Religious Background Ideas

[89157Z]

How people were raised has a lot of impact on their attitude towards faith and piety, and I think the backgrounds should reflect that. I suggest the following three background ideas. I also suggest (though I couldn't come up with appropriate presentation and penalties for it) a 'Family: Publicly Impious' or 'History: Descended of Heretics' background that returns a point to the player but makes their character's life harder.

 

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Family: Religious

By selecting this background, you are Informed of all Religion subskills and gain +3 to Theology, +2 and Prayer, and +1 to Piety. You start with visitation rights for the Temple of Iudocia (and your family expects you to use them heavily).

 

Your family has always been remarkably devout and they have always expected you to follow suit. Whether you were eager or reluctant, you can't help but have picked up a great deal of knowledge about religious practice.

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History: Descended of Heroes

By selecting this background, you gain +1 Luck, +1 Glory, and you start the game with visitation rights to many of the holy places in Elumia. However, you suffer -2 stress maximum, as people who learn of your background tend to develop unrealistic expectations. Some of them look to you for miracles, others think you should be taken down a peg.

 

For whatever reason, your family has always been charmed with interesting lives. There's an inspiring number of saints and heroes in your family's history. What's less known is how many hermits and madmen are in your family tree as well. Glory is not always good, and you're not the only person in your extended family to find the plague of strange luck and high expectations to be stressful.

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Family: Graverobbers

By selecting this background, you are barred from visiting many of the holy sites in Elumia. However, you gain +1 Intelligence and +1 to your Anatomy, Archeology, and Biology skills.

 

Your parents are not nearly as irreligious as their reputation paints them. They're natural philosophers. However, thanks to some indiscretions years ago, they're known for the raiding of tombs, the denial of theology, the torture of small animals, and pretty much every other evil that bold researchers can get accused of. The worst part is that would-be adventurers (aka most of your friends ever) look up to them and bug you for stories. You can't give them any stories. Your parents are actually very boring people!

[Legate of Mineta]

89157Z;

 

These are excellent- I particularly like Graverobbers.

[89157Z]

Just trying to fill a hole that bothered me in the game! I've already made one character who I decided would be very much a pious person, not just in the Cleanse and Remake sense, but rather after he had maxed out all his religion skills and become the Beacon of Beggar's Corner for good measure, he learned the skills necessary to teach others and began teaching other students about religion too. Especially his clique.

 

I thought as I was looking through the backgrounds that it would have been fitting if I'd also been able to pick a family background that matched.

[Adrian]

It is a very good idea really

[89157Z]

Is it possible for you to have visitation rights to somewhere you haven't discovered? That's how I was imagining the Descended of Heroes one would work. Your family is perceived as divinely favored, so the people who tend these locations are hardly going to throw you out, but that doesn't mean you can always tell where you can visit 'safely'. At least not before you've visited once.

 

Also, I used the word 'many' chiefly because there are only a few sites that would qualify, so 'many' of them is not exactly a bevy of locations. The phrasing may need to be changed.