3: Where the Goddess Dwells: Faith and Interpretation in Fire Emblem Charlie Edholm, @c_s_edholm, Lee University and Southern Adventist University Games often present religions in reductive ways, emphasizing objects of faith – ritual, sacred text, belief, authority, and so forth – at the expense of the subjective relationships these elements form within a faith practice. How can games better explore their faiths? Fire Emblem: Three Houses develops a complex religious system with no single preferred vantage point through its fictional Church of Seiros. Neo-medieval and alluding to Catholicism, the Church comes to life in the many interpretations of its practitioners and critics. At Garreg Mach Monastery students from across the realm study and train together in preparation for their futures as knights or in court. While the monastery hosts the most influential branch of the Church, everyone is keen to share their diverse religious opinions. Some students are devout, some believe reservedly, others don’t believe but join the church simply to help people. A few students from outside Fódlan describe their own religious traditions by contrast, like the polytheism of Duscar or the nature spirits of Brigid. Branches of the church fight over charges of heresy. Family members and nobles view the church’s power as evil, corrupt. One student studies the historical development of the Church, seeking to “read between the lines” and discover truths the Church would rather hide. This complexity shifts the thematic focus; by exploring conflicts within a tradition, Fire Emblem: Three Houses isn’t asking whether the faith is true, but what acts of faith are best for the world. The issue isn’t what to believe, but how, i.e. what actions should belief engender. Rachel Wagner connects this to playing games: “Play, then, is how much freedom we have within a given rule-based system. Play shapes how much wiggle room we have - how much we can change a received text or tradition and not find ourselves isolated from our religious peers.” Power complicates this relationship, though. Interpretation requires ambiguity, metaphor. When games turn faith into code, faith becomes literal. For example, in the game levelling up a ‘Faith’ skill grants magic powers (its dark magic opposite is ‘Reason’). Faith becomes a tool. In a game, a god can exist just as clearly as anything else. Virtually they are ‘real.’ In Fire Emblem: Three Houses the player character literally becomes the avatar of the goddess Sothis. Mechanized faith differs from contested faith in our world, in that there’s nothing left to ‘prove.’ This makes dissent all the more striking. What does it mean not to believe in a god standing right in front of you? If Fire Emblem: Three Houses was most concerned with an instrumentalized religion, powers and dragons would be enough. Its story isn’t about evidence, but interpretation. Faced with the Immaculate One - a divine dragon - students still question, doubt, and challenge the church. Each late game path takes a different approach, from forming a new theocratic state to reforming the Church or destroying it outright. Faith adapts to many ends. Reductive faiths in our games and stories reduce our understanding of the varied and dynamic roles faiths play across human societies. Fire Emblem: Three Houses shows how a more nuanced exploration of the old can bring us to new explorations of the faith and conflicts of our modern world.
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