and a desire to take back the lands stolen by the younger races

because they make living hard for people

Why are gods of pain almost always angry? Is pain not the indicator of urgency, something without which you would be oblivious to most of the damage done to you? What about being the god of slavery? Dominance over others is natural and one some ways being cruel and taking control over someone's life is good for them and showcases your superiority and ensures your place in the world. Death? Peaceful rest and due punishment for those that deserve it. God of Monsters and other freaks? Even those hated and those who hate deserve somebody to love and to follow, somebody who accepts them in their deformity and otherwise vile nature, for is not just their nature to be as they are?

Evil is in how you view it and who suffers and game mechanically speaking on how much, who and why you kill (sacrifice the unwilling, strike down to prove your own might against a worthy foe or the sacrifice your own innocence to save the lives of those who are innocent)

Destruction of civilization for the benefit of nature.

I like

Pic related

Ancient spirits that care for the forest's inhabitants in their own twisted way, but require sacrifices for their protection.

Villagers who genuinely believe the spirits are good and kind protectors adds some ambiguity and investigative challenges for the PCs to figure out exactly what's going on.

and why is that evil?
It is negative for the people, but to declare it evil it means you have made a decision on a moral system, and decided that good and evil are decided on a scale based on how easy it makes living for people.

And what I was suggesting to the OP was to establish a concept of good in his setting, what is good and why, and then making a forest evil comes easy and organically.
wtf are you rambling on?

I came here to post something like this. I cannot imagine how satisfying it would be to have a chance to fight against all those things that say "Evil? You cannot judge us by your hu-man standards" while stealing children/souls/memories/whatever. Fuck those guys.

The crones didn't require anything, they just went insane like their mother

Moral relativity is always fun to play with. Godspeed, user.

I feel like "villainous" may be better ways to describe what OP meant. Villainous in this context taken to mean "acting as antagonists in the campaign," instead of any objective measurement of evil.

I've played this game before.

FEED THE ROOTS WITH BLOOD

Orgies, sacrifices (many and gory sacrifices), twisted bacchanal parties, raid on neighbouring communities to provide for slaves

Orgies are evil?

Forests ain't free. The tree of life and prosperity gotta be littered with the blood of sacrifices. BRANCHES and leaves not walls and EAVES ok. praise the forest father.

The Krynoid from Doctor Who!!

If a few participant are getting eaten (literaly, you dumbass) alive, kind of.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maenad
>The term 'maenads' also refers to women in the mythology who resisted the worship of Dionysus, and were therefore driven mad by him, forced against their will to participate in often horrific rites.

Think Dionysus cult gone even more horribly wrong than it should be (and add some witchery).

Typical Dyonisos (awesome god of bodily fluids, excess and a ton of fun stuff) behavior :
>hey, I'm the new god in town, and I am FUKKIN HANDSOME
>I'll stay out of town, but your women are going to start turning mad
>lmaoooo your mother was dancing naked and running around the countryside in my honor
>she and her friends ate your genitals ? Tough luck m8
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bacchae

Those that refuse to worship and serve a fairy/forest ghoul gets turned into trees themselves.

When you break a branch off to use as fire wood you don't know if it was a person or not before, and unsure if that cracking sound was the tree or the person crying out in pain.

>take inspiration from tales Christians told about paganism

That's propably not going to help much, here - especially in the first millennium, the approach of those Christians was either "ghosts, spirits and undead don't exist, silly" or "those false gods of yours are actually devils in disguise".

...on a second thought; the latter might just work. If you're OK with devils/demons masquerading as forest spirits instead of actual evil forest spirits, that is.

Here's another angle you could try, user;

The setting is more or less animistic, but "Nature" doesn't actually exist - that bear in the woods has more in common with you than he does with the trees around him. Each living thing is alone. They're not part of some transcendant harmonious system; they're really only trying to survive in a harsh world, and they will happily screw over other living things if they can gain something from that. And they will hate and resent things that live at *their* expense.

Now imagine what the "natural" spirits from such a place might be like. Imagine an ancient tree with a sentient soul. Now imagine how that tree might feel about having its leaves and bark gnawed at by all those bugs, rodents and browsing animals. Imagine a tree spirit who would love to kill or even torture all those herbivorous little buggers.

Imagine a forest with all-natural spirits who have been feuding viciously against one another since before the human race even existed. Imagine that these spirits will also happily involve others in their petty little feuds. Imagine that these natural spirits, ever driven by things like spite and cruelty, constantly make and break alliances with anyone willing to involve themselves in their vicious little conflicts.

From there on, coming up with an evil forest spirit cult shouldn't be that hard.

They are when large portions are unwilling.

"Nature against all forms of civilization" that views humanity as a destructive enemy, could be a great antagonist. Not really "evil" though.

Civilization vs. Nature is an interesting and often underplayed conflict, where neither (and both?) are "evil".

This being one of the best examples I can think of, (kudos to you sir!).

this collection of tidbits from a similar thread we had back around April should be helpful;

pastebin.com/XgNzPb9d

Recently re-read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.
The center of the forest is a massive tree through which a horrible creature would emerge if the tree is not constantly painted with blood.
The spirits of the forest cannot communicate with other intelligent life, so they go about their duty of collecting paint, being perceived as evil.
Human priests shepherd sacrifices into the heart of the wood under false pretenses, because they loot the corpses that are otherwise left to rot..

My son heed not the ignorant musings of outsiders and their vain notions of morality. Our ways may be cruel and harsh but this is the way it must be for our villages to go on. The gods of the woods and the plains are what make the trees and the flowers bloom. We pick the earth with spade and hoe and put seeds unnaturally in place. The sacrifices we make is to atone for our hubris and pray they let the crops grow. I would not have you take another's life if I could but what is a life when we live by the mercy of the gods

If you are looking for a more cult-like religion I'd suggest having it be somewhat transhumanist. Have the forest spirits give promises of uplifting the mortals while in truth only enslaving them as thralls to do their bidding, to slowly but surely eradicate the threat to the forest's growth.

"The nature spirits spare our small village and allow us to hunt and plant simple farms and take some wood for our homes and hearths. To keep our compact with these spirits every spring we surrender one of every five children born the the previous year to the forest."

Is this "evil"? Is it worth the trade in a world of treants and dire wolves and spirits of the storm? Does the forest help protect from outsiders? Does the town feel oppressed and just wait until they can get enough steel to beat back the wilderness? Does the Church of Civilization in the city in the next county want to "save" these poor villagers, do they want to be saved? Do the villagers live in harmony with the forest creatures and learn their special magical ways? Do they have sexy half-breeds?

You read the Iron Teeth, your spirits come from that forest. The religion is Law of the Jungle/Darwinian, possibly with a "You keep what you kill" law like the Necromongers from Riddick. "Evil" is often predatory, so the hunt should be important. A rite of passage is challenging another big predator in single combat with witnesses made from the hunting party. They probably don't feel anything from cannibalism, and attack people for chopping trees.

Basically, Elves from Dwarf Fortress.