Zalanthan Religions?

[Medivh]

From the helpfile for designing a tribal/nomad concept:
"Does your tribe worship anything? Do they have an enduring set of myths or gods? Do they believe in spirits?"

From "Creating a Magicker":
"Although it is acceptable that a character thinks of their element as a god or supernatural being, you may want to go for something a little bit more original."

Helpfiles speak to the players, and the references players would have. 'It is acceptable to use the player's understanding of what gods are to form the opinion of what a PC thinks of their element, as a magicker.' Similar case for tribal PCs and their tribes.

For city based PCs it isn't spelt out as well. However, there are no unique qualities that prevent Utep and Tek from being the figureheads of a religion. There are religions that are nontheistic, IRL. There are religions with no afterlife. There are religions with living, breathing beings you are meant to worship or practice for. There is even a religion for something everyone knows is fiction, Jedi.

The idea that that they can't be part of a religion requires redefining the term from how scholars and governments use it. If staff doesn't want us to use them as a religion, seems like it, then it is way more simple to just ask that we don't.

[Inks]

Well, considering there are "Temples" to Tek, it kind of him to s that he is considered deity.

What may differ though is the type of deity. Let's take Greek mythology. They did not worship those gods because it would benefit them in the afterlife. In fact, they'd all be going to the same place. They worshipped them for real time, current life benefits.

Lay a sacrifice to Poseidon and you'll catch many fish. Don't and your boat will capsize and you'll drown.


Also. If muk utep is not a god, then why the hell are his templars called "the faithful".  What faith?

#logic

[creeper386]

We'd have to rewrite some helpfiles too.

From Help Allanak, Tektolnes is call via some in game qoutes as "His Gloriousness" templars are refered to as soldier-priests. Like, Tek maybe a living breathing mortal form of some sort but overall religious definitely seems to be part of Allanak life in some degree or another.

[Jihelu]

Obviously they are atheist priests.

[Dar]

#logic

Albeit super heavily mispelled. Think I was typing on my phone with an autocorrect on the fritz.

[Dar]

There is an entire story about a templars crisis of faith during the siege of Allanak.

[mansa]

To me, when ArmageddonMUD says there are no religions in Zalanthas, the intent is to have a blanket statement that ultimately says "Do not apply Christianity in any aspect in game."

To me, this is to remind the players (of whom most have a westernized world view) that Zalanthas is an escapist roleplaying game.

That's how I take it.

[ShaiHulud]

This above.

[Dar]

Wistful sigh.


I remember attending a pyre ceremony of a templar with Samos officiating it. I was a dirty rinthi and I kept throwing out heretical thoughts about temilare and Tek in particular.

I got some serious mind fucking done to me:). Booming voice from the sky echoing in my head about bowing down, prostrating, and praying for mercy.

It was totally awesome. Changed his whole life outlook for an entire two rl days, before he got shanked in the rinth.

[Void]

I think this conversation is near impossible without defining religion first; something academics have struggled to do with anything close to consensus (Weber tried his best to avoid this task altogether despite writing heavily on religion). For instance, cults etc are excluded in some definitions and embraced in others. Without a clear idea of what religion means in this case people can easily be cross-communicating.

[HavokBlue]

I get what Shaloonsh said on the last page and I think maybe we're looking at Allanak specifically in this discussion with the wrong choice of words.

Worship of Tektolnes is a thing that is documented and depicted every single day in game, as has been pointed out. But that worship isn't based on a foundation of faith. It does not require an iota of faith to trust that the Highlord will strike down his enemies, because he has a long and documented history of striking down his enemies.

It doesn't require faith to believe the Sun King could literally show up at any time to put you in your place, because the Sun King has a long and documented history of showing up unexpectedly to put people in their place.

Tektolnes and Muk Utep are not 'divine' - the concept of 'divinity' is conspicuously absent from their respective cults. They are real and tangible beings whose wills have shaped and defined their respective regions for centuries.

Beyond the walls of the cities, every tribal clan has their own brand of spirituality and belief, but in my experience these all also eschew "faith" and "divinity" trappings for more animist/primitivist interpretations of spirituality.