So like, AO takes place in a world where the Greek Gods are real.
Dont you guys think its weird how theres no actual religions based off of these deities, or any temples / churches in towns that townsfolk regularly visit? Like, NPCs rarely even talk about the gods existing, or the legends and myths that were passed down
Like, I get that theres the Greenwish Cult, but they dont worship any of the Greek Gods, just, yknow, Greenwish. Not only that, the Poseidon Temple in Mount Orthys, while it exists, is completely abandoned and unused. Weren’t the Greek Gods in the myths like really strict on temples being kept intact and worshipped at?
I think most of the gods have been dead for centuries by this point, so maybe fervent worship of them eventually faded with time.
You do have a point though, it’s something that’s not really touched upon. Might have something to do with the gods being seen as slightly less grandiose than they are in IRL mythology; in a world where people can become extremely powerful, the power of the gods is probably viewed as less impressive compared to in our world.
This is what always confused me, as in our own world, worship of religions continue on centuries past their original scriptures and the dates where their deities descended.
Like, even when a god dies, their legends, culture, and what was left behind should somewhat remain too right?
Actually religions are common within AO, but they aren’t mentioned much. There’s an npc on the sky islands which talks about them but from what I remember there’s literally a religion that believes in the Peacekeeper/Theos? and a religion that believes in Durza. It’s not exactly worded like that but that NPC talks about a battle that split the world into islands caused by the fight of an evil wizard and a righteous wizard. People have split opinions on both religions tho
It’s a cool reference, but I wonder if the Protector religion will eventually shift into worshipping the Peacekeeper as Theos’ successor? The War Seas don’t yet know what transpired in the Seven Seas.
From the looks it just appears that in this world religion takes a different manifestation than our religion, feel like cults of worship are more common than moderate worship.
If I had to put my head canon out, gods simply never had the appeal they did in this world. Theocratic societies have yet to be mentioned and nor are there any church or pope like entities.
Perhaps gods take more of a celebrity/idol role in the world?
It’s highly possible that the world is generally more secular outside of the secluded mention of religion we see. There’s no theocracies, no major factions like the Catholic Church in our world. If any explanation exists for this, it’s probably that sailors and residents of the War Seas figured they had more problems to deal with than the disfavor of deities when monsters of magic exist in the here and now.
dang I really love soft lore stuff like this, makes the world feel much more lived in. also great to see our boy theos getting the respect to his name he deserves
Yeah because Theos and Durza were launched in the area of the 7 Seas. Back then it was all continents with no dark sea splitting seas, so the survivors that didn’t get launched or died lived to tell the tale in the War Seas after years
Though this got me thinking, AA PK was vaporized in the continent and was left floating as a pile of ashes until 7 Seas. I wonder if AA PK could get a name drop in AO relating to their home origin here
