Satanic / Occult imagery

[AccelExhilar]

Wow as I play through this game keep noticing more and more Satanic / Occult imagery, particularly in the bandit lairs. It definently goes beyond just skulls and dead bodies, a few that stick out in my mind the most are at one area there were a ton of bloody bodies all piled up which is pretty common sight, but these bodies had a circle of candles lit around them implying occult practices. Another was a bandit lair and there was a chair with the skeleton of someone but his head was a bovine skull and had large horns on top, like the enemies who lived there worshipped it (Max even says "Who was this guy". Of course it was surrounded by skulls too, I havn't found much lore to support all the satanic occult imagery in the game.

Are the bandits all into blood sacrifice type satanism? Where does this come from, I get why it would be in the game to make the badies seem even more "evil". Although all most of them really seem to be doing is trying to survive and make little homes for themselves. But how did this occult practice become so widespread amongst the bad guys? Is there like a grand necromancer in the game or something, I think it goes a little too far with the satanic cult / ritual imagery when there seems to be very little explanation as too why they are practicing these rituals.

I would understand it more if this were a dark-fantasy game with magic and different dieties, like in the Elder scrolls the Daedra. Where there are tangible benefits to performing dark / blood rituals. Yet here, I just don't see the benefit to them. There is no "magic" in this lore as far as I have seen. So how would blood-sacrifice and other occult practices become so wide-spread when there is really no benefit to gain, just a waste of time and energy? When these people would need every ounce of energy just to survive.

[BlackWater]

Part of the premise is many of the people you see are younger and were not even around during the fall or the time before, knowing nothinbg else, they took to worshiping whatever. Some may hve been around prior to the fall, but were just dregs of humanity to begin with. Also the game is based on the mad Max universe as prresented in Fury Road, so thats where alot of the imagery comes from as well.

[Crystal]

this seems to bother you way too much

[AccelExhilar]

I was just analyzing and discussing, not sure why you would say "bothers me way too much". Of course it is somewhat bothersome that there is such a heavy reliance on this satanic blood ritual type imagery when the lore for mad max doesn't really support it at all. It feels out of place, like the environment designer really wanted to be working on a dark-fantasy RPG game instead.

[n0mad23]

Granted I've only opened up Pinkeye's zone, but I've yet to encounter any form of satanism - anywhere. Technoprimitivism, technomysticism, and an aesthetic that focuses on the pathological nature of the environment, sure - but no satanism. The Wasteland will kill you quickly or through slow radiation and chemical poison, so no wonder there's a lot of death symbolism. Most of the bandit types seem pretty psychotic, so I'm not even sure the vast majority of "ambient" blood is necessarily even connected to sacrifice.

But then again, maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see?

[AccelExhilar]

I should start taking screen shots, I'm definently seeing blood ritual scenes. Bodies arranged specifically, usually in piles with candles in a circle around them is one example. The other the chair with the skeleton with the skull replaced by a bovine skull with large horns is meant to represent baphomet (that being in the pentagram in satanism).

[Super Tremoço]

I really enjoyed this :)

[Coldhands]

Satanic and occult aren't really interchangeable. But yeah, there are all manner of cults and religions made up for Mad Max. You spend the game driving around with a little dude who thinks you're a saint of the Angel Combustion and worships a car.

I guess, when the world's as ****ty as the one in Mad Max, and nobody has much of an education or reason to think critically, they start rationalizing their situation through the existence of unknowable magic. That's what they did in Fury Road; the War Boys' lives all revolved around doing something great in the service of Immortan Joe, so they could get into Valhalla.

Even in real life, we've got all manner of religious ceremony that doesn't actually DO anything.

[[ZE] Lobo]

It's about as deep as the movie which is to say, not very. I wouldn't read into it at all. Just some kooky ♥♥♥♥ the devs thought would add to the ambience.

[Katzenhaft]

Picture medieval times... but post apocalyptic in a wasteland that is reigned by dust & fire. Pretty hell'ish landscape. Makes sense for all these crazy people that dont know law & order and live in such a place to be like this.^^

Hail Magnum Opus! May she reign forever and crush all infidels~

[Laerrus]

Pretty sure they are just cannibal war mongers who like scary pictures...

Only Christian/Jews and the Satanists who play along wtih their myths consider what you described as Satanic... Most cultures considered horns to be a sign of varility, and skulls a sign of death/changes...

[AccelExhilar]

Originally posted by Laerrus:

Only Christian/Jews and the Satanists who play along wtih their myths consider what you described as Satanic... Most cultures considered horns to be a sign of varility, and skulls a sign of death/changes...

You shouldn't call peoples beliefs, myths. Even if thats what you believe they are, it's not polite. Christians make up 2.2 billion people about 30% of the worlds population. So to diminish a group of people that large and then go on too say "most cultures don't think that", is ignorant when more cultures are Christian dominant than any other.

Although I would agree, that even within Christian nations horns and skulls are not generally considered Satanic, the asians culture I believe have a particular fear of skulls compared to western culture.

[el helicoptero]

In the game i don't see any offensive in that regard. The new tomb raider reboot uses the same thing. Body piles, and candles. And in fact the second movie (Road Warrior), the gang has many goat skull in stick, spray painted with gold. Fury road concept arts shows dead bodys used like soil for plant. So i think this kind of shocking imagery have always been in mad max. Sorry for my bad english.

[Aazo5]

Originally posted by Sharp Toothed:

Originally posted by Laerrus:

Only Christian/Jews and the Satanists who play along wtih their myths consider what you described as Satanic... Most cultures considered horns to be a sign of varility, and skulls a sign of death/changes...

You shouldn't call peoples beliefs, myths. Even if thats what you believe they are, it's not polite. Christians make up 2.2 billion people about 30% of the worlds population. So to diminish a group of people that large and then go on too say "most cultures don't think that", is ignorant when more cultures are Christian dominant than any other.

Although I would agree, that even within Christian nations horns and skulls are not generally considered Satanic, the asians culture I believe have a particular fear of skulls compared to western culture.

Without bringing this into a religious debate, he is correct though. You just said youself that Christian's make up 30% of the world's population. That means that more people are of another faith or belief other than christianity. To most, this would not be considered satanic, because that emplies Christianity.

Also, considering that Avalanche is a Swedish studio, a country where over 80% of it's citizens are non-religious, I wouldn't think that they put this imagery in the game because they are satanists or something, assuming that is what you are afraid of here.