[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by WraithLord

Perhaps that's true but the bless change makes a body guard unit into the main fighting unit. You're not supposed to have armies of wardens as MA MAN. Besides, the bless effect factors in and I really don't think another EN bless nation is required and certainly MA Man shouldn't fall into that category. It is not a faith nation but rather a pagan, mysterious & mystic nation, at least that's the way the myths tell it.

Uh.. weren't you the person who was just referencing arthurian mythos as the inspiration for it and asking for Arthurian heroes? How is that a 'pagan, mysterious, and mystic' set of source material, especially as regards *the nation*? Most certainly religious (You don't get more religious than questing after the Grail). Only the women of avalon would be mysterious or mystic, otherwise its an early medieval feudal nation with all the political and religious implications that entails.

I would wonder which source material you would class as 'pagan', given the maybe 10% that's derived from potentially pre-Christian sources was filtered through a Christian lens. Most of the Arthurian tales are the product of 12th century or later writers like Christian de Troyes, and have very definite religious overtones. Especially the Quest for the Grail, as in, the cup of Christ? I'm especially confused how you can consider the material not heavily-faith based. Knights who successful quested for the Grail were the epitome of the perfect knight in the Arthurian romances, and had to have profound faith to succeed - ie, Galahad and Perceval. Faith is definitely the appropriate cultural ideal.

Pagan is a totally inappropriate word in this context - what does it even mean? I mean, all nations worship and have faith in a god - the pretender. That's the whole premise of the game. Thus, every other nation is 'pagan' relative to your nation, and your nation cannot be pagan. ('Pagan' is a Christian-world word most closely related to the muslim use of 'infidel' in meaning, and was used to refer to anyone who didn't have faith in the God of the Pentateuch (ie, not Jewish, Muslim, or Christian) - the modern reclamation of the word as a name for a type of spiritual practice is basically reverse propaganda. As a perjorative word, no one pre-20th century would have referred to themself as pagan. The use and meaning of the word thus best translates into 'not worshipping our pretender' in dom3 terms, as I claimed above).

Drawing a distinction between 'faith' and 'pagan' is especially offensive. None of the groups historically described as pagan would have thought of themselves as anything but religious and with faith in that religion. I certainly doubt modern pagans would similarly appreciate being told they have no faith.