CyberChaosV2
Lord of Altera
I don't think people are heretics because the gods are dicks, look at the greek gods, they'd punish mortals who didn't even realize they did wrong! Take Alcmene, mother of Heracles, she was punished by Hera after Alcmene slept with Zeus... only she thought Zeus was her husband because he impersonated that guy... I have no idea why people would worship gods like that except out of fear... yet our gods are kinda more like "Eh, I just want my stuff done, but I'm not that bad a guy, just kinda selfish, but meh." (Not shitting on the gods, just saying they're not as bad as the Greek ones) I think the real reason is the fact that Gods have been shown to exist, which opens up people's ideas, looking at an illogical argument between someone who believes there is no god, and someone who believes there is, the main arguments are this: "You have no proof he does exist, so I say he doesn't." "You have no proof he doesn't exist so I say he does." Burden of proof aside, one of these arguments is rendered invalid with how the Gods of Altera have shown themselves, suddenly gods are a very real thing, so yes, we technically shouldn't have any atheistic characters... unless you change the statement of their belief. "I believe there are no gods still among us today." they believe the gods are gone, and this is a very possible atheistic character, explaining away the miracles people can perform by saying it is simply high level magic. As for heretical characters, the easiest way to explain is "Well, we've been shown there's more than one god, who's to say there's more than just the ones in the common pantheon?" one could also say that these beliefs are more spiritual, people don't entirely believe their gods to exist, but rather value the belief itself, the culture that goes with, and the full ideal of their belief, though more often than not, they totally believe in the god. Then take a look at a character we all love to meme, Sankera. Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not as active on the forums these days) but San is most certainly considered a heretic if only because what he worships is not in the common god group for worshiping, rather, he worships a being that used to exist with great power, yet no longer does. If San can certainly believe in something that exists, perhaps there's a better way to do a heretic character? Rather than believing in an entirely different moon god, or some god of the grass and pollen, I'd be more interested in people seeing ASPECTS of the gods, misinterpreting, or not getting the full picture, and worshiping them still, but as something different. Example: Say Roy, having just emerged from a cave where the dwarves failed to teach him about Korog, sees Crusade, the god of war, and is so enraptured by the god being coated in blood, having just been done with a slaughter, he misinterprets the god's meaning, instead believing him to be a god of blood, and fully accepting this ideal. He uses the dwarven word for blood (Don't know it off the top of my head) and let's say the word for great being, idk, and uses those combined words to name the 'god' he believes in. Roy is now a heretic even though he fully believes in a god commonly worshiped and accepted as a being to worship, all because he didn't get the full picture.