Talk:Defender of the Faith/@comment-5.13.222.247-20171005212935

I think this quest is very cute. Anyway, there's no point in arguing who's right here, in the world of The Witcher religion actually makes sense. There is plenty of proof that higher beings exist in The Witcher. For instance, in the books it is very strongly suggested that it was the Goddess Freya which subjected Yennefer to a trial took straight from the legend of Hemdall in her dream.

Even more suggestive is that after the completion of this quest and only then, will the quest Last Rites become available to you. In Last Rites, you are tasked to bring the wedding ring of an old woman to her husband's grave. It turns out that the woman was dead herself and that she only wanted her soul to rest near the one she loved. The fact that the quest is only available if you succeeded in completing Defender of the Faith suggests that the Goddess whose altars you fixed might have assured the soul of her presumed follower that you are trustworthy.

The students were clearly in the wrong and in multiple ways too. First of all, even if Gods didn't exist, vandalizing religious monuments is not the right way to go about fixing things. Second of all, they were directing their efforts in the wrong direction, the Cult of the Eternal Fire is the real problem, that is the true manipulation through religion happening in the world of The Witcher. They are serving an abstract thing, the Eternal Fire. In the books this religion already existed and there were already signs suggesting that they're schemers trying to fool the masses.

In the end, you cannot draw any conclusion about the beliefs and/or agendas of the creators of the game from most religious themed quests in any Witcher game, since inside the world of TW religion means something else.