Every character should be able to choose his religion and his god. Not only because its a right of every free man, but also for balance reasons. Once chosen, it stays persistent and cannot be changed without respec.
Religion would have the following perks:
- Character gains new voice command for QQV (e.g. "Allah akbar!" for saracens, "Valhalla!" for nordic and "Kurwa Blyaaaaad!" for slavic-themed characters)
- New abilities according to chosen religion (Christians could sacrifice half of their HP to fully heal any team member, or four saracens standing near could summon a sandstorm)
When you choose your god you get an item (cross, totem, idol) of this god and you can increase your relations with him by saying specific prayers in the chat or taking quest (kinda like in warband singleplayer). The quests might be whatever - kill 3 saracens in a row, headshot a christian with throwing hammer or backstab an archer. So if you do not do this, your relations with your god decrease and you suffer penalties, the god may curse you with a disease or strike you with a lightning if you do not obey him.
In order to increase your relations with god, you need to wear an appropriate hat:
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loginBut most importantly, the gods will affect the battle directly, like the god of horses can increase horses, the god of christians can make walk on the water, the nordic gods can give you a free stack of throwing hammers, etc. They also could increase your abilities against the other gods they don't like, so it would add more incentive to fight people of other religions instead of the same, which is realistic (autobalance would also need to take religion on consideration).
Or even better, devs or admins could play gods to ban leechers or to make their existence less pleasant by cursing them, that would be both useful from server rules point of view and realism (because gods punish sinners).
I think that's a great idea, also don't forget it's easy to make up a new religion if you need it for balance, for example a watergod who hates archers and makes water shields around his followers and so on.
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