[Discuss] Religion that Matters

[Anthony Cerqueira]

On 1/5/08, Tom Vogt <tom at lemuria.org> wrote:
>
> Jeremy Steingraber schrieb:
> > In order for priests to achieve the sort of power that Tom talks about
> they need to have more tools available to influence the peasants.  Currently
> priests can only affect morale (and loyalty a tiny amount).  What they need
> to do is to be able to influence (in small, slowly accumulating increments)
> their opinions about other realms, and their want or dislike of war.
> >
>
> Priests can already affect sympathy towards any realm.
>
>
> > **From my experience; religions tend to be greatly realm-centric: One or
> two religions in a realm: restrictions or outright bans on creating new
> religions, and of course the forbidding of preaching in allied lands.  This
> means that state effectively controls the growth of the religion, without
> outright rebellion by the priests this effectively shuts down the
> "influence" of religion.
> >
>
> That is the core problem. That some king, who often isn't even a member
> of the religion, effectively controlls it. I want _some_ power of the
> judges/kings over priests, as priests should not be totally independent,
> but right now the balance is off.



Lack of fear in God. Or more specifically, lack of the peasants fearing in
God, and then overthrowing the king. I'm sure lots of kings told their
priests to shut up, but it was the threat of unrest that stopped such. The
thing is, that kind of power came from the fact that the church was wide
spread and the governments were not, because the cathloic church spread with
the roman empire which all the countries collapsed out of.

If say Sirion all followed the faith BOB and then fell apart, the head of
the church would have a considerable sway on the reminants. Given the nature
of kingdoms and faiths in pre empire situations, which is what BM is rather
like, there usually wasn't a lot of cross boarder faiths. Each country had
their gods and when one tookover the other they brought their gods along.
Other faiths were either tolerated, exterminated, or incoperated depending
on the need/want/efficiency of
assimilation. You did get small cults and practices if foreigners
colonized but that was not usually as big as the national faith.


You konw we might be going about this the wrong
way. Rulers in BM don't want other faiths because they can be used as
a weapon by their rivals
even though ic wise that might not fit. Strat wise no gain, all loss since
religions with any content to them are rp
tools. Since kingdoms are isolated
from the outside, except for guilds, faiths, and governments, it's
hard for joe knight to learn of other faiths or just ideas period.
National type
exchanges make no sense, but two boarder provinces should certainly
know of each other more then the distant capitol.


One thing, trade brings more then just stuff, it brings outsiders. You to
get multiple religions in one place if people from outside often visit
bringing things, and happen to stay for a bit, or even live there. You
either put up with them or don't trade, so maybe less gold as the background
trade number is cut off. It is said religions leech into the other areas,
but right now that's seen as a bad thing, work for priests. What if the
ruler had to choose, trade and put up with the foreign practices, or no
trade and they're much reduced?
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