05-02-2026, 05:31 PM
(03-02-2026, 10:48 PM)Wu Han Wrote: I don't want to distract from the ongoing discussion, nor do I have much of a strong opinion on this particular retcon, but I do think that highly customized or original religions in the game should require, in their cultural protocol, a much higher degree of description.
In other words, if I were a new player in Trigunia/Nadiya, I think I would be a bit lost and unsure of how to understand the fact that a plurality of my population follows a religion that is based on "Eastern Orthodox with elements of Slavic mythology but with a strictly female leadership," if for no other reason than the fact that it contradicts an average individual's basic knowledge of real world Eastern Orthodoxy (i.e. paganism integrated, when the Eastern Orthodox Church officially condemns such practice as demonic; "matriarchy," however understood/practiced/defined, in a fundamentally patriarchal religion and organization, the leadership of which is strictly male, in a broader religion (Christianity) which is generally understood as endorsing patriarchal gender relations – with exceptions of course).
I think CPs need to reflect the roleplay developments and transformations undertaken by a current player or players, just as much as it needs to be informative to new players and players of other countries. I don't feel that such a small description of what is a massive reinterpretation of an established religious tradition does justice to either the work you have done to create this matriarchial, pagan take on Eastern Orthodoxy, nor future players who need to be aided in their interpretation. Those of us in Hobrazia have had to contend with a similar issue, wherein a major number of Hobrazians were said to have followed a fictional in-game religion which has seen very little in-game development.
I don't want to come across as hostile against in-game religion and religious reinterpretations, as I think they're interesting and add original flavour to our game world, but I simply think there needs to be a way to offer more information on how these religions/derivations should be understood in the context of future RP by someone less familiar with them.
Perhaps this is a matter to raise to moderation more generally. Anyways... yeah.
I totally understand the feelings, even I was confused when I learned that the Augustan Church in Trigunia/Nadiya was polytheistic as opposed to its the real life equivalent and diverged quite heavily from the Orthodox church since their leadership went from strictly patriarchal to somewhat religiously balanced? (I'm not sure on that one since Polites was the one that reformed the church and included the rule of a popelike leader for it).
Personally when I was establishing ideas for the MCN, I had strictly based it on the irl religious hierarchy in the Russian Orthodox church as in a matriarch elected by a Supreme Clerical Council that oversee local clerical councils in a decentralized manners. Tho I do admit that it would be confusing for new players to join T/N and know that the country's biggest churches are polytheistic and not similar to their IRL equivalents (which I assume most players will automatically think of the Russian Orthodox church and their satellites), so I did have in mind making the MCN abandon polytheism in favor of a more monotheistic style of worship but since I don't know that much about christian religious bodies I felt that it was safer to deal with it later once I gathered enough information about it.
I would have loved to add a more detailed description for the MCN but I'm not sure the mods would've loved seeing a cramped CP, tho I think we could resolve the issue through the use of a thread in which I explain the hierarchy of the MCN in a very detailed manner so that the CP isn't cramped.