I generally would rather not discuss it.
If I MUST, it comes down to an IC and OOC reason.
Well, I didn't say you *had* to discuss it. I just asked a friendly question. But thank you for your response. You have touched on several things I have thought myself. Some of it is due to the nature of the game, the nature of the formation/expansion of the religion, and the laziness of players (myself included).
In the interest of not getting into a huge debate, I'd just like to say two things.
1) Religion is politics, and politics is religion. This is doubly true in BattleMaster. You cannot have a religion that is interested in expanding, and spreading their faith, without that same religion being involved in politics. The fact that many religions try to not get involved in politics is why you have so many inconsequential, failing religions with 10 or 12 nobles, two temples, and one priest. The founders/elders of SA are definitely believers in the faith. True, we don't talk theology constantly, but that doesn't mean that we are corrupt politicians only in it for the power. There are plenty of nobles in SA specifically for the power side of things. When you have several large theocracies that only hand out positions to members of the faith, what would you expect?
2) Discussions in SA tend to ramble, and swap rather quickly between several-month dry spells, and a few weeks of insanely furious debates. Some of these are theological in nature, most probably are not. You can't really stop the non-theological debates, and we don't really try unless they get very bad. Let's face it: Right now, SA provides the single largest audience
in the game. There is no other place in the game where you can write one message, and get it sent to 160 other characters. (We used to have that in some realms, but not any more.) The multi-realm nature of the organization means that when someone wants to get their message heard far and wide, they come to the SA all-members channel. (Or the full-members channel if they want to be polite.) The fact that these realms sometimes also get involved in their own wars against each other means that they come to the common channel they have to debate things. And of course they get heated, and there's a lot of shouting. Meh... it has its good points and bad points.
Anyway, I'm not really looking to turn this into a big debate on the merits and evils of SA. I know it has some good sides and bad sides. But to me, that's what makes it fun.
Sorry that your experiences in Summerdale soured you on SA (and Astrum
). Perhaps if you had been around before the war started, you'd have a little better understanding for how things really happened, and not be so bitter about it.
