Sermons

[Adj]

You know what I would /love/ to see? Sermons by the Templarate of both cities talking up their god king. Would be totally awesome and would produce faith driven plots.

[MeTekillot]

Just be the victim of an execution and you get to hear them plenty.

[Morrolan]

I am pleased with what I see here, today.  I watch you, and I see that weakness has been worn away.  Not just the recruits weaker than you, whose files stand empty.  Training has also worn away the parts in each of you that were once weak.  Your weaknesses are gone; soft shifting sand has been blown away, leaving only the hardest of stones.

This city stands, and has always stood, for the strength of its blades and the hardness of its hearts. Let the sands creep in, let the terrors of the deserts wash against the wall.  It is we citizens who must stand against it.  It is you who are the first to the gates, the first to the walls.

The Highlord has not promised any one of us a place, or a name, or wealth.  We do not hold these gates and walls to hear our names chanted.  His Shadow reaches all places, strengthens all who call him.  Let your hearts be hardened, your arms strong and swift in dealing His Justice.

I cannot promise you that any of us will live.  That is not our place.

I can promise you that we will all serve the Highlord.  That you may die die, probably will die, performing your duty...but not alone.  Your life might be shorter than the tinkers and the farmers...but it will not be meaningless.

Kings Age after Kings Age, His Arm has stood.  Troops like you have held the gates and walls.  Year after year, the Jade Sabers have been vigilant.

We have faced the riots of the dark times.  We have crushed the invasion of the gith.  We have killed mekillots, traitors, and assassins.  And we have faced a hundred terrors that never even became a whisper to the common man.

Always, the Arm of the Dragon has held.  Always, we will hold.  We have stood against the terrors of the desert, to make a place where life can grow hard and strong, untwisted and unbent.  We do not do this with songs, with lies, and with tricks.  We do this through strength...your strength, which flows from the Highlord's strength.

Look around, and know that these others are sworn as you are.  Know that easy of you is the Arm of the Dragon.  Each of you carries a burden.  It gives you strength.  It sets you apart.  And it binds you, here, today, together.

May His Shadow always be upon you all.

[Rhyden]

*stamp of approval* I had an Allanaki Templar in '10 who did this. He used the Dragon Temple (not the Temple of the Dragon, the other one) to hold sermons every once in a while, used it for funerals, and rewarding Militia/Tor Scorpions too.

[Kastion]

It happens all the time, have you never seen it?

[Kastion]

VNPCS broseph















trollface.jpg

[Kastion]

seriously though why do templars have to do this every week. Why dont you get out there and do it. Nothing says only templars are religious or fanatical.

[MeTekillot]

a commoner preaching that the other commoners should follow whatever the highlord says and be fanatically devoted to him?

?

?

/
?
??
??




would get templar smacked
?

[Kastion]

you could literally be 100% wrong on everything you are saying if your main point is "The High Lord is super cool guys lets do his will!"

[BadSkeelz]

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar mounts the pulpit in the Temple of the Dragon.

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar says, in sirhirish,

"We are His Law. Do what we say or we'll kill you."

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar dismounts from the pulpit in the Temple of the Dragon.

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar leaves to the west.

Sponsor me for role of Lord Templar Foreboding and this and other sermonating action can be yours, today!

[Zoltan]

*stamp of approval* I had an Allanaki Templar in '10 who did this. He used the Dragon Temple (not the Temple of the Dragon, the other one) to hold sermons every once in a while, used it for funerals, and rewarding Militia/Tor Scorpions too.

Fuck yeah, the Dragon Temple's totally metal.

[askaran]

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar mounts the pulpit in the Temple of the Dragon.

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar says, in sirhirish,

"We are His Law. Do what we say or we'll kill you."

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar dismounts from the pulpit in the Temple of the Dragon.

The half-helmed, fearsomely-chinned templar leaves to the west.

I laughed so hard in front of ten people I didnt know over this.

[RogueGunslinger]

seriously though why do templars have to do this every week. Why dont you get out there and do it. Nothing says only templars are religious or fanatical.

Because I dont know much about the Tenents of the highlord that every citizen should live by. Divinity, Devotion, Determination, Dominance. A commoner preaching shit like that would get templar smacked.

Completely disagree. Being a fanatic of the highlord is not going to get any negative attention from the templarate. Unless they possibly think you're trying to steal their limelight or something. But that would be very specific in nature.

[BleakOne]

If you say "Do this, the Highlord wants you to do it!" you'll get in trouble, most likely, for presuming to predict the Highlord's will.

If you say "The Highlord and the Templars are the best! Wooo! Let's go do this to honour them!" you'll likely be fine.

[Twilight]

Just because there isn't a scripted NPC templar doesn't mean that Devotions aren't going on.

I need to go back and look at the rdesc, pretty sure it is clear they are though.

[Feco]

I think people tend to ignore the roomdesc outside Allanak.

Listening to/giving one of these now and then could be fun, but would turn into a serious chore for players if forced with regularity, I think.

[Karieith]

Listen for the gong, Nakki. You're not tavern sitting enough.

[Voular]

I thought long and hard about this subject during and after my tenure as an Allanaki Templar. The problem with a set OOC time is that you have to attend it. Every week. That quickly turns into a chore. However, sporadic use of it might as well feel weird and out of place. I couldn't either justify boring people with speeches on a regular basis for no apparent reason other than a made up religion.

Religion in itself isn't fun, it's the play around it - what does your fervor make you do, so on. I wouldn't ever log in to attend regular fake sermons that are all talk and then disbanding. It's the same reason why most of us don't play out going to poop or piss all the time. It's not fun, we came here to do something else.

So, what I took out of it is that you shouldn't forget the religion is in place in Allanak/Tuluk, but to force play around it is silly. It probably isn't a religion either how we see it, it's fear and so on. Nor do the Templars behave like priests or whatsoever of our world. The parallel of sermons is also a faulty one. A Templar would never assume he would need to preach. Anything he says is truth and anything he says about the Highlord better be true. There's no sense of conversion or affirmation.

Don't know.. Something about it irks me. It's because it's so vaguely defined, and also because as a Templar you get not guidelines other than what everyone else has to go on.

[Decameron]

All for it.

Religion is one excellent way to control the masses, and having fanatics willing to die for the ideal of their God-King doesn't really seem to be a bad thing when you're controlling over a City-State. I agree (having played a character in the past that would try to attend -every- morning devotion) that doing in to an extreme degree does grow tedious. However, that isn't to say that particular rituals or dogmatic practices can't come into play in order to alleviate this burden. It doesn't have to be an every IC day or even every IC week thing, but I think it'd be funner to explore it rather than ignore it. I wouldn't really suggest any of the practices because that's be a little IC, but I mean, rituals are what we make them, both as players and people. You only need one person in a position of authority to start a trend that might expand well beyond the scope of their own character.

The most exciting thing about involving religion in a character to me is the hate and conflict it brings. "My God-King rules over the entire Known, and any one that challenges that fact is my enemy, and ought to be destroyed."  The my Ruler/God is better than your Ruler/God has been around since we've had Rulers/Gods - I don't see why Zalanthas should be any different in this particular aspect, even if that devotion is purely out of fear. Preach the hate, and burn the heretics.

[Irathu]

Also I feel that if we did this, it would bring the conflict/hatred/fear/willingness for the opposing faction back into the game. I remember years ago when I played heavily before I took a break, it seemed constantly there was raids, asassinations, slaves being taken, and even in a few times war broke out, to show this, today it feels much like it is all behind closed doors, and brooding and what not, for the average player that is a downfall because they have few chances to get involved, but for the player who is involved I understand that it is awesome. Regardless I would like to see more open hatred and persecution of the opposite city states as well as other groups out there, even to the point of the Allanaki Templars proclaiming that all other races are lesser beings and what not to build more racial hatred. Perhaps even a fanatical raid on the Rinth to try and "cleanse" it, I want to see more strife, hatred and persecution like we had a few years ago.

No offense, just my two cents.

[Nyr]

I don't think templar PCs should be required to give weekly speeches, no...nor should they be required to give sermons in the sense that they are generally described here.

Most templars when involved in public incidents give speeches at the time.  It may be short.  However, it also doesn't make sense to do so every single time, and as mentioned here, it may not be every templar's thought that they need to control the populace in this manner.  Why repeat the obvious, after all?  Everyone that is a patriot of their city-state knows that their city-state's ruler is awesome because the ruler's templars have a pretty strong grasp of power in the city-state.  Do you see people preaching sedition?  If you do, what happens to them?  Exactly!  It seems to me at least that both city-states value actions over words when it comes to showing the power of said ruler.

A criminal being flayed alive is a homily before the Highlord, teaching everyone of the consequences of heresy.  A bad apple being disappeared in Tuluk is a sermon that speaks volumes without words.

[Delirium]

I think 'sermons' is the wrong word and gives the wrong idea. Worship of the god-kings isn't really a religion as strictly defined in the Real World. You're not worshiping a distant god that no one's ever seen, and their disciples (the Templarate) have real, tangible power (and in Allanak's case, visible displays of it). These "gods", as far as you know, are real, immortal, and insanely powerful, being fully capable of tangling with horrors beyond the scope of your puny minds, and winning. Hello, Dragon smackdown?

But speeches, or leading special devotion related to some big event, that I could see. The white robes (virtually) handle the daily affairs of ensuring that His Citizens are properly obeisant. I imagine the same role goes to the Lirathans in Tuluk, whereas Jihaens would be more prone to an appropriate translation of 'Let's go kick ass in the name of the Sun King'.

[Fredd]

Last time I played a Nakki Militia person (i think in '10?) Our templar would always make us stop at the main gate, at the statue of the dragon for prayer. I think not TOO long after that there used to be regular sermons there as well by the faithful.

[SpyGuy]

This definitely happens in 'nak from time to time.  I don't see it in Tuluk much but you also have a lot more public discussion of the Sun King's role.

Arm 2 thought:  I want a couple of religions there that someone could try to spread.  A city with competing religious influences would be cool.

[Karieith]

Arm 2 thought:  I want a couple of religions there that someone could try to spread.  A city with competing religious influences would be cool kill a lot of PCs.

Fixed that for you.

[Tuannon]

Last time I played a Nakki Militia person (i think in '10?) Our templar would always make us stop at the main gate, at the statue of the dragon for prayer. I think not TOO long after that there used to be regular sermons there as well by the faithful.

My first role was a Borsail Wyvern, we used to go to morning devotions pretty much every day.

[RogueGunslinger]

The Devotions Templar/Crier was recently put back into the game. And he's very awesome.

Wonder if he has talk scripts.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Just because there isn't a scripted NPC templar doesn't mean that Devotions aren't going on.

Twilight's right. There used to be one, actually. I forget why it was removed.

[RogueGunslinger]

Probably the same reason the devotions templar was recently removed again. Maybe someone is farming them for leet gear or something. Not really sure. Could just be buggy as hell.

[Dakota]

Zizkov used to give sermons. Then some IMM had an NPC throw dung at him. Was pretty funny.

[John]

The script that controlled the NPC was buggy from memory and it seem PC templars just got out of the habit

[Maso]

Probably the same reason the devotions templar was recently removed again. Maybe someone is farming them for leet gear or something. Not really sure. Could just be buggy as hell.

He was super cool.

[Zoan]

So instead of removing the dickhead player who farms a templar NPC, they remove the cool templar NPC?

Edit: Presuming that happened.

[Gunnerblaster]

Fanatical worship of the masses.

I want it.

(not even being sarcastic)

[hyzhenhok]

I think 'sermons' is the wrong word and gives the wrong idea. Worship of the god-kings isn't really a religion as strictly defined in the Real World. You're not worshiping a distant god that no one's ever seen, and their disciples (the Templarate) have real, tangible power (and in Allanak's case, visible displays of it). These "gods", as far as you know, are real, immortal, and insanely powerful, being fully capable of tangling with horrors beyond the scope of your puny minds, and winning. Hello, Dragon smackdown?

But speeches, or leading special devotion related to some big event, that I could see. The white robes (virtually) handle the daily affairs of ensuring that His Citizens are properly obeisant. I imagine the same role goes to the Lirathans in Tuluk, whereas Jihaens would be more prone to an appropriate translation of 'Let's go kick ass in the name of the Sun King'.

I think it's important to realize that in traditional religion, theoretically the object of worship is very much just as real and powerful as Zalanthan God-Kings are. That's actually something a little alien to us living in the post-Enlightenment/post-Scientific Revolution modern world.

If you take the historical Papal States, turn it into a brutal totalitarian state run by clergy-bureaucrats and clergy-enforcers, and add in the cynical conspiracy that the Pope and his closest servants probably know more than a few things they keep hidden from their populace, and you'll have something pretty close to the Zalanthan city-states.

[John]

So instead of removing the dickhead player who farms a templar NPC, they remove the cool templar NPC?

Edit: Presuming that happened.

Pretty sure that wasn't why it happened. He was notorious for being buggy in that he showed up at the wrong time, didn't show up with all the band, just didn't show. The Crim code makes it pretty difficult for PCs to attack templars. This was before time also became stable.

[RogueGunslinger]

So instead of removing the dickhead player who farms a templar NPC, they remove the cool templar NPC?

Edit: Presuming that happened.

Pretty sure that wasn't why it happened. He was notorious for being buggy in that he showed up at the wrong time, didn't show up with all the band, just didn't show. The Crim code makes it pretty difficult for PCs to attack templars. This was before time also became stable.

No, they brought him back more recently. Within the past few months.

[John]

No, they brought him back more recently. Within the past few months.

Aaah. I don't know why they got rid of him that time then.

[Marauder Moe]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd totally play a white-robe Allanaki templar.  In fact, that's probably the only templar role I'd be willing to play.