Soran

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HolyHandGrenade!
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Re: Soran (previously HHG’s Conworld)

Post by HolyHandGrenade! »

My first culture is Soma, which lives on the southeast coast of the northwest-most continent of the first hemisphere. The area is mostly woodland, with a similar climate and ecology to Western Europe. They are an agricultural society with a large priest class that is highly worshipped and basically serves as the government, in addition to their main function of negotiating with demons for the good of the people. There is a bureaucratic council above the priests which functions solely as a government and handles a lot of behind the scenes work, as well as hosting a court to hold priests accountable. The council generally doesn’t hold enough power to act against the interests of the priesthood. Demons are not worshipped except for the occasional cult. Every new moon, people perform rituals to bind them to the demon they have pledged their souls to. The more souls that are pledged to a demon, the more power it gives the priests. Agnostics are those who do not pledge their souls and are legally and culturally considered second-class citizens.
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Re: Soran

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Agnostics are those who chose not to worship deities. Terrism is an agnostic religion that relies on mortal magic. They believe that all deities are evil or indifferent and any contact with other realms is too dangerous. They live a life of isolation and abstinence as monks. They often do missionary and philanthropic work and many monasteries house orphans, addicts, and former worshippers.
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Re: Soran

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HolyHandGrenade! wrote: 05 Jan 2025 14:37 Agnostics are those who chose not to worship deities. Terrism is an agnostic religion that relies on mortal magic. They believe that all deities are evil or indifferent and any contact with other realms is too dangerous. They live a life of isolation and abstinence as monks. They often do missionary and philanthropic work and many monasteries house orphans, addicts, and former worshippers.
I like this!
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Re: Soran

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What are the deities' / demons' attitudes toward mortals?
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Re: Soran

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lurker wrote: 17 Jan 2025 02:33 What are the deities' / demons' attitudes toward mortals?
For most, it’s similar to a business-client relationship.
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Re: Soran

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HolyHandGrenade! wrote: 17 Jan 2025 02:34
lurker wrote: 17 Jan 2025 02:33 What are the deities' / demons' attitudes toward mortals?
For most, it’s similar to a business-client relationship.
I like this idea.
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Re: Soran

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Wish I could find the post but I remember reading someone comparing the relationship between D&D warlocks and their patrons as an investor buying a stake in a business. The patron gives a bit of their power to the warlock, which the warlock uses to accumulate more power or something that is returned to the patron upon the warlock's death. I'm probably getting something wrong. I don't actually play D&D.

There's also the idea that several clients of a particular patron could unionize to increase their bargaining power, but since their patron is an unknowable horror from beyond the union looks like a cult.

Regarding the agnostics, I see where you're going with the word choice, but it seems a bit off to me because I'd associate the term with declining to acknowledge whether the gods and demons exist at all rather than knowing they exist but choosing not to interact with them. Having said that, I can't think of a better term. It does remind me of the Romans calling Christians "atheists", but that term seems even less fitting in this situation.
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Re: Soran

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lurker wrote: 17 Jan 2025 14:06 Wish I could find the post but I remember reading someone comparing the relationship between D&D warlocks and their patrons as an investor buying a stake in a business. The patron gives a bit of their power to the warlock, which the warlock uses to accumulate more power or something that is returned to the patron upon the warlock's death. I'm probably getting something wrong. I don't actually play D&D.

There's also the idea that several clients of a particular patron could unionize to increase their bargaining power, but since their patron is an unknowable horror from beyond the union looks like a cult.

Regarding the agnostics, I see where you're going with the word choice, but it seems a bit off to me because I'd associate the term with declining to acknowledge whether the gods and demons exist at all rather than knowing they exist but choosing not to interact with them. Having said that, I can't think of a better term. It does remind me of the Romans calling Christians "atheists", but that term seems even less fitting in this situation.
Maybe "heretics" or "misotheists"?
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Re: Soran

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Soma culture is more individualistic than most, and has better social mobility. A good heart & good intentions are highly valued, even if they don’t lead to good results. In conversation, compliments are highly encouraged and should be sprinkled throughout all conversations. These compliments, of course, should be met with humbleness and returning compliments. Any criticism or disagreement should be framed in a self-deprecating way (instead of “that doesn’t make sense” say “I don’t really understand that”).
Now onto greetings. A typical greeting involves grabbing each other’s hand in a handshake position and bowing. The strength of the grip and deepness of the bow indicate respect, deference, and formality. A quick bob of the head indicates familiarity and casualness. If one is passing by the other, a short bow or head bob is used. A familiar way to greet friends & family is to grab their hand with palms touching and fingers interlocking and keep moving forward until the elbows are almost touching, then break the hands apart. A hug is used between romantic partners and family, although usage between extremely close friends and especially cult members is increasing.
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Re: Soran

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TBPO wrote: 17 Jan 2025 14:24 Maybe "heretics" or "misotheists"?
"Heretic" works but is pretty broad. "Misotheist" gets closer, and may fit depending on whether these agnostics actively despise these beings or simply distrust them. I think a term meaning "to ignore" or "to disregard" seems the most neutral. Looking at an Ancient Greek dictionary, "amelin" comes up when I search for "ignore", so perhaps "ameliotheist" might work.
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Re: Soran

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HolyHandGrenade! wrote: 17 Jan 2025 16:06 Soma culture is more individualistic than most, and has better social mobility. A good heart & good intentions are highly valued, even if they don’t lead to good results. In conversation, compliments are highly encouraged and should be sprinkled throughout all conversations. These compliments, of course, should be met with humbleness and returning compliments. Any criticism or disagreement should be framed in a self-deprecating way (instead of “that doesn’t make sense” say “I don’t really understand that”).
Now onto greetings. A typical greeting involves grabbing each other’s hand in a handshake position and bowing. The strength of the grip and deepness of the bow indicate respect, deference, and formality. A quick bob of the head indicates familiarity and casualness. If one is passing by the other, a short bow or head bob is used. A familiar way to greet friends & family is to grab their hand with palms touching and fingers interlocking and keep moving forward until the elbows are almost touching, then break the hands apart. A hug is used between romantic partners and family, although usage between extremely close friends and especially cult members is increasing.
Are the handshake and bow executed at the same time. I could see issues if you're supposed to grab the other's arm and bow at the waist.

More on the priesthood and demons: if the demon-mortal relationship is essentially a business-customer interaction, I could see the priests acting as brokers or consultants, navigating the opaque supernatural landscape like a lawyer does with law or an accountant does with finance, negotiating favorable terms for lay mortals. Some beings may prefer having the expert mediation of a priest when dealing with mortals and others might want to talk directly to their clients.

Framing it like a business interaction opens up a huge ethical/moral spectrum. Just like a lot of big businesses are motivated by pure profit, I can see some supernatural beings trying to squeeze as much from their mortal clients as possible. But there may be others focus on "consumer protection" for lack of a better term, and try to cultivate good will by treating their clients fairly.

All in all I can see this being spun in a bunch of different ways and that's a recipe for some good worldbuilding.
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Re: Soran

Post by HolyHandGrenade! »

lurker wrote: 17 Jan 2025 17:47 Are the handshake and bow executed at the same time. I could see issues if you're supposed to grab the other's arm and bow at the waist.
The handshake & bow happen at the same time, and the bow is more of a head bow, so it isn’t usually an issue.
More on the priesthood and demons: if the demon-mortal relationship is essentially a business-customer interaction, I could see the priests acting as brokers or consultants, navigating the opaque supernatural landscape like a lawyer does with law or an accountant does with finance, negotiating favorable terms for lay mortals. Some beings may prefer having the expert mediation of a priest when dealing with mortals
To be clear, the priesthood functions as the government, or at least a large part of it, & work for the good of the people in general, not usually individual mortals. From the mortal perspective, priests are more like diplomats.
and others might want to talk directly to their clients.
This exactly what demon cults are. Most of the public believes demons are dangerous, and view priests as kind of like noble lion tamers (I know I already compared them to diplomats, but bear with me). Most cults believe that the danger of demons is overblown to keep magic out of the hands of the people. But like a lawyer or accountant, without a priest you’re much more likely to get “scammed” by a demon.
Framing it like a business interaction opens up a huge ethical/moral spectrum. Just like a lot of big businesses are motivated by pure profit, I can see some supernatural beings trying to squeeze as much from their mortal clients as possible. But there may be others focus on "consumer protection" for lack of a better term, and try to cultivate good will by treating their clients fairly.

All in all I can see this being spun in a bunch of different ways and that's a recipe for some good worldbuilding.
The main reason demons negotiate with priests at all is for human souls, which are very valuable. In Soma, citizens can choose which demons to pledge their souls to. However, since some demons are more powerful or more generous than others, campaigns can be launched to get people to pledge to that particular demon, if they don’t have enough souls pledged for them to agree to priests’ demands. Also, people can give up their right to decide who to pledge to in exchange for tax exemptions.
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Re: Soran

Post by HolyHandGrenade! »

Music is highly valued as an art form in Soma culture. While there are a few prestigious art schools for the high-class, most people join music guilds. Apprentices starts out doing chores & learning music, but gradually they begin to do more skilled labor and start composing their own pieces and learning how to perform. If they’re deemed good enough, they will get to perform for an audience & earn money, but part of their earnings will go to the guild. The biggest music guild is the 3rd Power Music Guild.
There are also small acting guilds, but most of their members are people who joined a music guild and found they suck at music. Acting often serves as an accompaniment to music, and is typically very melodramatic, with only the sparsest dialogue, if there’s any at all.
Of course, I know nothing about music so I couldn’t tell you what Soma music is like.
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