Subject: The Way It Must Be Done (tm)
From: Ville V Sinkko (vsinkko@cc.helsinki.fi)
Date: Mon Jul 26 1999 - 19:57:19 EEST
I have a suggestion for a system, which enables the creation of a fluent system of deities and religion where mortals know nothing about true gods. When a mortal performs a deed of worship, sacrifice or prayer, information of the act is echoed to all Gods via a sort of channel. If a mortal performs a sacrifice to Fjongabol, the goddess of death, this deed is echoed to the Gods via this channel. The real God of death Yorkaturr notices this channel echo and concludes "hey, this looks like it was addressed to me" and proceeds to do whatever he chooses with/concerning the mortal. This system lays great importance on the portfolios of each god, and also makes it possible for mortals to create their own religions, equally mono- or polytheistical, which can concentrate in any kind of fictional gods. This system could also support what could be called "claiming": when a mortal decides to start worshipping Bingbong, the God of Flowers, one of the realGods may claim this fictional god as his incarnation. This would result in that the "channel echoes" would no longer reach any other god. This kind of functionality is however not necessary and in my opinion it would be a useless extra knot in what would otherwise be a perfectly open and unlimiting religion system. When I briefly described this system to Beregar, he presented this question: Suppose a mortal, a fraud who makes up a mock religious society for the sole purpose of getting money off gullible people. How do they fit in? The answer is: easily. When a religion is created, be it true or fake, there has to be a God. And this God has to have a portfolio. When the fraud makes up his religion, he has to make up the god and also the god's purpose and portfolio. In doing so, he basically insults the realGod who's portfolio the fake god's fake portfolio belongs to or overlaps with. The realGod can then do what he sees fit to the fraud. Naturally, if the realGod of Cunning sees this act on the "channel", he may like it and award the player somehow. Or wage a private flame war against the insulted realGod over what to do. -- 65 Zn "On meurt a moins!" 30
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