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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 3120876" data-attributes="member: 3146">You're approaching the idea of worship from an essentially Christian perspective but the gods in question are anything but Christian. Ask yourself a few other questions and you will have the answer to your questions:Why did the mexica worship Huitzilopochtli or Tlaloc?Why did the Babylonians worship their gods?Why did the romans offer sacrifices to the emperor?Why did the untouchables of India honor the gods of their higher caste oppressors? For that matter, why do they still do so?The mexica wanted rain for their crops and victory for their armies and for the sun to continue to rise each day. Therefore, they made the sacrifices that their tradition demanded. They did not need to love their gods or believe the gods to be personally interested in their fates. The romans did not wish to be crucified as rebels or fed to the lions, so they offered sacrifices to the emperor.In the world that is proposed, the common people would offer their sacrifices to the ruby sorceress in the hopes of currying her favor and enabling the magic of the universe to continue. They would offer gifts to the many in order to draw his attention upon their enemies. They would sacrifice to the gray lady because their emperor demanded it of them and to do otherwise would be to, at the least be exiled from their home and city. They would make charms and perform rituals to keep the attentions of the many away from their sons and daughters. They would make offerings to Wee Jas because she was the patron of the empire and they wished their empire to be glorious and powerful. They would practice the rites of Erythnul because it gave them an excuse to engage in rape and orgies. In short, people in the proposed world would behave as people have throughout real world history. Their religion would be an eclectic mix of magic, patriotism, group identification, and excuses for whatever vices happened to be fashionable (or transgressive) at the time.Other religions are not simply western Christianity with the names changed and without those inconvenient restrictions on sexual behavior (which, incidentally most successful religions and cultures do and did actually have to a greater or lesser extent).As long as common people believed in their reality, they would readily participate in the cults of Wee Jas and Erythnul. They would perform the rituals. They would make the offerings. They would lay with the temple prostitutes. They would do all of the things that constitute worship. Perhaps they wouldn't do all of them at once. And naturally, among the common and the exalted, there would be people both exceptionally pious and unusually impious. But they could quite readily be gods the common man believed in.</blockquote>

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