Religion in Zalanthas?

[The_Black_Wizard]

One of the things i couldnt understand very well;
Many of you thing that "There is no "religion" in Armageddon."
Isnt that too illogical??
It is in the nature of poeple to have a feeling about a "Creator".
Everyone asks himself questions about the creation of the world, the life after death, .... But the people of Zalanthas do not. Why??
May be the DM's should send a prophet to zalanthas to make people believe in themselves'.

[Bestatte]

There is religion in Armageddon, but it's extremely limited.

In a world where people die regularly..where there exists powerful magicks, where people can control or harness the power of the elements themselves..

There really isn't the much of a "need" for religion, or a need for people to wonder how they got there.

Why was there a swarm of locusts last week? Because Whira blew them there. Why do people die such cruel deaths? Because Drov demands his sacrifices. Why is the sky red? Because Suk-krath chose red as his personal color and displays it whenever he rises at dawn.

The elements aren't gods - at least not in the sense that modern religions would know them. But they are the "powers that be" and Zalanthans generally accept this as truth.

We also have the Sorcerer-Kings of the two city states, and that mysterious dood who supposedly rules the area near Red Storm. They are as close to gods as the majority of people will ever know, and those kings are fiercely jealous and likely not interested in allowing their pawns to question the existence of anything else.

[Marauder Moe]

Everyone asks himself questions about the creation of the world, the life after death, .... But the people of Zalanthas do not. Why??

Because for most of them, such beliefs will get them executed on charges of heresy.

[Akaramu]

I'm pretty sure you could find quite deep and interesting 'religion' approaches in many of the coded and uncoded independant nomadic tribes.

[Gaea]

I believe the tribes have the effects of 'shamanism', believing in ancients' souls, the nature and -maybe- a big controller ('börklü tengri' in ancient Turks, for example.)
So the belief does not need prayers. You respect to the nature, bow before elements, respect to the elders and obey them at all costs. You try to eliminate anything that has no respect for the nature. (That's a good part. So; tribals run after uber-hunters that leave meat all around. To the player I killed at last; I'm sorry. Most of my IC hatred was because I was finding rotting meat all around, another PC around wasn't doing it, so it was you, I should keep you away from my territory. You were suspected easily because of your race. Probably you weren't the guilty one.)
The fear to the elementalists except the nilazis would be more easily overwhelmed than city-folks can. Still, there would be fear at first, but after the fear's overwhelmed, they would be hated -they manipulate elements so they're bad- or respected -they live in tune with the elements- according to what they do.
I want to start a new discussion here about religions. Let a city folk tell us about city beliefs and of course, let someone correct me where I'm wrong.

[Anonymous]

In in our world, peoples opinions have changed as the time progressed.  There were people believing in gods like odin, thor ,zeus... But now, it' 'as changed.
What about the people of zalanthas? What does the history of zalanthas say about the beliefs??

[Bestatte]

Gaea, with all due respect - what your character's personal belief is, or the belief of his tribe, is something extremely IC and should be learned in the game. Anyone who wants to know what this or that tribe believes in, should ask one of their tribe members.

Or - if you feel the need to explain to a player, at the very least, don't post it on a public forum where people who don't wanna know, will end up reading.

[ashyom]

Most of the players have explained as much as they can, without going too IC.  If you would like to learn more, feel free to contact the mud at mud@armageddon.org, or even myself at ashyom@armageddon.org.

Incidentally, if someone wants to take a stab at writing a document that explains a little about the religion (or the lack thereof) for our webpage, that'd be great.  I just did a search, and found that what information there is, is fairly scattered, so that probably makes it difficult for new players to get a grasp of in-game philosophy toward the commoners' mindset regarding religion.  Just a paragraph or two would be good.

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Edited to add:  If ya'all want to start a fresh thread discussing this, that's fine.  Just don't pull in IC this time please.  Bestatte summed it up pretty well, though.
Ashyom