There seems to be some confusion among some players as to who the Rakash Gods are and what their positions are. I wish to clarify once and for all. The Rakash have one God with three forms, Mrod, Enelne, and Coshivi. Mrod is not, and never has been a Herald. Period.

I really want to continue to develop the Rakash race with the broadest possible personal interpretation, however, changing what is released in the racial books is not acceptable.

I do read the Race board, every day.


GM Anji
Rakash Race Champ

pft.

Doesn't change my stance.

Though if Anji insists that I change my character's perception of the Pantheon I can easily write the Rakash gods into obscurity beneath the Immortals.

The stance that the Rakash Gods are Heralds comes from a theological pantheon in which BOTH the Immortals and the Western Dieties exist. If you follow the Eastern Pantheon, then Mrod, Coshivi, Enelne, Tenemlor, Eu, and Demrris don't exist. If you follow the western, the same goes for the Immortals. If you follow my Pantheon, all exist. I've just bundled it up into one easily explainable neat little bundle. But ah well, guess creativity IS frowned upon.

Fateweaver Meerc
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So I will pave this road till glory
Watches the broken spirit soar
Resignate with perfect reason
Shut life's last gloomy door
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Hundreds of toys for sale @
http://www.fateweaver.net/sales

>But ah well, guess creativity IS frowned upon.

Oh no, I smell a martyr. The problem is not your "creative" stance on the gods, but that you're advertising your little theory as fact, when clearly it is not. I'm sure Anji is simply trying to prevent you from misleading people to believe that this is anything other than your opinion.

In the future, you might have better luck if you season your posts liberally with phrases like "I think", "I believe" and "In my opinion".

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http://www.clawandfang.com

<<That doesn't mean that ICly you can't believe the Rakash/Prydaen Gods are actually Heralds...or that the Gods don't even exist at all.

Time Development Points: So and So Favors: Big Fat 0 for your whole career.

Characters who were rped as not believing in gods wouldn't last very long in DR unless they were non-combat Empaths or Moon Magi.

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Malkien the Barbarian has already been to the moon: that's why there are no signs of life there.
Apis the Cleric's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

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>But ah well, guess creativity IS frowned upon.

Nothing wrong with Creativity Meerc, as your thought process is pretty interesting on the subject, BUT, it does not mean it is fact. Your character may have his idea's on your theology base, but as was said, GM Anji wanted to cut this in the bud on an OOC board as she does not want disinformation to be spread which would be against what is IG truth. With her clarifying things, people whom want to go with what is fact can do so. If people want to use your theology idea, that is fine as well, as it would be an interesting debate.

As to east/west god idea's, well, actually they have co-existed. They just did not have worshipers in those area's. The Prydaen and Rakash, their religions are their own, and I cant really go into the Rakash god stuf, but on the Prydaen side, their gods were VERY active in their birth/instruction ect. The Prydaen are tied much more to their gods to their gods than perhaps the others, due to this. They had no reason to seek other gods and thus, never needed to learn of them. The 13 therefore would not have as much access to the Prydaen/Rakash due to that, does not mean they never existed, just that they had no influence. Same with the Prydaen/Rakash gods in the domains of the 13, the Prydaen gods did not care for the other races, thus do not attempt to convert followers, or instruct their own Kits to attempt to push their gods onto another. So, the Prydaen gods did not have influence in these lands, now they have influence as the Prydaen have come into these new lands, and their gods now share followers in the same regions of the furless.


Shakahn

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"You say to Alvy, "You, madam, are a peevish, rude-growing jolthead!"
>
Alvy says to you, "You, sir, are a lewd gnome-cruncher!"
>
Alvy laughs!

>The fact that the Prydaen/Rakash Gods are not part of the Thirteen already makes it heretical depending on your POV.

Howso? I find this whole discussion amusing in the fact that no one has taken into account that the vast majority of religion in Elanthia is a polytheism... the 13/39... and the Western gods are a polytheism, albeit a different type. If you want to take a step back in real life history, we can take a look at the Romans who embraced other polytheisms brought to them from other parts of the world. Only when, for example, Christianity was introduced it was considered heresy because it was a monotheism and they couldn't continue to embrace their other gods.


Ebil Cleric Bambina

Following the thirteen (this religion really needs a name) is just Kermoria's state religion. Nowhere does it say that any of the religions are mutually exclusive.

The Gorbesh even acknowledged that our gods exist in the same fashion as theirs do, and tried to sever our link to them by destroying our temples and altars.

<<Because, after all, playing a character that does not believe in the existence of gods still makes perfect sense when getting favors involves speaking your God's name, getting spoken to directly by a heavenly voice after witnessing several miraculous visions, and then sacrificing a part of your person to win this god's favor. Unless your character is completely hypocritical and you as a player turn a blind eye to what is actually going on when you acrue favors (no, no, didn't happen, nope nope), then there's no way to play a godless character with favors.>>

You can believe in the existence of entities known as Kertigen, Damaris, Meraud, etc., who have the ability to heal someone and return a dead person to life, without believing them necessarily to be gods.

We have plenty of examples of mortal clerics and empaths healing people and returning them to life, and we don't suddenly drop to the ground and begin worshipping them.

Yes, yes, the ability to Resurrect is given to them by the gods--in one interpretation. In another interpretation their power is their own, entirely magical rather than divine, and they only think it's coming from the gods because that's what they've been taught.

One of these days I'm going to write a long (and not technically "true" by IG standards, but defensible by the evidence) tract about how the eastern gods are not gods at all, but rather ancient surviving members of the Wizard-Kings, who have used magic to give themselves effective immortality (thus, they could be called the Immortals, if not the gods!), and who have set up a phony pantheon and religious system to aggrandize their own power. That they've gone so far as to rewrite history to include references to themselves far before they actually existed, pretending that they had something to do with events that they never really played a part in. And that, indeed, the only true gods are the Three: Eu, Demrris, and Tenemlor.

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Marksman Ahmir Nam'al

[pi]

>> If you want to take a step back in real life history, we can take a look at the Romans who embraced other polytheisms brought to them from other parts of the world.

Good point.

>> It simple means the church aknowledges the presence and power of the non-13 pantheon.

Also a good point.

It seems at the very least that these other Gods are being absorbed into the Thirteen. I wonder when people will start addressing them as the Fifteen instead? :P

>> I guess the real deal is that assuming everyone would be logical and follow through with their roleplay decisions is wrong.

Ahmir pretty much summed up my rebuttal for me.

As I said, if you think someone MUST believe in a God to get a favor, you are...not very creative.

After all, the fact is that "favor" seems to be a misnomer. They aren't the "favor" of a God at all. They are something physical. They DO something physical TO YOU. This is supported by messaging when you get a favor and the fact that favors can be drained and transferred with magic. Why would a God more or less allow their opinion of someone to be swayed by Necromancy? Humm...well, the possibilities are endless. I for one would encourage people to explore them.

Following this, it's possible to come to the conclusion that the way favor orbs are obtained is some kind of enchantment which requires you to invoke the name of a being which was either very powerful and influential in their time (perhaps they were considered Gods) or someone who simply became Immortal. There are things around to support either theory as well as others.

Point being there are so many ways to explain the "divine" in Elanitha that don't require believing in any God. Favors included. It's not really as clean-cut as people seem to think it is, it just takes a bit of thinking.

But hey if it makes you feel better to accuse me of being a bad or illogical roleplayer instead, have at it. It's not like we're here to be constructive or anything.

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Rev. Reene, player of a few

Niaura asks, "wat happen?"
>
You say to Niaura, "Someone set you up the bomb."

Err...not what you said, Bambina. I pretty much agree with your post, I hadn't thought of it from that perspective before.

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Rev. Reene, player of a few

Niaura asks, "wat happen?"
>
You say to Niaura, "Someone set you up the bomb."