Religion
From Lunos
Religion
Sol
Sol is the god of the Empire of the Sun. He protects the nation, keeps its borders safe, makes sure there are no major disasters, and otherwise looks after his people. Sol demands compliance with the Emperor and the rules of the Empire, as well as thanks and continued belief. He also advises the Emperor to make sure that there are no serious abuses of power and that the people are the ultimate beneficiaries or new laws. Most people consider it a really good deal. Belief in Sol represents one’s ability to call on divine favor should a worthy cause present itself. Belief in Sol has no direct mechanical benefits, but instead represents the likelihood that you will receive divine aid when you pray for it.
Path of Light
The Path of Light is a broad-reaching faith that spans all continents and nations. Lunos is regarded as either a prophet or a god, depending on the particular denomination. Each denomination has its own interpretations and additional rules, but the basic tenets are as follows:
1. Treat others as you wish to be treated, so long as they return the favor. Doing otherwise doesn’t give anyone an incentive to be nice back
2. People are basically good and should be treated as such and trusted unless you have good reason to think otherwise. If you don’t, nobody will start trusting each.
3. Live up to the trust other people are giving you, otherwise they’ll probably stop.
4. If someone is being mean, anything goes, but remember that you may seem mean sometimes too. The entire faith is often summed up as some variation on “play nice, now”.
Believers in the Path of Light find that their faith in the goodness of humanity is repaid, not just by humanity, but by greater magical energy stemming as that faith is fed back to believers by Lunos.
Each point of belief in the Path of Light gives you one additional magic point. These points may not be used to maintain continuous effects. Additionally, the first point allows you to spend one point to tell if someone you are observing is also a believer.
Heaven
Heaven dominates the Spire completely, with little expansion elsewhere, but it keeps trying to expand and influence the rest of the Rift. This faith preaches that use of magic is an abomination that will damn a person’s soul for all eternity. Converts are kept on the outskirts and are forbidden from using magic of any sort, while persons born into the faith receive immediate brain surgery to prevent the development of magic. In exchange for this belief, divine portals and revelations have brought the wonders of technology to Spire.
This faith should not be taken by PC’s
Hell/Void
Hell has very few long term believers, and most of those that do exist operate in secret. It is known that anyone willing to commit certain rituals can gain immense power at no personal cost. Only others must pay the price. This power ultimately destroys (rather quickly) the practitioners. Smart people know how to avoid many of the pitfalls, but everyone makes mistakes eventually, and it only takes one. Belief in Hell represents knowledge of the rituals and contacts necessary to safely call on Void for assistance.
This faith should not be taken by PC’s
Savara
Since the planet is self evident, people do not believe in Savara in the standard sense. Belief in Savara represents sympathy with the natural world and Savara’s plans, and the ability to influence those same things.
The first point of belief in Savara means that no wild animals will attack you, so long as you do not provoke them. The second point allows you to extend this protection to others on a daily basis. The third point allows you to communicate with wild animals and plants. The fourth point allows you to spend 3 points of magic when touching someone (who is not also a believer) to place a curse on them. For one week, the forces of nature will act against them. The fifth point places you in direct communication with Savara herself.
Drama
One of the side effects of the way magic works is that true belief can distort reality. The strongest manifestation of this is that things have a tendency to follow stories. In world like Savara, where true belief runs rampant, this effect is particularly true. Experts estimate that as many as 1/3 of events and physical object (including people) are caused by narrative causality. The greatest example of this process was the creation of the god Sol. In the second largest known event of this type, an entire race of one million subterranean humanoids was discovered living under the edge of the Great Desert.
People who are particularly aware of the workings of narrative causality can use this effect to their advantage, but in return must work to behave according to the way the stories are supposed to go. They accomplish this by mimicking one or more of a variety of archetypes and adopting stereotypical behaviors.
The most startling discovery of the first experts in the field of drama (called Bards) was that a significant portion of world population existed as a result of narrative causality, and most importantly that these individuals did not posses souls, and thus could not develop true free will. They also occasionally developed powers beyond the scope of magic or science, or with odd limitations. The next largest discovery was that persons of this sort would occasionally develop souls after extended or significant interaction with real people.
Buying points in Drama is not exactly belief, but a representation of your commitment to the story. Drama behaves like a magical path.
1 P: Lucky – You manage a dramatic success on a result of 11 or 12, instead of just 12.
2 P: Narrative Vision – you can identify objects and effects generated by narrative causality.
3 C: Heroism - You gain access to a single level one heroic ability (see the Extras section of the Statistics page)
4 A: Montage – You accomplish a great deal of work in a short time by performing representative actions. Any task with a duration longer than one hour takes you half as long, any task with a duration of one day or longer takes you a quarter as long as normal. No magical effect is directly apparent, but things just seem to get done while no one is paying attention. Other people can be involved with no penalty, but constant and dedicated observation can prevent this spell from working.
5 A: One-in-a-million – You or someone within your sphere on influence automatically receive a dramatic success on any action with a difficulty of at least five.
Calling on this power has a price, though. You must tailor you actions towards certain archetypes, causing your life to mimic a story. The more you call on dramatic power, the more you must do this. If you don’t take action yourself, things start happening beyond your control. This is represented by Archetypes, which are certain stereotypical types of adventurers. There is no hard and fast rule for maintaining archetypes, but in general each use of a dramatic power (except Narrative Vision) requires you to act in accordance with an archetype related to the task that causes you difficulty equal to the benefit you gained. For example, after training a militia in record time with a Montage, you would personally lead them into battle from the front and be the last to retreat, in accordance with the Champion archetype. If you do not do this, circumstances will begin to conspire to make you conform to an archetype. Although some archetypes may be described in gender-specific terms, anyone can follow any archetype.
The Damsel: related to increasing social standing or getting someone else to help you. Archetype: refuse to do simple tasks yourself, be helplessly incompetent at self-preservation, be kidnapped.
The Champion: related to military success and helping others. Archetype: do a menial job despite being in charge, personally lead an army, disdain luxury while someone under your command is in a worse position.
The Savage: related to athletic success, survival skills, or personal combat. Archetype: refuse civilized customs and luxuries, challenge a foe to single combat, never back down from a challenge.
Many more to come.
