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Religion in WoW
Live
Pubblicato
13/05/2009 alle 17:23
da
Queggy
Some of you may have wondered, what are the different religions in the world of Azeroth? Well, in this blog I will discuss a few of those religions. There are seven major religions with a few more minor ones. The seven major religions are
Church of the Holy Light
Worship of Elune
Mystery of the Makers
Followers of the Old Gods
Loa-worship
The Earthmother
Cult of Forgotten Shadow
...with the most prominent of these religions (probably) being the Church of the Holy Light.
Follow us after the break for a little lore-lesson!
The Church of the Holy Light
The Church of the Holy Light is a religion devoted to worshiping the Light. It is most predominately found in Alliance regions, yet Horde beings wishing to join would not be turned down—or so they say. The Church is based out of Stormwind, in the Cathedral of Light. The current main leader of the church is
Archbishop Benedictus
. The main teaching of the Holy Light is the Three Virtues -
Respect
,
Tenacity
, and
Compassion
.
Respect
teaches that the people around you are manifestations of the universes will, and that you must understand and respect your fellow beings. Destroying another being's happiness and killing him or her does not have the world's best interests at heart, and therefore not your own either. The church understands that war, pain, and suffering happens, but they try to overcome these hindrances and continue to make the world a better place.
Tenacity
is the virtue that weeds out true believers from the rest of the masses. While the universe can change you in a day, you can not change the universe in that amount of time. To truly affect the universe requires a whole lifetime of service.
After an acolyte learns and understands the first two principles, they are taught
Compassion
. Compassion teaches the student how to give of themselves to another. Compassion can be either the most helpful or the most destructive virtue of the three. To give of yourself where something is needed and asked for, will surely change someones life for the better. But to blindly try to force something upon someone where it is needed and not asked for or not needed and not asked for can damage your relationship with that person and your standing among them.
No one really knows where the Church gets its power from, but one who denies that it is real has either never seen a priest heal or a paladin cleanse. Or else they are blind to the world. With the introduction of the Naaru to the denizen's of Azeroth, many questions have arisen. Is the Naaru light given form? Are the Naaru merely angels or servants of the Light? No one is really sure. Some fanatical followers of the Holy Light believe that the Naaru are spreading lies, perhaps they are even demons. Another question that has arisen is the question of the seat of power. Is the Stormwind Cathedral still the seat of power, or is the Exodar or Shattrath the seat now. After all, if the Naaru are light given form, then should the seat of power not be someplace where they reside?
Worship of Elune
Elune is one of the few deities that is actually known to exist in the world. She is the most powerful Eternal in Azeroth and her symbol is that of a crescent moon. The only races that are known to follow her are the Night Elves and Wildkin. The main idea behind the whole religion is peace and love for one's fellow creatures. Although Elune has never physically shown herself, her calming presence has been felt and her power has been shown. It is said that at the dawn of time when all races were maturing, she would calm anger and battle wherever she found it, giving each race an equal chance at survival. The Night Elves themselves believe that Elune is the mother of their race and that they are
not
descended from the Trolls, as indicated by the Troll histories. Whether this is true or not is yet to be proven. One thing is sure though, Elune is real and she is powerful—that much is evident by the power wielded by the Night Elven priests.
Mystery of the Makers
The Dwarves do not really have a religion of their own. If a Dwarf is religious, he or she will usually follow the way of Light. However, if anything could be said to be a "religion" of the Dwarves, it would be the Mystery of the Makers. The Mystery of the Makers focuses on where they came from, why they are here, and what they are supposed to be doing. While the evidence so far unearthed suggests that the Earthen were created by the Titans and Dwarves are descended from the Earthen, the Dwarves do not blindly worship the Titans. More recent evidence from Ulduar and the other ancient cities has suggested that the Titans had created the Earthen to help shape and fix up the world
after
the Titans had left. When the Well of Eternity exploded and sundered Azeroth into what we see today, the Earthen were affected almost more than any other sapient form of life, because they were almost a
part
of the land. In their pain, they retreated to their places of origin: Uldum,
Uldaman
, and
Ulduar
. There they hibernated for eight thousand years. When they woke up, they discovered to their dismay that their powers over stone and earth had waned, and that their rock-like hide had become soft and smooth. Those Earthen that had woken in Uldaman migrated to Dun Morogh. One thing that the Dwarves discovered to their dismay is that the Troggs may actually be Earthen that devolved to a greater level, possibly due to the interference of Old Gods. This means that the Dwarves and the Troggs may share a common ancestry—an idea which the Dwarves find abhorrent.
Followers of the Old Gods
The Followers of the Old Gods are mostly comprised of Naga, Elementals, Qiraji, and Nerubians, although a few mortals have heard the "whisperings" of the Old God's and gone mad because of it, including Neltharion/Deathwing and Queen Azshara. Neltharion heard the whispers of the Old Gods and was driven mad, taking on the name of Deathwing and creating the
Demon Soul
. Queen Azshara supposedly heard an offer from the Old Gods to save her and the Highborne from drowning by turning them into Naga.
The exact number of Old Gods is unknown, but it is speculated that there are five—two of these five being
Yogg-Saron
and
C'thun
. In
Darkshore
, observant travellers will find a sword stuck inside a giant stone sculpture. Some say that this is testament to a great battle between a Titan and an Old God, and that the Old God's soul may yet be contained within the Master's Glaive...
The Old Gods first showed up on Azeroth after the Titans had created, ordered the world, and then left in search of more worlds to craft. The Old Gods then appeared, and commanded the four major Elementals:
Ragnaros the Firelord
, Therazane the Stonemother, Al'Akir the Windlord, and Neptulon the Tidehunter to wreak havoc on the world. Eventually the Titans returned and defeated the Old Gods and their minions. The Titans were unable to kill them—they discovered, to their dismay, that Azeroth and the Old Gods were linked, and to kill one would be to kill the other.
Loa-worship
The Loa is the religion of the Trolls. The Trolls draw power for their Voodoo magics by invoking the Loa. Loa spirits occupy a strange place in the supernatural hierarchy—more powerful than Elementals, but not as powerful as Gods. The powers granted to the faithful depend on the Loa being worshiped. Any being that has died and transcended death can be considered a Loa, including Forsaken Shadow Ascendants (see the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow, below).
The Primal Jungle Loa can be found at
Zul'Gurub
, the Primal Forest Loa can be found at
Zul'Aman
, and the Primal Ice Loa can be found at
Zul'Drak
.
The Shadowhunter Loa are:
Legba - Loa of speed.
Lukoa - Loa of Healing.
Ogoun - Loa of War.
Dambala - Loa of serpents and treachery.
Samedi - Loa of cemeteries and the restful sleep of the dead.
Shango - Loa of the realm of storms.
Other Loa:
Mueh'zala - Loa of death (And also a possible nod to
Methuselah
?)
Zanza - worshiped by the Zandalar tribe.
The Earthmother
The Earthmother is the god of the Tauren. She is the creator of life and everything. The sun (An'she) and the White Lady moon (Mu'sha) are her eyes. She is the embodiment of nature. Tauren religion teaches that everything is part of her body, and that we must treat her with respect and care. They respect the animals they hunt, and waste no part of their body. They rebel strongly against such things as strip mining and mass logging. The Earthmother is actually something like the Tauren version of Elune—a possible reason why the two were able to join forces to form a single order of Druids.
The Cult of Forgotten Shadow
The Cult of Forgotten Shadow is the religion of the Forsaken, and is a corrupted form of the Church of the Holy Light. After faithful priests and followers of the Holy Light were turned into undead, they were understandably angry at being (supposedly) forgotten and cast out by the Holy Light. They therefore twisted their former beliefs into a new religion that would fit their new lives. Instead of trying to help others as the Church of the Holy Light teaches, the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow centers on self. The Cult of Forgotten Shadow also has three virtues that it teaches, and those are
Respect
,
Tenacity
, and
Power
. All who follow the way of the Shadow hope to eventually transcend and join the shadows themselves as a Shadow Ascendant.
Respect
teaches that the universe is a manifestation of the will of those around you, and to ignore and disrespect those around you is to tempt destruction. You yourself must become more powerful before attempting to impose your will upon others.
Tenacity
is held in even greater respect in the Cult of Forgotten Shadow. It may seem hard or even impossible to shape the universe to your will at first when everyone around you is trying to do the same, yet through patience and perseverance, the true believer can succeed.
Power
is the last and most difficult virtue to obtain. Some one who is too greedy or hasty might grab for too much power and be destroyed, but one who grabs no power at all is weak and foolish.
In any case, I hope that answered some of your questions about religion in Warcraft—or if you didn't have any questions, told you something you didn't know!
So what are your thoughts on subject? Which Azerothian religion does
your
character follow?
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