I’m asked frequently how characters are supposed to follow a religion. I suppose my IRL deep-seeded interest in world religions gives me an advantage over most when it comes to various customs and methods in which worship is practiced. I often forget that people aren’t used to these types of things.
So I’ve decided to provide a list of Do’s and Don’ts for religious worship on Advent.
Suggested Do’s:
– The most important suggestion I can make for religious worship is consistency, or “piety”. If all you do is wear a few symbols of your God but don’t actually participate in any regular ceremony or prayer, then you’re not going to be taken seriously by the God or any of the high priests/priestesses. It’s a lot of work to show a God that you are serious about your spiritual path, but one that is very rewarding in the end.
– Adorn yourself in spiritual clothing. Restring items so that they reflect the totem, element, theme, crystal of your deity. It not only displays your spiritual preference to others (and other potential church peers), but shows that you are serious and proud about your spiritual path to the God or High Priest.
– Preach. We all know preaching is annoying OOC, but IC it can add to the roleplay in significant ways. It can create tension, aggravation, or maybe it will even convert people to follow your God. Even if you are just preaching about how much you dislike the Gods, it still stirs things up in the roleplay. This goes hand in hand with the first item of consistency and piety as well.
– Give offerings to your God or the Gods in general. I’ll point out Royce Almuerzan for this one because he consistently offers piles of gold to the God of Wealth and Power, and I think this is a perfect example of how to give offerings to your deity of choice. Another example would be the corpse of a fresh kill sacrificed or left on an altar for Crystal. You have to sacrifice and give offerings in order to work towards gaining the favor of your God. It’s a common proverb among pagan religions to give a “Gift for a Gift.” You can’t ask a God for their favor or blessing and not expect to give something in return. And remember, gifts can be in many forms, such as songs, material items, words of devotion and promises of doing or achieving something.
– You don’t have to follow one God, you can have a respect for all the Gods, or you can abhor the Gods if it fits your character’s personality. We’ve developed Advent’s religious system to cater to all forms.
– Expect to be tested by a God whose favor you are trying to win. Expect to have to give up and sacrifice in order to win that Gods favor.
– Going along with the first item, send up prays once in a while showing your devotion. But try not to be too spammy, these can be done in thinks on a regular basis as well.
Suggested Don’ts: (several of these will be based off of things that have already happened)
– It shouldn’t need to be said, but don’t cuss your God out in prayers. If you willingly insult any God in prayer or thought, they have ever right to bring down wrath upon you. And on a permadeath MUD, this could be deadly 🙂
– The Gods of Advent are much like the Greek Gods of Hollywood in that they are often bickering among themselves, and have all the flaws of mortal personality with the dangerous mix of Godly powers. The Gods -are- childish, the Gods -can be- mean, so don’t ever assume that just because Anari is the Goddess of Love and Lust that she can’t be a jealous catty bitch 🙂
– Do not force the RP to wait for an Immortal to intervene. If they wish to intervene, they will. Most of us are occupied doing 10,000 other things, so we cannot and will not be at your beckon call.
– I’ll say this personally (as Crystal), that it really chaps my ass when a mortal expects me to jump into their roleplay, and even sends me tells demanding such. I can see everything that is going on, so if I have time to jump in via echos or mob switches, I will do what I can 🙂