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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6965290" data-attributes="member: 6677017">I was thinking of the religion similarity (pretty much exactly how you described it). It works pretty well with the idea that worship of traditional pantheons and deities is less likely for the Sigilians* who are described as rather jaded--since they can see the dealings of the deities more up-close and personal and aren't as awed by it all as Primes. Plus, with all the various deities and their afterlives side-by side, a religion doesn't provide as much of a comprehensive worldview to a Sigilian. If typical D&D religion isn't all that popular, it makes sense that people would want to fill that role in some other way, with a more comprehensive worldview--hence the philosophical factions. If this is the case, I would also expect that there are a rather large number of other "factions" (I'm talking pre-Faction War, because I like that time better) sort of "hiding" within the blanket of Indeps. In fact, that might actually be who the majority of Indeps are--members of smaller groups that aren't allowed to be official factions.If that were the case, there would probably need to be more active faction-based community bonding rituals involved than I've gotten the impression there are. Religions are about doing as well as believing. Also, you have to interpret the rather active descriptions of faction members as representative of a more extreme minority, with the average Sigilian taking the more laid-back, less actively committed view you talked about.The other hitch with that view is that there are still priests of the various deities/pantheons without the factions. Sometimes, it seems like those viewpoints aren't entirely compatible, but the material says they these priests are there, so we'll call that a gimme. Perhaps Sigilian priests view their religions through a different lens, with compatible deities being sort of a manifestation of their faction's viewpoint, or someone who is really far along on the path. So a Harmonium priest of Tyr might see Tyr as a really good Harmonium member. (Hints of Buddhist philosophy here.) It doesn't have to be a huge issue, since people in the real world can be part of religion (comparing to a faction) and still be part of some other highly committed group (comparing to an ardent member of a political party, for instance), but it is something to take into account. I suppose the average Sigilian probably neither knows nor cares much about the specific details of what deities their priests serve. They just go to a Harmonium (example) priest for their priestly needs.The other way of interpreting it would be that factions are more like extremist groups, without only a minority of Sigilians being members of them (you just can't have the majority of a population--especially a population of explicitly jaded folk--as members of extremist groups.) In that case, the average Sigilian would probably identify with some religion or another, and the Factions are almost considered trouble-makers to steer clear of. Of course, the materials I've seen seem to be against that view, listing pretty much all NPCs as faction members, so that's probably a less likely scenario.So most likely it is basically the first scenario. What bugs me though is that it isn't clearly spelled out--and it really needs to be spelled out to have any sort of normal interaction with the average non-faction zealot Sigilian. They could have just said "Most Sigilians don't have religions--they have Factions. Factions serve a similar role in the life of the average Sigilian, and their adherents run the gamut between ardent supporters and fanatics, to the larger majority who are only nominal members without a strong commitment. The exceptions to not having religions are clerics and certain other individuals who for one reason or another maintain worship of a deity or pantheon alongside their faction membership. In those cases they tend to take a perspective on their religion that makes it compatible with their faction."*Not sure if this is the correct term, but I'm going to use it for lack of a better one. I'm referring not only to residents of Sigil, but to their planar culture, which as I understand it is also the culture of the gate-towns and a few other faction strongholds and settlements out their. I don't imagine every planar humanoid is a member of that culture, but it seems to be the dominant one.</blockquote>

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