In-Universe Religion

[darkgod]

Or Urh'Rok is way stronger than each single eyal god. Or it's just random ? or different for every planet.

As for humans: our humans cant do magic and such and have not had the same history as eyal ones. I dont see why they should evole the same way, or have philosophies that tend to the same ends

[Red]

Not philosophy, psychology. If you hurt an Earth human, they'll take steps to avoid being hurt again. If you hurt an Eyal human, they'l do the same. Stimulus and response. And everything in game points towards the same basic psychology being present among most of the humanoid races, not just humans.

[Father] didn't make the Sher'Tul. Then again, mad scientist destroyed by its own creation... Maybe Eyalite gods are just that crazy deity in the mansion overlooking the sleepy little village.

[darkgod]

Not philosophy, psychology. If you hurt an Earth human, they'll take steps to avoid being hurt again. If you hurt an Eyal human, they'l do the same. Stimulus and response. And everything in game points towards the same basic psychology being present among most of the humanoid races, not just humans.

I fail to see how belief in a god is a basic need of the human body or mind..

[Father] didn't make the Sher'Tul. Then again, mad scientist destroyed by its own creation... Maybe Eyalite gods are just that crazy deity in the mansion overlooking the sleepy little village.

Wut ??

[astreoth]

huh knew that most of the other player races like halflings, elves, and dwarves were ripped off of gerlyk's human design but wasn't sure if the sher'tul came before or not good to know its before.

you know you can have spirituality and religion without gods right which considering the slim pickings of gods on eyal and a people accustomed to worship with very distinct effects like breathing fire, that you wouldn't get with a faith based made up god religion, I think its safe to say the closest thing to a god the common people on eyal could worship would be if they decided to name the semi-sentient nature mind wilder's borrow power from.

[Red]

Considering how many people are religious in the actual world, it's not a universal need or if it is, one that always must be filled by religion, but it's certainly something a lot of people want.

Eyal's gods (or at least the Sher'Tul creator) are basically mad scientists who were killed by their own creations. Gone Horribly Right.

Astreoth, that does seem to make the most sense. With gods dead and not known, and the causes of a lot things being explainable as "magic", nature does make sense to worship. After all, it provides everything people need to survive, especially in a place like Derth. And with the various corrupted creatures, that'd blunt the sharper edge of nature. You forget that normal wolves are perfectly willing to kill you and eat you in your sleep when horrors from beyond are doing so much worse.

[astreoth]

yeah I know natures cold and uncaring its just the closest thing to a major religion eyal has outside of celestial worship in the east so if people really want religion so much then its either nature or some kind of defiler cult. not really trying to push it or argue for it or anything its just the only real answer to your question of what the average Joe on the mainland worships.

their might be some racial beliefs that fill the gap your talking about but all I know about the races creation myths are

humans believe their the first of the lesser races to follow after the sher'tul and that the later ones were based on them

halflings believe they are the sibling race of the sher'tul destined to inherit their power and the only race fit to rule

dwarves believe that they are the last race to be made and all others are prototypes on the road to their perfection

pretty sure theirs elven historical accounts of their races birth and the god hunt but can't remember more about it right now

pretty sure theirs a few other myths floating around but can't remember them off the top of my head.

[0player]

It is not a basic human need but it greatly simplifies the emotinal and existential burden. The ability to talk isn't required in the modern society either, yet it is considered more convenient than other verbal methods of communication.
Whatever one's stance towards religion is, one must admit that they aren't invented by some evil mastermind and are a product of population. So they are natural.

[darkgod]

Other gods didnt rip off gerlyk "designs". Uh, why would you think that ?? Humans are certainly not the "origin" race or whatever.

[PurpleXVI]

Considering how many people are religious in the actual world, it's not a universal need or if it is, one that always must be filled by religion, but it's certainly something a lot of people want.

I think it's more arguable that what people want is meaning greater than "live, eat, breathe, die" to life, rather than religion, yeah. And if they don't see that meaning in secular philosophy, they find it in religion. Most broadly accepted secular philosophy didn't pop up among people until the Renaissance, at the very earliest, I'd say, and with Eyal seeming to be largely characterized as a standard Medieval Fantasy-world, they'd probably have more religion than philosophy.

And while the Eyalites may live in a different world, with different rules, than our world, they still seem to think and talk pretty much like we do.

If anything, they have even more reason to be interested in the metaphysics of the world, since they've got arcane proof that things as abstract as souls and life force exist. They've got proof that there may be something greater and more orchestrating to the world than simply physics and chemistry. So if anything, I'd say it would be kind of weird for them to be entirely faithless, hell, they needn't even worship gods. Sher'tul ruins exist, so maybe some people would worship the Sher'tul as the ANCIENT ALIENS that created everything.

It'd also be a bit weird for ALL knowledge and memories of the Gods to be gone, oral traditions can persist for thousands upon thousands of years, even if they mutate and gain/lose detail over the years, so you'd figure there'd be some sort of strange, twisted remnants of whatever the old worship was in various places.

[0player]

Elves have the diary of their firstborn, so for them it's pretty obvious all in all.
And humans are certainly not the origin race. I'd rather say that most humanoids look roughly like their god creator, and gods are the first race of the planet => possibly related and similarly-looking.
Amak'thel then was just porbably insane and created whateved tentacled potatoes suited his twisted mind. (Indeed, sher'tul's murals show him as being humanoid).

[#kravarnik]

Well, by all means, the world of Eyal is an intelligible world. That is, things don''t simply happen for absolutely no reason at all, they have causes. And I believe, a case could be made for the notion that such a world needs a religion to a degree. If the beings in Eyal are intelligent enough to have magic, to organize wars, to have political agendas, to write down long and enriched chronicles of past events, then without a doubt, they are intelligent enough to ask "why is there existence, rather than non existence? ; what is the reason there's magic in the first place? ; what is the substance of things and its origins? ; Is there more to reality, than concrete empirical manifestations of matter and magic?" And so on.

Now, in our actual world, people answer this question differently. One of the many possible answers is religion - the systematic belief in a transcended deity.


So, given all the intelligiblity exemplified in the world of Eyal and the variety of the mentality of beings, I simply cannot fin any coherent reason for it to have no religions. Intelligible beings, if they are limited in capacity - that is, they don't know everything - are only natural in questioning stuff. Curiousity is a trait that, though, not exemplified in all sentinent beings, is at least exemplified by most. I don't see how an intelligible and sentinent being is able to discuss politics, political agendas, magic, war, conflicts of interests, but somewhat, has not at all any curiosity as to how things started, or is there any transcended meaning to all of these things. If these beings are actually such by the intention of darkgod, then they are after all not that smart, but fairly limited in intelligiblity. Or, perhaps, it's just an overlooked detail by darkgod. The world of Eyal, as I said, is populated by many and various beings, and just by the sheer chance of it, one of them would have come up with a religion of some sort. And by the sheer chance of it, some would have agreed.

[edge2054]

It is not a basic human need but it greatly simplifies the emotinal and existential burden. The ability to talk isn't required in the modern society either, yet it is considered more convenient than other verbal methods of communication.
Whatever one's stance towards religion is, one must admit that they aren't invented by some evil mastermind and are a product of population. So they are natural.

A lot of religion evolved as a means to explain the unexplainable. In a world where magic and nature have real power that self-aware beings can tap into it may not have evolved.

As far as existential burden, Christianity gained a major foothold in one of the darkest times in history and was leveraged to maintain political stability as it was popular with the Roman military. Basically, it offered hope. But hope can be offered in other ways as well. Look at the 'American Dream' as a prime example.

When we look to other cultures, the Aztecs for instance, we can again see religion as political process. The Aztecs conquered neighboring tribes and sacrificed them to their gods. It's an easy way to get rid of war prisoners that you can't economically integrate into your society when you want to expand your territory. It may have started as a superstitious belief system but it certainly evolved (and probably survived) for different reasons.

Rather or not these are natural depends on your definition of the word. If you're meaning arising without human intention I'd say religions arise that way here on Earth where the natural forces are quite different but they tend to survive for unnatural reasons.

[0player]

Yes, other ideologies tend to fulfill the existential needs of religions. But I would still be surprised if no one worshipped e.g. Sher'Tul as some sort of Olde Gods, since their powers are unexplainable.

[darkgod]

But most people do not know about sher'tuls. You have to remember that by the age of allure gods & sher'tuls were already legends; and since then the world has been shattered, plagued, civilizations destroyed, much was lost to the common folk

[edge2054]

Speaking purely as a monster and artifact writer. I've addressed religion more as cult followings.

Harkor'Zun was a God in the sense that he had worshipers. But these were really just people he terrorized and controlled. He probably taught some of his more trusted servants earth magic to better serve his own will.

The gauntlets of Harkor'Zun were fashioned by one of his cultists and offers protection against physical and acid damage, the damage types Harkor'Zun himself uses most often. At some point he was split into pieces, possibly by one of his own high priests in an effort to take over, and much of his power and self-determination was lost.

Maybe this thread should be moved to spoilers? There's a lot of lore stuff coming up in our posts.