Forgive me if similar ideas have been floated before - I have been gone for quite a long time. In Morrowind, we have a good number of well-fleshed religions, and in TES in general we have a fascinating collection of pantheons that are inter-related but never quite the same. But on a more quotidian level, can we say that we have the same with holy people? What I'm thinking of is something like the medieval cults of various beati that can be found around Italy - holy persons who were never canonized as saints, but also never condemned because they were the focus of a local cult that wasn't too unorthodox to tolerate. Do we have anything like that in TR? Do we want something akin to it? Something interesting could be, for example, a Tribunal "saint" in a NW port town who is revered by the locals but that the careful player will see is actually a Nord with some questionable backstory? Or perhaps an Indoril clan whose ancestor worship has been taken up a notch and has become a local focus of "the holy"?
(Reply #1) Posted on Fri, 2018-08-24 22:57
2015-08-10 20:50
3 weeks 5 days ago
I think it could happen, but there aren't a lot of places so far out of the Temple's reach that more clearly dubious or heretical figures or movements could establish themselves for any length of time. Really, Telvannis is the best fit for that kind of thing, but a few other regions might work as well, such as parts of the Velothi Mountains or Inlet Bog/Sundered Scar.
2016-04-12 02:47
3 years 4 months ago
I was specifically thinking that Telvannis would be the wrong place for it, since that's exactly where we'd expect an unofficial but otherwise mostly orthoox cult. Somewhere in the mountains is also a good idea, though. My basic idea is that this would be the sort of shrine that the temple would have no problem sending an ordinator to guard but which is not quite fully accepted. Another thought would be some stolen relics that Dunmeri pirates made off with from somewhere outside of Morrowind. For whatever reason, they proved efficacious or (seemed to prove efficacious) at helping the locals and so a minor sort of cult sprang up. Officially, the temple turns a blind eye because it's effective and since it has been assimilated is doing its miracles/cures/bringing rains in the name of the Tribunal anyway, even though the PC who looks into will see that it's not officially part of the temple canon.
2016-01-25 21:01
7 hours 23 min ago
This made me think of Farvyn Oreyn from Malacath's quest. But I doubt he was a religious person and just revered as a hero of sorts because of his ancestor.
2015-08-10 20:50
3 weeks 5 days ago
Something like that could probably work, yeah. I mean, in a way, that's basically the situation with all of House Dres, and Velothi towers (that are not being occupied by expansionist Telvanni) are often places of scholarship and learning that would sometimes entertain more dubious forms of thought, and would probably be subject to varying levels of Temple scrutiny. But as you describe it, ordinary settlements would work for the idea as well. In Indoril lands (aside from Sundered Scar and the Mephalan Vales, which for differing reasons Indoril is not able to monitor effectively), the ruling Indoril may be more of an issue to such groups than the Temple, but even there you can have some tongs and Velothi towers and such that would be seen as dubious, but tolerated.