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Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest

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I'm all for religious freedom but we should at least make sure there are no chaos-lite cults in the shadows.

Pray to the dark God nestled in the bowels of the darkest ocean all you damn well please, but if that prayer involves cutting open Griffin chicks then we need to have a serious discussion using the sharp end of a broadsword.
 
[X] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[X] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult: Maybe you're of two minds about your most fanatically loyal subjects. Perhaps you don't want to risk being misunderstood or accused of manipulating such vulnerable people. Or maybe you just want to see how things play out without your influence. Regardless of your motives, you'll leave the Cult to its own devices for now, neither encouraging nor discouraging it.
 
[X] State Influence
[X] Discourage the Imperial Cult

Taking complete control over religion given how complicated it's apparently gotten behind our backs is a bad idea because it'll just breed resentment by having us decide everything but I'd still like a stake in it so we can stop zealotry.

I am completely against the cult, us backing a cult of personality would remind the Crystal Ponies of Sombra, offend Cantebury who serve an actual magical being, give Maretonia ammo to call us out as a megalomanic, and will make Kyoryu lose trust in us since he's been trying to dissuade such worship among his own people. And on top of that, we really don't want the idea of godhood to go to anybody's head in the royal family down the line. Hubris and all that and best not to proclaim yourself a god when you're really a muggle in a world with actual gods.
 
Tithed_Verse said:
[X] Total Religious Freedom
[X] Discourage the Imperial Cult:

Frankly, if an imperial cult forms and this goes all WH40k, I'm quitting. I find the imperial cult of WH40k pretty disgusting, and I don't really want to see the memes, and toxic behavior of people when it becomes a central concept.

Mind, imperial cults are something of a tradition.... see, for example Japan, Egypt, Rome and to some lesser extent China. And if it was handled in the way those countries handled it, it would be fine. But... Not if it's handled like WH40K.

I think one major difference is in pretty much every real world situation, except Egypt, the emperor is depicted as the child of a god, or the person who the gods/ancestors/whomever choose to speak through. In egypt the emperor was the avatar of the god. Or was the god. Or something... it was more complicated.

In WH40k it's Catholicism with golden throne instead of father son and holy ghost. Just... gross.
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I too detest the notion of going anywhere vaguely in the direction of 40K beyond a few offhand and inconsequential jokes. That being said the imperial cult seems more standard leader worship for which I am totally cool so long as they keep it to venerating us and what we do as divine and away from making shit up outright. Also would not mind an elite bodyguard unit and knightly order of us cultists down the line so...

Now away from the above post I've already stated my views on imperial cult though I dont really care for them so oll vote to ignore and advise ignore as well. Regarding religious freedoms, I'd like state influence because religion being an important thing we need to manage is highly interesting and by all appearances it's basically full religious freedom but with the ability for imperial support/intervention.

Like, I for one am looking forward to things like using religion to enhance the pursuit of otherwise secular goals better than we could without it as well as using our influence to further our goals within and without our state.

[X] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[X] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult: Maybe you're of two minds about your most fanatically loyal subjects. Perhaps you don't want to risk being misunderstood or accused of manipulating such vulnerable people. Or maybe you just want to see how things play out without your influence. Regardless of your motives, you'll leave the Cult to its own devices for now, neither encouraging nor discouraging it.
 
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[x] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[x] Encourage the Imperial Cult: Maybe you see an opportunity to further your power and influence over your people. Maybe you genuinely want to be seen as a divine figure. Or maybe you just find the whole thing unbelievably hilarious and want to see what they do next. Whatever the reason, you'll quietly encourage the growth of this small band of fanatics that see your words and deeds as divine acts.

Faith is an aspect and reflection and conduit and tool of power. While Total State Control is impractical, it behooves the Empire and the Emperor to gather more power in all its forms.

A subtle hand on the faith of the populace is one more tool to keep them firstly safe, second happy, and third useful.

Also, the Imperial Cult thing is very very divisive and I mention to @Questor that if it ends up something like: 60 encourage, 65 discourage, 15 do nothing... That's a bit of a tricky situation isn't it? Because you won't want to alienate either group that feels strongly about it but defaulting to doing nothing as a compromise instead of going with the strict majority would probably be unfair. Eh, not my quest, not my problem.
 
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[X] Total Religious Freedom
[X] Discourage the Imperial Cult:

Let's not pretend that State Influence is some kind of middle-of-the-way policy. An emperor favoring one religion over another, even in minor ways, is discrimination against all other religions. Too many nations in real life had authority figures institutionalize religious oppression this way, and it sets the stage for future leaders to take advantage of that to conduct even more discriminatory acts up to and including genocide. We should set a precedent that the government does not pick winners and losers when it comes to religion.
 
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[X] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[X] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult: Maybe you're of two minds about your most fanatically loyal subjects. Perhaps you don't want to risk being misunderstood or accused of manipulating such vulnerable people. Or maybe you just want to see how things play out without your influence. Regardless of your motives, you'll leave the Cult to its own devices for now, neither encouraging nor discouraging it.
 
[X] Total Religious Freedom
[X] Discourage the Imperial Cult

I'm going to go with full freedom. I really don't like the idea of government messing with religion. It never, ever ends well.
 
[X] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[X] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult: Maybe you're of two minds about your most fanatically loyal subjects. Perhaps you don't want to risk being misunderstood or accused of manipulating such vulnerable people. Or maybe you just want to see how things play out without your influence. Regardless of your motives, you'll leave the Cult to its own devices for now, neither encouraging nor discouraging it.
 
[X] State Influence
[X] Discourage the Imperial Cult

I'd go freedom but this is a magical world (and some of our citizens are magical) and as such some....fringe religions might want to be discouraged.
 
[x] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[x] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult: Maybe you're of two minds about your most fanatically loyal subjects. Perhaps you don't want to risk being misunderstood or accused of manipulating such vulnerable people. Or maybe you just want to see how things play out without your influence. Regardless of your motives, you'll leave the Cult to its own devices for now, neither encouraging nor discouraging it.
 
[X] Total Religious Freedom
-[X] With a few limitation and laws to restrict religions that are obviously harmful to the mind or body and to prevent things such as slavery veneration and such.
[X] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult


Added a bit as total religious freedom is liable to lead to a few harmful religions popping up and it would be best to hash out some laws to prevent such things from occuring
 
[X] State Influence: While you don't really like the idea of the government having direct control over religious institutions, it's clear that there needs to be some kind of authority to prevent sectarian conflict between the different faiths that exist within your Empire. As such, while you shan't have full control over the various religious institutions, you will exert some influence and control whenever it becomes necessary to do so, using your authority as Emperor.

[X] Do Nothing about the Imperial Cult: Maybe you're of two minds about your most fanatically loyal subjects. Perhaps you don't want to risk being misunderstood or accused of manipulating such vulnerable people. Or maybe you just want to see how things play out without your influence. Regardless of your motives, you'll leave the Cult to its own devices for now, neither encouraging nor discouraging it.
 
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