FAQ/Tom's Position on Atheism
Quote from Tom on atheism.
"And, by the way, in real life I'm a militant atheist. But BattleMaster is a game, not real life."
--Tom 14:37, 10 March 2010 (UTC)
Atheism
I think this bears repeating because the whole damn discussion circles around it:
There is no thing like atheism in a medieval world, and much less in a fantasy medieval-like world. People believe in Gods. If any of your characters seriously claims he doesn't, I'll gladly lightning bolt him into serious wounds until he does.
Religion has been a very central part of life for almost all of human existence. It's been 200 years or so that people have even started to doubt religion as a concept. For 99% of human history the only question was _which_ religion was the right one.
Those who have priest characters can tell you that "no belief" or "no religion" does not appear in-game anywhere, it's not mentioned even once. All the un-converted peasants, for example, aren't atheists - they are followers of some local pagan religions.
So if any ruler makes a stink about it, I'll be very harsh to him. Once again, did you guys READ the inalienable rights page? Among other things it explains WHY the rules are there - they are OOC fun preserving tools. They serve to ensure that everyone can play the game the way he or she likes. Babbling about "atheism" and forbidding priests is OOC fun destructive - it keeps people from experiencing the priest career, and thus a part of the game.