Godslayers?

[choasrepeated]

Atheism can exist in a setting like this. It just requires a shift from "divine entity does not exist" to "entity is not actually divine".

That would actually be quite cool.

 

But if the deities (or, plot twist!: the simply extremely powerful mortals masquerading as gods) wield god-level powers and are impossible to locate, the atheist movement would be a short-lived affair. And as I suspect that the deities of this world will have those powers, I doubt we'll see any crusading atheists in Project Eternity.

Warhammer 40k actually springs to mind on this. That is the gods there were parasitic feeding off souls.

As for crusading atheists its undeniable some people will role play these.

 

As role-playing the only remaining question is one of mechanics and scope.

[Orogun01]

 

Well we know from the last update it isn't.

 

It was very clear that the practitioner's faith sparked the power of their soul rather than the god in question granting the abilities.

So if belief is the maker of the planes then atheists threaten everything with their questioning, can we kill the heretics then?

[Retaliation]

Well we know from the last update it isn't.

 

It was very clear that the practitioner's faith sparked the power of their soul rather than the god in question granting the abilities.

So if belief is the maker of the planes then atheists threaten everything with their questioning, can we kill the heretics then?

 

Well first of all if you're on a plane and an atheist threatens to unmake the plane by not believing in it I think you're within your right as a passenger to smite him .

 

At most the atheists would unmake the gods, and that depends on if gods are created by belief/emotions or exist naturally. It seems to me though that the "sparked by faith" might be more of a method by which a person with a weaker connection with magic may access it, albeit probably with the limitation of only being able to use magic that jives with that faith. It also could somewhat ironically give atheist "priests" the ability to use their faith that gods are not divine to do the same.

 

Incidentally if belief does make gods then the answer to the thread is yes. You would just have to convince an overwhelming majority of the populations that gods do not exist and what they think are gods are merely a collective illusion. Not nearly as simple as creating the Sword of Godly Stabbing, and makes becoming a god something that lets the unclean masses and rowdy priests kill "you" with made up myths.

[Gyges]

I'm an atheist myself, and i loathe the state of today's religions, but personally i would rather like to explore the roles and characters of gods as we did in Mask of the Betrayer a bit more. It was fun being snarky with Death.

Edited October 5, 2012 by Gyges

[choasrepeated]

 

Well we know from the last update it isn't.

 

It was very clear that the practitioner's faith sparked the power of their soul rather than the god in question granting the abilities.

So if belief is the maker of the planes then atheists threaten everything with their questioning, can we kill the heretics then?

See the whole idea is already inspiring story arc's.

A church may very well feel that way, paradoxically justifying the god slayers own prejudices.

 

[FlintlockJazz]

Atheism can exist in a setting like this. It just requires a shift from "divine entity does not exist" to "entity is not actually divine".

 

But then all you'll be doing is arguing the semantics of what is a god then. Most people nowadays think of 'gods' as omniscient and all-powerful as that is what is taught by the current mainstream faiths, but take a look at the Greek gods: not only were they not omniscient, they barely had any more clue than mortals, were petty-minded (and portrayed as such), horny, nasty, obsessive, backstabby, murderous, incestuous and very, very fallible, yet they were still the gods of that religion. People can argue whether the gods in PE are worthy of being worshipped but they cannot deny that the object of their worship exists if it's right there teabagging someone. In PE, I assume that people don't worship a god because they believe it exists but because they agree with it's manifesto and pledges.

 

As to godslayers, I'm with others that doing a Highlander would probably be bad. What you could have as a godslayer faction is some sort of 'Buddhist style' order that believes that one day mortals will ascend to the level of gods and throw down the current ones but have it as a long-term goal that exists outside the scope of the timeframe of the game: they believe it's a process of purification that takes several incarnations to achieve for instance, requires the number of mortals to achieve ascension to be high before the gods can be overthrown (so they have a reason to try and convert others, to build the mortal army) and that they are opposed to the gods because they believe that they are trying to distract mortals from achieving their true purpose. Therefore it becomes more of a philosophy than an actual mission goal, and gives a specific reason why they may be opposed to the gods.

[Sensuki]

Couldn't help myself

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0t2YCQ6lqk

[Orogun01]

What you could have as a godslayer faction is some sort of 'Buddhist style' order that believes that one day mortals will ascend to the level of gods and throw down the current ones but have it as a long-term goal that exists outside the scope of the timeframe of the game: they believe it's a process of purification that takes several incarnations to achieve for instance, requires the number of mortals to achieve ascension to be high before the gods can be overthrown (so they have a reason to try and convert others, to build the mortal army) and that they are opposed to the gods because they believe that they are trying to distract mortals from achieving their true purpose. Therefore it becomes more of a philosophy than an actual mission goal, and gives a specific reason why they may be opposed to the gods.

I think you just described the Godsmen from PS:T.

[FlintlockJazz]

What you could have as a godslayer faction is some sort of 'Buddhist style' order that believes that one day mortals will ascend to the level of gods and throw down the current ones but have it as a long-term goal that exists outside the scope of the timeframe of the game: they believe it's a process of purification that takes several incarnations to achieve for instance, requires the number of mortals to achieve ascension to be high before the gods can be overthrown (so they have a reason to try and convert others, to build the mortal army) and that they are opposed to the gods because they believe that they are trying to distract mortals from achieving their true purpose. Therefore it becomes more of a philosophy than an actual mission goal, and gives a specific reason why they may be opposed to the gods.

I think you just described the Godsmen from PS:T.

 

Exactly! Just make them more antagonistic towards gods with the belief that they are actually a threat to their faction's goals and are trying to prevent mortals' true destiny and I reckon the Godsmen faction would be good to go as Godslayers!

Edited October 5, 2012 by FlintlockJazz