Interesting question!

Well, my main is firmly committed (and converted) to Lorminstra for reasons obvious to those who know her past. It may be quite surprising to others, however, given the fact she is a sorceress of some renown. It's all part of a rich and complex drama of truly epic scale. I feel quite fortunate to have such a robust character. Long story short, her conversion to Lorminstra was a no-brainer. Her devotion, however, has wavered slightly since her service as the First Chosen in the Vvrael wars. After the final battle, Lorminstra spoke to her once last time. Then she was forgotten...left with deep scars from the ordeal. She lost a part of herself, a part she still seeks to restore to this day. She feels more deeply connected to Koar, truth be known, especially by virtue of the orb she carries, given to her by Lorminstra, that physically links her to his shrine. Not to mention the fact she once carried one of the six Stones of Virtue now resting in Koar's crown. But at the end of the day, she still answers directly to Lorminstra--in spite of being forsaken since the end of the war. She even carries a Staff of Lorminstra that allows her not only to take life, but to return it.

Another of my characters is, as you say, flatly anti-Arkati. She views the Arkati as meddlesome beings with little regard for the humanoid races. Though powerful, they are as spoiled children, always demanding attention and manipulating others for their own desires. She finds them wholly unworthy of worship and will never convert.

My other characters are somewhat less cut and dry.

My dwarven bardess has ties to both Eonake, the god of her people, and his son Cholen, the god of song, dance and merriment. She has not converted because she's not especially religious, at least no more so than most. She's warm-hearted, good-natured, pragmatic and down-to-earth. What would it take to get her to convert? I suppose it would take some sort of religious experience; a divinely inspired quest or purpose. Like all her vows and commitments, converting is not something she would take lightly. If she's going to do something, she'll do it all the way or not at all.

My little ranger is a happy-go-lucky halfling with few cares in the world, relatively untarnished by the horrors she has seen. She tends to look on the bright side, even surrounded by darkness. Whether this is due to unbridled optimism, an indomitable spirit, or deep-seated neurosis is anybody's guess. Though she may seem rather naive, even dim-witted, it would be a mistake to underestimate her. She's considerably smarter than she lets on, in spite of her cheerful disposition. With her keen survival skills and expert bowmanship, she has to be. So what does this have to do with her conversion status? Nothing at all. I have no clue what it would take to get her to convert. She believes in the Arkati, and feels some affinity for those that venerate nature. That makes Imaera an obvious choice...but she also harbors a dark side. When she takes to the shadows, she becomes a ruthless killer. A cheerful, happy-go-lucky ruthless killer. I can't see her seriously converting to any specific deity.

My original bardess has undergone a few adjustments over the years. She's a Voln master and a brawler. She was orphaned early in life, a half-elven outcast who had a tough upbringing. She was raised by Voln monks, who taught her self-discipline and mastery of the martial arts. As such, Voln may be a natural choice, although she also bears a fondness for Tonis, by virtue of his gifts of speed and agility. I guess I would seriously consider converting to either of those, if I was swayed toward one or the other. At one time I considered converting her to monk, which clearly would have suited her character quite well, but I was scared off by early disappointment with the class. But since I now have two bards--albeit radically different styles--I sometimes regret not going for it. Ah well.

There are a few others, but none so fleshed out as the above. Hope this gives you some insight into how at least one person in Elanthia thinks about the convert status of her characters. :)

~ Heathyr and friends

>>I think the only real way to encourage people to choose is to have in game consequences for it. Maybe a festival where only lornon or liabo converted people can go. Im trying to think of more examples but its rather difficult. For clerics and paladins there are definite and lasting consequences to their choice, spells are affected. If there was more of a reason to choose, more people would.

I think Dreaer nailed it. I, for one, would LOVE to see more Lornon/Liabo specific events!


>>You slay me woman! ~ Wyrom

~*~ She conquers, who endures ~*~

>At the time of this posting, there are 310 people logged in.
>215 are completely unconverted.

Seems about right to me. Clerics, paladins and a few weirdos.

In a polytheistic society, devotion to one particular deity is the mark of clerics and paladins. The general populace deals with Lorminstra when they want raising, Charl when they want their enemies lightning bolted, Ronan when they want to be looked after at night etc. They give their due to the Arkati that deals with the realm they have a particular interest in at a particular time but don't favor one much above another.

For someone who isn't a cleric or paladin to be CONVERTed means they are a little bit weird. They should have taken up a holy profession but the y got apprenticed to a wizard and can't bring themselves to give up all that power and start again.

I was actually looking at the convert verb the other day, been converted to Sheru since september of 97 which I'm pretty sure is when the verb was released. Unfortunately converting as others have mentioned does absolutely nothing for non clerics/paladins, maybe if there were a couple arkati specific verbs for those who had converted it would give some sort of meaning to converting, but as it stands there is really zero way for others to tell aside from looking as your profile if you have it listed there.

Likewise, only my paladins and clerics are "converted". I do have other characters that are aligned with a specific Arkati, but I've always just seen CONVERT as a mechanical thing - I don't need to use it in order to worship.

Just as a nitpick: convert usually means to change from one thing to another, and my characters wouldn't be doing that anyway. Mine who do follow, and are dedicated to, an Arkati have done so since birth as a family or cultural thing.

What would it take? Some actual reason outside of mechanics. If you told me the Arkati would NEVER communicate with an un-CONVERTed person, that might make a difference.

Changing the system to something that you actually have to DO to dedicate yourself to an Arkati would make a difference for ME. Make it a quest type thing where one has to proof their devotion.

>At the time of this posting, there are 310 people logged in.
>215 are completely unconverted.

Those numbers make sense to me.
Of my ten characters, only Clunk has chosen an Arkati that he follows. But then, I dont' think anyone can imagine Clunk following any Arkati other than Eonak and still be Clunk.

Pup doesn't follow just one diety. He follows both imaera and kuon and role plays both. No reason to convert when those that know him knows he follows both

I believe the lack of conversion, or confirmed faith has a deeper source in the documentation. Priests, Paladins, and zealots aside, there is no logical reason to even believe in the Arkati as gods. Kenstrom's Cross into Shadows storyline, from it's beginning two years go as Beyond The Arkati, is a perfect highlight of the problems surrounding worship in Elanthia. We have a being that has been eternal, created from chaos, that has no respect, no concern, nor fear of The Arkati as anything more than mere fodder for it's evil intent.

My own characters over the years have never openly worshiped any Arkati, because as a god, their representation was ill conceived, IMO. The documentation states that the Arkati were once slaves to the Drake, and the Drake is not extinct, then why would anyone ever worship the Arkati as a god? There is obviously a greater power.

With the release of the Elven Theology documents during the Hot Summer Nights campaign years ago, religion in Elanthia was killed. It was suddenly acceptable to place your elven character on par with a god, and therefore while respect can be offered to a more powerful being, worship seems trite.

If there were solid RP and even Mechanical advantages to be aligned, converted and confirmed, perhaps religion could become as an important part of our day to day, as it once was, but there currently isn't any value to showing an Arkati any more than passing respect for their singular accomplishments and influence.

~

>>This is a really good point, it used to be that we all knew the story of the Arkati and the drakes OOC, but IC it was hardly reliable information, and much more easy to pass off as the ramblings of fools and madmen. Now it seems it is something that is well known, and considered to be proven fact, which in my opinion is a problem.

I don't know, but - If you roleplay like you believe devoutely in the Arkati and the Drakes, then you may find yourself in scenes where:
- you are being bonked on the head by Eonak
- you see a sword rise from an underground lake as a sign to a newly ordained cleric of Ronan
- you meet face to face with Eorgina when she gives up her home and leaves Elanith
- you get carried off out of the blue by a drake, then have to walk home

The average Elanthian citizen regards all these as the tales of fools and madmen. It is not an everyday occurence. More like once every four or five years.

The other thing is, I only have one character who is anywhere close to being devout, and he is te only one of the set who has had these sort of encounters. All the others have never borne direct witness to any Arkati or Drake.




Clunk

(Buy your swords at CBD weapons in Zul Logoth.)

When my Koar converted paladin uses the "chant" command there is some flavor messaging that includes Koar and some swirling lights.

Do all converted chars have that or is it just paladins?

Chad, player of a few

Chant is profession based, but with different flavors for clerics and paladins. Other characters just have a standard profession one without regard to convert.


Cleric: You chant a reverent orison, asking Imaera for a bountiful harvest.

Sol, Icemule and Zul all have pretty much the lot.

the fact that you can only choose once, and the process if you wish to change later is very heavily penaltied is a big factor.

Not to mention you have to find a cleric to do it, and wait and wait, and be on the arkati poo list for a long time.

As others have pointed out, the fact that there's a cost to change one's conversion and that for most people there aren't many consequences for being unwashed heathens doesn't really give everyone much of an incentive to convert except for RP.

Personally, I play an Aelotoi ranger and I don't really have strong feelings on who (if anyone) she should worship. From a RP perspective, it doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense for her to worship an Arkati at all since her people were somewhat abandoned and forgotten by the Arkati and suffered greatly for a long time. As someone who had a rather terrible childhood until arriving on Elanthia, she might not feel that the Arkati are worthy of her worship and devotion at all.


...blergh, I'm not used to how these forums work. :/

Sorry to resurrect a four month old thread, but I think a really neat thing for converted people would be the postname title "follower of <insert arkati here>".