Voici la nouvelles news lettre qui explique comment sera mis en place la religion dans ToA.
"With the arrival of September comes a peek at the way in which religion is handled in ToA. Our new system was arrived at after much debate (and tearing of hair) among the design team, in conjunction with feedback from the boards. What follows is a summary of the way in which faith and devotion affects characters, priests, and shrines in ToA.
The following summary applies to all player races except dragons - who are handled a little bit differently than the rest.
Shrines and Devotion
Each character is a wellspring of spiritual power. The amount of spiritual power within a single character may not be great, but when combined with that of others to empower a shrine, it becomes a significant force in the world. A character can devote himself to one or more shrines of one or more faiths, up to a limit of 10 shrines total. (A character can only spread his spiritual power so thin.) A character's devotion is shrine-specific, rather than being declared to a faith or faiths in general. The amount of spiritual power that a character bestows upon each shrine is dependent on the number of shrines to which he is devoted - his spiritual power is divided between them.
A character may make the request for devotion at any shrine (provided that he has not already reached his limit of 10 shrines), and the request must be approved by one of the priests who attends to that shrine (collectively known as the shrine staff; the head of the shrine is known as the shrine priest). Devotion to a shrine is permanent until either the character renounces it or the shrine staff revokes it.
A character's standing with each deity is reflected in the power that the shrines of that deity receive from him, assuming that he is devoted to any shrines of that faith. As long as he is in good standing with the deity, the shrines of that deity continue to receive their share of spiritual power from him. However, a character who acts against the tenets of a faith falls out of favor with the deity (into a state of sin) for an amount of time that is dependent on the severity of the transgression. His standing with each deity is tracked at all times, regardless of his current devotion (or lack of it) to shrines of each faith.
Being in a state of sin in the eyes of a deity has a significant impact on any shrines of that deity to which the character is devoted: Instead of gaining a share of spiritual power from the character, they instead lose that amount as long as the character remains in a state of sin in the eyes of that deity. Thus (using fictitious example numbers) a character who normally gives 5 spiritual 'points' of power to a shrine instead inflicts a -5 spiritual point penalty upon that shrine, for a net decrease of 10 points compared to when he was in good standing. The shrine staff are also notified when a devotee falls into a state of sin.
Priests and Powers
The priest who heads a shrine (the shrine priest) has administrative control over her shrine, and can appoint devotees as staff members (the devotee has the option to accept or decline this honor) for her shrine. Likewise, the shrine priest may revoke a staff member's standing, returning the ex-staff member to devotee status. By becoming a shrine priest or a shrine staff member the character renounces all devotion to other shrines, so her spiritual power is wholly dedicated to the shrine which she staffs.
All shrine staff share equally in the spiritual power that is provided to them by the shrine and which powers their priestly abilities. The more staff members a shrine has, the greater the division of power, so a shrine priest is well-advised to only appoint as many staff members as is necessary to maintain the shrine in good order and see to the needs of its devotees. A shrine staff member who falls into a state of sin is a great detriment to the shrine: Not only does it cause the shrine to lose power as occurs with every devotee, but loses access to her priestly powers - even though she continues to tie up a share of the shrine's spiritual power!
A shrine priest may appoint a successor in the event that she retires, permanently dies, takes charge of another shrine, or ascends to the position of Hierophant. If a shrine lacks any priest (whether or not it has staff members) and no successor was appointed, then any shrine priest or shrine staff member of that faith (whether they belong to that shrine or not) may assume command of the shrine and become the new shrine priest.
In addition to empowering the shrine staff with their priestly abilities, a shrine provides benefits to all devotees and staff members. The power of these benefits is dependent on the spiritual power which the shrine holds, independent of the number of staff members who are attached to the shrine. The powers of each shrine staff member and each shrine vary from faith to faith, and can be passive, providing a benefit to the surrounding area, or invoked, enacting a specific change or blessing upon a specific creature, thing, or area.
Hierophants
When the position of Hierophant for a faith becomes vacant, the five shrine priests whose shrines command the greatest spiritual power become candidates for the Hierophancy. All shrine priests of the faith may (within a certain period) declare their support for a given candidate. The number of 'votes' that each shrine priest casts are dependent on the spiritual power of the shrine to which she belongs. When the candidacy period ends, the candidate who won the largest share of votes assumes the position of Hierophant. A candidate is disqualified from this process if they are in or enter into a state of sin at any time during the candidacy period, or if she was previously the Hierophant and lost the position due to falling into a state of sin.
A Hierophant's devotion to his shrine is immediately revoked, and he assumes command of the Hierophant's shrine of his faith. All Hierophant's shrines are located within the Pantheon, and this is the seat of administrative power for each Hierophant. The Hierophant's priestly powers continue to function, and the Hierophant's shrine acts like a normal shrine of the faith for the Hierophant (only), but the spiritual power of both the Hierophant and the Hierophant's shrine is equal to the combined spiritual power of every active shrine of the faith. The Hierophant also commands powers unique to his station which similarly depend on the combined spiritual power of the entire faith.
A Hierophant maintains his position until he permanently dies, resigns, or falls into a state of sin. A Hierophant who voluntarily resigns his position is eligible to become the Hierophant again at some point in the future if he meets the normal qualifications. A Hierophant who falls into a state of sin immediately loses his status and may never again become the Hierophant of the faith.
Some Implications
These elements of the design have several implications for the players and priests: Individual characters stand to benefit from the power of each shrine that they devote themselves to while priests stand to gain the most by keeping their devotees' allegiances as exclusive as possible, even as they're obligated to see to the needs of their devotees in order to maintain it. Likewise, devotees face the obligation of upholding the tenets of the faith, lest they fall into a state of sin and adversely impact the power of the shrine to which they're devoted - because being a persistent problem in this regard is likely to result in the shrine staff revoking their standing and thus denying the now-ex-devotee the benefits of devotion!
By the same token, a character must tread carefully if they choose to devote themselves to shrines of multiple faiths, especially those of faiths whose interests and objectives are often opposed to one another. While they stand to benefit from the varied blessings which the different shrines can bestow (not to mention the powers of the priests of each faith), they're also much more likely to fall into a state of sin with at least one of those faiths and thus find their standing increasingly tenuous...
See you on the boards!
Brax"
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