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+----- Thread: Tikism vs Qudism (/thread-965.html)
Tikism vs Qudism - Zabuza825 - 08-12-2019
So I was talking with my girlfriend about this RP site and the topic of Kolhar's religion of Tikism came up. When I was telling her about the Tikist story of the origin of humanity when she brought up a rather interesting interpretation of it that's different from the traditional Tikist interpretation.
Basically in Tikism, the first humans, Mirar and Kiv Elas, killed the five original Qud's (the Kolhari word for both god and goddess, since Kolhar's original five deities don't have gender, though I'd imagine that other religions in Kolhar would use the word Qud to describe deities in the Kolhari language) after those gods brought about natural disasters that really hurt the first community of humans that Mirar and Kiv were creating.
Well, my girlfriend told me about a potential alternative interpretation. Basically, there could be another school of the religion with the view that the reason that the first humans had natural disasters was because Mirar and Kiv, the leaders of the first community of humans, were not entirely faithful to the five Qud's. As such, they would see Mirar and Kiv's rebellion against the five deities as the ultimate sin that humanity would still be paying penance for to this day through the many things that cause death and destruction. Obviously, for this religious faction to exist, they would have to have the view that the five Qud's are in fact still alive and not dead like Tikism teaches. Likely they would agree that the five Qud's were defeated by Mirar and Kiv, but they would see the gods as simply having moved away from the universe into a realm that is imperceptible to humans, but still very much able to influence humanity.
I think it would be really interesting to have this be a minority religion in Kolhar, I'm going to call it Qudism (since they worship the Qud's) and have them have somewhere between 5~10% of the followers that Tikism has. Now this religion existing introduces some interesting dynamics.
Chief among these dynamics is that followers of Qudism would be seen by Tikists as their equivalent of devil-worshipers. Likewise, Qudists would see Tikists as their equivalent of devil-worshipers. As you can probably imagine, this means that Tikists and Qudists would always be at odds with each other. Since Tikism is the majority religion of Kolhar, I'd imagine that Qudists would have been heavily persecuted for basically all of their existence. I would imagine there would be some who left Kolhar to try and settle elsewhere and continue their religion free from the persecution they experience in Kolhar. This would have probably been happening even before the fascist regime in Kolhar rose, in fact it could've been happening as early as the commonfolk got the ability to go on boats and sale across the Kolhari Sea, Goldecian Bay, Adwestenne Sea, and potentially even the Laural Sea (to go to Brigidna.
So, does anyone in Kvaenna or Brigidna think (and is willing to have) their country have a significant population of Qudists? If so, how significant would they be?
Other things to consider:
- Qudists would actively proselytize their religion. Qudists would see combating Tikist "evil-worship" also see spreading their "truth" as fundamental to their faith's struggle against Tikism. Much moreso than Tikists, as while there are some proselytizers in Tikism it isn't really something that's promoted in Tikist teachings (though it isn't something forbidden either, hence it still happening).
- In Qudism, apostasy would be one of the worst sins possible. Don't be surprised if in some extreme fundamentalist Qudist communities, there is violence (or, in some very extreme cases, murder) of apostates. That said, most Qudists wouldn't resort to violence or murder, instead shunning and discriminating against apostates to effectively force them to move out.
- While apostasy would be one of the worst sins imaginable in Qudism, one would be permitted to deny their beliefs or even denounce their own religion in the face of persecution. As long as the person still believes in the religion at heart and follows the core principles, even if only in private, it would not be considered a sin to outwardly put on an act of not being Qudist. This would be how Qudism survived persecution in Kolhar, and likely how they would survive outside of Kolhar. Do NOT expect many Qudists to convert from the religion to another.
- Regarding marriage to non-Qudists, Qudism would not allow for marriages between Qudists and non-Qudists. Either the non-Qudists must convert to Qudism, or the Qudist must leave the religion. Keep in mind that apostasy would still be seen as one of the worst sins imaginable, the view would be that if the non-Qudist truly loves the Qudist they would convert to Qudism.
RE: Tikism vs Qudism - BrumBrum - 08-12-2019
Goldecia may be able to have a population of a few hundred thousand.