Religion

[Surly]

First off, I want to say I don't want religion itself to be programmed. THat should be role-played. This thread is more about the possibility of prgramming some things to aid religion.

1. Altars
2. Religious symbols
3. Stained glass
4. Different colour robes.

The last two would probably be real programming nightmares, as changing colours would require to changes to a lots of things, I'd guess. And the implementation of dyes.
However the first two are achieveable, aren't they? I know an altar is pretty much a table, but then a carving knife is pretty much a knife and they both exist. Also with religious symbols, could a kind of naming system exist, like for buildings and cars? To cover the fact diffent religions have different symbols. Anyway, just a thought on how to distinguish religions a bit, and make it easier to do.

[Solfius]

a better approach would be to enable objects to be inscribed so that any object could be personalised for any conceivable purpose, which can include symbols

[Surly]

That's true. I like that - I just started this idea on the basis of my struggle to start religions in Cantr.

[Pirog]

I agree with Solfius...and I want to see different types of dyes as resources, to promote trade.

[NetherSpawn]

So, you want to found a religion but you're not creative enough to make it fit into the expansive Cantr framework? You don't need an altar to have a religion. Start a religion around something else. And there's already enough clothing in Cantr to cover religion-based outfits. The basis of a religion (at least, one that's wrong, I'm not going to argue the validity of various religions) is just a moral code with no particular logic behind it. Make a religion around NOT going around naked. That makes a lot of sense in Cantr, because people normally don't care, AND it's not very hard to make clothing (a bone bracelet, or even a fur outfit) if you actually have some desire to. Don't wait for objects that allow you to do bad RPing for your religion.

An object is a religious symbol iff people decide it is. Kind of like money. If you want a useless object, decide that brooms are holy. If you want a practical one, choose a practical one.

Stained glass. What would you do to make that, take the extremely expensive window glass and apply dye to it? I don't think anyone would use it.

Dyeing objects is fine, but it's about as unimportant a change as is conceivable and would be really hard to do. Ditto for inscribed symbols, although it would be nice ot be able to change the names of buildings & vehicles as a project.

[The Sociologist]

An object is a religious symbol iff people decide it is. Kind of like money. If you want a useless object, decide that brooms are holy. If you want a practical one, choose a practical one.

Outstanding. "Knights of the Order of the Broom". I like it.

Yes, we don't want pre-imposed cultural values. We want them to develop from the game. It is quite bad enough that dead bodies are shown represented by Christian crosses, something which might cause offense to some people.
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[west]

There are plenty of religions in cantr already, some with holy items/areas/buildings etc. You just have to work with the system. NS is correct.

Besides, who's to say a stone table can't be an altar?

It is in Narnia.

[Solfius]

personally, in response to NetherSpawn's post, I think that inscriptions would be quite enhancing to the game world, allowing as you mentioned re-inscription to change names, also making individual objects indicating posession or naming them, or anything else you might want to write.

Think of the amount of written communication on objects we use in everday life.

[The Industriallist]

Specifically religeous items would be a bad idea I would say, but the ability to inscribe existing items (preferably all existing items) would serve many, many purposes, including religious ones.

[Agar]

Yes, let us inscribe things permamently, please, that would be awesome.



998-4: You see Ewin MacGregor say: "You there! Stop carving Mac G's Sux!" on my building!"

998-5: Sabers fly.



Changing names of buildings is one small step better than letting us demolish them. I'd rather demo them, but that's me.

And I agree with the Sociologist, change crosses to skulls or skeletons or something. Maybe a smiley with a flat linf for a mouth and X-X for eyes.

[Antichrist_Online]

I think the crosses relate to the usage of cross shaped tombstones in alot of places (makes it more visible and you can hang things on them). But I am probaly wrong.

Religious only objects are a bad idea, but maybe a standard or symbol we could carve a short message into or a picture.

[The Sociologist]

I think the crosses relate to the usage of cross shaped tombstones in alot of places (makes it more visible and you can hang things on them). But I am probaly wrong.

Cross-shaped tombstones are Christian tombstones, as far as I know. In any case, corpses aren't supposed to be buried yet. It's this externally imposed cultural norm involved in the "+" symbol which is causing people to make buildings designated "crypts" or "cemetaries" and stuff them full of corpses.

If the corpses were shown by skulls and described as "stinking rotten corpse crawling with maggots", it might effect character behavior, not so?

Not that I'm necessarily recommending such a description, just pointing out how non-neutral the cross symbol is.
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[The Industriallist]

I think you're seriously overrating the impact of the little icon. Especially since that icon actually stands for burial, not for the corpse itself. While I'll grant that the one icon specific to dead people not nondenomiational, most towns dispose of their corpses by burial, primarily to get them out of the way.

Krif and other cities with ceremonial interrment are showing an advanced cultural type...whether it developed legitimately IC I can't comment on, but I seriously doubt that a little cross icon had anything to do with it.

[NetherSpawn]

Cantr doesn't have maggots or stench, and corpses don't rot away so presumably they don't rot.
The icon shouldn't be a cross but its presence is not a significant one.

[Lumera]

This doesn't have anythint to do with religion per se, though it could be used to support one. I'd like to have the ability to make a "monument" or even a simple slab that could have a message inscribed with a hammer or chisel. These would be non-removable objects, with title visible at first glance and more detail if you clicked on them.

Anyway, they could be of different levels, ie: a wooden monument, a stone monument, an iron monument (or slab) and could be used a bunch of different ways. To commemorate the dead, or the founding of a new government or religion, or a historic event, or a charismatic leader, or the laws for a government or religion, really anything. I'm thinking ideally there should be more text than a building allows, but less than a note; a short paragraph would probably do, and if the builders needed more room they could just make a second one.

Essentially the function they would serve would be a cross between a building and a note. It would be nice if you could destroy them, too. Changing the text probably wouldn't make much sense, given the material they're made of, but there may be a need to replace them as governments and rulers change. In fact, I could see replacing a monument once someone takes over a town as a highly symbolic event, kind of like putting up a new nation's flag.

Hey, flags! ...but that's for another thread.