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Author Topic: Religious conflict.  (Read 1400 times)

Derro

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Religious conflict.
« on: June 26, 2016, 09:23:01 am »

Just an idea for a challenging game I thought up, similar to the city-state challenge suggested on the wiki. (http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Challenges#City-States)
First, you select skills and equipment/embark immediately as normal, and then you embark.

However, story-wise, your dwarves haven't travelled together at all. They arrived in several groups, all on a pilgrimage to claim this holy land for their respective deities. You then build several fortresses, all based on the deity worshipped by this particular group of dwarves. For example, the deity of knowledge would have a large library populated by scholars that sustain themselves with a small plump helmet farm, the deity of war would have a full military population that attacks all approaching elves, humans and goblins, the deity of agriculture would have a few wooden shacks inhabited by farmers... Contact between the various groups is kept to a minimum.

What do you think? Is this a viable idea? Do you think it'd be fun to play?
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TheFlame52

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Re: Religious conflict.
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2016, 10:50:07 am »

You're forgetting that most dwarves worship more than one god.

Derro

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Re: Religious conflict.
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2016, 12:03:52 pm »

You're forgetting that most dwarves worship more than one god.

True. I guess that and atheist dwarves are the major problem.

Hm... All two-faith dwarves get moved to a random fortress dedicated to their deity, and all atheists are imprisoned and sacrified to the deity most likely to desire dwarven sacrifices.
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Fleeting Frames

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Re: Religious conflict.
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2016, 01:24:06 pm »

Deities don't exactly have just 1 sphere either. I can recall seeing a god of mountains, fortresses and trade several times.

As for playing, could be bit difficult to maintain efficiency. Getting piled by multiple disjointed alerts at once in 1 fortress is troublesome, having that for multiple forts even more so.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2016, 01:25:52 pm by Fleeting Frames »
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Grim Portent

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Re: Religious conflict.
« Reply #4 on: June 26, 2016, 03:14:44 pm »

A more practical variant would be to give each faith a section of one fortress in which it's adherents live and in which they practice skills relevant to the deity.

So all soldiers must be worshippers of a war deity, all masons must worship a rock or mountain god and so on.
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There once was a dwarf in a cave,
who many would consider brave.
With a head like a block
he went out for a sock,
his ass I won't bother to save.

BlackBronze

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Re: Religious conflict.
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2016, 09:34:41 pm »

Definitely an interesting notion...if you do plan to try it yourself, I'd love to see how it goes. I have a few ideas on how you could fix the multiple deity worshiping though.

First off, you could have city-states that worship multiple deities that focus on the same aspects. For example, if your civ in question had a deity of Fortresses and a deity of Wars, I would have no doubt that they would be buddy-buddy. Or for a more fun approach, devote a city-state to the balance of two deities of opposite aspects, like a city devoted to the harmony between the God of Birth & Life and the Goddess of Death & Disease. THAT would be pretty cool.

On a different approach, have it so that any worship of any deity other than that city's deity is banished. say, over time, a dwarf feels restless after not praying towards one of his deities. If there's enough of the restless followers, you could build an out-of-the-way secret shrine for them to use, like a cult. However, if a Dwarf that is solely the city's deity's followers finds the shrine, then all of the Blasphemers that were in it at the time must be banished from the city's walls, no exceptions. As for where they go after that, the choice is yours...

Finally, you could have some of the city-states fight against each other. sure, you can't have one dwarf kill another by sword, but Ballista Arrows hurt friend and foe alike. I'm sure there are other methods to go forth, too.
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regulark

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Re: Religious conflict.
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2016, 09:56:19 pm »

A more practical variant would be to give each faith a section of one fortress in which it's adherents live and in which they practice skills relevant to the deity.

So all soldiers must be worshippers of a war deity, all masons must worship a rock or mountain god and so on.

I like this idea. Dwarves could experience bullying, embarrassment, a lack of fulfillment if they are in a profession that doesn't align with their deity of choice, among other things.
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