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I think the groundwork has already been laid for these sorts of ongoing public penances.

Would it be possible to adopt a simple uniform as a form of temporary branding for those in the process of atoning for some sin? (Thinking TI's equivalent of scarlet letters, hair shirts, dunce caps).

If you post on IC boards, start rumors, possibly put IC Event notices for the really heinous offenders, plus visibly mark them for the duration of their penance, I think that should be sufficient for proving that an individual is in hot water with the church. And maybe the rest of society doesn't need to shun said individual, but you can always include special instructions for the faithful in your IC statements.



Circling back to the original post, while I still stand by the idea of excommunication being a final straw kind of thing, I believe the church should already have the authority to penalize the unrepentant in some of the ways suggested. They should have enough pull to remove someone from public office, or to search or seize a person's property, etc. if of sufficient rank or acting upon a higher-ranked official's authority.

It may require some politicking with other guilds and individuals to see it work, and there's a high likelihood of anger and discomfort from the playerbase at large (because, let's face it, being caught on the losing end of an unfair situation never feels good even when it's fictional), but I still think it's doable if players can remain respectful of one another and, you know, hold each other accountable when it comes to common decency in tense situations.

As for "making the church scary again," I think that should be a side effect of improving consistency, not a goal in and of itself. Knowing what power you wield, and feeling comfortable using (perhaps, occasionally, abusing) that power should go a long way in bringing the fear of the church back to characters/players - but I don't want to see a church that is such a big bully or so blatantly corrupt that mages win the sympathy vote.

Bennie wrote:What should the coercive powers of bishops and ecclesiastical authority in theme be?

I created an IC book called the Book of Penances to address this with all sorts of yummy ideas in it. Please have a look there? Feel free to suggest additions also.

Kinaed wrote:

Bennie wrote:What should the coercive powers of bishops and ecclesiastical authority in theme be?

I created an IC book called the Book of Penances to address this with all sorts of yummy ideas in it. Please have a look there? Feel free to suggest additions also.

I have read the book of penances, and it is a wonderful resource. However, most of the content deals with specific isolated punishments that deal with this behavior or that. My main concern is that there is a large gap between whipping and branding and excommunication. When dealing with habitual heretics/those who more or less ignore Church authority, especially they possess positions of power, it is difficult for me to consider a simply scourging to suffice.

I am hoping to foster more long lasting and meaningful punishments that exist before the ultimate step of excommunication (since we have set excommunication as a last step and soft pkill sort of act). I liked what Inertia had to say about allowing the Church to specifically denounce public persons to bar them from high office or place excommunication-esque conditions on them for a period of time without actually excommunicating them.

In other words, when dealing with a public and habitual heretic, I am wondering what sort of constant conditions I can place them under or if I have to resort to repeated beatings and warnings before escalating all the way to excommunication. I suppose this was my ultimate point in trying to soften, or at least introduce degrees of excommunication to the game. After the point of physical punishment has passed, the tool box is quite empty until one has to make the decision to cleanse/excommunicate an individual, which I don't think anyone wants to see save for in the most dire of consequences.