During medival times the church was held in very high regards and was a very important part of the era.
Will the church play any major role in the game?
Should the church play any major role in the game?
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Definitely yes and yes.
The story itself is leading towards the hussite revolution, where I believe the church played a role even greater than the kings, who were just doing itâs bidding. Also the trailer features a scene of burning at the stake, which is something that only the church could do.
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Itâs an interesting question. Usually religion in games play the role of âanother kind of magicâ. Of course this presents issues with reality, since religion doesnât really work that way (To my knowledge). The church held a major political power. Especially in the setting of the game, the Teutonic Order should play a primary role, so yes I think the church should definitely be significant in the game. But itâs hard to build mechanics around religion itself.
Itâs only right for the church to play a prominent role, but hopefully not too realistically. Last thing I want is hardcore evangelical nitwits haunting my every waking moment.
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Indeed, the church had a habit in sticking itâs nose where it didnât belong back then. But then again thatâs to be expected when most big families had a third son or whatnot who joined the cloth as he wasnât a direct heir and would be expected to contribute to the family power by becoming a Bishop or an Archbishop.
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I donât know. If done right, it would be great to be able to show those nitwits whoâs the boss. I donât know if you know the great book and movie Witchesâ Hammer (you probably donât unless youâre czech), but it always leaves me with a great urge to kick some inquisitorâs butt 
EDIT: In case anyoneâs wondering, I just looked over IMDB for the movie I mentioned and found some horrible abomination from 2006. This is the right one: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064546/ and the user review sums it up pretty well.
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The Church played indeed a central role in the daily lives of Middle age society. Aside from the purely religious stuff, I would like to see the church facilities in game to be used for several ârealisticâ functions that can be used organically for quest purposes:
- Place of storage of books, scrolls and knowledge. We are in the period of handwritten books. These couldnât be found in the normal houses but only in monasteries or nobleman castles. Where else could our hero copy a map or find the knowledge about healing herbs.
- Reading and translations - our hero is just a son of blacksmith and is almost certainly illiterate and definitely doesnât speak Latin. It would be nice if he has to take an acquired scroll to the church/monastery to ask a priest/monk for a translation
- Place of gathering - pretty much everybody will be in church for a mass on Sunday and the city will be empty. This can be a specific setting for some quests - have free access in the city or to speak to the whole city at once
- Social functions - There was often an orphanage, hospital or other related activities done by monasteries. That can be used for quest purposes - finding a parent for a lost child or help to cure a disease that is threatening the folks in nearby village.
- Treasure hunting / stolen treasure - the monasteries and churches often had quite impressive treasures from offerings of the people and nobility. Player could help to retrieve / steal (major sin warning!) some of them.
- Some religious celebration as a unique moment in the story + a county fair next to the church
- Search of catacombs / tombs / crypt beneath the church
Honestly, I believe we can have a ton of fun around churches and monasteries in the game without even touching on religion - rebellion against catholic church, selling of forgiveness, church taxes etc.
Letâs hope the authors will use just some of them
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[quote=âth_om, post:4, topic:9076, full:trueâ]
Last thing I want is hardcore evangelical nitwits haunting my every waking moment.
[/quote]Toss them a coin and theyâll go awayâŚfor a little while anyhow.
[quote=âMorcar, post:5, topic:9076, full:trueâ]
Indeed, the church had a habit in sticking itâs nose where it didnât belong back then.
[/quote]It still does and will continue to do so in the future too.
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Eh, wrong. The secular authorities could and did execute people by burning at the stake. Such was the fate of Alice of Wheatley, a 13th century Englishwoman found guilty of murdering her husband. Also, ecclesiastical authorities could not themselves conduct an execution, as they were, after all, clergymen, forbidden from shedding blood; as such, executions were handled by the secular authorities.
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Iâd like the game to be as realistic as possible. But I donât want to have virtual missionaries. Because the church is also corrupt and selfish(as somewhat seen in the live stream) it would make for a good power as oppossed to your liege lord. Also maybe some crafting could be âconsidered magicâ and you get burned for it if someone sees you make a good health posion or something.
Whoa, didnât know that, thanks. Seems hardly practical or justifiable to execute someone by burning if they commited a secular crime, but I guess they had their reasons.
However while executions were always conducted by secular authorities, they were performed on a recommendation and with blessings of the church. And everyone knew that ignoring or refusing the churches wish to have someone burned would place them in a very unfavorable position.
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The particularly gruesome nature of medieval executions had a lot to do with deterrence. Put simply, killing someone itself as punishment wasnât the only goal; making sure that people knew that crime resulted in a truly horrible fate was thought to help demonstrate the power and authority of the law and the consequences for violating it. If you want a good book on the subject, Iâd recommend Sean McGlynnâs âBy Sword and Fireâ; its mostly concerned with atrocities committed on the battlefield, but he has a very good opening chapter on crime and punishment that I think is a very good introduction to the subject:
Contrary to popular belief, Inquisitors werenât particularly interested hunting down people for mixing medicine. Their job was trying heretics, not acting as medical police. Getting burned for mixing some herbs (which was an incredibly commonplace and respectable form of medical treatment) would be more fantastic than realistic.
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Judging from the preview at Amazon, the book looks like a great read, but I will probably pass. Reading english is too tiresome for comfort and it seems some of what is inside already found itâs way into the work of Bernard Cornwell, one of my favourite authors, whose books fortunately get translated into czech. Thanks for the tip nevertheless!
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I believe that the church would make a significant contribution to the story and setting of the game.
As your friend or foe.
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And please, don´t forget beer!!!
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I was pleased to see in the livestream where the local religious authority piped up about Henryâs parents going to purgatory and then the lords proceeding to verbally bat him around a little. The role of religion and the church in society should be a part of the living world this game is creating. Whether you like it or not, the church was a cornerstone of society in those times and therefore should included.
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To my knowledge, was the main period of witch-hunting in later years (1500-1700) only sporadically earlier and more in Spain, Germany and Austria. This heretic was the main goal, less herbalists and healers.
For fear and superstition, the Church, however, has always been taken care of, the basis for such practices and a lucrative source of income.
Knowledge is power. the church knew this of course and was able to keep so long control over Europe because it was THE collector and censor for all kind of classic scrolls and writings from other parts of the world.
Besides that many couldnât afford books anyway not had use for them as there was no school system. Books were incredibly expensive and very often represented one or several peoples life and devotion in those leather bound treasures which often enough got owned by some noble like today a person keeps a Ferrari, meaning they owned the book but no necessarily could read it like modern day collectors hording things but having no time or knowledge to actually put them to use.
The church outlawed many books and antique scrolls and the few copies which existed. Monasteries and Convents were islands of knowledge and their libraries were often enough the most precious treasure you could imagine.
Thereâs a good reason why the church feared Johannes Gutenbergâs invention of the printing press as that was the beginning of the industrialization of books like many centuries later organized industry and technology industrialized firearms by introducing standardization of production, calibers and single ammunition pieces.
(A post from me about early gunpowder weapons
So yes, as this game is all about historical accuracy the clerics must be part of the game world even most players will very likely never interact with anything higher then a monk or nun as the higher clergy was power oriented and just dealt with those nobles which they needed for their interests.
Basically a âstateâ in many other âstatesâ, rounding every patchwork of ruled land from barony up to kingdoms as âstateâ in this example.
There will be no people trying to convert you in the game or other more modern nonsense which we remember from the missionary phase centuries later.
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