Wthdrawn.

[Marlon P.]

Withdrawing suggestion.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Marlon P.

[Montyfatcat]

I was actually considering working on this very topic and making a doc of things I think might change (based on current shifts in religions) in irl religions. Some things include Abrahamic faiths as a whole getting more progressive on certain issues, since we've established in lore that they're no longer considered issues i.e gay people. Others would pose questions that would honestly be best answered by people of those faiths such as would the Jewish belief of Pikuach Nefesh extend to augmented prosthetics, to my understanding it would but perhaps someone could interject to explain how it's more nuanced. Regarding more naturalist religions like Wicca, how have they adapted to the species going pan-galactic? These questions are ones that could theoretically be inoffensively answered, and be relevant to lore. It's not like these religions would stay static for 400+ years from the point of divergence.

[Marlon P.]

Thank you for replying!

It sounds like you want to see our contemporary religions evolved to a new form, but it's still recognizable?

On one end of the spectrum where my preference is, its like Star Sector's Church of Ludd. It gestures towards being abrahamic but it is wildly homebrewed. The other end wouls be mormons in Fallout: New Vegas, where it's a 1:1 -- through its titular Joshua Graham.

You seem to be on the more NV side of the spectrum? Judaism -- in SPACE!

Lol im being silly at the end there; let me know if i got you down right 

[Tagada]

My two cents:

We ignore alien religions too. The issue with religion as an element of roleplay is that the Horizon is a workplace - we're roleplaying working in a workplace - that's progressive and like most corporate environments, gives literally no shits about your religion so long as it doesn't become a productivity issue. This is a standard mindset that most of us are intimately familiar with through life and media, one that we adhere to in everyday life (all religious are fine so long as it stays a private subject) which means that in roleplay, religious interaction is more or less naturally restricted to people who share a faith.

There's plenty of dominian religious rp going on - between dominians. (I play a dommie chaplain, for reference) There's plenty of tajaran psuedo-religious RP going on - between tajaran faithful. We even have one or two rare catholic priests who actually have one or two classic catholics in the crew as clients. We have a surprising amount of elyrans, most of whom are religious to some degree and RP about it. We have several Scarabs, all of whom also roleplay about their stuff.

For me, the issue isn't as much with humans not having a religion, rather that humans aren't a single race bound by a single religion like the aliens. Humanity is very, very varied and because of this, your standard non-elyran, non-dominian, non-scarab has little to no chance of finding someone who has the same religion as they do. So most people just don't bother with it. Which is why it seems as though they have no religion. Because humanity has never had a single unifying faith - and aliens having religions that cover whole races is a touch unrealistic.

Add to this that the chaplain role as such is mostly a meme meant to prop up some cult gimmicks and it's not hard to see why there isn't any sort of major spiritual life going on outside the established religions that cover whole populations and that have players playing them.

 

[Marlon P.]

7 hours ago, Tagada said:

My two cents:

We ignore alien religions too. The issue with religion as an element of roleplay is that the Horizon is a workplace - we're roleplaying working in a workplace - that's progressive and like most corporate environments, gives literally no shits about your religion so long as it doesn't become a productivity issue. This is a standard mindset that most of us are intimately familiar with through life and media, one that we adhere to in everyday life (all religious are fine so long as it stays a private subject) which means that in roleplay, religious interaction is more or less naturally restricted to people who share a faith.

There's plenty of dominian religious rp going on - between dominians. (I play a dommie chaplain, for reference) There's plenty of tajaran psuedo-religious RP going on - between tajaran faithful. We even have one or two rare catholic priests who actually have one or two classic catholics in the crew as clients. We have a surprising amount of elyrans, most of whom are religious to some degree and RP about it. We have several Scarabs, all of whom also roleplay about their stuff.

For me, the issue isn't as much with humans not having a religion, rather that humans aren't a single race bound by a single religion like the aliens. Humanity is very, very varied and because of this, your standard non-elyran, non-dominian, non-scarab has little to no chance of finding someone who has the same religion as they do. So most people just don't bother with it. Which is why it seems as though they have no religion. Because humanity has never had a single unifying faith - and aliens having religions that cover whole races is a touch unrealistic.

Add to this that the chaplain role as such is mostly a meme meant to prop up some cult gimmicks and it's not hard to see why there isn't any sort of major spiritual life going on outside the established religions that cover whole populations and that have players playing them.

 

I actually agree. Factions are extremely segregated and there's no syncreticism in them. It's almost a faux pas to play a christain unathi or a Sk'akh tajara. The interplay between faiths is extremely barren. We can see how people do enjoy syncretic cultures -- dominia is the only (problematic) example of blended faiths, with its human and unathi ideas meeting, melding, and creating something new.

What would it look like if we reinvigorated the human faiths? How many do you think we should have?

Edited July 14, 2022 by Marlon P.

[Tagada]

"Re-invigorating" in this case would mean retroactively changing lore to include new (but old), interstellar religions. It would mean retconning the lore about contemporary real-world religions that already exists. These new faiths would need to have a theme and rules that are engaging enough to people to RP about and fleshed out lore that interacts with the story so far. There'd need to be at the very, very least three of them.

While a nice thought, it is also very unlikely to happen. I struggle to think of anything short of that, that could accomplish what you want - I feel that more lore added on top of old wouldn't actually solve anything and that changing the corporate outlook vis a vis religions would change the theme of the game itself too much.

 

Perhaps religion should be left as it is - a shared system of cultural references for people who have that aspect of their background in common.

[DeadLantern]

12 hours ago, Tagada said:

Rather that humans aren't a single race bound by a single religion like the aliens. 

 

There is not a single alien race that only has one religion to choose from. Unathi have four religions (Sk'akh, Si'akh, Aut'akh, and Th'akh) which offers similar religious contrast to humans.

 

[Marlon P.]

1 hour ago, DeadLantern said:

There is not a single alien race that only has one religion to choose from. Unathi have four religions (Sk'akh, Si'akh, Aut'akh, and Th'akh) which offers similar religious contrast to humans

I think the point is more so 4 vs our hundreds, which then splinter into thousands.

[Marlon P.]

4 hours ago, Tagada said:

"Re-invigorating" in this case would mean retroactively changing lore to include new (but old), interstellar religions. It would mean retconning the lore about contemporary real-world religions that already exists. These new faiths would need to have a theme and rules that are engaging enough to people to RP about and fleshed out lore that interacts with the story so far. There'd need to be at the very, very least three of them.

We have meta-server historical precedence. Entire star nations emerge out of the aether, and entire new religions have also emerged out of the aether for existing factions.

As well, do you think we'd have to remove the existing faiths? What could be the balance to keep them present while transitioning the focus to our 3 big human faiths? What do you think about implementing homebrewed while letting people play the usuals? 

4 hours ago, Tagada said:

Perhaps religion should be left as it is - a shared system of cultural references for people who have that aspect of their background in common.

Because i do want this and think what we have doesnt do it too much. People grasp at the scraps of humanity faith we have. I really think it would reinvigorate this element of roleplay.

As for whether it would happen -- that's up to the community! You know - us

Edited July 15, 2022 by Marlon P.

[Kintsugi]

6 hours ago, Marlon P. said:

Because i do want this and think what we have doesnt do it too much. People grasp at the scraps of humanity faith we have. I really think it would reinvigorate this element of roleplay.

Why do you, personally, want this change? And what is the basis that you make the claim that what we have is insufficient for the playerbase?

[Marlon P.]

7 hours ago, DanseMacabre said:

Why do you, personally, want this change? And what is the basis that you make the claim that what we have is insufficient for the playerbase?

Sorry man i don't understand the question?