Barsburg Lore Ideas

[rea]

coming back to this since it was linked to be the thread for what to look at for barsburg character ideas, i'm not really sure that i'm really on board for 'the magitek stuff is their religion', because that actually is going to just be what's been done a thousand times over. almost every single war on eternia has started as a clash of theologies. i don't think we ever need another faction at all that has religion tied in so tightly to it's government - think about ... literally any faction/race/etc that eternia has had at all outside of e1 cities fighting for land and crown and occultism bad, and they're all that way. 

'creating your own magitek is outlawed' is fine and cool, but 'it has to be church-sanctioned and by a specific group of religious people' probably is not really as cool as it sounds on paper and is just going to be executed in the same way that anything else with a well-documented religion has. 

worshipping nothing is boring, yeah, but i think the concept of the advancement of mankind isn't - they could, theoretically, even worship themselves. they're a society of people that have enhanced themselves and the world around them by power that no one but themselves gave them. they've achieved greater heights than man organically can- and, not because they're a magi from a strong bloodline or anything like tradition. with their followings and beliefs, anyone can be anything. they've risen above the Rest

to elaborate on this, my reasoning of disliking the religion suggestion is that it makes the society too much about religion when it doesn't have a reason to be. the enemy being religious zealots is old and tired, even if it's crudaders spraypainted chrome with LED's stapled on. It also opens up too much room for "but we are the good guys because these are our views and we're actually doing nothing wrong at all", and having a faction that is introduced to be an enemy and give conflict having the mindset of 'we are right because our robot god wants us to become machines and everything about our society is very linked to the church' isn't going to lead to people being antagonists. 

while the church of celestialism has been moved out of the spotlight, it was something that was the bread and bones of the concept of esshar. having their first non-esshar enemy be one that is just as religious with faith and theaism and sacredness of the source of their power tied strongly into the government ... is just creating osrona, again. which - yeah, looking at the enemy and seeing a mirror is a good story beat, but not when we're trying to mix things up. 

i personally think it makes more sense for an antitheist faction that has discarded any reason for faith - be it that they believe all the gods have long since left this world or that they've created society and power that goes far beyond anything any angel or dragon or spirit or star or cat or wolf ever could.