Lack of religion

[Pantoufle]

It isn't the purpose of the templars in either city-state to invoke religious fervour.  They're not there to stir up the masses and get people excited about worshipping their leader.  I would find it both boring and uncharacteristic of a templar if (s)he waltzed into the Bard's Barrel and tried to get the playerbase bowing down to Tektolnes like a muslim might bow to Mecca.  That's what Morning Devotions is for, and if you haven't noticed, it isn't mandatory.  The day it becomes mandatory is the day you see the outstanding Allanaki playerbase downsize tremendously.  I'd rather see players out there plotting than whiling their time away giving prayer to a "god-king" which, for all we know, doesn't even exist!

Though so many of you complain that the city-state rulers aren't making appearances or aren't developing themselves into a classified religion, I wonder if you've considered that maybe there is a reason behind this.  Maybe they don't want to!

There is enough religion imposed upon us in the real world, I would much prefer to see religion remain as it currently is in game: toned down.

[Angela Christine]

People are going to believe things, those things don't have to be true or widely believed.  There are apparently hundreds of Elvis sightings every year, despite the fact that even if Elvis had faked his death he would probably be dead by now anyway.  People seeing, being abducted and badly treated by aliens seems to happen all the time, while abductions by the fair folk have almost completely stopped . . . are the aliens secretly exterminating the elves?  Nobody knows!


When we talk about religion we usually mean a more organized set of beliefs combined with an established social structure.  The worship of the God-Kings is probably one of the few large-scale organized religious systems in the Known World, but it is one that doesn't exclude other beliefs.  You do see some people, occasionally even PCs, praying at the west gate or at the temple over by the Arena.  Since Tektolnes is likely very skilled at the Way, he might even hear some of these prayers.  He probably isn't going to do anything about your petty requests, but that doesn't stop people in our world from praying, buying lottery tickets, or writing letters to Oprah (and other rich people) asking for money.  It is a long shot, but it doesn't hurt to try.


There are also religious beliefs that are less organized and more personal, but it is difficult to tell if they should be classified as religion, superstition, or something else.

Belief in spirits and ghosts is often brushed off as superstition, but can have religious elements to it.  Christianity doesn't really have a place for ghosts, each sect has pretty solid ideas on what is supposed to happen to a soul after death, and wandering around on Earth generally isn't part of the game plan -- but still stories of ghosts and hauntings persist in Christian dominated societies.  They usually get brushed off as merely being imagination, or possibly demon activity in some denominations, but Christianity never managed to completely wipe out acceptance of ghosts.  Some cultures revere their ancestors and may even pray to them for help.  Some cultures treat the dead with a great deal of pomp and ceremony not because dead people are great, but because if the dead aren't placated with proper respect and offerings they can become the Angry dead, the Restless dead, or even the Hungry dead, and nobody wants angry, hungry ghosts wandering around.  (Some God-King worship may be similar.  You may attend morning devotions or pray in a temple once a week not because you worship and adore Tektolenes, but because you are trying to placate Him and keep His terrible eye off of you).  To keep the spirits off your back you might keep a little altar to the ancestors or to people you've murdered, all it needs is a little shelf with some shiny trinkets, and every now and then (at least once a year) you do something like putting out food and drink (a few crumbs and a couple drops of wine may be sufficient since they don't really eat the food, but rather eat the essence of food, the memory of food, or something like that), burning a candle, burning some incense, etc.  Little rituals designed to keep the dead on your side, or at least dormant.


An extension of this is that not only humans have spirits you have to worry about, but so do animals, plants, tools, rocks, moons, and practically everything else.  That's a lot of spirits.   Individually their power to affect the material world is very small, but you don't want to get them riled up.  

A hunter might pay respect to the prey, perhaps thanking them for their sacrifice, making sure to use every possible part of the carcass, eating the heart raw while it is still warm, or some other small ceremonial act.  There will be stories of bad things that happened to disrespectful hunters: a scrab hunter that was only interested in shells was known to slaughter as many scrabs as he could find and leave everything rotting on the sands except the shell, one day they found him dead in the sands, completely skinned but with no other damaged to indicated what killed him; a southerner came up to hunt Duskhorn in the breeding season, killing not just bucks but also the does and colts with impunity, after several weeks his packs were full and he was ready to go back south, the next morning his body was found just off the road, he was stone dead with a look of horror on his face but appeared to be uninjured and none of his possessions had been stolen.  

You might believe that if you are kind to trees you will never be truly lost in the forest.  If you do not respect the forest the thornbush will come for you.  You might pay respect to plants by ensuring that you never take enough leaves to kill the plant outright.  You might dig up a root to eat, but then take a moment to bury one of the plant's seeds in the resulting hole so that its line continues.

You don't have to worry just about people, plants and animals, but also inanimate things.  You might believe that any tool that goes unused for 3 years will seek blood.  A new blade that has been used to kill a man (a noble, a Templar, an elf, etc) will want to taste that kind of blood again and again.  Some blades may be "hungry" and once it has been drawn someone has to die before it can be safely sheathed again.  Your car has a personality and needs to be loved or it acts up.  A carver may believe that when he carves a stone he isn't imposing his will on it but is actually releasing a shape that was always there, a shape that wanted to be seen -- you don't decide what you want to carve, instead you try to discover what the stone wants to be.  You may plead with your shaft straightener not to break this shaft, or tell the wood itself how lovely it would be to fly around as an arrow, making the tools and materials "partners" in your work.  In the same vein you may curse at your tools or materials if your crafting attempt is ruined, making them share the blame and giving the impression that you think the stone shattered just to spite you.

Then there are spirits that are tied to locations rather than single objects.  Nature spirits that were never specific living things may be thought to inhabit certain valleys, oases, caves or other places.  It isn't a ghost, it is just a presence.  If you are doing something that the spirit of the valley approves of it may help you in small ways or ignore you, but if you are doing something that it disapproves of it will hinder you in small ways.  To the spirit of the oasis elves, mantis, and humans all look about the same as each other and as the other animals that come to drink, it is only when they try to change the oasis that they attract special attention.

An elementalist with strong animistic beliefs might believe that his magick also works through spirits.  Spirits of the air blow things around, spirits of fire set things aflame, and the only thing special about the elementalist is that he can communicate with and command these spirits to some degree.  Spells that appear to create objects really just give the spirits physical form for a time, a novelty that they usually enjoy.  They usually aren't dealing with a big, god-like spirit, but the little spirits that inhabit manifestations of their element in the material plane.  They may or may not believe that there is a personality, a spirit of all Wind called Whira, but if they think there is you'd have to be pretty cocky to try to command THE Spirit of the Wind.  Far better to deal with the little air spirits, and not attract the attention of larger forces.

Beliefs like these would fill the same mental niche as religion, but they do it on a personal level, with requiring big investments building temples and training the priesthood.  These kinds of beliefs are not outlawed, they don't conflict with the agendas of the God-Kings.  They are not evangelized, instead they are quietly passed on to be accepted or rejected as mere superstition.  If your neighbour is having a run of bad luck, and you figure it is because his house spirits are mad at him because he won't do the simple little things to appease them, well, that isn't your problem  -- you certainly don't feel compelled to Save him from his folly.


Documentation isn't necessary.  These beliefs have been handed down informally since before there were cities, when each tribe had its own set of beliefs.  Over the ages those beliefs have mutated, combined, been forgotten, and generally mangled in ways their ancestors would never have expected.  In modern times you would pick up most of these beliefs from your family as you are growing up, and to a lesser extent from your friends and colleagues.  That means that every family, perhaps every individual, will have their own unique matrix of superstitions that they try to live by.  It has religious elements, but is an extremely disorganized form of religion.  Basically, your character can have whatever beliefs you want him to have.


Angela Christine

[Agent_137]

lots of great ideas, AC. I had one character who was aware of the spirits in the wild, but believed that in the city-state the god-kings pushed them all away.

He died early, though.

I'll have to do something like that again.

[sarahjc]

I recall a templar a while back that was a bit on the Zealot side and would actually go to the gates at morning devotions to conduct them. How many templars in the south do that? Frankly I think all of them should and I would love it more if they would drag some of the PC populace there with them. I'm not saying that the populace should truly feel in their souls that they are embraced by the mighty dragon's shadow, but the PC templars damn well should, and they should force other PC's to feel that embrace always and by force if necessary.

Give me a Templar in the south who is absolutedly blinded by Faithful Devotion and Worship of the God King beyond reason and I will be impressed to the 9's. Not to go into detail, but look how they get power??? That said how could you not be the speaker box for Tek??? He is the only reason you are as cool as you are, otherwise you are just some Jerk in fancy Robe.

But there should be all sorts of mixed emotions on religion in the south. Elementalists are praying to their own gods, some pray to Tek, some are just faithless bastards.

It would also invoke more separation of the cities and much more solid feel of oppression in Allanak.

It should not be that way in the north however. It doesn't fit their style or their power structure. That said however, it would seem to me that Tuluki's have a much nicer life in the bunny hugging north. And while they do not sit at the base of a mighty steal statue to show outward worship, would be deeply spiritual people and thank all their good fortune to his Light Muk Utep and all their ill fortune as failing him.

Think about it. Magick is outlawed and there is nothing else to worship in the north and life is pretty fat and good. Unless you make up a tree god, or are an elf, Muk is it.

[EvilRoeSlade]

Think about it. Magick is outlawed and there is nothing else to worship in the north and life is pretty fat and good.

WRONG.

The following has nothing to do with how much Tuluk sucks.

I would like to see religion played up in Zalanthas.  The people of Zalanthas will have beliefs.  They are certainly not too busy trying to survive to think about things such as creation, the universe, and why their lives are so miserable, because using real life history as a parallel, living a life that is brutal, nasty, and short in no way precludes religious beliefs.  Just look at the Dark Ages.  Hell, look at just about any time period in the history of the world.

The templarate can not effectively suppress and stamp out religious cults if they don't have a competing dogma of their own.  They can try, but it won't work very well.  If a commoner is only allowed to worship the God-King, then they may very well worship the God-King.  But if they don't know how to worship the God-King, then they will either fill in the blanks on their own, or figure out something else to worship, legal or not.

[Rindan]

I agree to ERS to an extent.  I wish God King worship, especially in Allanak, was more encouraged and defined.  The biggest problem with religion in Armageddon is that it is very easy to fall into the trap of imitating real life religion.  Real life religion and religion in Allanak could not be more different.  

In Allanak, God King is unquestionably apart of your lives in more ways then just spiritual.  The God King is your provider of food, water, and shelter.  Without him, you die.  Period.  End of story.  Even your lowliest of 'rinth rat is going to recognize that even his meager little home exists only by the grace of the Highlord.

Even more important is that the Highlord is not a terribly spiritually demanding person.  Loyalty and shows of loyalty to the Highlord is the highest virtue.  Burnt offerings are likely not terribly impressive, while donations of 'sid are.  I could even see quasi-bribery being a deeply ingrained part of Allanaki religion.  Imagine you are a commoner in Allanak making a fair living.  You are not rich, but you are not starving.  Maybe you squirrel away a few 'sid each month to make a 'donation' to a templar you see often.  You are basically donating the money to the state/church while at the same time perhaps buying a little good will from a templar.

Whatever the case, I think Allanak High King worship could use a little more fleshing out.

[SewerRat_inTheOpen]

I agree to ERS to an extent.  I wish God King worship, especially in Allanak, was more encouraged and defined.  

Me too, people will think twice if they feel the presence of the God Kings before they want to get in their black book.

It's fun to make up beliefs that are linked to everyday life, but that seems lonely.