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Mind-bogglingly popular game series that you follow from early on and cannot stop, waiting for new installment like a drooling addict.

Long-runner soap opera you're too invested into to just stop watching it.

A fun little comic strip in the daily newspaper that's been around forever.

3/6

Who said it's fun? I didn't for sure.

I'm just waiting here for it to die horribly already so it will stop showing on my Unread Posts list.

[Criptfeind]

I wish we had more nuance then yes or no, the religious tax, like all income streams, is most useful as a buffer against times of high expense or low income, we don't strictly need it now, and in a lot of years we don't really need it, but when we do need it, we really need it. Shame there's not a way of communicating that. If it was possible to let them control how the money was spent except during times of financial stress that'd be ideal.

I'm going to vote A

[Iituem]

Ooh, tie breaker.  We could do with keeping the faiths weak, but...  well, we can always reinstate the tax later, and we could do with goodwill right now.

Changed: Harry's argument convinced me.

A.

[Arlos]

B

[Hotfire90]

B

[mightymushroom]

B

I don't agree that the tax shows any sign of "weakening" religions yet. I question whether it is wise to do so; and if I did want to then starting a nondenominational house of learning or supporting the bill of rights with its promise of increased humanism would be more direct tools. From the tax all I see so far are priests getting angry. It's not an annual trade-off, but discontent pop-up events like this are likely to continue.

I disagree with the blanket statement:

they historically only ever seem to cause us grief.

Yoe I, our founder, pretty much built the kingdom with the might of the Alldivine mercenaries. Yoe II was also helped, although introducing a Professional Army severely limited that option. In our time of greatest need, the War of Dwarven Honour, they rescued Cyl yet again and even gave him a discount in the financial aftermath. So the Alldivines have been cool.

The Pantheonists have mostly made requests for building funds that we have been pleased to grant. The closest thing to causing "trouble" was indirectly contributing to the death of Yoe II by calling their Great Hunt (which he might have avoided), and the withdrawal of Ustwelf from politics (so far we haven't needed him back, and I think there's more to that story that he refused to say aloud). Meanwhile our firstborn son, Leath, is enshrined in the Pantheon. I would think that distinction if anything strengthens our dynasty.

The Singularists have kept to themselves to the point I forget they're around unless specifically named in a Council like this.

The others in our empire (Enyntheism, Damed, Eleveners, and whatever Herta's Albion religion is formally called) occasionally got into spats with the big 3. But with the publication of Religious Freedom even those have trailed off. Alongside the proclamation from the first religious Council that recognized no one of them was strong enough to be the state-sponsored faith, our guarantee of free worship has done more to curtail organized religion's "problems" than I see from the tax.

[Fluffe9911]

B

[vastaghen12]

B

[Haspen]

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You say you shall repeal the tax. You receive acknowledgement and gratitude of smallest order from the gathered clergy.

The next topic on hand is the religion tolerance edict. Many of higher clerics complain that this restrictive policy is tieing their hands together when it comes in dealing with outside faiths that are directly challenging the sets of beliefs practiced by Methiantese populace. Singularists have particular grudge toward Parsian Eleven, while Alldivines and Pantheonists alike have found common distaste for the proliferation of the Cult of Damed.

Then one of Singularists brings about an anecdote.

"One day I was walking down the main street of Luathbas, and what I saw? A Damed shrine, a Parsian house of worship, and preacher of Enyntheism on the corner. The foreign faithful were loud in their preaching, but where was my colleagues you ask? Two streets away, because all the prime spots were taken by lesser faiths!" The clergy, even from the other cults, nod and loudly comment in agreement. The discussion goes on for a while, but soon a major point of agreement surfaces; it would be better for peoples of Methiant, the priests say, to have three major faiths, instead of few dozens.

Finally, the high clergy of all three faiths asks you to repeal Religious Equality edict, so that they might work together to bring about unity of Methiant peoples and strengthen the nation's culture and traditions.

A) Well okay.
B) Hell no.

[mightymushroom]

B

Hell.

No.

This is our tradition.

[Weirdsound]

B

I suppose we would be open to amending the proclamation to exclude specific faiths, but a blanket repeal would be a fat nope.

[Harry Baldman]

B, obviously.

I do like that Enyntheism seems to have become mostly an afterthought once it didn't have that heretical sexiness backing it up.

[Fluffe9911]

B

[Arlos]

B

I am deeply worried about the Damed cult making it that far though.

[Prophet]

A I mean they are the only three religions that I care about since they are the local and dominant religions of Methiant. If the three of 'em are willing to work together and not fight then I'd be happy with that.

[Baffler]

B. We may have to worry about the Cult of Damed at some point, or some kind of internal religious war as has happened a few times before, but as-is repealing the religion tax is concession enough for now. We don't want to be accused of being bullied by the clergy.