Increasingly, I've noticed myself and concern has been brought to me that the religious theme needs more development. Between a simple lack of attention (it would seem) and the attempts to keep it from looking to close to any real world religions (something impossible in my opinion) things have been pretty vague and in a lot of things, its kinda hard to tell what exactly the Church believes, what is dogma, what isn't and the like.
Now, I'd like to start writing a series of theological treatise to help clarify a Summa Thologica for Lithmore, if you will. I'll include the following topics, and would like people to weigh in one them.
-The Abyss, Hell
-Ecclesiology (What the Church is, its place, etc.)
-Sacramental Theology (The rites and 'sacraments' of the Church, Mass and confession)
-Eschatology (Theology concerning death, final judgement)
-Moral Theology
Summa Theologica Lithmore
I'd be very happy to see these things fleshed out.
I also agree with Geras that wiggle room is important, but I think that's supposed to be borne out in the idea of how religion really is (if you look at modern belief, even). We have people of varying levels of belief with varying theories and varying tolerance of other's views. Certainly the bandwidth of difference was probably lower back in those days, but you'd still see strong demographic evidence of similar belief by group. On TI, there's tolerance for Charali being heathens and Vandagans being particularly inclined to strong rhetoric with mostly a lip service attitude, Lithmorrans tending to be jealously devout and fearful of magic, Farins being particularly stark and proud of their strength, and Tubori and Vavardi being a bit looser with all of that self-denial stuff... but everyone, at least on the surface, bowing to the Order just to get by because, regardless of all else, they're a powerful organisation who does charitable works that each of those nations and people's want to come to the table, even if it's just out of fear of magic, the perception of protection, or taking advantage of free 'food, community services, and orphanages'.
This all being said, I'd be happy to offer QP for any books Bene writes - and heck, maybe it could be actually taken as a little IC action that Bene becomes a forerunning religious writer of the time as opposed to putting down documents as backstory. This in itself will offer Bene the opportunity to shape the game, and also give other players an understanding that the flexibility is in that Bene's just a player like themselves, albeit in a specific position, as opposed to 'this is staff-dictated dogma that all must obey lest the Inquisitors come a-knocking' ... heck, it might be that 'this is player disctated dogma that all must obey lest Inquisitors...' but at least it may have a better view of being overcome by the next Cardinal or be on par with the IC opinions of other players.
Besides, Bene deserves IC credit for his writings, doesn't he? :)
I also agree with Geras that wiggle room is important, but I think that's supposed to be borne out in the idea of how religion really is (if you look at modern belief, even). We have people of varying levels of belief with varying theories and varying tolerance of other's views. Certainly the bandwidth of difference was probably lower back in those days, but you'd still see strong demographic evidence of similar belief by group. On TI, there's tolerance for Charali being heathens and Vandagans being particularly inclined to strong rhetoric with mostly a lip service attitude, Lithmorrans tending to be jealously devout and fearful of magic, Farins being particularly stark and proud of their strength, and Tubori and Vavardi being a bit looser with all of that self-denial stuff... but everyone, at least on the surface, bowing to the Order just to get by because, regardless of all else, they're a powerful organisation who does charitable works that each of those nations and people's want to come to the table, even if it's just out of fear of magic, the perception of protection, or taking advantage of free 'food, community services, and orphanages'.
This all being said, I'd be happy to offer QP for any books Bene writes - and heck, maybe it could be actually taken as a little IC action that Bene becomes a forerunning religious writer of the time as opposed to putting down documents as backstory. This in itself will offer Bene the opportunity to shape the game, and also give other players an understanding that the flexibility is in that Bene's just a player like themselves, albeit in a specific position, as opposed to 'this is staff-dictated dogma that all must obey lest the Inquisitors come a-knocking' ... heck, it might be that 'this is player disctated dogma that all must obey lest Inquisitors...' but at least it may have a better view of being overcome by the next Cardinal or be on par with the IC opinions of other players.
Besides, Bene deserves IC credit for his writings, doesn't he? :)
Of course, I'd like to maintain some flexibility and see a lot of the dogmas and doctrines of the Church be player-run. Especially to reflect the concepts of Purist vs. Davist inclinations, etc, etc.
I'd be happy to take these as my own work, especially for the sake of stressing that these are player-made concepts and that another player can just as easily come along and turn Bene into the foremost heresiarch (let's hope that doesn't happen!).
This could even trigger the creation of new heresies the Church has to deal with, giving more fluidity to that side of the religion theme.
Thank you!
I'd be happy to take these as my own work, especially for the sake of stressing that these are player-made concepts and that another player can just as easily come along and turn Bene into the foremost heresiarch (let's hope that doesn't happen!).
This could even trigger the creation of new heresies the Church has to deal with, giving more fluidity to that side of the religion theme.
Thank you!
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