Gods, domains, aspects, RP

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Delia
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Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#1 Post by Delia » Wed Apr 04, 2012 6:22 am

I've been thinking that most things that happen around the divine seem to be sometimes somewhat narrowly defined. I'll use Asral as an example as the war god is one of the potentially interesting ones given his involvement with the humans. Humans having been give birth by Sathonys and reborn in Asral and all that. Also given the apparent secularism that seems to be going on I feel there is room for the Gods to fill more than just the one function defined by their major aspect to their followers.

Asral, the god war is also a god providing fire. So how do these two things show in the daily lives of non-clerics? Fire is powerful as both a tool and a symbol. It is also a basic necessity one requires, providing light, shelter, industry and agriculture. It can also be seen as the very source where the "new humans" were forged in, representing the very hardships they been through and prevailing. Fire also wards off darkness and cold, the very forces that the grave offered by Sathonys represent. Very powerful primal imagery here left untapped, IMHO.

And this is just scratching the surface. I'd welcome views about all this in general as there must be some interesting thoughts about gods out there.
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luminier
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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#2 Post by luminier » Wed May 09, 2012 10:31 am

There is strong imagery for a few of the gods I think...

Evren is easy because it can be associated with wildlife, plants, growth, fertility, and the natural free choice and basically anything that can be associated with anything of the above.

Taniel stands for Light (light can be used similarly to fire, wards against darkness and one I like to use is a path of light and off the path is darkness... the path is always visible no matter how far you stray, if you walk off you can always walk back with a mind for repentance) Order/Law (obviously the ying to the yang of Chaos, without order people become restless and chaotic, they lose their sense of self, their vision becomes clouded with savagery and barbaism, things that "civilized" people take for granted like relationship, morals and vanquished and the only thing that matters is the basics of life, kill eat sleep. Life is not sacred)

I don't really think I am much qualified to talk about other gods, but there is hopefully some information here to get the brain working. Although I admit there is not much imagery, just words.
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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#3 Post by Yngwe » Wed May 09, 2012 11:46 am

Are we talking about some sort of boost to followers (Taniels get one level of glow in the dark, Asrals gain health restore boost from resting near bonfire, Evrens get boost in herbing or alchemy, etc.)?

Or do you mean in the RP of characters between them and other characters?

Already in RP some refer to certain things like light or the name of their god or whatever in greetings or partings...

Something other than this perhaps?

Oh! Almost forgot this one too... in cleric and some other mindcalls the reflections of the gods who are the source of power for the mindcall is represented to a degree too.

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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#4 Post by Allurana » Wed May 09, 2012 7:53 pm

I think Delia means symbolically, not literally.

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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#5 Post by Delia » Thu May 10, 2012 2:58 am

Yeah, no actual bonuses or such is the intent of this thread, just talk. What would be nice is that if one types, for example, 'help asral' there would not read "the god of war" but eventually how common folk relate to that god and stuff. Also a shared player understanding about how things are viewed would be nice, IMHO, as we've been picking up things as we go.
"To be is to do" - Sokrates
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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#6 Post by Allurana » Thu May 10, 2012 7:54 pm

Before Asral gets complete credit for fire, though, I'll point out that Lilith has influence over that element as well. And while I can't remember at the moment, isn't it Lilith that has a drop of fire as her holy symbol?

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Delia
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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#7 Post by Delia » Fri May 11, 2012 3:41 am

I think Lilith's symbol was the gaping maw thingy?

Anyways, I do not see it as problematic if both Asral and Lilith share fire. Their main aspects are still different. Fire is common enough to be shared by many. How the little people, the followers, the ones who really matter see things is the point here. Sure we as players see tags like 'chaos', 'life', 'water' and so on but how do our characters interpret it all? Or the world filled with invisible NPC's? How do they manage things in their daily lives?
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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#8 Post by luminier » Fri May 11, 2012 9:42 am

on the site, it does have liliths symbol as a drop of fire. it also says she is the goddess of chaos and darkness strangely enough.

asrals symbol is that axe shaped symbol. though IG liliths symbol of faith is a spiderweb collar.
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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#9 Post by Arthur » Sat May 19, 2012 6:46 am

I love the idea of Asral being also a god of industry and not just of war. The axe can also be used as such since it is needed to fell the trees to produce the lumber that is used in all construction. This idea also fits in very well with the crafting and trading activites that are mostly centred on Arborea.

In a similar vein, would that make Zhakrin the patron of miners?

Perhaps we could do with some more associations for Gwen, whose domains according to the help file include love and balance, both of which are fairly abstract concepts. Is she, or could she be, the patron of some of the arts such as poetry and music? I'm not sure whether the Skalds already have some other association with the deities.

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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#10 Post by Zehren » Sat May 19, 2012 3:29 pm

Arthur wrote:Perhaps we could do with some more associations for Gwen, whose domains according to the help file include love and balance, both of which are fairly abstract concepts. Is she, or could she be, the patron of some of the arts such as poetry and music? I'm not sure whether the Skalds already have some other association with the deities.
Gwen already is the patron of the Arts :)

You ask Denma[female half-elf] in Common: gwen
Denma[female half-elf] says in Common: Gwen is the goddess of Love.
Denma[female half-elf] says in Common: She is the patron of the fine
arts.
Denma[female half-elf] says in Common: The muse of the poets.
Denma[female half-elf] says in Common: Gwen loves everything and
everyone, even the sinners.
Denma[female half-elf] says in Common: There is no sin she can't
forgive you
Denma[female half-elf] says in Common: Her symbol is a golden
heart.
Drayn wrote:Zehren, the Karmassassin!

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Re: Gods, domains, aspects, RP

#11 Post by ewelyn » Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:19 pm

I am not really sure here but..

Asral faith doesn't necessarily relate to fire in the "make campfire/safety/ward off wild animals" sense. I think it is more like "burning arrow/hot steel" type of fire, the one which is related to war.

According to history it was "...in response to their call, a storm of fire fell from the sky...". It makes sense to assume this is the primary connection with fire (in the symbolical sense) for humans. Something which happened after the Arborean conversion to Asral. Of course after this event, fire was probably induced into society as something special - but I do not think the history was that humans used fire since ancient times and therefore it was included.

So in that regard, fire would almost be something unnatural and godly rather than everyday and natural. Which would sort of explain the Lilith aspect as well.. But it could surely be included as a sort of praise to Asral from the every day life.

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