How do the characters of Lusternia interact with their divines?

Aeldra

Hello,

now, as am a little unfortunate and am not one of those who are usually awake when the divines of Lusternia turn their eye to their mortal servants and as a general curious soul, I am wondering how people interact with their deities in the various cities?

- Do some people use "pray" to thank their deity for guidance or ask for the same?
- Do some make especially powerful sacrifices after they succeeded with a deed?
- Are there people who get scolded by their divines for going against their will?
- Are there often struggles between divines of the same city?
- Are there people yelling the name of their divine when rushing to battle / similar?

I'm sure there's no two people who handle their roleplay regarding a chosen deity the same way, but am more curious of the general picture, as I realize, I have very little grasp of how the interaction between divine's and mortal's works on an roleplay level and I would be glad for some insight to spice up my own RP from the general flow.

Thanks :-)

Ayisdra

Coming from a real world outlook, praying has always felt weird to me. Praying in Lusternia doesn't have that same feel that it does in the real world (more so when the god in question can just show up) that my mind just attaches to the concept.

The gods, at least to me, seem to be a bit distant from us mortals. Now, I am sure this could just be something I'm doing wrong and being a boring person. Am I a bad faithful? Perhaps. I quite haven't figured out the best way to interact with gods that makes them want to interact with you.

As for interacting, it is more of whenever I'm summoned by them.

When I was part of @Viravain 's order, back before she returned this most recent time, I hardly ever saw her. Once in a while I would get a tf favour for my offerings but not much else. When she returned, I saw her more, although I suspect this was from just being back and not having much behind the scenes stuff at the moment. I got assignments (although I may have failed horribly at them) and all was happy enough for me.

When @Jadice came back and I went to Hallifax, True to her nature, Jadice seemed rather distant, carefully choosing her moments that she interacts with the order. While she does make me less nervous than Viravain ever did, I still feel odd when I talk to Jadice, or any god. I feel that being direct, to the point and not drifting from the topic is what Jadice wants. While I have no problem doing this, it does sometimes make interactions rather short.

There could be many reasons for why gods are as distant as they are. I don't doubt that the newer ones are hard working on things both for the game and IRL. I always like to think that the reason Jadice isn't around much (as we perceive) because she is working hard on getting a godrealm and that she will give the order all these fancy toys (godrealm, order artifacts, etc) at once.

Allyrianne

Divine interactions can vary a lot depending on the Divine, and just how much that particular Divine has on their plate ic and ooc.

Basically prayer is a way to send an ic message to the Divine. You can use it to ask for guidance, to thank the Divine, general chattiness, reporting on some task, etc, etc. Different divine may be more or less responsive, or more or less pleased with "frivolous" prayers. Personally I'm usually too intimidated to send a regular prayer, but there are those who do and get a lot of cool results from them. But it's also worth keeping in mind that the Divine may have a lot going on and not be able to drop everything to help you pursue a personal plotline. But sometimes they do! And it is awesome!

If you're talking about offering sacrifices, those tend to be more automatic and continous. If you mean more ritualistic rped out sacrifices, or giving of itmes that mean something significant ceremonially.

Yes, there are definitely people who get scolded by their Divine for going against their will. Scolding can take the form of either literal scolding, zapping, or any number of interesting curses the Divine can use on players.

Hallifax's divine, despite some differences of opinion, get along pretty well for the most part. Magnagora's Divine are a lot more prone to subtle internal power struggles, historically especially between Morgfyre and Fain.

There are probably people who yell their Divine's name into battle.

Logs of people interacting with Hallifax divine:
Sublime Opus Maligorn is not sufficiently polite when asking Lady Jadice for a favour and suffers the result of Her displeasure
Sylandra gossips and plots and Lord Elostian occasionally takes an interest
Interactions with Lady Isune and Her Order's dolls
Lord Zvoltz asks Zyphora for help making a present for Lady Isune

Moi

On the flip side, you get quite a few people treating the Divine as strange and occasionally confused great grand-parents. When a new Divine turns up in her current city, Iytha treats them rather like she would if her nana had come over from the Old Country and needed the concept of "nexus" and "merian" and "tacos" explained for the first time and who might be wheedled into telling fabulous stories about how things were back when she was young. When Divine show up in someone else's city, she has been known to try selling them newspapers. And when a Divine weighs in on politics, her first response is to go "Yes, nana, that is certainly insightful." while internally sighing about their outmoded (and occasionally racist) remarks on how the world ought to be run.

Talan

- Do some people use "pray" to thank their deity for guidance or ask for the same?

A lot of gods reserve messages for administrative function, so I tend to use prayers to communicate IC messages. Sometimes they are as simple as "Hey, you're great, and your ordermembers are thinking of you!" and sometimes it's more along the lines of, "This happened, and here's my opinion on it, just so you're aware." If I've been playing tag with a deity, I will definitely use prayers to let them know I'm trying to get in touch with them.

- Do some make especially powerful sacrifices after they succeeded with a deed?

I have definitely been known to make bold sacrifices in celebration, repentance, and cheek/defiance, both in terms of corpse/figuring offerings, and bigger gestures. There are also certain mobs that I offer individually to certain gods (like ones they would be especially pleased to see dead) as opposed to batch-offering these corpses. I don't think this is generally noticed unless the god is online and is listening to offerings.

- Are there people who get scolded by their divines for going against their will?

I stick with the philosophy that it's better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. If you follow a god, you already have a pretty good idea of what will make them angry, so asking them for permission to do something against their will is basically just a means of talking yourself out of something. This is one reason why it's a terrible idea to ask gods about mortal politics. You are forcing them to respond IC if you approach them, but if you don't ask, you're simply operating on the assumption that these petty concerns are below their notice.

Some gods do scold/harass certain order members and ex-ordermembers, but even 'negative' attention tends to be motivated by affection. My personal experience is that gods who genuinely dislike you won't engage you at all. Similarly, if you refuse to engage a god (unwanted attention), they will eventually leave you alone. Nobody wants to play with someone who isn't interested in playing with them.

- Are there often struggles between divines of the same city?

Not often. They're rare and pretty explosive. I think the last big flareup like this was in Magnagora over shrine placement on Nil.

- Are there people yelling the name of their divine when rushing to battle / similar?

Again, not often. Mostly this is because of how fights happen - you're usually with a group, and you rarely have the opportunity to stop for banter. Most people are too cool for warcries. In terms of tells/taunts, if there's a specific reason to invoke your deity, it certainly is done. One-on-one interactions leading to fights are a little different, and of course if you are killing someone specifically because of an offense to your order, you will generally make time to tell them so. Pre-fight pep-talks tend to be more general, unless the situation specifically warrants it (for example if your god told you to go do this, or if it is in direct revenge over a godrealm raid, etc.).


In general, I think it is best to interact with a god just like you would any other powerful and influential player. This has occasionally got me into trouble, but I acknowledge the risk ahead of time. If you have conflict with gods, the gods will always win... but if you talk to gods and actually have conversations with them, you can ingratiate yourself more than if you are just bowing and scraping all the time. Mortal characters can't achieve power to match the gods, but neither are we ants beneath their notice.

Zvoltz

Aeldra said:

- Do some people use "pray" to thank their deity for guidance or ask for the same?
- Do some make especially powerful sacrifices after they succeeded with a deed?
- Are there people who get scolded by their divines for going against their will?
- Are there often struggles between divines of the same city?
- Are there people yelling the name of their divine when rushing to battle / similar?

Most, if not all, admin consider messages to be an method of OOC communication, as @Talan said. I think prayers are the most common ways that people use to get in contact with me, whether its asking for something, saying thanks for a favour, or just sending along a friendly hello. For people who want to talk to a god, I always recommend a visit to their fulcrux. Sometimes I am online doing something but not visible to players, but if someone stops by the fulcrux I try to take a break to interact for a little bit. If you don't get any attention while you're there, you have a shrine to pray to in the same location!

I think at least a few divine will (seriously) scold their order members if they do something considered "wrong" according to the god. I can only speak for myself, but generally I'm not that interested in what order members do on a day to day basis so you'd really have to do something big or be real public about it to invoke some RP scolding. Every divine role plays differently though.

Cyndarin

My experience has been that, while RP is important, player enjoyment is more so, so the Gods/admin aren't going to go out of their way to punish you severely or needle you over decisions that don't necessarily agree with. For example, Viravain zap killed me for leaving Glom, and while it's hard to reconcile being an avatar of Viravain and not in Glomdoring at the same time, she's not forcing me into doing anything I wouldn't enjoy. 

So that is to say that if your God enjoys interacting with you and you do something against their standard procedure, expect some push back, but don't expect them to dictate your behavior. The gods are players too, they enjoy the interaction  just like you, they dislike when they are forced into behaviors they don't want to do just like you. They are generally pretty excellent about providing you the same courtesy (within reason, don't get cray). 

They'll generally let you try to RP out most things. The RP consequences might vary, but it's safe to say none of them are interested in making the game unenjoyable for you. 

I can only think of two major city vs god clashes in the past nearly-a-decade. Eventru vs Talkan and Fain vs Magnagora. Other than that, they usually try not to get involved directly in organisational politics/decisions because it tends to explode rather impressively. 

Ventidius

I emulate rituals and worship I've found somewhere else, maybe throw in a bit of original stuff. Ventidius follows Drocilla so treats her with a combination of 'heavenly muse' and 'wrathful Athena-type Divine who likes mortals but doesn't like some shit they do' (This is Ventidius' opinion only). What you'd get if you squashed Hera, Athena and Aphrodite together.

This is very fun to roleplay, with singing her praises on one hand, then grovelling when she's mad because PAIN = BAD.

It's worked so far. Just consider what's fun and incharacter for you (Vent is ugly, I never planned to follow her, but when I interacted with her, I loved her roleplay, but I didn't want to make Vent beautiful, so I gave him a mask and got him to learn an instrument). You made your character. Now let's see how they react to a being beyond your comprehension who is older than the mortal races.

Lavinya

I've interacted with gods in many ways. Obviously most of my interactions have been with Morgfyre. I found He would give me tidbits of attention when I least expected it, just by being active and interested in His DisOrder. Such as, the first time He spoke to me was after I got on my soapbox and gave Magnagora a verbal tongue lashing for being lazy gits after all the Demon Lords were taken down, and He gave me a bit of encouragement. And other times, I'd get a brief word or via a higher ranking member of approval after being involved in order rituals and stuff. As well as that, I've sent Him many letters with things like poems, I've prayed prayers of general 'this happened' to 'please give me some direction' to 'I'm so sorry I suck don't hate me forever please'. I've camped out at the fulcrux, I've interacted with His priests...all these things got me attention at some time or other.

I never actually expected or demanded attention. Consider it a bonus when you get it! I always encouraged people in the DisOrder to do things to give Him a reason to notice them, like getting involved in rituals and things. I was always given the impression that the divine want to interact with people who are obviously interested in the divine and not just chasing promotions or favours. But that is just my opinion. Offerings are nice and all, but don't use them as a means to get godly attention.

For other gods, I've sent letters humbly requesting an audience or prayed at Their fulcrux asking the same, and then left it in Their hands if they decide to give me the time when they've had it. I don't think anyone knocked me back, even those with reason to not want to talk to Morgfyre's Chosen at all (such as Isune).


And yes, godly scolding is definitely a thing. And can be an ongoing thing. (insert gif of dog skulking away with leg between its tails pathetically). Anywhere from zaps to curses to maggotting. (Or the constant reminder you're only tolerated because no one else is in a position to take over (  )

Get involved, is all I can say. I got a favour from Raezon for a somewhat tongue in cheek public post offering to annex Celest to Magnagora, I got a visit and congratulations from Manteekan for calling out a strip-harvester publically... certainly didn't expect either. Put yourself out there and you never know Whose eye you might catch

Leolamins

@Lavinya, my memory of being in Morgfyre's order was that he was never around to interact with

Everiine

Ev isn't in any Divine Order, and because of his beliefs, never will be (unless something really awesome happens, you never know!). But I have tried, especially recently, to have his interactions with Divine always be respectful. He many not devote himself to Them, but They darn well deserve respect, even enemy Divines. Ev has used prayers to speak to Them, or gone to fulcruxes, always kneeling, always showing deference. I've had very positive interactions with all the Divine I've interacted with, even when They were made at Ev >.> .