Now in well into the Second Age, the presence of the gods in everyday life is not often felt. The gods in the Treaty of the Divine Plane, agreed not to become nearly as involved in the affairs of mortals as they had been in the First Age. And even with the presence of some number of Prophets, Tasked, God-Touched individuals, and Divine Agents, belief in the gods is more a matter of faith then a matter of fact. There are a number of reasons for this.
First, to the average person, there may be no functional difference between someone that is Gifted versus someone that has been granted powers by a god. Person A claims that they can tap into the magical energies of the universe, Person B claims they have received their powers from a divine source. To the average person they can both do extraordinary things. An average person they may think that Person B is: lying; someone that is Gifted and doesn’t really know it and is mistaken about the origin of their powers; is Gifted and very devout and may be a member/high ranking member of some religious organization.
Second, the chosen of the gods are not to incite or engage in violence against another mortal specifically because that mortal is the follower of another god or gods. This often extends to mean that the chosen of the gods may not get involved in the politics of the societies they are in. Different gods have different opinions on the matter of their chosen getting involved in politics and the workings of the state. Some number of gods think this mixing of state and religion would lead to holy wars, or at least take the spiritualty out of religion, and could corrupt religion with the corrupt acts of those in government.
How does this play out in regards to wars? If kings and nobles and non-religious leaders think that there are gods and those gods have chosen representatives in the mortal world, what do those governmental leaders do? Why do mortals, especially humans, still war with one another? Not all humans believe in the gods. As already discussed, not all humans believe that those mortals that claim to be representatives of the gods actually are. Some governmental leaders may consult some chosen of the gods, say a prophet that manages the houses of worship in that governmental leader’s nation. The prophet is more than likely under orders by their god to only give spiritual advice, if anything. What about the soldiers in an army that may go to war? What might they do? Something similar as what their leader did with potentially a similar outcome. What of the congregations of the faithful that are worried about an impending war? Again, it depends on the god and more than likely there will be a separation between the spiritual and the governmental. This also usually includes gods not sending their Divine Agents (messengers) to counsel, warn, or persuade in any way mortals in how they should deal with wars that are not of an overt religious nature.
Mortals, especially humans, have a wonderful way of dividing their minds to justify almost anything. For example, you can have a human nation that is going to war against the neighboring elves. The humans know that the elves probably worship different gods then them, at least some. And they have been told by some human, chosen of the gods, not to war with the elves specifically because they worship different gods. So the humans say they are warring with the elves not because of a difference in religion, but because the humans need the elves’ lands for survival.
There may also be some amount of sectarian violence where one group of believers of one god think they are right and another group of believers of the same god are wrong. If this is overt, then a prophet and/or other representatives of the god will intervene. If it is not overt, if say the leader of one human nation that is a follower of god C thinks they and/or their nation is better than their neighbors (human and same religion) at doing the religion the “right way”, and this leader doesn’t say it out loud, never lets on that’s what they think, they may get away with waging a sectarian war in the guise of something else.
Another significant reason for the lack of mortal-and-god interaction is that the gods do not communicate thru dreams and visions to mortals at large the way they did in the First Age. Only the Chosen of the gods are communicated to in this manner, per the Treaty of the Divine Plane.
Again, as we are about fifteen centuries or so into the Second Age on Aeris, and the presence of the gods is lightly felt, if at all, many people engage with religion as they do today in this world called Earth. Some places are more religious than others, some not much at all. Depending where you go you religion is your business, and this edict by the gods not to physically harm other mortals not of your religion specifically because they are not a member of your religion is either mostly followed (by most faithful), or simply makes good sense to those that are not awfully religious.
Even with trying to eliminate religion as an area of conflict (and mostly succeeding), mortals, especially humans, will always find something to argue about and kill each other over.
In a world where some number of people believe in gods and there are some chosen of the gods why would people do wrong? I’ve touched on some explanations – the presence of the gods is lightly felt/the gods do not intervene in mortal affairs all that much (unless some pretty terrible thing is going to take place); the “chosen” may be seen as just a Gifted individual; nonbelief. Other reasons – the believer thinks that they are in the right. Sometimes this thing called belief (not specific to religion) – putting trust in something regardless of facts and/or reason, can lead to a person getting a sense of certitude (and with the feeling of certitude may also come some arrogance). Once a person has that feeling of certitude, that they are right and they know it, they can justify anything and that anything can be very unproductive to destructive for themselves and others. Some believers are followers of various gods of Malice, so they will naturally be doing some sorts of harm. Others who were followers of benevolent or neutral gods may have ended up doing something that they know was wrong and cannot undo, feel remorse for, but now think they are going to be damned and so if you’re going to be damned why not keep doing the harmful things. Somewhat similar to that, someone may have done some minor harm and over time, bit by bit, did a little bigger harm, a little bigger harm, a little bigger harm and over the course of many months or even years has not realized how far they have strayed. Or, if they do, they have justified it every step. “Well, I did that little thing, so doing that next thing that’s only a little bigger isn’t all that much different,” and so it grows bit by bit. There are those that don’t care at all and just want what they want and they want it right now. I’m sure you can think of more reasons.
