I haven't finished reading the thread, so if someone addressed these things before me, I apologize for covering the same ground.

>Yes, I have played an empowered character. ~200 hrs on the
>character. Although I asked through prayer for guidance, I
>never received any. I tried to develop something, and I only
>received immteraction once. (for the empower).

Not a relevant comment here really, but that reminds me of Pescipturian, who once claimed that by getting one empowered character he knew more than anyone who wasn't playing an empowered character. Hi Pesky.

>I don't think that cabals are very religious. They seem more like
>groups of people who have the same political goals. Ragers hate
>magic, and that might be misconstrued as religious, but...I think it
>has been established that mages gather magic from their surroundings.
>Mages don't have to pray to get their magic. The rager hatred is
>more akin to a racial hatred.

Aside from the fact that Battle existed back when both mages and clerics cast spells, and thus had trouble discerning between the two classes sometimes: The Only good reason I've ever heard for Battlerager hatred of magic was entirely religion based. The reasoning goes that the original mages stole their powers from the gods. Thus, magic is an affront to the gods, and Battle is there to punish the betrayers(mages), and potentially reclaim that power for the gods. They believe also that the power of the gods is a corrupting influence on all who use it directly, and therefore it is only safe and right in the hands of a priest, as the priest has no power without the god's direct influence. If that's not religious, I'm afraid you (josiah) is going by an entirely different definition of religion, and I'd like an explanation of what you mean by that term.

>There are no organized religons on CF. I am a big fan of cathedrals,
>with fervant followers. I think it is wrong to expect players to
>come up with this stuff on their own. Nobody wants more cabals. We
>do need some help coming up with some infrastructure to support
>religons.

Who says we need an infrastructure? Who says some religions on CF don't already have one?

>We do not want a single player character responsible for starting a
>religon... No matter how good their roleplay, that is WAAAaaayy too
>much to give to any body.

So we don't want another Ishmael? Damn.

> ... followers of organized religon. HEey! They're told how to act,
>and they know who to goto for help, and they can give tithes (oooh,
>that's an easy way to measure devotion)..

Tithes are not a reliable way to measure anything.

>People are fighting for no reason. Add religon in, and we've
>got more, fabulous, ROleplay!

I don't think greed or practice is enough of a reason to PK, but what about the necromancers who've killed in search of 'spare parts' as one put it? Or a storm paladin who's sworn to kill all duergar? Religion isn't a necessary excuse for killing.

>In all honesty, players wandering around all on their lonesome
>is not very religious or realistic.

It's not? I suppose generations of Celts and Native American Shaman should all step out of existence now. Oh, and the Aborigines too.

>Historically, religon is used for political power.

Catholicism and other Judeo-Christian groups. Anyone else?

>The masses want to be led! =)

No, no we don't. (sorry, Kalmah and all you Empire people, we don't want an iron fist controlling our lives)

I completely disagree with your idea that religions must be violent.

--Quislet,
Tired of being agreeable, and just being blunt.