Religions

Religions in Serin are a collection of belief systems that establish symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values. All religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life. They derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about Serin and human nature. The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with ethos, but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. Religions have organized behaviors, including clerical hierarchies, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, and holy shrines intended for the veneration of the deity.

The eighteen principle domains available to follow within Serin are:

Note: An AVATAR is a subject of one of the principles. They may be considered that deity's right hand. You are also able to pledge to an avatar, but you will need to uphold the beliefs of their principle in addition to any of their own. Avatars are typically active Immortals of a lower rank.

In order to follow a specific religion, one must make a pilgrimage to the shrine of the deity, where they may then PLEDGE themselves to their cause. One must uphold the beliefs of that religion to remain a follower. For more information about these requirements, see the helpfile for the deity.

Requirements

You are allowed to choose your deity to be one off-axis of your ethos and alignment.

Progression

Initiate

Those who are newly minted members of a religious group bear the decidely novice title of initiate. The initiate is an entry point. Clerical classes are required to pick religions during creation, so that they will automatically be initiates. Other classes who want to initiate will instead require the approval of a Mystic (a roleplayed interaction with a real player in the game). As an initiate, you've agreed that your beliefs align with your deity, and you are willing to be mentored a little, and mistakes are forgiveable.

Advice to those non-clerics who are choosing a religious path: This is completely optional for you. If you want to do this, then here is what we recommend:

• Fighter-types should look for backgrounds that suit their melee flavour, e.g. Diocletian the God of War.
• Mages should look for the deity domains that best match their spell sets.

Disciple

Disciples are those who have made the pilgrimage to the religion's shrine and cemented their belief with an oath of loyalty. A disciple is a tier above an initiate, one who should be able to roleplay the religion correctly and possibly supervise others. An initiate's status may be upgraded to a disciple once the 30th rank has been achieved. The transition from initiate to disciple is a defining moment in a communer's life, because once set on it can never be changed, and it will affect their communing in drastically different ways. (See help MALICE for an example.)

Adept

Adepts are players whose actions and roleplaying set their religions as the dominant forces in Serin. These are players that are considered a cut above because they are both good examples of following the religion correctly, and have been doing so for a long time. This distinction is conveyed only by the Mystic coterie, and is rewarded with a tattoo for achieving. This is not something that can be applied for. To become an adept you must be judged worthy and gotten yourself noticed.