Wesnoth and Religion

[artisticdude]

Spoiler:

If I do often post after Captian_Wrathbow (and I can't say that I think I do it very often... and even if I do, I do it unwittingly), it's because I consider him among my friends on these forums, and I'm interested in what he has to say. If I think he or someone else said something that's worth a reply, I will usually reply to it. In this case his view mirrors my own, so I saw no point in giving what would more or less be a re-write of his post. I just agreed with him. And (occasionally) he does post after me: http://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php ... &start=315 All the same, I guess I'll try to avoid posting after him too much now... I'm beginning to feel a bit awkward.

[Hulavuta]

You did it again. Lol

[Captain_Wrathbow]

Oookaaaaay.... enough about that for now.

It's not like it's intentional, or a problem or anything, it's just a funny coincidence I happened to notice. I think it's gotten enough discussion and this thread ought to return to its original topic.

[Dixie]

Spoiler:

Hey it was a joke, I'm not really considering you a creepy stalker or anything (hence the integration of smileys in my previous post), and I won't talk for Captain_Wrathbow, but I don't think he's taking any offense either. Truth be told, I wouldn't even have noticed if he himself hadn't said it somewhere else. Anyway, let's just forget this, I guess I'm sorry if I made you feel awkward or anything.


I was ninja'd, but I'll post it anyway.

[SkeleRanger]

I've noticed Wesnoth manages to have somewhat of a "spiritual side" without actually crossing over into the area of religion. There seems to be a well defined sense of the soul (ghosts and what not) as well as a belief in an afterlife. In the cases of supposed consequences for benevelont or malevolent acts it seems to be more of a "karma" thing, a person's decisions altering their state of being and thus where their spirit "goes" after death. There's no reference to an all-deciding god.

I'm opposed to real-world Satanism, I believe this really happens and can have dire consequences for the participants. Historically, Christians referred to "magic" as powers given by the devil in exchange for some favor (a.k.a the person's soul), and therefor magic was generically evil. Fantasy magic, on the other hand, seems to be simply an extension of the laws of physics, allowing those who understand it to manipulate the world around them. This has never bothered me, as I don't see it as the same "magic" encountered in real life. In fact, if the Wesnoth magic existed in the real world I'd be one of the first trying to learn it.

As for religions in fantasy, I've never really minded those, being an imaginary world and all, but given Wesnoth's mixed audience I think the NR policy is probably the best.

[boru]

There's no religion in Wesnoth, but the merfolk have priestesses, the elves have druids, orcs have shamans, Delfador went to the afterlife, there's holy water, and one of the music tracks is named after a church hymn. And who was that guy in Northern Rebirth who kept coming back to life - Father Morvin?

So, no religion may be the official policy but, like grass under concrete, it always finds a way to pop out through the cracks.

For me, it's been difficult to write a campaign with no religious references. Even a casual oath like "damn" or "hell" conflicts with a totally secular world. So what do they say when they stub their toe? "Ye gods" is out. It does blandularize the atmosphere somewhat, but luckily we can write our own stuff fairly easily.

[Hulavuta]

These things are "more" subtle though. It's not like you ever see people praying and whatnot. These things just happen to be a part of the fantasy genre.

[johndh]

As a fairly spiritual person myself, I think having NRiW serves an interesting role in distancing Wesnoth from the real world. To be honest, Wesnoth is a pretty generic western post-Tolkien fantasy setting, and giving them a Crystal Dragon Jesus religion just brings it more in line with the mainstream and makes it more generic. If there were religion in Wesnoth, it would have to be something very different in order to be interesting, but I think a lack of religion at all serves to reinforce that WINR, but instead a fantasy world entirely separated from our own.

[TheGreatRings]

There is NRIW.

That policy is a complete farce. The campaigns are replete with religious references: there's the elves' faith in Under the Burning Suns, the two white mages' references to "Lords of Light" or somesuch in Northern Rebirth, Haldric's use of the term "Unholy" to describe necromancy in Rise of Wesnoth, and the visit to the land of the dead in Delfador's Memoirs.

[Noy]

There is NRIW.

That policy is a complete farce. The campaigns are replete with religious references: there's the elves' faith in Under the Burning Suns, the two white mages' references to "Lords of Light" or somesuch in Northern Rebirth, Haldric's use of the term "Unholy" to describe necromancy in Rise of Wesnoth, and the visit to the land of the dead in Delfador's Memoirs.

Who said it was the policy?

[boru]

Who said it was the policy?

Wait .. it's not the policy? Because a lot of people (including myself) thought that it is. After all, there's that nifty acronym everyone throws around.

[Fog]

I'm a christian, a truly believing one, but I don't consider myself "extremist". The fun fact is, if you really follow Jesus, you can't be an extremist. He was teaching mainly about love and tolerance towards other people, so if you call others satanic, stupid or whatever, you aren't a true christian.
Anyway, I'm not at all offended by Wesnoth content, It's not a real world! Some of you sound like Elves, Trolls and necromancers were real. They don't exist, so the problem doesn't exist. Simple.

This has to be the most thoughful post here. Personally I'm Unitarian Universalist, and I've never heard "God"(Unless in context to Christianity) or "Jesus" spoken at my church. I wont express my enitre personal opinion here, as I'm very left-wing on the religion issue. I tend to look at it from a scientific view; thus, no god for me. I was raised though in sunday school, and everyone should agree with the values learned there. What I dislike is how some(Unfourtunaly more like most) Christians interpret the Bible as their science textbook. Did you know that when Darwin proposed evolution is was recieved much better by Christians today?

[styles1005]

I'm a Christian and (fairly) regular churchgoer, and I have no problem with Wesnoth's "religious" stuff. My policy is, plain and simple: It's a game. If you can't distinguish it from real life (and thus take issue with quasi-religious things in it,) then don't play it!

[Hulavuta]

"You've never heard of Jesus Christ?"
"Only when my father accidentally hits his hand with a hammer."

[SkeleRanger]

"You've never heard of Jesus Christ?"
"Only when my father accidentally hits his hand with a hammer."

Wow.