Canthan Meta-Religion

I found a scroll along with a vial of ink and a beautiful feather in my storage this morning. The scroll had been customised, so that no one else in Cantha could claim it as their own. And when I moused over its contents, I saw that it had been crafted by one of my avatar sisters with whom I share an account. I thought I would share it with you.

Canthan Meta-Religion by Siu Lei Gu

I am a little monk from Cantha. I studied Canthan religion at Shing Jea monastery, and learned all about the gods and goddesses who guide and protect us, such as Lyssa, Melandru, Dwayna, and the others. But since exploring more of this wonderful land I have become aware that there may be higher powers than even these, beings even more powerful and influential than our pantheon of gods. These higher beings are known as Players.
At first, I was reluctant to believe that Players might exist. My teachers refused to even discuss the possibility with me. My teachers in Shing Jea were all Nonplayerites, (also known as NPCs or Non Player Characters). For them, there is no existence beyond that of Cantha and Tyria. They believe neither in the existence of Players nor of Servers, and are so determined not to be persuaded otherwise, that they go to the length of colouring their names differently, to discourage anyone from even trying to discuss meta-religion with them. They believe in total Determinism, and that our world was always the way it is now.
But on entering the wider world, I found that others, less dedicated to serving our gods than the Nonplayerites, hold a variety of other views.
The opposite extreme view is held by the Rumfists, who are also known as NCPs, Non Character Players. These characters deny that we avatars have any individual role in life, that we are nothing but mouthpieces for the Players. When you meet them, (and they are often large beefy warriors) they may introduce themselves politely at first by saying perhaps, “UR A QT” but very soon afterwards they want to know whether you are a Rumfist yourself, by asking “R U M/F?”
If I don’t give a direct reply, by saying for example, “What do I look like?” they try to deny me even my rendering, and shout again, “IRL R U M/F?”
I didn’t understand the word irl at first. I now believe it to mean ‘in the spiritual world beyond Cantha’, the world inhabited by the Players. Either that or it’s a title of the Player god Rumf whom these people serve, since they invoke him frequently.
I was not at all sure how to answer them at first, being unfamiliar with either Rumf or the irl he is said to inhabit. But for reasons I have yet to discover, I learned that the answer they are looking for is “F”. They get most annoyed if you give the opposite answer, “F off”. A vague answer such as “What difference does it make to you?” may cause them to hang around for a little while in case I will admit to “F” after a little more badgering. But fortunately, they usually tend to go away if I reply anything but “F”. Interestingly, replying “M” to them will make them hurry away, often with a cheery word of disparagement to homosexuals.
To every Rumfist, their Player is all important. To them, all of us avatars in Cantha have no role other than to serve the desires of their Player. They do occasionally also speak of another higher being, an anti-Player god called Server, for whom they have no respect at all, claiming he gives them a lot of “lag”. As a simple avatar I don’t understand what lag is, and I have to assume it’s something which only Players are aware of.
Many Rumfist avatars are generally ignorant of Tyria or Cantha too, and their goals in life appear to be either to make lvl20 as quickly as possible with as much gold as possible. Or perhaps to let their god Irl Rumf speak through them, with F characters, about possible ways around the lack of a /sex emote.
The Rumfists and Nonplayerites represent extreme views though. Most characters I’ve met have beliefs which fall somewhere in between these polar opposites.
The Aplayerists are a diverse group of avatars, including for example, those who follow the great Server, who believe that there is no existence beyond the known Server. Other Aplayerists allow for the theoretical existence of parallel universes, or alternate Servers, but they do not necessarily think that the issue is of any importance to their own lives. (Though some nastier ones do. I have heard some characters, for example, telling others that they have to speak English in an Eng Server universe.) Many Aplayerists believe that ultimately life and our whole universe is nothing but pixels, and that the existence of Players can never be scientifically proven.
But most characters (and here I include myself now) are Playerites, with some kind of belief in Players. Some of these Playerites /point to the elegant design and beauty of Cantha and say that all this could not have evolved through random generation of bit patterns, and must be evidence of the existence of some kind of extratyrian or irl intelligence, or of Players, or perhaps even some other kind of yet more powerful Creator god called a Developer. Other evidence for this may be our instinctive knowledge of the activities our avatar slot siblings. For example, it is said that we know what to put in storage because we are guided by the Players.
Another group of Playerites, the Chattist sect, will talk for a while about the kind of important Canthan matters which concern us all, such as the price of dyes, but after a trade transaction or whatever they may well ask, “Where u from?” revealing their doubt that all life originated in Ascalon or Shing Jea at the dawn of presearing. They may even give ritualistic praise to Rumf, before going into a kind of almost motionless trance /stand state during which a Player speaks through them of many things about which I, a simple Canthan avatar, understand little. They are then said to have trancestanded our Game World, also known as GW. Sometimes they may utter “brb”, as a sign that they are about to enter an even deeper meditative state known as afk.
Chattism is one of the most widely followed sects, but its followers are not well organised and have no common rituals or identifying symbols. They seem to share a deeply held belief that things which concern their Player are more important than anything that could possibly happen in Cantha. To them Canthan life is no more than a fantasy, a dream, a facility provided by a beneficent god to bring pleasure to those who respect the right of every individual to have fun.
The most interesting group, but possibly the smallest group in Cantha may well be the Purists, or Role Playing Characters (RPCs). These people understand well what life in Tyria and Cantha is all about, and don’t care about the M or F-ness of the Players, whose existence they would prefer to deny; and neither do they have any interest in debating theories about Server – such things are to them a distraction and escape from the true purpose of avatarity. The Nonplayerites generally look to the Purists as their saints and holy leaders, wishing only that they could be more like them.
I myself have a strong belief that the Players exist. And I am not convinced by the claim that there is only one true Player, who made us all. Or at least, if this is so, then (s)he must whisper to each of us individually, for there are many different but equally valid views about her/his nature. I can understand why some may feel a need to propose a single Player’s Player, since when you ask yourself where could the Players have come from, an infinite regression of Players does seem hard to comprehend. But I see no reason to invoke even a single Player’s Player, as our existence and inspirations are perfectly well explained more simply without one. The pantheon of Players are the only meta-gods we need.
Yet I also question the claim that we are all mere manifestations of our Players. Whereas the Rumfists say that Players control our every action or thought, I believe that it is a two-way process. I like to believe that we avatars have some freedom of choice in the actions we take in Tyria, or as I prefer to put it, some freedom of imagination. And I think that this freedom enables us to influence our Players, so that we can both enjoy a mutually beneficial experience. As I level up, my player learns more about interactions between individuals, parties and guilds, and about other characters and players, and is enriched in the process.
As an example of us being able to influence our players, let me tell you about a former monk brother of mine from Ascalon. He was giving away all his possessions to other characters, who were shouting out their needs in the marketplace there. That he asked for nothing in return surprised many, and caused them, sometimes uncharacteristically, to say thank you, and to tell him that he was very generous. He explained to them that he belonged to a renounced order, who dared to imagine that no possessions were necessary, yet there was no need for greed or hunger; a brotherhood and sisterhood of mankind sharing all of Tyria, with nothing to kill or die for, living life in peace.
Some recipients of his Tyrian treasures expressed their doubts, asking how a pacifist monk who wouldn’t even kill a Skale could survive in Tyria, in any meaningful way. The monk told them that he knew he was going to die, but he was not afraid, because he believed that after his death he would return to be reunited with his Player Irl, where he could continue to spread his message of love for all life with even greater effect, and to enjoy an even closer relationship with his guiding spirit.