chrisisofaith | IC Contact

[ It's a bit slow at the Crucible bar. There are enough patrons in the bar here and there that Hawke can't leave the area but few enough that none of them are wanting for anything right now. He can afford to take a moment. ]

I have a question for you, when you get a moment between clients.

I'm curious, and no offense is meant, but I've been wondering how does faith work in a world where you know your gods are in fact real?

[It’s closer to 2:45 when he can answer]

Faith works as I’d expect it to.
You trust in the gods to hear you when you pray and to turn an eye to you as they can now and again

They’re there, they’re just busy

So it's more like having faith in other people. Leaders and the like.
That makes sense. A far cry better than just having to take it on faith that a god exists at all.

Your Maker and most Earth's 'God' act more like absentee parents than leaders of existence.
I truly don't understand the cult-like blind worship and delusion most who pray to them seem to hold

Thank you
Bloody pyre, I've called the Maker that exactly and got cuffed by my father for saying such a thing.
Anders always gave me that patient but disapproving look, like I was a small child who would come to understand the truth in time.
Well, I'm still waiting to understand because it seems to me still that the Maker is either not real or is a petty man not worth wasting breath on prayer.
And poor Andraste just got the sharp end of the stick
If that's how the Maker behaves, then going to His side when you die doesn't seem like a just reward at all.
I understand a little, maybe, in that the Maker turned His back on the world because His wife was killed, but even then.
Even then, why pray to Him if we're disowned?
It's ridiculous.

Sorry.
That was more than I intended...

You've no need to apologize, certainly not for sharing your thoughts. I'm here for your good ones as well as the ones that bare thornes
And this one sounds like it's been eating at you.

Would you rather more room to rant or a conversation on the subject?

A conversation. I think I'm ranted out.
It's not really worth getting in knots over when I'm not even sure he's a real god anyway.

[ As such, he's gonna stop capitalizing he and him when referring to the Maker. It feels wrong, but it also feels like defiance. ]

Probably just some ancient mage with a chip on his shoulder like the rest of them.
Though that begs the question what even is a proper god, then.

A 'mage with a chip on his shoulder' could very well be a god. We've a small number of mortals turned gods in my world, including both my Raven Queen and Bane.

But you ask a good question. There's a few ways to classify it, but a general sway over the fundamentals of existence and life is what makes a god, to the point of being able to transcend the Material Plane and exist in several places at once in an omnipotent and effective way.

For example.
Our gods of the mountains and seas and winds make those things we need to survive in the world. Without them we would have no Toril.
Our gods of Life and Death and even War and Joy see to it that we have a balance and a thing to hope for and pray to for when one is too little in our life or looming ahead and needs watching. Without them, there might be too much good or too much bad and they still yet bend to the people who believe in them.

But a litch king in flesh with the ability to raise dead or manipulate life and only the shackles of his undying form to offer weakness is no god, even if he claims it. He is merely a powerful tyrant of his own means.

Does that make a bit of sense?

It does, and by that definition the Maker is the only one that qualifies, supposedly. I'm not sure he's actually everywhere at once.
Or even made the world, honestly.
Or... exists, by that token.
Maybe that's too far.
But the story goes he made the Fade and the spirits, his first children, and then turned away because they had no souls, so he made the world we know instead with the Veil between
Only he didn't. Some bastard elf did.
And there's the mess of dwarves supposedly not being the Maker's creations, but if the Maker supposedly created the world and everyone in it, then wouldn't he have created dwarves?
So there's holes in the story.

I mean no offense with this question but are gods even really necessary? Does Thedas have gods of soil and rain and whathaveyou and no one pays them any memory, or is it just a rock in the Void that happens to have life?
Or maybe not no one.
I know the Avvar and Chasind have gods they worship, but I never gave that much thought.
Maybe they have the right of it, paying homage to the Mountain-Father and so on
I don't know the names of the rest.

The Mountain Father?
Korth?

Yes, that one.

Wait.
You've heard of an Avvar god?

Not just an Avvar god
He’s lord of our mountains as well, immutable as gods of the sea, earth, or air

No

What?

You're telling me there is a real god in Thedas and it's an Avvar god???

[ That is absolutely brilliant. He actually laughs aloud that tickles him so much. ]

Maker's breath, I wish I could remember the names of the others and see if they were known to you too.
One of them is a sky lady or something?

[He smiles to himself for Hawke’s clear disbelief. He can almost hear it spoken aloud.]

That’s a little too broad, love. There’s a god of the sky as there’s a god of the stars and the moon. What aspect of the sky?

I think that was the actual name
Lady of the Sky or similar
I don't know much about it considering the Chantry calls them false gods or demons

That one doesn’t sound familiar, but it’s not odd for only one or two gods of a pantheon to travel or even establish many different homes

Really? I always thought of them as a set.
But I guess it doesn't have to be.
Are there others that are similar between worlds that you've heard of?

A few
I know some of my gods are on Lucian’s world, including the Raven Queen
I’ve heard of The Morrigan from a few different versions of Earth who sounds a lot like my Matron as well
Jon recognized Zeus and Hades when I mentioned them and aspects of hell from my world reflect in a story he knows from his home

There are too many coincidences across the worlds, connected like intricate webs, to be discounted.

I wonder if any are watching this world.
There was that alter ritual thing before, right?
So they have gods.
What if that's a connection we can use?

They have a number of gods from what I can tell, they and Insincerity both.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t a dying force, I’ve yet to see a concerted following nor holy influence in the environs.

Unless that Kraken is a god

Could be
Any kraken gods in Faerun?

[ It's mostly a joke. Mostly. ]

not that I know of
There’s a shark god somewhere off the storm coast
And the kraken wizard in the Moonsea, but I don’t think it’s a god

wait
Krakens are magic?

[ Faerun is more wild than he originally thought of squids can cast spells. ]

I mean they've got some innate magic
But most aren't wizards. That requires study and usually books
Which pairs poorly with water, last I checked.
We didn't stick around long enough to ask it

There's probably a spell to repel water
Like a wax spell or something
There's a thought
Though I don't now if that'd be enough to let it go under the water
But that's not the point! The point is great bloody tentacled monsters being able to cast spells!
Actually if it can't get books hows it a wizard?
Maybe it was a kraken sorcerer?

Wait where were you that you met a kraken mage?
Is that normal?

IC Contact

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