- Jul 2, 2020
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Well not entirely wrong to call them cults. The term "cult" just means a religious group that follows a particular Deity or Ideology. Hence in Ancient Greece you had the Cults of Dionysus, Zeus, Athrodite, Hera, Artemis, Hephaestus ect... sadly the media conflated the word "cult" with sects which is why we now picture them as either hedonistic or blasphemous people who worship demons, false gods or pagan figures....just to make it clear before the Goblin Wars both Nergal and Qetesh had been the main gods in the land... calling their worship Cults is kinda unfitting, most of their Temples and conclaves got destroyed in the war and their Priests and followers killed admittently.
Nowadays they are fledgling Religions, a shadow of their former glory, but still religions.
They apparently never had shortcomeings of new Alcolytes that turned into Priestess before by what Zivah tells us.
More like he removed the eternal youth blessing or more likely inversed it's effects.
Makeing them seem like eternal Grannys
Also Qetesh is still worshipped in some regions, same as Nergal, just not on the scale as before the war.
Have you tried talkeing to Zivah before heading out?
By the proper definition both the Qeteshians & Nergalites are cults. But you're not wrong about how successful the religions were in the past. From what we learn in the game the Qeteshian faith had many women within who used Fertility potions to aid the women who struggled with pregnancy, while using Barreness religiously each morning to stop themselves from getting pregnant. Qetesh isnt just the goddess of Fertility but also sexual pleasure & ecstacy (possibly with kore enfasis on the later part. As such "sacrifices" of sexual pleasure were religiously given by the priestesses to Qetesh, and while the religion is matriarchal (only females could be Priestesses, mostly all men were stuck at the rank of acolyte) males were still importent members of the church who "assisted" with duties of the female acolytes & priestesses. The High Priest of Quelity Control was the highest rank a man could reach & he was essentially a glorified brat tamer (for those who dont know it's a specific type of dom who "tames" brats into more submissive girls through a mixture of punishment & reward).
The Nergalites were followers of Nergal who is essentially this worlds equivalent of a Devil Arch-type demon god. I reckon while his followers were widespread they probably acted more like secretive cobals in regions where his worship was deemed heretical. Dark Elves, Goblins, Orcs & other less than "nice" races probably have open worship of Nergal. Humans, Elves, Dwarves & Halflings probably ban his worship, with those who do acting in secret behind closed doors. If that's the case then the Goblin War was the first time his followers actively acted against a particular group & led to their direct destruction by the opposing forces (as seen with the previous owner of Erevi's Tower who died when the King laid a seige on his tower at the end of the war). I very much doubt it's a following most would announce to the world.
Both took major hits during the war, but Qetesh came out worse for wear.
Weather he reversed, illusioned or just revealed what they are dosent really matter. Point is the eternal "youth" was take by the curse, at least looks/physically as Ziva was still pretty spry for an "old lady" (like sneak attacking MC if he fucks up their first meeting).
I reckon the most prominent religion is the Lord of Light as his is the closest this setting has to a proper "organised" religion very close in look & nature to that of the Chatholic/Christian church. He is essentially the abrahamic god if paganised & exists to bring light & order to a sinful & dark world while having followers who are fanatical zealous in their mass delusions of what IS & ISNT heretical actions. The only reason Qeteshians were tolerated by them is (most likley) because their deities are siblings.
