[Discuss] Religions

[Timothy Collett]

On Mar 8, 2007, at 9:20 AM, Karl Greenley wrote:
>  You want to try to be progressive, open your borders to more than
> one religion? Fine, but you're going to have to fight tooth and nail
> to keep the peace because they're not going to be satisfied with a
> smaller tithe pool for long. And when they think you're not giving
> them their due or listening to their demands, they'll become a
> liability very quickly.
>
>  Religion was and is a powerful political force- I think the current
> rules seem to be coing a good job of letting that play out.

What you are saying is the *exact opposite* of what is happening.

You speak of religion as having great power: in the game, the only  
real power a religion has is to influence the minds of the peasantry,  
and priests can't do that all that well until they've been at it for  
a very long time.

Religions, while it is hard to destroy them outright (though far from  
impossible), exist at the sufferance of realms.  If the realm a  
priest is in decides it doesn't like his religion, it can simply ban  
him.  So then he has to go find another realm...but all the other  
realms in the immediate vicinity already have state religions,  
founded for the express purpose of protecting the realm from other  
religions--they're not going to let him in!

So the problem here is not that religions have a lot of power, but  
that realms only want them if they are going to give a guarantee that  
they'll support them in any war...and if all the realms in one area  
decide they don't want that religion (perhaps because it's a solidly- 
roleplayed, politically-neutral religion that actually believes in  
following its divine principles rather than any human demands) it's  
pretty much screwed.

Timothy Collett
Anaris Family

--

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