Maelstrom Rules - Allegiance & Loyalty: Faiths

Dedication to a faith
Missionaries representing each of the five deities of the Known World have travelled to the New World, to convert heathens and tend to the needs of the faithful amongst the colonists. Those who have chosen to make the dangerous journey are generally amongst the most pious or ambitious of the faithful.

To be a full member of a faith you must be devoted to the deity of that faith or an eidolon. If you are an eidolon then you cannot be devoted but you always count as a full member of a faith. Although you cannot purchase advantages, you do count as part of a retinue if you are loyal to another group member.

E.g. you must be an eidolon or a devotee of the Huntress to be a full member of the Huntress faith.

In some nations a faith has a structured formal church, such as the Teacher faith in Fidelia. In other nations there may be very few devotees of a faith and little in the way of organization.

A broad overview of the five faiths of the Known World is presented in the Almanac. Additional details on individual religions will be provided to anyone who chooses to play a devotee of that deity or a member of that faith.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.