Sartanism was doing pretty well in Cathay for a while. Sorraine's loss to Ohnar West and subsequent Imperial buy-out damaged the credibility of both the realm and the church to most Cathayans (whether fairly or not). If the church had said 'Sorraine lost the war, to the victors go the spoils' and let the realm fall and rebuilt something new, Sartanism would probably still be the dominant religion in Cathay.
Is this still the case? The CoS lost basically all of its followers, but, as I understand it, all those people are still Sartanists. They just don't hold to the Church.
Pretty hilariously, it seems like William's only real major contribution, religion wise, was destroying the CoS's grasp on Cathay.
I don't know that that is a popular opinion, at least in the FEI. Edmund is probably closer to thinking so than Galiard. The MAE used to be very influential and he's stuck with it for a long time, and he did respect the CoS for a while until it imploded. What you're describing is probably more a symptom that most religions don't have very active constituencies - the Order has some great key players, for instance, but apparently not a heck of a lot in the way of active followers.
I'm not really talking about Galiard. But if you look at everyone else, it seems that religious tolerance is the mode du jour. Velax, Edmund, probably Rhosmyria, Ingall, and then hundreds more who aren't at the ruler level. So yeah, I'd say it's a pretty damn popular opinion. And this is on the second-most fanatical continent in the game.
I agree, but this is tough to turn into a game mechanic in a low fantasy world. I'd love to play a zealot. I just don't want to be the only zealot in the room.
I don't think a game mechanic is necessary. It'd be helpful, but not necessary. The major problem is the culture; as you said, nobody wants to be the odd one out. Once the ball gets rolling, however, you get a shift. You can see something akin to that on Dwilight.
And you wouldn't be the only zealot in the room, at least in Cathay. William's a pretty hard zealot (though he's softened up in recent years), as are a few others.
If people can find ways to be zealots in the real-life information era, you can find a way to write a fictional zealot in a low-fantasy setting. I did it.
