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Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Hastur83 - 06-23-2015
Sorry if this has been asked before, but I did a quick search and didn't see anything that stuck out. So, I'm planning a Hellsguard character, got his look picked out and everything. I did a web search and this is what I've been able to gather about our dusky-toned giant friends.
They are very reverent to the fiery mountains of their home, believing it to be a gate to the underworld. (Patron god is Nald'Thal? He's the god of the underworld isn't he?)
They send second and third sons out into the world to make a name for themselves.
They are very much a merit and honor-based society of warriors, choosing to even throw away their family name in order to stand on their own accomplishments.
They are capable as mages as well as fighters, lore-wise.
They often act as mercenaries and bodyguards in their search for glory.
Their numbers are low in Eorzea.
For some reason they view Alchemy as blasphemy against the gods (...Does this seem weird to anyone else?)
Is that about it? I'm having trouble figuring out how the religion works in Eorzea. I know it's polytheistic, with certain factions and cities having patron gods like the city-states of classical Greece. Is the PC's Guardian like a personal patron god? Do certain races and classes have particular gods that they gravitate to? What does worship of these gods even look like?
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - McBeefâ„¢ - 06-23-2015
So this is mild spoilers, but there are two types of gods in Eorzea.
Established worshiped gods. These are the twelve, most Eorzeas believe they are gods, and worship is similar to that of earth deities. Often cities have their favorite deity and express that worship slightly differently. For example Ishgard reveres Halone. Beast tribes also have their own gods and legends outside the twelve.
However essentially anything that people put enough faith in /Becomes/ a god-like being in Eorzea. Even if there is no history of it being one. So to give a real world analogy, its like if a meteor was headed towards earth, if enough people prayed to Superman, then he would show up and stop it.
Whether or not there is actually any difference between the two types of gods (established vs generated) is up to debate. I don't really want to get into the mechanics of how this happens for spoiler reasons.
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Lekka Meyren - 06-23-2015
You're roughly right that this is most the lore we have on hellsguard. I think some source mentions that rather than just heading out for glory, their children often leave because they keep families small. (Largely due to "More mouths to feed" type logic) - But that their children often enjoy more success in the outside world.
I'm not 100% sure on that as "established fact", but I used that as a little thing for Lekka's lore. In the end you can probably just handwave most things you want for hellsguard lore as being "your family" and it's peculiar ways.
Lekka is RP'ed as being from abalathia, and while this is a big part of her identity, it really isn't a thing she swings around a lot. It just serves as a starting perspective for why she isn't 100% knowledgeable about everything; and why she has her own particular world view imbued by her parents.
- Not sure there are a tonne of Hellsguard who RP being from the mountains though, most I've met were Ul'dah or Limsan citizens, regardless it's always fun to meet another hellsguard for Lekka IC.
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Hastur83 - 06-23-2015
(06-23-2015, 04:35 AM)Lekka Meyren Wrote: You're roughly right that this is most the lore we have on hellsguard. I think some source mentions that rather than just heading out for glory, their children often leave because they keep families small. (Largely due to "More mouths to feed" type logic) - But that their children often enjoy more success in the outside world.
I'm not 100% sure on that as "established fact", but I used that as a little thing for Lekka's lore. In the end you can probably just handwave most things you want for hellsguard lore as being "your family" and it's peculiar ways.
Lekka is RP'ed as being from abalathia, and while this is a big part of her identity, it really isn't a thing she swings around a lot. It just serves as a starting perspective for why she isn't 100% knowledgeable about everything; and why she has her own particular world view imbued by her parents.
- Not sure there are a tonne of Hellsguard who RP being from the mountains though, most I've met were Ul'dah or Limsan citizens, regardless it's always fun to meet another hellsguard for Lekka IC.
Sure! If I can ever actually get into the game. There's only 4 servers open at 4:13 AM Central Time, so, uhhh... it might be a while before I can get on to any of the RP servers. Are Hellsguard particularly pious? It's said that they adapt faster than Seawolves, but that sort of flies in the face of their more conservative beliefs. But then, a lot of them abandon their names to better fit in with the rest of the world. I'm having a hard time placing what the "average" Hellsguard is like. Or their culture, anyways. I know the ones that go out into the world typically work as mercenaries or bodyguards, and a lot of them are in Ul'dah.
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Lekka Meyren - 06-23-2015
I like to interpret it as a sort of "Minding their own business" culture. As you say they clearly have a tradition of discarding names that would be hard for the other races to remember or pronounce...
..Though I also kinda like to think that those names matter to them; individually. A lot of the RP I've had with other Roegadyn revolves around names and a common perspective on Eorzea.
The truth of it though is that you could totally play a pious roegadyn. I imagine if you were one of the mages who are revered for their magic in the spine; then you might be a little more preoccupied with the whole magic and gods thing. Or you could've been raised to me a knower of magicks but deciding that the family "rituals" were superstition... Â Play it how you like!
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Lilia Lia - 06-23-2015
(06-23-2015, 01:20 AM)Hastur83 Wrote: For some reason they view Alchemy as blasphemy against the gods (...Does this seem weird to anyone else?)
The lore around alchemy is that it was historically considered kind of a dark art and was only recently socially accepted into Ul'dah because of its demonstrated medical applications. So if Hellsguard feel that way about alchemy then it is really more them having an "old-fashioned" attitude towards it, in a way.
Talk to the guildmaster at the Alchemy guild and read their basic explanation. It's very much based around real-world historical alchemy which has always been considered an occult science. Which in a way makes sense, considering all the other crafts are things that are based on history.Â
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Hammersmith - 06-23-2015
I play a Hellsguard who has to deal with the severe lack of info we have on them.
What I've gathered:
Since they send children out into the world to keep the home numbers low, it means the Mountain is populated by firstborn, sometimes second born. Â Everyone else has to have an exit strategy.
This means the Hellsguard Mountain homeland has to have connections, either to Mercenary camps, guilds, trading organizations, the works. Â It means the Hellsguard actively export their children to various processions and armies. Â Weather or not they fit in is another matter entirely but it seems likely that Daughter/Son three and four get their "abilities" noted at a young age and arragements are made to apprentice/contract them out to parties later in their life once they're self sustaining.
Which means you probably see young hellsguard in the employ of a lot of services and guilds and organizations. Â It's very unlikley they just throw all these kids out into the world blind. It'd make more sense if the children are apprenticed out. Â Taught, and then let actually loose on the world. Not all of them are going to make it, so you can get criminals as well as mendicants and ne'er do wells.
So you have a population that starts young and nomadic in that they have to travel with their new 'families' (Be it guild or mercenary, bandit, or otherwise), settles into a life path of their choosing, and then pursues it to whatever degree they want.
As such it makes sense that if the Hellsguard are a lower-population then the ex-pat children of the Spine tend to be very motivated to survive, succeed, and prosper as much under their own terms and strength as they are circumstance. Some make it in society, some make it on the fringes. Each hellsguard kid who gets thrown out of the homeland ends up defining their place under their own strength and abilities.
Which also explains somewhat why the Hellsguard don't keep family names. Â They're not defined by family. Â If anything they're brutally defined by how they've made themselves so "Choosing" their own name, one that works and is easily used/understand/gifted to them by the places they end up (Curious Gorge, for example, implies there's a story behind how he got his current name). Â You could easily have families and clans and the like who have other motivations for shedding names and the reasons why they treat them as changeable, mutable, fleeting things. Â Probably varies from char to char and upbringing to upbringing in terms of how hard a line they take on that.
This kind of "remnant" superstition and religion is probably doubly important. A kid from the Hellsguard homeland ends up deciding how much of that they want to carry with them and how much they want to replace with whatever new life they end up constructing with their own two hands.
Hammer, my hellsguard, carries a LOT of the 'old' superstitions he was fed as a kid, for a lot of various reasons, while harboring a long and hard grudge against various other parts of religion as it stands a practicality as it requires kids to get kicked out of the hearth.
Edit: And this doesn't even start to touch on ex-pat communities and 1'st, 2'nd, and further onward removed children of hellsguard parents who have never been to the homeland but have similar expectations foisted on them, or that they embrace of their own accord, OR IGNORE COMPLETELY.
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Hastur83 - 06-23-2015
Ah, that actually helped me quite a lot you guys. I think I have a better picture now of how these guys are.
RE: Hellsguard Lore + Religion Question - Caspar - 06-23-2015
I have a related question: does the clergy of the Twelve prosthyletize? Or is it a more personal spirituality?