A King Loyalist Faction (with Perhaps a Religious Twist)

[Zerminar12]

I've been away from EfU for a very long time. I last played when Ticker *existed*. Hell, before Tchamorrar outed his scaly hide. So as you might expect, I'm a bit behind on a lot of more recent lore. What I have picked up on is that everyone (who I have met) seems to hate our once beloved ruler now. It doesn't help that I've been mostly spending time in the Peerage. To cut to the point, this post is an attempt to gauge interest in a loyalist faction.

This particular concept is a bit more strange than just "We love the King!". It is by no means an original idea, but the gist is that it would be a King-worshipping cult. Despite blatantly revering the King as a god, there would be room for clerics and laymen of other Small Gods. The other native deities of the City (excluding the Lord and Lady ofc) would be recognized as loyal members of the "King's Divine Court". Phanax would of course be his steward, counting his coin and pocketing a few for his loyal service. Old Grandfather his Spymaster, keeping a watchful gaze over dissidents from the shadows. And so on and so forth.

Despite my relative inexperience with the newer details of the setting, I hope that this faction/cult can interestingly relate to the major modern metaplots of EFU5: the Count's anti-King agenda and the establishment of a "ruling religion". I don't merely want to hear from people who'd like to join this prospective multi-faith alliance, but also from the wider player base. Do you think the theological premise is weak? That a multi-faith coalition is unrealistic? And most importantly of all: do you think this faction will be fun not only to play in but to interact with from the outside?

While I'm personally excited about this concept, I want to create something that will contribute to the wider political climate and player enjoyment more than anything. So please leave your opinions here. Thank you for your time and attention.

[Slithy Tove]

This is an excellent idea. I like the religious/theological angle of it. Go for it!

[Random_White_Guy]

I wouldn't say it's impossible, given that the 9 Faced God falls under a similar sort of vibe and circumstance, but it'd definitely need some work to flesh out fully. Maybe even 1-2 Clerics of different faiths preaching fundamentally adjacent ideas/etc.

Overall though definitely sounds like a cool push for a religious angle!

[Kiaring]

I'm big on anything that advances syncretism IG. Despite all the amazing fun times I had with the Grand Vestry / Nephezar stint under the Banner, I've always felt like the way religion and Clerics are set up in CoR allows for exactly this sort of thing, less of "how do I convert everyone to my dogma" and more of "how do I encompass what other are doing into the umbrella of my dogma".

Obviously, we always need to be mindful  of the power of Clerics and the importance of religion in general to the setting - what  I mean by this is that I don't feel syncretism should be used as a blanket excuse to quest your heart out with just about everyone, or to go *glares* and leave the conflict at that. Behind syncretism there should always be overarching philosophies that delineate a character's "hard no's". In your idea, I think hard no's would be, for example, Count loyalists - how would someone involved in a Kingly cult justify working alongside people loyal to someone who wants to openly overthrow the King?

That being said, it's a pretty cool idea, hope you get the ball rolling IG somehow!

[TsunamiWombat]

Sounds cool to me. You could make the 9 faced God his Seneschal or the King is the 9 faced God himself. This would piss off the worshippers of the 9 of course who believe in the 9 faced as an abstract. Otherwise the King could be the Lord Departed

As for the rest of the kings court:
Piter Pete - the servant/scullery
The Lady in Waiting - The Courtier/names on the tin
Old Grandfather - Spymaster
Phanax - Steward
Yeman - Captain of the Guard
S'ai- Court Sage or Bishop
El - Herald (meaning that guy on the Whispers is a god!!!)
The Promise - Page
Pzatharun - The Jester
Yevethax - The Grounds Keeper

[Zerminar12]

Sounds cool to me. You could make the 9 faced God his Seneschal or the King is the 9 faced God himself. This would piss off the worshippers of the 9 of course who believe in the 9 faced as an abstract. Otherwise the King could be the Lord Departed

As for the rest of the kings court:
Piter Pete - the servant/scullery
The Lady in Waiting - The Courtier/names on the tin
Old Grandfather - Spymaster
Phanax - Steward
Yeman - Captain of the Guard
S'ai- Court Sage or Bishop
El - Herald (meaning that guy on the Whispers is a god!!!)
The Promise - Page
Pzatharun - The Jester
Yevethax - The Grounds Keeper

Love the suggestions for the roles of the Gods! I will say that I'm deliberately trying to fight against the Peerage "Lord and Lady" faith and the Count loyalists who follow it. So saying the Lord Departed is the King isn't really congruent with my character's theology. The King is the King. He himself is a god and his numerous legendary feats speak for themselves. Aside from the obvious issues with the Lady/Lord, not too sure about Yevethax and Pzath.  It's a bit more questionable whether they would be "acceptable" to a loyal follower of the King. I guess it's all a matter of how the gods are interpreted, but Pzath's association with Changelings raises more than a few questions (even though he perfectly corresponds to a Jester archetype). The more neutral followers of Yeve could be considered kosher though. Again, thanks for the feedback! These are all great ideas.

[Zerminar12]

I'm big on anything that advances syncretism IG. Despite all the amazing fun times I had with the Grand Vestry / Nephezar stint under the Banner, I've always felt like the way religion and Clerics are set up in CoR allows for exactly this sort of thing, less of "how do I convert everyone to my dogma" and more of "how do I encompass what other are doing into the umbrella of my dogma".

Obviously, we always need to be mindful  of the power of Clerics and the importance of religion in general to the setting - what  I mean by this is that I don't feel syncretism should be used as a blanket excuse to quest your heart out with just about everyone, or to go *glares* and leave the conflict at that. Behind syncretism there should always be overarching philosophies that delineate a character's "hard no's". In your idea, I think hard no's would be, for example, Count loyalists - how would someone involved in a Kingly cult justify working alongside people loyal to someone who wants to openly overthrow the King?

That being said, it's a pretty cool idea, hope you get the ball rolling IG somehow!

I've definitely compiled a short starting list of "hard nos" for my character. Evil faiths which are destructive and dangerous to the King's creations as well as Anarchic faiths that seek to disrupt the King's rule are both anathema to my current doctrine. (When I say Anarchic I don't necessarily mean Chaotic, simply more extreme portrayals of Chaotic alignment) And obviously filthy Count followers are traitors who must either repent or be overcome. Thanks for the input and the encouragement. I'll try my best to get some momentum.

[Zerminar12]

This is an excellent idea. I like the religious/theological angle of it. Go for it!

I wouldn't say it's impossible, given that the 9 Faced God falls under a similar sort of vibe and circumstance, but it'd definitely need some work to flesh out fully. Maybe even 1-2 Clerics of different faiths preaching fundamentally adjacent ideas/etc.

Overall though definitely sounds like a cool push for a religious angle!

Thanks for the compliments and encouragement! I'll try my best to get it started. I just got my official faction post written a few days ago and hope to write some literature on the forums to further elaborate on and advertise the idea. And obviously I'm going to begin the process of recruiting folks in-game. Still trying to figure out how I'll factor the 9 into my character's worldview. It's a tricky pickle for sure. The Renunciation is a concept that may also be too strange to syncretize. Really, any faith without a figure or figures will be hard to fully integrate because what I'm more or less trying to do is assemble a Small God pantheon.

[Zerminar12]

I have a question related to the concept. I didn't want to clog up General with multiple threads of mine so I'm posting it here. I've heard lots of rumors about King worshiping Clerics. Some people have told me that it causes spell failure whereas others have said I won't be able to cast spells at all. So far I've experienced no such penalties yet I'm unsure whether that's simply because the DMs haven't gotten around to it yet. Can anyone confirm whether there are actual mechanical penalties for this concept? If so, what are they and how should I go about contacting the DMs to receive them? As much as I'd prefer to keep my spellcasting, I don't want to cheat.  So if my character should have lost his spellcasting, I'd like to contact the DMs so that the proper penalties can be applied. Thanks for the knowledge. Hope to see you folks in-game!

[Rey]

I'm no dm, but I do play clerics a lot.

Afaik, if there was something wrong with your chosen deity or relic, you would be unable to cast spells at all from the very start. If you tried, you would get a different error message in each case. The spell failure % chance is something a dm applies after character creation, and they have their own methods for determining when to apply it, that I imagine they want kept behind the dm curtain.

Basically if it's working right now, it's 99% likely it's working as intended and everything is fine.