I think the first thing to understand about magic in Arcanis, is that no matter what flavor of spell caster you are, your manipulation of the Arcanum relies on manipulating residual energy left over from creation. If you are a psion you do this innately because you have an extra organ in your brain that absorbs "cosmic energy." If you are a shaman you make deals with spirits to do the heavy lifting of manipulating the acanum for you.

All other spell casters learn how the building blocks of this residual energy go together. In the case of the Church you get a formula (Cant) passed down (in Ancient Altherin) from ancient sources that you are not meant to tamper with, except in a few certified ways. This is why you can't cast advanced spells with Therugy/Cants. The formulas work. But you never really learn why they work. On the other hand: If you are some flavor of Elder, Eldritch or Sorcerer-Priest then you basically get an appropriate version of a PHD in the theoretical underpinnings of metaphysics and "experiment" with some of column A and some of column B, hopefully with a good mentor.

Its hard to know what the Gods think about the current set up of Churches since we believe that they left Arcanis just after the fall of the First Imperium to go "fight entropy" ... and the time is wonky out there and the cell phone reception truly sucks. (Unless the Mourners are right and they're dead.) You are right that the different temples to each god have different infrastructures. For example Anshar barely has a formal infrastructure at all. If you don't have a copy of Codex of heroes yet there is good information in the back of it on the different temples and how they are perceived in the world.

Hello,



From a God's perspective? Who can say. They are Gods and those that worship Him/Her are mortals.

I can say that from a Church's perspective there certainly can be heresy. Cants that have been perverted and changed - whether true or not, who knows.



All Human Pantheon spells are cast in Altharin (think Latin), whether from Canceri or Coryan.



No.



Your assumption is incorrect. Just because they were Pantheonistic doesn't mean that that you had to receive the benediction of the entire Pantheon. As in the modern (game) times, you want to stave off illness, you pray to Neroth; you are making an ocean voyage, you pray to Yarris, etc.

If you're at mass you may receive a general benediction, as in 'May the Gods Protect You', but I don't believe that's what you're talking about.

I had a character like this in the old campaign. He was a ton of fun to play. Val'Mehan, Order of the Inner Demon who, over time, began to believe that he was chosen to be Sarish's avatar. (Much like the Sword of Nire was Nire's avatar, he thought he was, "The Vengance of Sarish".) And believe me, he got his fair share of odd stares. But by the end of the campaign, he had convinced about 6 PCs that he was Sarish's chosen avatar. ...You gotta love it when circumstances come together in bizarre ways.


Scott

Emphasis mine.

This actually makes me question something that I always assumed about the Cants, at least those of no particular Deity Tradition. Does that mean that a Diminish Fatigue cast from a Nerothian uses a different cant than on cast by a Larissan? I had always assumed that the only 'unique spells' (at least among the different Pantheons, such as Human, Eloran, etc) would be the ones in the Deity Tradition, and all the rest are the same across the board.

I think Benediction of the Gods is a much more complicated case, because some 80% of its abilities are the same as what EVERYONE else can cast (benediction on a weapon, shield, armour, and hero), but the last one depends on the God that you actively worship. To me, this means that there is a basic framework of the cant which is known to all casters of that cant, but each church adds their own. . . embellishment at the end. Either that or the last line of the cant is a blank area underlined saying "Insert relevant passage here for desired effect"

If that is the way it is that explains one thing, but raises another, so I'm not sure what to think. Under this description, one learns Cants, and this allows you to access the residual energy by building a spell by reaching out and just picking the right cosmic legos left over from creation - no real gods involved. They just taught their church the cant and how to build that specific lego spell, and now they aren't involved anymore, but their priests still have access to the pool of legos left over from creation. That explains how priests/cults/rogue valinor might be able to get away with using these spells in ways the gods may not approve of - because they really aren't part of the circuit anymore.

The problem with that idea is; then why is faith needed? And, of course, in this universe, even faith is hard to define. I mean, I think there is ample evidence that the gods exist(ed), if not just because their priests get spells. Having faith that they exist isn’t hard. So what is it that the priests need to have faith in? What exactly is involved in a priest having or losing faith? If it means a deep soul-searching connection to one’s diety, in a manner that is consistent with the diety’s wishes, then the diety is actually involved in some way. Otherwise, any narcissistic priest whose faith in himself leads him to believe he knows his gods will would get power, not just those who truly believe what their god wishes them to believe. If true faith is needed, than it seems more likely that the Gods are doing a lot of the molding and shaping of the powers of creation, and handing the spell to the caster, not the caster shaping creation himself. But if that were the case, then I would expect more cooperation between priests of the same god and followers of different cultures than we see.

Remember: Not everyone can cast an Elditch, Elder, or Psionic Spell, but EVERYONE can (theoretically) cast a Divine Cant (or a Primal Spell, for a different reason). To cast an Eldritch/Elder Spell, you need to have the gift (presumably a genetic trait) enabling you to be able to manipulate the Arcanum, and Psions need to have the appropriate mental discipline (awakened) or have suffered a traumatic event to 'awaken' them (Undisciplined/Spontaneous Awakened).

Cants, and Theurgy, can be done by ANYONE with enough force of will (represented by Charisma) and faith in their god. Primal can be done by anyone with enough force of will (represented by Charisma) who actively suits the purpose of whatever spirit they have bargained with. In the case of Cants, these seem to be 'packaged' spells which anyone with the Faith (probably built into the spell by the God/Valinor/etc who forged them) can perform.

The metaphor Henry has used is that the Cant''s cosmic legos build the gun but it is the users faith that pulls the trigger.

Come to think of it he didn't quite use the words cosmic legos. Still ...

Great, now I want to play with Lego. . .

A huge tub of legos left over from the creation just seemed like the right image. Some are artists in what they create, and some follow the directions. But you're right, it makes me want to play with legos too.

A follow up question occurred to me about churches. What is the state of churches in the unsealed lands? Specifically Bastion? This should be relevant to the new val'Vasik released by the kickstart right? And it raises the question that there probably weren't different churches there to begin with (Since Xabal built it from ruins with only slaves and refugees), but there churches of the entire pantheon in the city. How did they all get there? Did he start them? Is a valinor of one god able to start churches of others? Obviously he should be a great source for a church of Illiir, but what about the others? I assume their "church" will not be part of the mother church, milinese, etc? Would their church potentially be more like the church of the pantheon, since it was founded by a valinor? Especially a valinor that was to Illiir, but appeared so like a follower of Sarish, that he was originally mistaken for as a valinor of the wrong god?

We have a fair amount of data on religion in Haina, as the Haina Invisible King (one of the best, in my opinion) provided it. Additional information was gathered from Legacy of Damnation and the adventure "Descecration".

Basically, Hainese Religion stems from the Khitani Church, from which they have the tradition of NOT worshiping Anshar. We also know that they have, at least to an extent, amalgumated Hurrian and Nier as the twin Gods of War. We also know that the worship of less martial gods (such as Beltine) have been relegated to the peasants, and are only tolerated by the powers that be, as they are not viewed as being essential to the survival of the Haina Empire within the Unsealed Lands. They are not Pantheonists in the way that we have been told the Khitani are, but they do not follow the usual Mother Church of Coryan format.

All we know for sure of the religion of Bastion is that, officially, all the Gods are worshiped. I would image that Xabal would attempt to create the 'Perfect' Church, being an Illiirite, which means that all clergies are represented, and are probably worshiped close to a Pantheon. That said, Xabal was still an Illiirite Valinor before his fall, and he demanded perfect control and asceticism, which means it probably followed an Illiir-centric pantheon.