The Crystal itself as a "religion"

[Ahrimann]

Has anyone ever discussed or considered that in a place like Yliakum some culture may have developed that considers the Crystal or the Azure Sun itself as a "deity", a "religion" or an object of "worship"? Think of the Egyptians and "Ra" or "Amun-Ra", for example.

Neither "Laanx" nor "Talad" were powerful enough to create new beings by themselves, they needed a ritual and the Crystal. It was even powerful enough to injure and significantly change a "deity". Does this mean that such a Crystal is always needed to create a new race or is it any powerful magical object, which in this case just happened to be the Crystal?

Whether you actually argue that the Crystal is "alive" or just a "tool" for magic, it may be irrelevant to some inhabitants of Yliakum. To them, the Crystal is a powerful source of magic, energy, light, life (and death in some cases). If some people were to worship the Crystal, how would they be perceived in Yliakum? Would they be perceived as heretics, neutrals, good, evil etc? What kind of people would choose a religion based around the Crystal? Why would they choose it as opposed to any other choice? Do majority of the inhabitants believe in the ability of "Laanx" to tap the Crystal's magical power directly, hence being closer to it than any other "deity"?

An additional question: Is the Crystal a source of Mana in Yliakum or is Mana a force within each magic practitioner (I know the general definition of Mana), independent of the Crystal? Or both?

Note that I'm not necessarily suggesting that it should suddenly be an option during character creation and in-game experience. It's just a consequence of reading the settings and wondering how the Yliakum inhabitants would perceive it. Maybe this can spark an interesting discussion? Just keep in mind that I'm not trying to convince you one way or another, only asking you to think and post your thoughts...

[Donari Tyndale]

Funny. Whom would you worship, the god that created you/guided your race or a stone? Of course, the stone.

[Ahrimann]

Funny. Whom would you worship, the god that created you/guided your race or a stone? Of course, the stone.

According to PlaneShift settings, the "god" alone did not create you, the Crystal or the "stone" did, after the ritual...

[XCompWiz]

Also, according to the History stuff on the main page, neither Laanx nor Talad actually did any guiding, Vodúl was the one who created the portals.

[Donari Tyndale]

Though your characters don't know that.

[Ahrimann]

Well, the book "Song of Lemurs" (or something similar) describes Lemurs witnessing the creation of Kran and the "accident" that injured Laanx, so the inhabitants know the Crystal's abilities. They also know that everyone except Lemurs and Kran came through the portals, even if they don't know who created the portals. However, their ancestors would at least remember their original deities and religions. Question is, did their "gods" need a similar Crystal or a magical object to create them or not?

Come to think of it, neither Laanx nor Talad knew the ritual for life creation and only "mimicked" what Vodul taught Laanx, unsuccessfully in Talad's case. Did Vodul come up with the ritual or did someone else? Who was the original creator of the ritual in PlaneShift, some ancient "god" who did a lot of "trial and error"?

[Waylander]

Heh, I'd like to see what Xillix says on this topic.  I would be surprised if there were cults that worshiped the crystal.  Xil!  Jera!  Rizin!  Get over here

[Jonerian]

Whom would you worship, the god that created you/guided your race or a stone? Of course, the stone.

In RL there are/were religions were the sun (the crystal equivalent) was the center of religions. Though some of them thought of the sun as a representation for a god, which is somewhat the same for me. The "stone" can be seen, a creator would be imagination. Although Talad is coming to Yliakum from time to time as I heard..

Nothing wrong for me with a "simple" religion for the crystal itself.

[Raa]

I know a guy who worships spatulas and prays to dishwashers. So, I guess it's possible there are some strange religions out there in Yliakum...

 

[Cebot]

In my opinion it could be possible that some individuals praise the crystal for it's energy.
As stated in the history chapter of the main page, the crystal has already been there when Talad and Laanx arrived on this planet, that means neither of the deities created it. It's a powerful source of magic, gives light, warmth and energy, therefore I could imagine some people in yliakum praising the Crystal for those features.

Farmers would praise the crystal for the light and the warmth, mages would praise it for it's magical potential, probably...but making it a whole religion? I doubt that

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

This one is shot down by settings!

Sry, the Lemur and Kran being the first inhabitants of Yliakum had an established culture that was favored by the gods.

A cult of the crystal is not a reasonable outcome of these dynamics.

[Raa]

Xillix, what about the crazies? Why can't we make tiny little cults of, like, trepor worshipers?

[Duraza]

Xillix, what about the crazies? Why can't we make tiny little cults of, like, trepor worshipers?

Because thats silly 

However, all that happened with the crystal was a long time before any of our characters lived...I'd say that we might not even be able to say we know how the gods created us, only that they did. At least thats what the mass population would think. If you want to worship trepors and shiny rocks that cause perma death stick to being full blown insane 

[shorty13]

it personally doesn't make sense how coming up with new religions is against the settings.  People think differently, and nobody has the same exact beliefs on every single little issue.  Eventually people that do have common beliefs to each other, but different from the norm for their own cults or religions.  Take for example scientology as a OOC example.  Even wackos have the right to believe what they wish, and in the laws of hydlaa, i'm pretty sure there is freedom of religion.  Therefore, how can it possibly be that over such a long time people start to no believe in the gods of Laanx and Talad especially since they left the realm of Yliakum [which is why we can choose Atheism as a religion at character creation]?  From this people would start looking towards things they see, or know to exist, such as the Azure Sun/crystal.  Remember the Cult of the Dark Crystal that a group of players formed and was well played while it lasted imho?  According to the settings team, it was against the settings.

So the question then becomes:  Do the people of Yliakum have the capability to think for themselves, outside of the box, and to question their surroundings, especially when the lore of laanx and talad is so old and has the potential, in the eyes of the inhabitants of yliakum, to have been stretched or altered as time went on?  Or does everyone either praise talad, laanx, or dakkru [in which case Atheism should be taken out of the settings].

Just from personal observations from other such things:  It seems at times the settings team/devs/Talad want to be able to control everyone's actions to the point where certain things like being able to question one's own reality and life cannot be asked.  Personally, going with this further, I believe that it would be acceptable for a large group of players to create their own government and country outside the octarchy if they desire, just like how real countries were formed, however this was shot down on a couple accounts from what I hear.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Lol, you don't worship the gods we have!!!

It should be enough, everyone perpetually wants to run about declaring themselves the King of France!

I say no, embody the settings we have please.