Horoscopes and Deities

[Keir]

A little leaked information. I do not reveal my sources on this and it may be altered during the course of testing, so treat as rumor only.

 

When you create your character, as well as being able to choose race, gender, looks, job class, and starting city-state, you can also choose your nameday (birthday), and guardian (primary deity), and it is hinted that all of these factors may affect your attributes in the game.

[Verence]

If these factors don't have a direct impact on your stats, I welcome them as interesting and unique customization opportunities. If they DO, I find them incredibly obnoxious. It's a way to potentially shoot yourself in the foot before you ever even get started. What if you have your heart set on a melee powerhouse and choose a mage-oriented guardian and nameday due to lack of explicit info? If you want to maximize your potential, your only recourse is to restart your character.

[Keir]

I think that the attributes probably relate to elements rather than actual stats. Like if your attributes lean you toward a fire aura, or an ice aura, being able to have certain defenses against these sorts of things.

 

But that's just my guess.

[Eltharian]

I only hope that we would be able to choose to not be affiliated with any deity if we desire so. I wouldn't like the idea of having to choose a god of goddess when the character I am playing is, say, atheist and end up being pigeon holed into any religion that would not fit my characters personality in any way.

[Smiling River]

I'm with Eltharian here... but perhaps being an atheist is against the game lore in XIV? I always thought religion was kinda in your face in XI too, because within the world there seemed to exist clear evidence of the deities. Perhaps religion will actually be an undeniable fact in XIV...? I donno.

[Kylin]

I'd be willing to bet that the deity thing has something to do with elemental alignment. SE has already stated that you can make your character excel at a particular element this time around or be more balanced between the elements if you wished.

 

In regards to the atheism stuff...you have to take into account the setting. The religious system in Eorzea so far seems very similar to that of Greek/Roman religion. There really was no such thing as "atheism" during ancient Greek and Roman times. At most, some may have believed the gods didn't give a rat's behind about humans. But even then, everyone still took it as a fact that the gods did exist. To believe otherwise would be like saying there was no such thing as gravity. Atheism is much more of a modern concept. Also, in a world surrounded by magic and monsters...it kinda makes little sense to be atheist.

 

Now I'm not saying it would be unbelieable if they did allow you to not choose a patron deity. That would be fine if they did let you be "atheist" (or rather, agnostic). Mostly just playing devil's advocate

 

Edit: In addition, the gods may make appearances in cutscenes or something like that. In that scenario, it'll be pretty difficult to play the atheist card . We already know the primals have a physical presence in the world and they're god-like beings themselves. Of course, it's still too soon to tell if the Twelve will have a physical presence or not.

[Eltharian]

Yeah, that is a very good point Castiel. I guess what I' am getting at is that if we are to choose a deity to follow, I hope the will be an option to select none as a choice. If elemental alignment factors into this, then I don't know how it would work this way, but it is something that I would personally prefer. Even if it was a known fact that gods and goddesses exist in the world of FFXIV, I think it should be a players choice to whether they choose to worship any of them or not. I'm sure there will be some that would not look at these 'beings' as gods and goddesses that are to be worshiped.

 

I'm not sure if Eltharian will be religious or not yet, I'd have to wait for more information to see if there is a deity out there that I could see him following, but it would be nice to have the option to not follow any religion as well.

 

And I agree, the term 'agnostic' would be more correct than 'atheist', especially when these gods/goddesses are actually known to exist in Eorzea.

[Smiling River]

There really was no such thing as "atheism" during ancient Greek and Roman times. At most, some may have believed the gods didn't give a rat's behind about humans. But even then, everyone still took it as a fact that the gods did exist. To believe otherwise would be like saying there was no such thing as gravity. Atheism is much more of a modern concept. Also, in a world surrounded by magic and monsters...it kinda makes little sense to be atheist.

Going to have to correct you on this. It's not that there weren't any atheists... it's just that in the last few decades atheists haven't been persecuted (although...) for their lack of belief in the US. For example, back in the day, if you didn't believe openly, you'd be murdered.

 

That's not to say there weren't any atheists. Religious persecution has barely stopped in Europe/US allowing atheists could come out of the closet Back in the day, if you were suspicious... didn't come to church often enough or w/e, you were a witch or a blasphemer, or w/e else. There is no way to prove everyone believed in a god/gods since you can't have every persons inner thoughts on the record, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that there was non-belief for as long as religion was around. Also agnostic- lack of knowledge, atheist- lack of belief. They aren't exclusive. A 'moderate' Christian can say he/she is an agnostic theist- meaning they believe in god but they do not claim to know he exists. A gnostic position, imo, is dogmatic no matter if it's coupled with theism or atheism.

 

I can talk about this all day My close friend assumed I was a Religion major for a very long time until I corrected him hehe, so I'll just stop here.

 

But yeah, in Eorzia if gods are simply out there, they should be considered factual. Thus an atheist character would seem silly/delirious. If it's the same as in RL, then I guess a character can be an atheist but it's rather unlikely. Assuming the setting (era) isn't too far off from XI, in which case, common people explained everything they didn't completely understand with god or gods in mind (if we allow ourselves to equate it to our history from medieval times or so). There would have to be good reason behind it.

[Aveline]

Well.. to the ancient Greeks the gods really DIDN'T care about humans, though from time to time they played favorites, sort of like a socialite doting over a favorite miniature poodle for a while.

 

However, the gods weren't omnipotent beings, like the Judeo-Christian god. The Greek gods were mostly personifications of feelings or natural events. Would any of you say "I don't believe in wind storms" or "I don't believe in fire." ? Of course not.

 

But getting back to the patron deities in the game.. if you don't want to RP as having one, then simply.. leave it out of your character? Just because it's listed somewhere on your character sheet that you have a patron deity (if you are absolutely required to have one, that is) doesn't mean at all that you actually have to make it known to anyone else, or to integrate that in to your character.

[Guest]

My starting city will be Ul'dah so I'll be picking a diety that represents fire or war. Unless I go the Lalafell mage route, then if its available I'll go a 'forbiden magic/element' route.

[Eva]

Wonder if this thread is going to give birth to the "What's your element?" thread.

 

I remain neutral on the deity thing. I have thoughts and plans, but I am not yet prepared to reveal them.

 

I may as well briefly add my own views on atheism to the discussion, since it has been brought up. I have never had a problem with atheism or atheists in general, so long as my own views are accepted. I would never call an atheist foolish for believing something different than myself. By the same coin, I am offended when I hear atheists name spiritual/religious people accordingly. I think for anyone to make any claims with any absolute certainty in either direction to the point where "everyone else is wrong" is narrow-minded. Of course that's just my view, but I have heard slanderous things said by atheists about the faithful, just as I've heard the extremely devout namecall nonbelievers and try to bash their faith [in the belief that no god exists]. It's all just enough for me to /facepalm.

 

I wonder who the water god/goddess will be. :mrgreen:

[Eltharian]

I may as well briefly add my own views on atheism to the discussion, since it has been brought up. I have never had a problem with atheism or atheists in general, so long as my own views are accepted. I would never call an atheist foolish for believing something different than myself. By the same coin, I am offended when I hear atheists name spiritual/religious people accordingly. I think for anyone to make any claims with any absolute certainty in either direction to the point where "everyone else is wrong" is narrow-minded. Of course that's just my view, but I have heard slanderous things said by atheists about the faithful, just as I've heard the extremely devout namecall nonbelievers and try to bash their faith [in the belief that no god exists]. It's all just enough for me to /facepalm.

 

/agreed.