Madina needs YOU!

[De-Legro]

All true, but that didn't happen in the MA

The point would be that no religion starts out with fully formed teachings, institutions and rituals though.

[Meneldur]

They at least has a set of teachings to work with, it was then about filling the gaps.

If you read SA's page, you read about how it's a belief that the stars *can* influence the behavior of people, that X *is said* about them, that they *appear* to be irregular...

I don't see anything resembling medieval western religions...

It certainly does have set of fundamental beliefs and indeed a goal to which all in the religion should aspire to. It is known on no uncertain terms what the Bloodstars do and how they do it, in addition to how we should react to what they do and what purpose this ultimately serves. I'm not sure what you looked at on the wiki but you clearly missed out some pages:

http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Sanguis_Astroism/Catechism
http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Sanguis_Astroism/Writings (referenced a lot in the Catechism but good to read on its own for extra info)
http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Sanguis_Astroism/Charter (the first part which has a simple outline of the beliefs, the rest is just administration stuff)

However I do agree with what you and others have said here that it's beliefs do not resemble a medieval western religion. This is because western religion in general focuses around personal a personal deity/set of deities. All teaching revolve around the desires of such a deity.

SA however has deities which are by nature impersonal; that is their desires are not known to mortals save through prophetic visions of which there have been only three. the Bloodstars act more as forces of nature; they influence our lives on a daily basis and so we seek to gain harmony with them through meditation and balancing their influences. However we have no indication that they desire us to attain this balance and harmony, it is merely considered natural for us to attempt to do so considering the importance of their influence as well as the fact that the human is considered to mirror the Bloodstars in the three-way divide between body, mind and soul.

So in that way SA is and will never be like any Medieval Western Religion however it certainly has divine powers, divine influences in our daily lives and a spiritual goal enough that I would classify it as an "authentic religion". In fact I would argue it is more of an "authentic religion" than many others in BM because it has a goal which a believer is supposed to strive to achieve during life as nearly all major religions do today, whereas many other BM religions simply has a "these are the gods, go and worship them and you don't need to do much else" mentality, with believers having little else to do save offer sacrifices.

The question I suppose is how far we want religions on an SMA island to resemble the religions of Western Medieval Europe or not. I would argue that no religion on Dwilight truly resembles a medieval western religion.

[Glaumring the Fox]

There is honestly more intrigue, more goal and more roleplay involved in SA than any other religion my characters have been involved with. Its actually very interesting and kinda set up like a Holy roman empire type entity.

[Nosferatus]

There is honestly more intrigue, more goal and more roleplay involved in SA than any other religion my characters have been involved with. Its actually very interesting and kinda set up like a Holy roman empire type entity.

I agree, SA is a great sucsses and offers alot of environment to the continent.

[Glaumring the Fox]

Ahh once VE is wiped out, can we get back to infighting and skullduggery again against our fellow faithful? This unity is starting to chafe even on me, I can imagine Allison is frothing at the mouth but holding it in with a rag tied around her face. Lol

[Geronus]

I think Allison is far more interested in persecuting non-believers than scheming against her rivals within the Church, although it's never wise to completely trust her 

[Laurens88]

I think Allison is far more interested in persecuting non-believers than scheming against her rivals within the Church, although it's never wise to completely trust her 

If she could scare the 'non-believers' into Madina direction I'll be gratefull 

[dustole]

It is much more fun to kill unbelievers.  When Allison can't do that her aggression shifts to other targets.  I like the comparison of Sanguis Astroism to the Holy Roman Empire.   There is a lot of infighting.  It seems that at one point or another every realm with a major SA following has been at war with each other.   The biggest threat to the church is from the inside.  There are a lot of nobles in SA and that is a lot of scheming and planning.   It keeps Dwilight interesting.

[Indirik]

If she could scare the 'non-believers' into Madina direction I'll be gratefull 

I hear rumours, OOC only so far, that Madina has welcomed a priest of Sanguis Astroism to preach within their borders. Perhaps the Light of the Bloodstars has reached to the very southern extremes of the island. Perhaps the secret Madinan Expeditionary Force that is marching north is not coming to rescue Caerwyn at all, but to attack them from the south? 

[Nosferatus]

Perhaps the secret Madinan Expeditionary Force that is marching north is not coming to rescue Caerwyn at all, but to attack them from the south? 

What secret expedition? must be really secret! i don't see any noble traveling towards any SA realm, tell em all about it!

and yeah a priest of SA visited Madina city and helped abbot calm the populance there, however hes extremely against any form of totalitarianism.
He wishes to see a versatile Madina city/duchy with different cultures.
Any one is welcome to preach, why would SA not be welcome?
There not some weird daimon worshipers or sea creature worshiping, I mean there weird alright, but not THAT weird.

A war in Madina is not necessarily a war like usual realms, this war against Astrum and friends is declared by request of Mendicant, who was still governor then.
So it's more Candiels who declared war, they also saw SA as evil, many people support3ed him, including Abbot for they saw the advantage of public attention in this way.
By belonging to the league of free nations people could assume that Madina was a good place to go after failing the war.
Yes, Abbot gambled the league to loose from the beginning, which is good for possible noble immigration
If it woudn't lose it would still be in Madinas advantage, so it was an obvious choice to make.

[Peri]

Let's say that catching nobles was more or less the evident reason of Madina's alliance with Averoth. I don't think anyone reasonable expected to see an army of Madina going after Astrum.

[Nosferatus]

ow and by the way, does anyone have some great ideas for creatively executing King Mendicant.
One suggestion at a time please!

I've got a few ideas, but we all got creat 'vivid' fantasy as BM players, so burn it loose.
As Abbot is very extreme, it has to be very horrible.

[Indirik]

What secret expedition? must be really secret!

Must be, I haven't heard a word about it from anyone!

Any one is welcome to preach, why would SA not be welcome?

Well, to be honest, there was that whole war declaration thingy. But that's such a small matter, I can't see as how anyone would let it stop them.

[Nosferatus]

Must be, I haven't heard a word about it from anyone!
Well, to be honest, there was that whole war declaration thingy. But that's such a small matter, I can't see as how anyone would let it stop them.

yeah and besides, the war declaration was against realms, not a religion.

[Indirik]

The original Averoth/Caerwyn war declaration was definitely religious in nature. And since then, Caerwyn and Averoth have gone on to continue to make religion a quite prominent in the war. Caerwyn's ruler even went so far as to say he is using religion to prosecute the war. (I believe it was something like "we're using religion to prosecute a secular war".) And since Madina is part of the League, it's guilt by association. Madina voluntarily stepped up and stood in line with these two, so don't be surprised when you're identified right along with them.