Abbots, Nuns, and Friars, Oh my!

[Kinaed]

Hi Bennie,

I think your idea of making the church more three-dimensional is fantastic. I also see nothing wrong with the Abbey project, turning it into a thriving centre for the Order. I just want to avoid going more "Catholic" with the thematic use of iconic words, such as "monk, nun, friar".

I agree the church should do good things too, and be as RPly representative of humanity as possible, which is both good and bad. The church does do charity work, house an orphanage, and all of these things. I apologize if what I said came over as disapproval for your project, it's more rather around a specific aspect that is sensitive and want to make sure we handle gently and with the respect Catholics deserve.

Thanks for understanding, and I apologize again for coming over like a ton of bricks!

Warm regards,
Kinky

[Bennie]

So I guess what we come to then is how we do this with the abbey? In many ways, the abbot title has to stay (there is a room called the "Abbot's Office") and it makes sense to me that we have someone who coordinates the abbey's activities.

One thing that Zin mentioned, and should be brought into consideration, is that we could use the abbey as a launch site for Orderite activities with the Court. The Cathedral is fairly far from the Palace if you think of it, which can be a little bit annoying when you have to commute. This, once again, relates to my thoughts on having an increased relationship with the Nobles and other groups. I think that the Abbey would give a place to launch a lot of those inter-guild activities with the Order. It, as a whole, is much more open to non-Order traffic than the cathedral and has a larger variety of rooms than the place of worship and a few locked offices. (We have a locked office, two dormitory type rooms, a council chamber, a scriptorium, and a library in addition to the church itself.)

Thoughts on this?

[Kinaed]

Happy with everything you said :)

[wimple]

Honestly, this response doesn't make much sense to me. For all intents and purposes, everything historically 'bad' about Catholicism is currently what the Order does and is directly referenced by the game's mythology. It has an inquisition against witches, through which it tortures oft innocent people; it takes indulgences and is reckless with its wealth; it has deep political ties, eradicates other religions through military campaigns, and with Daravi being a Sultanate, they may as well be the crusades against the Muslims, etc. Essentially, the game is one big insensitive representation of all the historical big-bads of Catholicism.

Abbots/nuns/monks are, more or less, a far more positive historical reference - at least they managed to keep the world's historical knowledge safe through the Dark Ages. Never mind which, monasteries are prevalent in several major world religions - when I think monk, I think Buddhism.

I'm not trying to be combative, but it just seems to be an odd place to 'draw the line' with being respectful and sensitive to Catholics.

Hi Bennie,
I agree the church should do good things too, and be as RPly representative of humanity as possible, which is both good and bad. The church does do charity work, house an orphanage, and all of these things. I apologize if what I said came over as disapproval for your project, it's more rather around a specific aspect that is sensitive and want to make sure we handle gently and with the respect Catholics deserve.

Thanks for understanding, and I apologize again for coming over like a ton of bricks!

Warm regards,
Kinky

[Kinaed]

Yes, this is in the subjective realm of thought as to what is "bad about Catholicism" vs "what is bad about our history" or "what is bad about religion in general". In short, I haven't got very good answers.

What I do have is an aversion to offending people and experience with players complaining, reasonably legitimately, that I do not wish to repeat.