In other news, a loose organization/philosophy, which my next character will be based on (did I mention I'm a character creation addict?)
The Mortalists.
Across Enworld, there are many people who dedicate their lives to a god. Clerics and palidans are the most obvious examples, but many individuals who do not personally wield divine power still place great importance on the worship of a particular diety. There are others who follow the religion they were born to out of habit and also those who give equal respect to any diety they are told of. And then there are the Mortalists. Mortalists' individual veiws of gods differ (see below) but they are bound by the belief that gods, if they exist at all, will not improve the lot of the mortal races and that the world is in the hands of its inhabitants. They also believe, by and large, that divine magic is just as personally generated as arcane and that gods do not grant their followers any special abilities.
Mortalism is generally a personal philosophy, and prostylitizing mortalists are rare. The few exceptions tend to be from amoung the many mortalist clerics who, having found that their own "Divine" gifts flow just as easily from personal meditation as devout prayer, try to open the eyes of ther clerics to the "true source" of their powers. The vast majority of mortalists, however, are inspired by their philosophy to attempt to better the world they live in by hard work, knowing that no miracle can accomplish that which the sentient races will not.
There are several rough catagories of mortalists.
PERSONAL MORTALISTS are not devoted to any particular god, though they may follow the non spiritual teachings of the religion in which they were raised. They are generally accepting of whatever non violent religion others choose to practice, and rarely self identify as mortalists unless the land they live in attempts to impose religion on them. Some personal mortalists believe in the existance of the various gods but simply do not include gods in their lives. Personal mortalists may be of any class but rarely include clerics or palidans.
SOFT MORTALISTS are usually agnostic on the existance of gods, and tend to beleive that if any of the enwordian gods do exist, they are involved in their own godly concerns and do not effect the lives of mortals for good or ill. They focus strongly on the positive aspects of mortalism, including personal responsibility and the obligation to change the world for the better. Though they will defend their philosophy if it is challanged, they tend to get along well with the religious. In regions of religious contention, they like to describe themselves as simply "impartial", and attempt to lead by example to guide others out of the conflict. Arcane spellcasters, druids and palidans tend to form the bulk of soft mortalists, though some clerics of religions which encourage learning and questioning may evolve into soft mortalists through their studies.
HARD MORTALISTS are firmly convinced of the non existance of gods as they are usually convieved of. They believe that divine magic is purely self generated in nature and that religions are simply a drain on the potential of the sentient races. Some of the hard mortalist philosophers have even posited the existance of powerful extraplaner beings who have learned to tap into the worshipping energy of religious groups, thus inverting the usual assumptions of divine connection. While only some hard mortalists will actively prostelitize against religion, none shy from identifying themselves and they will often wear the unofficial symbol of the mortalist philosophy, a lighted candle. (based on the words of one of the first recorded mortalist philosophers, who stated that it was better for the sentient races to light a candle than hope that gods would end their darkness.) The majority of hard mortalists are clerics, though other spell casters are common as well.
Mortalists are almost always good and tend towards the chaotic end of the spectrum, though neutral good mortalists are common as well. Mortalist clerics tend to take either the Magic or Knowlege domain with the second reflecting their work in life (healing or protection are common, followed by strength or war for those in regions of conflict.) In situations where a "favored weapon" is nessaccary, they tend to use a weapon based on a tool of the common folk of their region - sickles and scyths being common in agrarian societies, nets amoung fisherfolk, etc.
