AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

*stands up and does the awkward wave to everyone in the room*

Alright. First off hello and well met.

I am not sure if this is the proper forum for this topic, but since it addresses a certain subject, Faith, in terms of Amia Cannon, or simply because it may be a DM-call on this idea, I decided to put it here. I am interested in what the DM's think of this, and if other player's may have insight as well.

So here goes.

I have a new character on this server and while I am familiar with the deities in the FR setting, she is not as knowledgeable as me, naturally. After all, I am the one with the Faith's & Pantheons pdf, and all she had was what she grew up with, which is to say, very limited knowledge as a whole. To rectify this she has been exploring the isles, discovering the Deity Idols and reading the dogma plaques in her spare time, trying to figure out which deity may be a "Good Fit" for her, without actually changing herself drastically in the process.

So far a couple deities seem to be appealing, but certain aspects of their faith leave a bad taste in her mouth, or a skeptical bent in her eyes. Of course, many will do that on any side of the alignment/moral spectrum, depending on the character, which is a good part of how religion starts roleplay on the server. So far though she has begun to cling to standards she learned as a child, the stories of her ancestors and how they acted and certain codes of morality as defined by her own family.

My question here, on the Lore forum, is what is the Amian take on ancestor worship?

I understand it would not do for a cleric especially based on your wonderful Deity System that was made just for this server, but as a general IC roleplay possibility.

And in case I forget later on... thanks for the input.

Just one gal's opinion here, but to my mind, if the issue is "can I legitimately worship X in character," the only relevant factor is, "are you expecting to get divinely-based powers out of it?" If you're not a cleric/paladin/ranger/druid, I'd say you should feel free to just concoct out of whole cloth whatever personalized one-woman religion you think your character would dig. The only open question would be whether any deity recognizes her enough that she doesn't end up shoved in the Wall, but that really should remain unknowable during life for anyone practicing a variant faith. Ancestor worship, go for it!

Er, as a player of a Kelemvorite... You definitely want to pick a deity! Not just to keep your character from the Wall but also because it provides you the opportunity for RP. Those of the same faith have occasion to go and do events. The Kelemvorites for instance have done a few really great events (Thx DM team!).

My character would be happy to have a conversation on deities with your character. Just let me know if that sounds interesting to you and we can meet up.

Otherwise, I'd suggest finding others of the faiths you find interesting and talking to them. Or hey, talk to everyone. I'll be that Banite can make Bane sound super awesome!

MazeOfThorns wrote:

Er, as a player of a Kelemvorite... You definitely want to pick a deity! Not just to keep your character from the Wall but also because it provides you the opportunity for RP. Those of the same faith have occasion to go and do events. The Kelemvorites for instance have done a few really great events (Thx DM team!).

I am not against picking a deity, but if one's dogma doesn't fit her, wouldn't discovering her own path be a sort of generating roleplay in and of itself? I understand that factions, and yes, I am counting religious orders as factions, can be involved in events... but all factions aren't based around religion, right? They have just as much roleplay choices as others, don't they?

Not arguing, just trying to figure things out.

As for The Wall, she doesn't know about it IC... yeah. Pretty sheltered girl.

(The Wall of the Faithless ... good to know.)

But one thing I like to point out is that the Realms are polytheistic. Your character can worship a lot of deities from all across the pantheon and in many aspects. The divine classes need a single name on their sheet, but even those can in general pray/give offers to another deity as well, I think. Especially if the Cleric prays for things far outside their deities domain.

So ... be a good citizen and give them all a little bit of worship. Even the evil ones so that they don't kill you in some horrible accident, because their power is real. And besides all those deities, you can still worship your ancestors.

Regards
Ts

I would say the short answer would be: there would be no reason why your character couldn't worship ancestors.

In the FR setting (which Amia is based) there are a whole multitude of bizarre cults and whatnot, which do not worship any recognised deities. A character is free to worship whatever they like. They can worship their own toenail clippings if they wish. How other characters may react to this is another story and what happens in the afterlife but thats up to your character to deal with as they develop. So I would say go for it if thats your PC's thing. Plus ancestor worship is not that far out there eitherway, its a common real world practice so you could probably quite easily transpose that onto the realms.

Luckbringer wrote:

... its a common real world practice so you could probably quite easily transpose that onto the realms.

A good point! The FR has been in the habit of importing real-world religious and cultural concepts into its canon since the day it was born. We have Arabia, Greece, Native America, India, Babylon, Egypt, Mexico, blah blah whatever. Even if there's not a concrete precedent for ancestor worship already in the FR, there's three decades of precedent for importing whatever RL stuff struck some sourcebook writer's passing fancy.

Well first of all I want to say that I don't think this thread should be used to advertise any faith. I think advertising factions in unrelated threads is cheap. Everybody has a religion based character and I don't think we should all start shouting "Hey I have a cleric of ____ and we have awesome RP (Thank you DM ____! <3)" Just my opinion. Nothing personal MoT.

Second I really think it comes down to this:

Liz wrote:

If you're not a cleric/paladin/ranger/druid, I'd say you should feel free to just concoct out of whole cloth whatever personalized one-woman religion you think your character would dig

Also it's not uncommon for a god to accept a follower without the follower even realizing it. If you worship the ancestors, some deity of family and ancestry could accept you, because your character follows his/her tenants, regardless of whether your toon knows it or not. Yondalla from the Halfling pantheon, Berronar Truesilver from the Dwarven pantheon, or even the Earthmother/Chauntea would be good candidates. I am sure there are even more. So your toon could avoid the Wall that way as well.

It's a Matter of Faith

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