Religion Rework

there isn’t a lack of information on Derketo, it simply hard to find because each region of the Conan world has different names for her. In Stygia she is known as Anuket, in Kush as Derketa, she is also referred to as Set’s ■■■■■ and The Sable Queen as well.

I had a similar thread called “Religion System Overhaul” back in Jun’ 21 with some similar ideas. I would link it just not sure how to do that on my xbox browser. But @Croms_Faithful might remember it.

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True, but just as you said, Conan kinda explains this, and I’ve come to like the way gods work in the Exiled Lands.

They’re not the Hyborian gods. There’s little to suggest that the real gods meddled with the lives of mortals that much anyway. Rather, they’re entities powered, or perhaps created, by the faith and zeal of the desperate people stuck in the Exiled Lands. And these people just label these entities with familiar names.

So the Exiled versions of Hyborian religions are mutations. Perversions of the actual religion, even. These things happen in isolated communities in the real world when written canon is lost and traditions get mixed, so it’s entirely reasonable that it could happen in a harsh, violent, Lord of the Flies kind of environment.

I’m not saying I wouldn’t welcome some updating to the grindy religion system, but I don’t find the current depiction of the faiths as problematic as some people.

Greetings Anglinex. While I suspect you are correct regarding your writing and some of the means of collecting Manifestation of Zeal, I agree with you in the strongest possible terms that the games religion system could use a nice overhaul and some love. Although I feel it would be better that instead of limiting the number of religions we can aquire (something which Funcom previously said that they do not want to do), we can instead select one of our religions and assign it as our ‘primary’ faith, allowing us to upgrade it to a T4 shrine. And I was very heartened to hear this from Tephra:

Bravo to Den again on this one, he has such good vision and insight for game. And he’s a charismatic blighter too!

Agree! I have already provided a firm rationale for both of these two gods in your other thread, which I can add here also if you would like. But I would firmly agree that both Mitra and Crom’s roles in the game feel the most problematic. And while I am genuinely, and utterly sincerely not trying to be either derogatory or scathing toward poor Funcom, they both feel a bit inauthentic to me. Mitra worshippers should not be murdering people and offering their souls up to him for favor as a blood scarifice of sorts. And Crom should not be a no religion option which leaves his faithful without a means to complete the Journey Steps, destroy rival gods offerings or even decorate their bases in a thematically appropriate way. Alrhough many people do not realise this, Crom items do exist in the various lore sources; we just need to be able to use them.

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Aye. But here in lies another issue with the way the gods are implemented and function, most notably Crom and Mitra. But I am off to work now, so shall expand upon this later. :wink:

Derketo and Derketa are not the same God. This debate has raged among Conan fans for a long time and I won’t be surprised if someone tried to argue otherwise in response to me. The way Derketa is introduced in Red Nails is consistant with how Howard presents a “New God”. If it was a subsect of Derketo he would written it as so. Unfortunately he was taken from us too soon so the debate will most likely never end.

That doesn’t explain it though. If you go solely by the lore provided in-game Mitra is the God of Justice and his followers talk of peace. If the people worshiping Mitra in the Exiled lands determine what is wright and wrong based on how they think the God is then Murdering to get zeal is still wrong.

When we the last time you got raided by an army of Mitrins in their blue rags Ankhs in hand?

I made sure to include (Configurable) for a reason. I just think the option should exist. Even if official servers leave it as unrestricted. That said I didn’t even think about making it so one would be the primary religion (T4) and the others could be lesser. Maybe stuck at T1 or something. It’s not a bad idea either.

I shaped most of my ideas around the concept of putting limits. For example if my Idea on Crom followers getting an attribute boost was added but no limit on religion was added then everyone would just Pick Crom and then learn rest in-game. Making picking Crom basically a requirement. Having hard limits would force people to actually think about what a religion is and does and means for gameplay.

I actually got that information from an Age of Conan Wiki. Funcom is the official and sole owner of the Conan IP so I’d say they put that debate to rest.

OK but for one Funcom does not run the Wiki and for two Age of Conan was made what, 11 or so years before they took ownership of the Conan IP. So using an Age of Conan wiki as a source in your debate to “prove” something which has been debated since …probably the 1950’s or so is not exactly as “put to rest” as you may think it is.

Now, I am not here to debate the merits of the claim, just pointing out that your reasoning if very flawed to say the least.

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The Zealots of Mitra purge! 6 waves of angry hostile and murderous priests and zealots. Additionally, the ‘Sinner’s Refuge’ isn’t full of peaceful, passive saints.

As well as any of the Marvel era comics put any canon questions to rest.

As I said. A debate that will probably never be resolved. Words as written Derketa is her own God. People’s need to read between the lines when there is nothing there to read has ruined a great many things.

Sinner’s Refuge isn’t full of Mitrains. It’s full of sinners taking refuge. The one chosen of Asura are not Mitrains. Asura is a different God. They act as T3 priests because Funcom made it so. If anything Mitra is more like Asura in the Exiled lands then he is Mitra.

I’ve lived in that area before and never had that purge. Didn’t even know it existed. Are they wielding ankhs and wearing blue rags?

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Blue rags, yes. Obviously not wielding ankhs.
So the lore tracks with what others have been telling you, the Mitrian religion in the exiled lands, is a farce. If you feel the need to RP as a true believer that is awesome, more power to you, but I hardly think the religion needs a facelift for that. Just don’t kill anybody (might not be a very fun game though), instead, walk the lands handing out health potions or open a soup kitchen if you want. However, participating in the worship of a false Mitra would clearly be unappreciated my Mitra and therefore would be immersion breaking.

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Instead of a flat out stats bonus, why not make Crom give you a discount in the Crom Store - for something you do (attain glory…?), you get -5/10/15/20% off the item shop. Would fit in right there. :grin:

No it doesn’t. Okay so they have a purge I didn’t know about. Doesn’t detract from any of my other points I have made. Looking at the very limited area it happens in one could even say it’s only there to protect the “Foot Builders”. Which just reinforced the defensive nature.

Religion needs a facelift period. Not just because of Mitra but due to how lacking it is in gravity. Which Funcom has already said they wanted to do on several occasion. I’m just pitching ideas and pointing out issues.

This reminds me of a suggestion I made awhile back to allow altars in general to be an alternative method for generating converted thrall items. I think picking out Mitra and Derketo for potentially specializing in this capability makes sense, though I’d want to see the other gods have a chance to do it, too. Regardless, the entire concept seems to work nicely with some of 3.0’s goals: making the game less Thrall-centric, having summoned undead/etc as an alternative source of followers, and allowing the player to be more of a wizard-king-archetype.

Asking random people in chat, “Have you heard the good news?”

Well it makes sence

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