Do the themes of religion in Blank bother you?

Do you find them intriguing?

Compelling?

I had an odd thought as I was writing the character of Wormwood. What if the nocturnal pegasi had their sort of religion that involved denying their hunger and not eating the helpless little ponies they had to protect? What if they struggled with it? What if they held on to the idea that they would have a better afterlife if they denied themselves? So I started thinking about all of this.

At some point, the vague notion of Malcanus formed in my brain. He's probably the closest analogue I have to a pastor or a preacher. He's a soldier. He's been to Tartarus. He's seen the evil of that place. He's also seen the gate. He fell from grace and now, now he spends every waking hour of his life trying to commit restitution for his sins. Having sinned himself, he knows a sinner's heart. He's a former Warden, so I guess you could say that he's been defrocked, at least in a sense.

What's a Warden, some of you might be asking. Well, that's complicated.

And perhaps a discussion for another time.

Too early for me to wrack my grey matter on a philosophical discussion; have nothing to contribute; have a technicolour equine.

So, he's essentially a fallen angel.

5421225

Yes, in a sense. He is.

I am loving the character of Malcanus so far. The whole 'fallen from grace' theme really doesn't get done much around here.

Do the themes of religion bother me? No, not really. Even if it's not 'my' religion, shouldn't have to bother me. People who get really touchy about religion give me the impression that they themselves are not fully confident or feel insecure about their own beliefs, otherwise, why worry about a differing faith if you're secure in your own? Unless you're actually being attacked over it of course.

Anyhoot, that was a tangent. Sorry about that.

Do I find them intriguing? Certainly! I love learning about other people's perspective and, in the writing world, see the creations people create, whether they're real or not or based off of other ideologies.

Personally, you shouldn't have anything to worry about if you're concerned about a lack of interest or hate from your followers, although I guess I shouldn't say that, seeing as it has happened before. Nonetheless, you shouldn't worry about them. You have to write for yourself before you write for others. Plus, I think you've impressed more than a few people here, and they'll be patient and wait to see how things flesh out. Not every story can fully satisfy everyone.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

The Wardens themselves kinda concern me. From what we know from here and Twilight's School, they appear to be a hybrid race specifically bred to be elite law enforcement. Ok, kinda iffy...but then the one in Twilight's School shows up and show that they're essentially mind police too that judge ponies if they have 'bad' thoughts, whether or not they've ever acted on them or not. That...goes a little into Orwellian territory there...

As for Blank itself, I like it and am looking forward to seeing where it goes, and especially to unraveling he mystery of the protagonist.

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Imagine you live in a world of reality benders called 'unicorns.'

Now, imagine, if you will, that you were an earth pony or a pegasus, and you were a police officer. And it was your job to go and arrest said unicorn, because he did something bad. Said unicorn uses a compulsion spell on you, and says, "You will not be arresting me. In fact, I want you to come and work for me."

What do?

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Well, for starters, if I was a member of a police force in a high magic world like Equestria, I would hope that my leaders would have outfitted us with some form of magical protection in general, and in cases of going after a criminal unicorn, outright anti-magic equipment. In the case that said equipment were to fail, I would HOPE that my superiors would be smart enough to realize that when I don't come back with the suspect in custody, that they would be smart enough to realize something had gone wrong, take ME into custody, and, considering they know they sent me after a unicorn, subjected me to disenchantment spells to break the compulsion.

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Perhaps.

What about small communities that are poor and lack resources? Or humongous communities that lack a sufficient number of well trained and well outfitted police?

This is why the Wardens are there. But, as it keeps being stated, there are not enough to do the job effectively.

So... imagine if you will, how much worse things might be, without Wardens.

I like this story, I don't mind the religious annotations in fact some of the best stories including LOTR, Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia just to name a few had allegories pertaining to Christianity and other religions. There is no black and white evil all the time sometimes a person must fall before they can rise.

I find your handling of religion interesting , especially the way you've toyed with almost dnd-esque connection between worship and a deity's power in some of the stories.

The only part that was jarring to me was that rather than go a purely fantasy route, with creating fictitious names and rituals, you've instead borrowed liberally from real world religions. You've done it well and it works, but it took me awhile to get used to it.