Geas

Hi,

As it came up to me not too long ago IC, I've again been pondering the point of 'faith in multiple deities'. It's a concept that eludes me a bit, or at least one I do not see to be very rewarding and I'd like your input on this, how you handle this, how you see that in an RP way.

My issue is as follows: I can see a char accepting (or tolerating) multiple deities, but I can't see them sacrificing to more then their own. For example, if my char follows Asral, I can not see him sacrificing to Taniel or Sathonys. Why should he do it? His faith lies with Asral and Asral alone.

Yet I see plenty of people who do believe in more then one deity and sacrifice to them regularly. How do you see this? Is it like to favour two deities equally but giving one the advantage of worship? Paying respect to another deity?

By the way, I can see the 'respect' thing, if you sacrifice to a deity for help rendered by their clergy or some of their followers (for example, a druid cures you, you sacrifice to Evren to thank for their existence. A asral cleric gives his life to aid you, you sacrifice to Asral to honor the fallen clerics bravery).

poGlorfindel

As a Crusader, especially a leader of the Crusaders, I try to have good favour with both Taniel and Evren since the guild favours both of them.

Luminier follows Taniel but sacrifices to Evren pretty regularly.

I've always been interested in the fact that perhaps you can "follow" multiple deities but I think this would only work with Taniel and Evren. For whatever reason they are seen as allies of the Light even though Evren doesn't necessarily stand for Light, she just stands for Life and Creation and free will.

If you are looking from an RP sense I agree with you, only one deity should be followed, but as you said respect can be given to other gods. However one might argue that while you respect a God, doesn't mean you have to "betray" your own and sacrifice with both gods.

Beyond the whole Crusader "special issue" I would say sacrificing to multiple gods is strange.

As a side note, I don't think Crusaders should be punished for switching from Taniel to Evren or Evren to Taniel.... so difficult to roleplay that IMO.

Uh...
...I don't understand the question...

Signed,
poYngwe, the Islamic Catholic Jewish Protestant Christian Agnostic Dyslexic Athiest who dabbles in Rastifarian, Wikkan, Buddhist and Antidisestablismentarianism rituals.

[Probably means instead of making all gods happy, I'm just going to all their hells.]

Faith multiple Deities is generla possible, so long you do not try to get faith
form two deity who are enimies.

Taniel and Evren is no problem. But Taniel and Sathonys is a bad Idea.

An other point is the the deity you current worship does not like that you have more faith from an other deity.

In seriousness (as contrasted with my attempt at humor in the earlier post), in real life cultures in which there is a pantheon of gods, praying and sacrificing to different gods at different times depending on the circumstances and purpose for the prayers is not uncommon. If I understand some of those cultures at all (there is a great possibility that I don't understand them well) it is not abnormal for folks to have their favorite god among the pantheon too. So I think things on Geas are not too far from reasonable the way they are.

I definitely agree that alignment should be the determining factor if one is to choose to sacrifice to other gods other than the one they're following.

Asral followers might have more options or less, depending on how they RP their character, since they're kinda in on the darker side of middle. Gwennies too, but the other way, since they're kinda on the lighter side of middle.

I donno. Just how I've been seeing things as I've played someone who tries to be faithful to his god but resentful (but respectful) of the gods in favor of mortals.

glorfindel wrote:Hi,

By the way, I can see the 'respect' thing, if you sacrifice to a deity for help rendered by their clergy or some of their followers (for example, a druid cures you, you sacrifice to Evren to thank for their existence. A asral cleric gives his life to aid you, you sacrifice to Asral to honor the fallen clerics bravery).

poGlorfindel

I think 'for good luck' would be easy to justify as well. For example, sacrificing to Asral before fighting in a big battle, to Gwen for help in romance, to Lilith before an axe murder spree, etc.

I would envision following Asral, for instance, as being devoted to war. That doesn't mean necessarily that someone wouldn't pay some homage to life or chaos or whatnot. Of course the individual deities may be more or less jealous about their followers beliefs.

Eh. Allow me to use Skragna as an example. He worships Taniel, and Taniel alone. He keeps Evren close to his heart, however, also sacrificing to her from time to time, often in response to getting a disease cured. He still pays homage to Asral, but no longer gives the Warlord heads.

This old post might be useful:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=771

Wow, thank you Rafael. that clears up everything!

Geas faith is weird. For starters, it's not really faith. The characters KNOW their gods exist, they can see their direct effect on the world (stuff like ressurection) and priests can measure their presence. So faith is really the wrong word or at least faith in the existence of the god is.

I see geas religion as more of an agreement with that deities goal for the universe. Tanielites see an orderly and lawful utopia, Asralites see a glorious battle field utopia, Lilithites see...well, nothing, too dark

But anyhoo, it's not a case of believing in the god, so much as what they stand for. As has been mentioned, certain deities are incompatible, where others complement one another quite nicely.

Taniel and Evren often seem to go together but their creedos are wildly different. One is order and structure, the other freedom, but, that doesn't mean they don't compliment one another. Taniel sets rules, Evren grants freedom, this actually creates a lovely balance where people are able to do as they please, but are responsible for doing it. One way to look at it is that law without freedom is tyranny (You have to do everything that is said, because there is no choice) and freedom without law is anarchy (you can do whatever the hell you like and no one can stop you because they have no basis for doing so). There is a middle ground between pretty much every deity, granted there is precious little between the dichotomous deities (Taniel and Lilith would have next to zero, as would Sathonys and Evren).

But anyhoo, there can be combinations that result in forces that no single deity is responsible for. Taniel and Evren buddy up to make responsibility for example. Taniel and Sathonys would buddy up to make corporal punishment. Sathonys and Gwen would buddy up to make Romeo and Juliet

But back to multiple worship. You pick the deity (or deities) that best fit your hope for the future, but you can't help but favour one above the other, this might change or fluctuate from time to time, but there will always be one that's just a little bit more relevant to your life.