New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[Dachs]

I suppose so, but exclusive religions would be in a definite minority (Islam and post-Hezekiah Judaism come to mind). No, levels of religious organisation is where it's really at.

Islam isn't really, either. Just look at Shi'ism.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Depends on what era you intend to cover. The earliest “exclusive” religion you have is monotheistic Judaism which “mainstream” scholarship would date at around ~700 BCE (and I will emphasize once again that this is a highly debated question). From there for all intents and purposes it is only joined by Christianity post its break with Judaism (~100 CE) and later Islam (~622 CE). Basically for the next 1000 years, those stand alone in the “exclusive” category, and even then, as I mentioned earlier, there were syncretistic tendencies on the popular level in all of them.

So basically the graduations along my line would be how the incorperate the new features. Highly syncretic they accept all other gods as is, and graduations further along meaning more interpetation and fitting it in with their current beleif system?

 

[The Strategos]

Well, the lines between social and religious phenomena are often blurred, especially in pre-Christian times; one might as easily state that those were religious phenomena with strong social overtones, as all Roman cults tended to be, in one way or another. I would not be so quick to dismiss genuine and significant religious devotion, especially in the later periods when the mysteries gained more adherents and spread across the greater empire.

We do not have enough information. We do not have enough information. We do not have enough information.

I am not dismissing anything, I am saying we have a laughable amount of information about mystery cults, so why attempt to build a tower out of guesswork and supposition when we can stick with clearer, more significant, and more known religions and religious movements?

Incidentally, how does Mithraism fit into this, in your opinion?

We do not have enough information. We do not have enough information. We do not have enough information.

I assume you brought this up for a reason, but I don’t know what it is. It was a mystery cult, originating in either Asia Minor or Rome, and drew the bulk of its adherents from the military and civil service. Because of this, outside of Rome it was generally thought of as a “import” and restricted to the Romanized military and civil service. We don’t know much about it except from iconography and polemics against it in Christian writings.

So basically the graduations along my line would be how the incorporate the new features. Highly syncretistic they accept all other gods as is, and graduations further along meaning more interpretation and fitting it in with their current belief system?

Meh. If you are doing rules that are meant to simulate from prehistory to modern, then I guess I wouldn’t have a problem with putting it that way. But if you are just looking at religions pre-monotheism, it really isn’t that significant. More significant variations are: 1) Number, makeup of Pantheon, and myths (obviously); 2) Relation with the state (as important in NESes which the player plays the state); 3) Makeup of Hierarchy (i.e. who holds power within a religion)

 

[Dachs]

Here are some cities and the coordinates that were used to put them on the DaNES II 1884 map. A small fraction of the full coordinate list, though; if anybody had that it'd be great.

 

[flyingchicken]

http://grass.itc.it/

If anyone else wants to join me in a rockin' GIS adventure, try to fiddle with that (and other GIS software) for a while. Sadly, I can't do anything until tomorrow afternoon; I tried this afternoon, but my battery died on me while I was installing and I discovered that I left my electrical stuffs at home.

Here are some cities and the coordinates that were used to put them on the DaNES II 1884 map. A small fraction of the full coordinate list, though; if anybody had that it'd be great.

It will be indeed awesome. The other now-deleted-works-then-up-for-grabs would be awesome too!

 

[flyingchicken]

Time for: SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Beef Ore:

Aft Her:

 

[bombshoo]

Time for: SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Beef Ore:

Aft Her:

Very nice!

 

[Angst]

I love your project flyingchicken.

 

[flyingchicken]

Okay, be honest: is this too... dotty?

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Very nice!

I love your project flyingchicken.

 

[Angst]

Okay, be honest: is this too... dotty?

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Yes it is, and no problem.

 

[Dachs]

Uh, flyingchicken, just because an island exists doesn't mean it has to be on the map...

 

[flyingchicken]

Uh, flyingchicken, just because an island exists doesn't mean it has to be on the map...

Total exaggeration over accuracy is my game!

 

[Kozmos]

Thing is I dont think Croatia has so many large islands.

 

[flyingchicken]

http://www.geographicguide.net/europe/maps-europe/maps/croatia-map.gif this map disagrees!

Also, by "exaggerate" I mean... exaggerate.

 

[Kozmos]

I would only place Krk, Cres, Brac, Hvar and Mljet on it because they are pretty much the ones of some minor importance. The rest are just rocky apples.

 

[flyingchicken]

So are those tiny volcanic islands in the Mare Pacificum, but those were added in the long and illustrious history of the classic map, not removed!

 

[North King]

The thing is that when you compare Greece with Italy, the former should have a LOT more islands than the latter. Right now I'm not seeing that. The key to a good map is not BLARGH ISLANDS EVERYWHERE, it's contrasts.

 

[Kraznaya]

Part of that contrast being some islands are more equal than others.

 

[flyingchicken]

Cleaned for shame!

 

[flyingchicken]