Sanguis Astroism

[dustole]

The Varangian guard is an example of religious tolerance. The Byzantine Emperors embraced the Vargangians difference in faith for it made them hardier warriors. At least in the early days of the Vargangian guard, prior to the North converting.

My brief scan of the wiki shows that they were pagans and didn't have an organized religion.  And they conveyed to orthodox Christianity fairly early in the time line

[vonGenf]

My brief scan of the wiki shows that they were pagans and didn't have an organized religion.

They were norse (vikings). The norse religion was pretty well established, with festivals, rituals, centers of worship, and clergy often forcefully refusing conversion and leading rebellions against christians.

And they conveyed to orthodox Christianity fairly early in the time line

It still took a few generations which, even in BM-time, corresponds to a few RL years.

[Renodin]

Eduardo:

You are sitting in a huge city with lots of SA followers, you are taking on a goliath task (staying with the religious term hehe). Its not supposed to be easy if I look at the game mechanics. That you are getting wounded so often is a direct result of your choices to take on such a task.

I wish you luck though, I for one have said my piece on it In Game hehe.

[Chenier]

The janissaries were christian soldiers serving muslim leaders from the 1300s on.

[Chenier]

Eduardo:

You are sitting in a huge city with lots of SA followers, you are taking on a goliath task (staying with the religious term hehe). Its not supposed to be easy if I look at the game mechanics. That you are getting wounded so often is a direct result of your choices to take on such a task.

I wish you luck though, I for one have said my piece on it In Game hehe.

I'm pretty sure all of the faiths currently considered evil by SA declared SA evil themselves first. For a long time, we've had reports of priests being attacked by mobs of the Bloodmoon Cult, while having it on ignore and doing nothing about it. When there finally was interest in reviewing the official positions on other religions, this was the tipping point that determined the end result as evil instead of misguided.

SA is one of the least oppressive entities this game has seen. If it keeps crushing smaller entities, it's because Dwilight has an overabundance of suicidal entities going out of their way to paint themselves as targets.

[vonGenf]

The janissaries were christian soldiers serving muslim leaders from the 1300s on.

If I remember correctly, they were slaves that were kidnapped in their youth.

[Stabbity]

If I remember correctly, they were slaves that were kidnapped in their youth.

I don't believe that is true. Janissaries were non-muslims (primarily christians) given a chance to earn privileges not otherwise available to non-muslims in the Ottoman Empire, and eventually became more privileged than the Muslim portion of the military (which lead to the decay of the Empire and loss of significant amounts of territory, but that was a bit past the middle ages when Janissaries started becoming that influential).

[Stabbity]

Ah, you are correct vonGenf, the original Janissaries were conscripted slaves. Though kidnapped isn't a term I'd use personally, especially seeing as how well off they were in comparison.

[vonGenf]

I don't believe that is true. Janissaries were non-muslims (primarily christians) given a chance to earn privileges not otherwise available to non-muslims in the Ottoman Empire, and eventually became more privileged than the Muslim portion of the military (which lead to the decay of the Empire and loss of significant amounts of territory, but that was a bit past the middle ages when Janissaries started becoming that influential).

Relevant info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissaries:

The Janissaries were kapıkulları (sing. kapıkulu), "door servants" or "slaves of the Porte", neither freemen nor ordinary slaves (Turkish: köle). They were subjected to strict discipline and were the first army to wear a uniform, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement and formed their own distinctive social class. As such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivaling the Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, Enderun. Through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts at reform of the military.

According to military historian Michael Antonucci and economic historians Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, the Turkish administrators would scour their regions (but especially the Balkans) every five years for the strongest sons of the sultan's Christian subjects. These boys (usually between the ages of 6 and 14) were then taken from their parents and given to Turkish families in the provinces to learn Turkish language and customs, and the rules of Islam. The recruits were indoctrinated into Islam, forced into circumcision and supervised 24 hours a day by eunuchs. They were subjected to severe discipline, being prohibited from growing a beard, taking up a skill other than soldiering, and marrying. As a result, the Janissaries were extremely well-disciplined troops, and became members of the Askeri class, the first-class citizens or military class. Most were non-Muslims because it was not permissible to enslave a Muslim.

So they were kidnapped as kids and did not have the possibility to leave the Janissaries, which makes them slaves. However they were paid and held some political power.

This covers the medieval period - past 1683 turkish muslim men could also enroll voluntarily.

[vonGenf]

Ah, you are correct vonGenf, the original Janissaries were conscripted slaves. Though kidnapped isn't a term I'd use personally, especially seeing as how well off they were in comparison.

I imagine there were some families that would let them go voluntarily in hopes of a better life, yes. However it is probable that most of these kids never saw their parents again. 6 years old is very young, most of them must have completely forgotten their origin by the time they reached adult age.

Edit: This sources implies, as you say, that most would volunteer to become Janissaries.

http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/slaves-ottoman-empire.htm

[Constantine]

Janissaries were slaves kidnapped, bought or received as a tithe mostly from Christian communities.
But they were all of course islamized and properly indoctrinated at an early age.

That said, unlike Christianity medieval Islam was often quite tolerant and enlightened, Ottomans being a great example here. Folks here seem to base their perception of medieval religious strife off of Christianity, but that's just one religion. And even medieval Christians had times when they were not irredeemably evil bustards. Like Spain during early Reconquista.

[Eduardo Almighty]

You are sitting in a huge city with lots of SA followers, you are taking on a goliath task (staying with the religious term hehe). Its not supposed to be easy if I look at the game mechanics. That you are getting wounded so often is a direct result of your choices to take on such a task.

I know. Just crying a bit.
Someone need to convert these regions 

[Glaumring the Fox]

I'm pretty sure all of the faiths currently considered evil by SA declared SA evil themselves first. For a long time, we've had reports of priests being attacked by mobs of the Bloodmoon Cult, while having it on ignore and doing nothing about it. When there finally was interest in reviewing the official positions on other religions, this was the tipping point that determined the end result as evil instead of misguided.

SA is one of the least oppressive entities this game has seen. If it keeps crushing smaller entities, it's because Dwilight has an overabundance of suicidal entities going out of their way to paint themselves as targets.

Suicidal entities , painting themselves as targets... Thats not biased at all.

[Chenier]

Suicidal entities , painting themselves as targets... Thats not biased at all.

I've been saying as much since long before I joined SA.

If you don't want to get mauled, don't bitchslap a bear. On Dwilight, too many people did not seem to understand this. Those who applied a non-confrontation agenda towards SA, even if subversive to it, were left alone to do their thing.

[Glaumring the Fox]

I've been saying as much since long before I joined SA.

If you don't want to get mauled, don't bitchslap a bear. On Dwilight, too many people did not seem to understand this. Those who applied a non-confrontation agenda towards SA, even if subversive to it, were left alone to do their thing.

Thats not true. CoB as a religion has never been hostile to SA, we have always allowed their temples to stand. SA has shut down our temples merely because of the association with Asylon. CoB came from SA, we recognize the effects of the Bloodstars on the sacred flowers of Bloodmoon. There was even members of SA in the past who partook in the eating of the sacred fruit. CoB is a wild offshoot from SA. Our intention from day one was tolerance. Things have changed obviously.

My original intention while in SA was to try and fuse elements of the idea of Bloodmoon into the church. Once I was excommunicated there wasn't much of a reason.

Unlike you Chenier I have ran a theocracy of the church. If they had very little use for a zealot like myself, you are then merely mud on a shoe.