Religion: Damak and Dyma

Since it came up in duties of the clans, perhaps a thread discussing the religion could host the topic of the day!

Quoting from the previous post:

Lapis wrote:

Rashad wrote:

I'd rather see Damak+Dyma as a religom clan

They are a natural couple - my thought of incorporating the religion into other areas of activity was that it could be interesting to break free of the "priest clan"-concept and make the religion much more a part of everyday clan activity, identity and philosophy. If, for instance, assassins and healing priests were part of the Damak and necromancers and demonologists were part of Dyma, it could lead to a creative and new way of portraiting religion in a cult (as long as the clan members stress balance rather than portraying us as an assassins- or death cult)

Rashad wrote:

Hmm well that is an interesting concept but it would need to turn around, Necormancers and Demonologists are already supposed to go to Damak cause damak is the dark god and dyma is the light one and so damak is kinda the evil one and dyma is kinda the good one though they're both supposed to be neutral, damak is known to be impatient though while dyma is very forgiving.

As described in the database Damak is the earthly god - the god of the flesh, while Dyma is the god of the sky - the god of the spirit. Since both are supposed to be neutral it would be a good thing to give both of them dark AND light aspects, even if Damak will be the darker one.

I'd love healers to be part of the dark god together with an agent of destruction (especially since he is the god of flesh) - it breaks with the stereotype. Actually, both Damak and Dyma could have healers, but with different theological rethorics.

My only thoughts on the subject is to not confuse things too much by giving each god too much of a complex system of what they do and what they dont do. Balance is an important part of the Clan so it would make sense to me if you have (as is already) one god of earth and body, and one of the sky and spirit...while the earthly god is merciful, the other is unforgiving. This would mean that perhaps both gods are not neutral, but the fact is this religion is based on two gods, and the world does not work in perfect balance but instead is a routine of Negative Feedback, whereby each action provokes an equal and opposite reaction to send it back into balance so aslong as the two gods do not stray too fara from neutral and instead counterbalance eachother it shouldnt be a problem.

While mechanically it would be a benefit to compress the two Clans of Dyma and Damak, i think Lorewise it wouldnt work as the two Clans will not likely work too well together and it sort of strips the lore potential a bit.

On another note though I think clans like Nature and Beasts could be compressed into one. Or perhaps Balance and Nature.

I'm so loving seeing you talk about this, you're bringing up issues I haven't even thought about. Taking Lapis' suggestion it does very much make sense, necromancers should go into clan damak as they craft the flesh (the body) while demonologists enslave demons and dominate the mind (the soul). This is absolutely delicious, I've always been stuck on the thought that "evil" classes go to damak and "good" classes go to dyma, but you're absolutely right this does not make sense when the gods are supposed to be neutral with just slight inclinations that only those who studied the theology closely would notice.

And I think you make a very important note on the theme of cause and effect, Sedrian. One part of the path of balance, which I don't know if I've described at all on the wiki yet is that in the end, if you don't sort the balance out between yours and another soul, it will settle itself. (much like the ideas around karma) I've also decided to go with merging nature and beasts into one clan still not sure of a name though, I think nature is fitting but something like creation could also be plausible. Suggestions are highly welcome. For now we'll call it nature.

Also Sedrian, just because we could merge the damak and dyma clan does not mean we would lose the individual gods, I find it a very interesting concept to have a clan which in itself is divided into people that favor one or the other god because in essence we do all either care more about spiritual or earthly things. This can lead to quite abit of delicious in-clan turmoil as preachers for Damak and preachers for Dyma strive for supremacy within the clan, especially since we would start out with Khalid as the Dorini, whom is a very hardcore fan of Damak. I'll need more thoughts from you guys before I make a big decision like that though.

Added alittle more on the religon section of the wiki, but I'm having difficulty formulating the thoughts in my head, probably cause I got up at 4 this morning cause I could't go back to bed.

Merging Dyma and Damak is plausible and is also quite a likely cause for ingame rivalry which is why I think it wouldnt make sense for the two to be worshipped inside the same clan. Gonna make a new thread now discussing possible name changes for the Nature clan cause I figure its quite a bit deal, along with some ideas of my own.

If necromancers will act under the Dominion of Flesh, perhaps the undead could be attributed to Damak in some way?

Perhaps the cult have bonehouses with bones of traitors and fallen enemies, which Damak allows to serve the faithful as "the beloved of Damak"? I have always wondered where all these skeletons and zombies came from ;-)

That's actually already part of the setup, Lapis, Khalid has the serious mumbojumbo on about why we allow the undead to roam free since the dead are supposed to be burned and return to the siblings, but it's about not deserving to do that and whatnot. Leaving that mainly for Khalid to decide since he's one of the co-founders and dorini of damak