Blade Maidens: Dead in the Water – 4

“Faith is a many-faced thing, in Telos. Few do not believe in the God’s existence, for there are simply too many pieces of evidence to the contrary. One only needs to observe one of Dar’s wildspeakers converse with a herd of deer before hunting season or a tide-witch of Mara summon an unnaturally low tide via her offerings to see as much.

But to know the Gods are real is rather different than having faith in them. For some, they feel they have been wronged by the Gods and thus spitefully withhold their worship. For others, they hope that they can earn a more favorable relationship with one of the divine if they hold back their own faith. Sweeten the pot, as it were.

But the far more fascinating group, to my eye, are those who simply do not believe the gods are worthy of worship. I’ve spoken with dozens of such folk, and cannot deny that their reasons are sound. Whether it is due to believing that the divine are fickle and let tragedies happen they could otherwise prevent or that they believe that a God is simply another being we don’t fully understand and no more worth worshipping than a powerful mage would be to a farmer, their arguments remain utterly fascinating.

I’ve no way to tell if such a stance would pause the wrath of a spurned God, but the simple fact that these faithless are still living among us does cause one to wonder.”

– An entry from the personal journals of High Arbiter Lorenzo, 56th caretaker of the Altar of All.