RELEASED Avali Race Mod, The second thread!

Well that's what I thought, but looking at 21st century earth, we're backsliding hard in terms of belief systems. America for example has seen significant rises in religious adherents, and an even bigger increase in hardline beliefs (ie. evangelical, creationism), which run's counter to our expectations that superior education and living conditions would decrease theistic tendancies, while atheist behaviour is seen as increasingly objectionable.


Anyway. Have a random doodle


Pondering how avali combined arms might look, very loose sketch.

 

Incorrect. In actuality, it is evangelicalism and fundamentalism which are being seen as increasingly objectionable. Atheism seems to be on the slow and steady rise to acceptance.

 

Really like the expression of the guy closest to the "camera".

It looks like someone's giving a lame speech or something and he's just "oh not this shit again".

Thinking of Mordin when he's complaining about Kirrahe always being like "Hold the line" and he says "Prefer to get job done and go home".

 

Love the sketch, Ryuu. The artwork here and there is excellent all around.

I will say that science can be a religion in a sense. The concept of science as religion (to the best of my recall) is that those who adhere to it as such believe we can reason through and discover anything we set our minds to, without any outside help (i.e. God), if we try hard enough long enough in a smart enough way. Science becomes an end unto itself, rather than a means at trying to arrive at truth. The pertinent question is whether science as we practice it can either be mistaken, or else have limitations it cannot overcome.

I probably put that clumsily, I'm sure, but there it is. I do not intend to demean science, or indicate it is the same as religion, because it isn't religion, as a rule. It can be approached with the same level of zeal and kind of faith, though.

 

and speaking of power beings for worship. I have a few in mind that would be their gods/esses

 

Very

A better way to summarise "science as religion" is that there is a large number of laymen, who don't really understand much about the principles that underpin science, yet are nonetheless impressed by its results and as such put a great deal of what is is in effect "blind faith" in it, and espouse it's infallibility with no real context for that assertion. In those situations science is essentially a "religion" for that person, it gives them comfort and direction (And a tendancy to dismiss other people's world view), with no actual first hand evidence to support their position, they're taking on faith that what they are told is right.

Obviously it's impossible for anyone who works in science to personally understand everything there is to understand, it'd take a lifetime and then some and we don't even have all the answers even then. But if you understand the fundamental underpinnings you can verify for yourself that what you're being told actually works in practice and makes sense; that in itself is an important distinction between science and religion - the former encourages you to probe, test and try and disprove it ("If you strike down this theory, I shall rise up, stronger than ever!" *cough* /starwarsnerdery). The latter discourages critical analysis (That passage in the bible about god moving mountains if you just ask him sincerely? - Doesn't seem to work if you try it.).

 

Actually, critical thought is very important in good religion. It is true that a lot of churches and religious bodies espouse a "We said so, that settles the question." approach, but within certain circles such as seminaries and people who enjoy discussing and discoursing on religion, there is often a lot of healthy discussion on tricky and uncertain theological points, and oftentimes those who discuss it disagree.

Granted you cannot run a lab experiment to arrive at an answer, or to say this way of looking at a thing is better than that, but you can examine the texts and historical and cultural information in order to consider what something may have meant to the original audience, what it should tell us, and what it doesn't say that we read into it.

Mind you, if there is no God, then most of religion loses its foundations, so there is a very important assumption we cannot test in quite the same manner as we could gravity. (I'm assuming a monotheistic model as that is the norm, but the same would also be true of polytheism and deism as well)

Any rate, it is interesting to see ideas discussed, but probably not much more to be gained..

 

Everyone's probably seen this but posting anyways because it makes me very happy for the future of the Avali and their spears.
http://playstarbound.com/monster-combat-changes/

 

The 'low energy' sound effect from Metroid/ Halo springs to mind when I read that.
*Imagines fighting the Ing Emperor in Hard mode from Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.*

 

I believe they would, but it wouldn't be religion as we currently think of it. Ease breeds leisure, and leisure provides time for thought. The Avali seem more likely to hold to and ponder philosophical and ethical ideals than to necessarily hold to "religions" as we think about them. They might subscribe to some concept of a "Prime Mover," but rather than accepting on faith that they'd received instructions directly from him/her/it, they'd try to use their science and reason and logic to discern what ethics should govern their behavior. Religious fanaticism would probably be right out for nearly all of the population. Contentment both gives room for further thought and makes intense religious fervor unlikely.

I guess I'd lean toward their current state being one of a renaissance of religion through philosophy, rather than a "revival" or "crusade" atmosphere. Think less of, say, the American "Great Awakening" and more of the period of the great Greek philosophers with all of their ideas about metaphysics, the mind, ethics, and the nature of the universe.

 

though I do have a few Deities they would possibly favor. if they had any they'd put faith in

 

While we are on the topic of Avali and religion, I think it's important to consider how the religions of aliens affected the Avali's own beliefs as a race.

When first contact was made with a space faring race (Humans?) 600 to 800 years ago, the Avali started working for them in exchange for, among other things, knowledge. If this alien race had any major religions with eyes set on expansion, it wouldn't be unfeasible for them to try to get some converts. Avalon wouldn't be a very good place to send missionaries to or build temples of worship on, but religious texts and objects could be transported just as easily as any other supply they wanted to offer for trade. Granted, religious knowledge isn't very good compensation for labor, but everything else the alien race offered the Avali amounted to what they felt was junk anyway

If we do go with the assumption that the alien race tried to make converts out of the Avali, we'd need to consider how many converted in the first place and how later changes in the relationship with that alien race affected their feelings on converts and their beliefs. How did it change further in the tech wars, if there were still any Avali converts left? How did all of these events culminate into their current 'tastes' or preferences to doctrine and myth?

That's only the beginning, too. The Hylotl peacekeepers definitely have a missionary feel to them, even if what they teach isn't necessarily spiritual or religious in nature :S

 

Ha! I live!
...
And there is a new thread.
Gives me time to catch up on 300+ pages of the old one I guess.

 

Hmm. The angle of the helmet on the Avali closest to the camera... well, either it's half on, half off (explaining his expression as an ear's probably bent a bit weird), or he's wearing some sort of 3/4 helmet which is sounding cooler and cooler the more I think about it. Not practical, mind, but really cool.

 

I assumed he's got it pulled back off of his face.

Sorta hard to tell exactly what's going on up there since it's only a sketch, but I think it's two Avali in combat armor in front of a gun emplacement or armored unit. With a drone off in the background.

 

The hunter's helmet is meant to be segmented, so the "beak" folds back into itself

 

So unintentional sneak peek of a new helmet huh?

 

Actually just a difference in terminology, the old "tier 3" helmet is the one I associate with hunters but now I think of it the label probably says "soldiers"

 

I'm 99% sure this is a bug, but when I changed the ship to a "modded" one, the game kept n crashing(Apex Yatch "mod). :< Dunno if I did something wrong or what...

EDIT: Crashed again with normal ship... Think it's just the mod on my laptop... <_<

 

That depends on the exact steps you're using to change it and what the starbound.log file says, there's a whole range of possible errors