| Archive for purgatory.myfreeforum.org Maelstrom LRP Forum for Eidolons |
| Justice |
Faith..Its aptly named and titled.. Faith is an interesting word indicating some sort of belief..What is there in life with out belief.. Discuss in a mailstrom type of way 
My personal view is we know the gods exist, however do you believe in them? I dont!! I am one mwahahaaha!
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| Bacon |
Faith is a bit of an odd one even for loyal Idleones. I mean, we get told what the Gods want, but even for us, the rest of it is left up to faith.
My character absolutely believes that the goddess loves her, because she keeps manifesting creepy blessed powers. However, OOC I'm not sure that I, as a less zealous person, would find that anywhere near proof enough to justify all the horrible things the character gets up to in the name of God. |
| Illithidbix |
I’ve had a lot of fun dealing with the whole Faith game with my character.
In the Maelstrom world the issue of Faith isn’t really one about whether the Gods exists, since there is so much empirical evidence that they do, Loyal Eidolons performing Holy duties, delivering blessings and commandments in response to the prayers and supplications of the followers is one. An atheist isn’t going to have much luck going up to a devotee who is blessed by their god with Holy Superpowers(tm) and trying to prove their god doesn't exist, for one thing it’s quite hard to deny the reality of the Gods when you shoot that Huntress-following bitch in the face and the bullet hits you instead. The religions of Maelstrom aren’t primarily cosmologically orientated, the Faith and church briefing sheets are very scare on details such as creation myths and the nature and limitations of the Gods. Instead the Faiths are fundamentally ethical systems, guiding devotees on what the Right and Wrong way to live their lives are. So instead in Maelstrom, most questions of Faith are about *who* or what is Right. The religions in Maelstrom are also nicely vague and broad, allowing for conflicting opinions on which interpretation is correct and who exactly is following their God's tenants more correctly, esp when both parties frequently receive Divine aid from the same source… And although there seems little scope in dealing with questions of whether the Gods exist, there is plenty of scope with very interesting questions about *what* exactly the Gods are. And for the record, OC, yeah I think you guys (Aestar, Vengeance, Justice and the rest of da Fallen krew) are rather closer to the truth than we are, but then Varas could beat me up in a fight. There are lots of nice potential areas of conflict between the different faiths, for although the Faiths aren’t inherently contradictory, indeed the default assumption being most people are religious god fearing people who view all five (or ten…) as being holy beings, there are times when the commandments of the Gods do seem to contradict each other, esp if you follow certain commandments to their logical conclusion. Matt P (who can stun buffalo with his reasonableness) posted something on pagga about how the Faith’s in maelstrom works a while back, read and be enlightened. http://www.pagga.net/cgi-bin/vBul...ost.php?p=237677&postcount=83 So despite the Gods being apparently undeniable beings, there are still lots of opportunity for questions, conflicts and crisis of Faith in Maelstrom. In fact you could go as far as to say PD seems to be encouraging it… funny that. [boring froth about my character] I’ve had about 4 crises of Faith with Varas When he first arrived in the new world, Varas believed that Eidolons where incredibly holy beings, far closer to the Gods than any mortal, with powers unlimited by pathetic mortal constraints… as such he was also utterly confused about how any Eidolon could possibly turn from the Gods and become fallen. … Then he actually met some. And he suffered something of a shock after that as a few Eidolons casually informed him that some of the central beliefs taught by his church (which he had wholeheartedly accepted) where rather wrong. The second was due to a certain naughty Eidolon, who posed some very awkward questions regarding damnation and redemption, in particular whether one who is apparently utterly damned could rejoin the light (bitch…  )
The third was after a quite monumental and climatic event which Varas just managed to survive and kinda scraped a very costly victory but was uncertain about whether his survival was in fact a blessing or a curse from the Merchant. The fourth was after a bunch of apparently insane “divine commandments” where delivered by a certain (ex)loyal which looked like they’d result in a massive civil war amongst the faithful, with allies on both sides, being forced to chose between his friends amongst another faith, and the majority of the devotees of his faith. I’ve had a lot of fun roleplaying with them, and being guided back on track/asray by various Angels and Demons, even if the characters didn’t realise what they where doing at the time. Amusingly it seems for the most part the angels are somewhat better at shaking Varas’ faith than the demons are… [/boring froth about my character] From my experience I think the fundamental trick to playing a fun religious zealot is not to play a two-dimensional character who is absolutely certain that he is right, instead play someone who is *almost* certain that they are right. Although of course their is a simple joy in being able to respond to complex and delicate moral situations by shouting "The Gods Will it!" and then hitting people. |
| William Burke |
Faith in the divine beings of Terra Nobilis then seems to be a faith in how the universe should be optimally organised.
Each devotee being drawn to the world view that most closely approximates their own. Law vs Justice, Community vs Individuality, Inspiration vs Toil, etc. |
| Justice |
"for one thing it’s quite hard to deny the reality of the Gods when you shoot that Huntress-following bitch in the face and the bullet hits you instead."
oh bacon is he talking about you??? i thought u were a fairy??? "Law vs Justice" ooooh he mentioned me too
Pah faith and belief are always questionable.. Its certainty that counts
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| Ezhno Ohanzee |
For me I find playing a religious Zealot extremly hard when I have chosen my particular kind of religious zealot to play, which is to use reason and utter cold logic as to why I should do tremendously awful things, while still playing a moral character who denies it by force of faith.
Moreover though, I find stroms religious beleif is something to complement your character (even if a zealot) rather than be the sole driving force behind it. With all things the Fallen seem to be a great group to use as example. Paladin 1 hates the fallen as they are evil! He justifies his action by his faith in the teacher, for there to be order there must be chaos to be opposed, the evil to the good, he is good they are evil and anything touched by them are evil because they are outside of order and uses this excuse to smack the pirates as its obvious they harbour the fallen as, well... you know, there Pirates! Scummy Weaverite 2 makes freinds with the fallen as its the most imaginative thing to do, they are evil yes, but the best way to avoid being gutted is to be to close and freindly to be so, and hell he might just convert them Bonus points! Savage Ant Native could'nt care less about the Fallen, except as proof they are the product of false Gods to weak to keep control of their servents so everyone who serves these gods must be purged then makes freinds with Fallen anyways as they are clearly strong enough to resist these gods, and hell he might just convert them..... |
| Illithidbix |
[random pointless thought]
Mmm, crisis of Faith... it's like angst, but less whinny! [/random pointless thought] |