[Discuss] The priest game

[Timothy Collett]

On Nov 21, 2007, at 11:49 AM, Alex wrote:
> I would think it more likely that it strikes a deathblow against  
> the few
> religions which are truly neutral.

I agree.

I'm really afraid that there's nothing in code that we can do to  
solve this.  I think that the only way to cull the religions that are  
purely designed to support a particular realm is, much as I know Tom  
hates this kind of idea any time it's mentioned, to actually have  
some people reviewing religions, their RP, their stated purpose, and  
their actions, and talking (IC under the guise of someone looking to  
join the religion, and OOC as themselves) to the leaders of the  
religions to determine how genuine they really are.

Just to be ultra-selfish and biased, let me take, for instance, the  
cases of Athonlaurism and the Way of the Hammer on Atamara.   
Athonlaurism was founded by me, and I have always intended it to be a  
multi-realm religion not tied to any particular government.  However,  
because no other realm was willing to trust it, it has remained  
almost exclusively in Minas Ithil, and many people think it's Minas  
Ithil's official state religion.  This despite the fact that its  
founder (my character Anton) has had many public clashes with King  
Dead Angel3 on various issues, and has repeatedly stated, in various  
forums, that he has no intention of ever making it the state religion  
of *any* realm.

The Way of the Hammer, on the other hand, is from everything I have  
been able to learn a religion entirely devoted to advancing the cause  
of Norland.  When Norland declared war on Minas Ithil however many  
months back, they announced that their Gods had decreed that Norland  
should take back all the lands once held by Hasland, and that their  
Gods wanted Norland to be a mighty power or something like that.   
Now, I don't particularly mean to offend anyone by this, and I may  
not have all the facts, but from this evidence, the Way of the Hammer  
seems like *exactly* the kind of by-the-state, for-the-state religion  
we really want to get rid of.

But there's no way for the game to know this.  And there's no way  
that I can see for the game to discourage participation in the Way of  
the Hammer or encourage participation in Athonlaurism simply because  
one is a state religion and one is not.  It can only be done by  
people--impartial, without an agenda (which obviously lets me out in  
this case)--who can pay attention to the RP and the words and actions  
of the different religions.  If we leave it up to the players,  
something like the vulgarity or protest buttons, you'll just end up  
with the people who are already in the state-run religions declaring  
religions opposing them as state-run religions whether they are or  
not, and their own religions as legitimate religions, because they  
want to support their realm--and because they may not know enough  
about other religions to tell the difference.

Timothy Collett
Anaris Family

--

"There is always choice.  We say there is no choice only to comfort  
ourselves with the decisions we have already made."
~ Lady Morella


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