It’s sometimes hard to wrap my head around piety, which is obviously an important component in the world of The Water Phoenix King. Dosh’s (or Kawunei’s, or most other characters’) ability to convert an “it†into a “thou†seems alien to me even though, in a world with literal gods, it is sometimes entirely sensible and proper to do so. “Smashing an idol hurts a god†is a statement of fact within the WPK world, but a lifetime of religious indifference in real life and treating clerics as interchangeable healbots in role-playing games has blunted my ability to process piety as a legitimate motivation. It was eye-opening and humbling to read Artesia last year, a comic that features a priestess as a main character and that captures the intensity, surreality, and obsession of religious mania in a way that Anthem, with her analytical, sorcerer-like approach to religion (ritual goes in, magic power comes out) just doesn’t reflect.
I my own experience, god is an excuse to be absolutely certain that what you are doing is right. The best way to get myself into the mindset is to listen to Dr. Kings ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop’. If you are not familiar, that was the speech he gave (before being assassinated) about how he was willing to die to do what was right. When he gets to the part “I just want to do God’s will!” I’m right there with him.
Then afterwards I realize that I’m an atheist and the reason that I think King (and God) is right is because I already believe exactly those things. If he were using the exact same language to talk about kill Jews or something like that, I would think he was crazy.
To me, Maresh seems to play that religious mania to a T. He owes his life to the god that restored him, so everything he does for that god is now justified with a ‘higher purpose’.
I think Dosh as a sincerely pious man works well as a character, gives him some tenderness and texture. Good choice!
I’m still too analytical. All I can think of when I see Maresh is, “Isn’t your god dead? I mean, if it can’t be brought back to life, what’s the point?”