[MelancholyFae]

I'm not sure who you've been talking to, Kit, with the idea that religion shouldn't be a big deal in Mesalian setting. I'll assume this was an ooc discussion?

Dusken has always been religious - she's just rather quiet about it, and tends to pay respect towards all, rather than fanatic worship or mediocre worship or whatnot.
This fits with her normal personality - she doesn't force any views on anyone, but she will talk about it, if it comes up. And she has; with Arua, Xemnes, Colette...
She is also decently knowledgeable about Mesalian religions; considering her upbringing and (secondary) craft.
She also has -always- believed that this was a religious pilgrimmage; or perhaps, a spiritual/religious one. One meant to try and create growth for a person's spirit and knowledge, test them, so they can become better and more worthy as people, when they reach the end. She was trying to study the beacons, the lettering here and there, and the places they had stopped at. She has also been trying to leave offerings of thanks at some of their stops (Farmer Joe, the Monk..) Her quiet way of trying to help people better themselves was rather difficult considering she's quiet, and dislikes confrontations and such, but she is/was trying.
There were a couple people, perhaps? That were content being privately religious while on this journey. Some of this could have been due to the lack of religion-content-lore (which IS being worked on), some could be due to not comfortable with roleplaying it out in front of others.. or because like IRL, sometimes it's more a private matter.

[Zarkaylia]

Religion being "a big deal" or not is like most things in Mesalia really, your own and your character's decision.

Just like you may choose how great of an impact the slavery, war and purge have had on your character, this is just another option to add to your character if you want, eventually. Some, though probably few, have knowledge of any Mesalian culture before the slavery. The Xitians, as the Lore does state, destroyed what society and culture there was. Many slaves and descendants of slaves have instead been greatly influenced by the Xitians and Lucins and their religious believes (Rhise and Umbraie). Sometime now and then small remnants of what once was common knowledge appear even among the non-religious in the form of expressions, etc.

But this journey's been called "The Pilgrimage" for the very reason that it once was a pilgrimage, and they're now all traveling the same road, but not necessarily for the same reasons. Fact is it all begun as a quest to find a place to live for most, whether that's still truth for every character is another question.

There's never ever going to be a demand to put your character under any religion, absolutely not, it us just there as an alternative. It is something we've been lacking and now are beginning to introduce as merely another option.

As with most things then it all sums up to: it's your own choice.

[mcman]

Whoever said that religion wasn't a large part of the average medieval man/woman's life lied to you. Just saying. Anyway, nice OP; I definitely agree with it.

[cerberus23]

I think the issue with the idea of religion being an important or not so important part of an average medieval man/woman's life stems from the generally accepted wide view of Medieval life as a whole by most, in reality medieval life was massively varied and changed rapidly over the years and in different countries, its very difficult to have a view of an 'average' medieval life.

Lately I've been hearing more about how belief in god or indeed simply a higher power was just a generally accepted norm by most common men and women but they rarely took any in depth interest or care in it. Indeed most church goers simply went for the community gathering rather than actually for the teachings and connection to god.

But eh, in terms of Mesalia..theres very little in the ways of open religious influence to bring about what actually existed in Medieval times, and of course its up to characters and players too.

[3llusive]

As far as I can tell, we're not on this pilgrimage for religious reasons at all. Rather we're looking for a place to live, and following a trail of big glowy beacons.

How that's supposed to inspire or revive faith religion in anyone, I don't know. As far as characters acting modern? That's sort of linked with the roleplayer's choices and skill in any case. There are plenty of things that are pretty damn unrealistic and or unfitting to the setting that I've seen since coming here, it's not really any use complaining about them most of the time.