Old World Religion

The enemy lurks in shadows
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AdrianGrom
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:43 pm

I'm reading about the different religious doctrines in The Empire - I'm confused about what 'injustice' means to the Cult of Verena. Obviously, the Old World has different values than modern people.

What counts as unjust to the priests of Verena? A false legal verdict is clearly unjust. But is contractual fine print an injustice? Union busting? Arranged marriage? Sabotaging a business rival? Mutilation of petty criminals? Discrimination against LGBT? Slavery (where legal)? Catcalling peasant wenches?

This setting is a bit contradictory - it wants to be politically correct and it wants to be dystopian.
Capitaneus Fractus
Posts: 151
Joined: Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:41 am
Location: Gisoreux

That is because there were many eras of influence for Warhammer, which settle down in layers: ragbag of many fantasy influences without much inspiration nor critical thinking; a learned adult critical universe whose dystopian aspects are used as a mean to implicitly critic real world prejudices*; a mainstream commercial universe, without any social criticism, thought to looks "kewl" to children' and teenagers' backward minds while not frighten wallet holder parents; an adoption of some of its topos to far rightists movements; a mainstream uncritical pseudo-progressive universe, whose politically correct eutopian aspects are used to disconnect the role playing game to social criticism, if not to hidden or to deny real world prejudices.

It result to a chaotic extended universe which carry all of those intentions, all those contradictions, incoherences, this flagrant inequality of maturity of publication, and many more things... And the whole Old World polytheism isn't realistic anyway, as was underlined there: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=321

Hence, there aren't any official answers to your question, I fear. You will have to rationalize it yourself, according to your own tastes and exigences.

As a suggestion: you might perhaps take inspiration from Themis and from Dike to determine what would be Justice according to the Verenean cult...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Themis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dike_(mythology)


[*a somewhat related article: https://wearethemutants.com/2019/01/14/ ... ttle-game/ ]
Veniam, Duelli Malleum, phantasticum ludum personae uidebo, in fera terra periculosorum aduenturorum ludebam.
AdrianGrom
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2022 12:43 pm

You must have been playing this game quite a while, Cpt Frac. I did not know that.

Hollywood often takes liberal humanism and exports it to settings where it does not belong. Priests of Verena are judges. They are not supposed to follow the letter of the law !?@#!? And they are forbidden to be tools of injustice (or heresy).
I see my choices as:
1. pray to Verena for guidance.
2. just make it up.
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Orin J.
Posts: 514
Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2019 10:39 pm

given that the empire's legal system is a hodge-podge of fuedalism, imperialism, and everything else awkwardly knitted together to keep the first two together while still playing nicely with each other, it's quite possible verenian priests tendsto apply a lot of hindsight and points out how laws failed and how they are like proposed stupid laws to demand things change. verena is the goddess of education and justice after all, law is mearly the application of those first two.
macd21
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2019 8:28 am

AdrianGrom wrote: Sat Feb 12, 2022 10:27 pm This setting is a bit contradictory - it wants to be politically correct and it wants to be dystopian.
This is a common mistake people make when looking at Warhammer - the setting is not (and never has been) supposed to be dystopian. The Empire (and the other realms of the Old World) are corrupt, cruel an unjust, but not to the point of dystopia. They’re probably a little less awful than the real world polities they’re based on.

How that manifests with regard to Verenans and injustice is up to you and your group. Some people prefer a campaign in which modern concepts of right and wrong apply, others prefer to draw on historical norms. Neither approach is right or wrong, it comes down to what the group finds fun.
zacheryfrevert
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Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2022 2:24 am

Followers of the old faith do not worship any deity in the usual sense. Although the concept of the Mother-Goddess is widespread, it includes service not only to her, the goddess of fertility, but also to all nature and its forces. The Old Believers considered the days of the summer and winter solstice and the spring and autumn equinoxes to be sacred. In addition, there were minor feasts like those in honor of the new moon or full moon. Religion plays a major role in my life. I attend church every day https://firstchurchlove.com. If you want peace of mind, it is better to turn to faith.
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