2025-07-19 4:07:12 ¶ ● ⬈

## Dishonored meta: Religion and the Abbey of the Everyman

ladysmaragdina:

> Or, “Restrict the lying tongue – you keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”

> I’m writing this meta for three reasons. One, because every time August rolls around my brain kicks into “go back to school” mode and I need to do some heavy academic reading and analysis. Two, because I want to write a post about Burrows and science and rationalism and nationalism in a newly-industrialized Dunwall, and this has to come first. Three, because there’s been an opinion/AU floating around fandom that I want to address.

> Overseers are not simply priests. Teague Martin is not a priest.

> There, I said it.

> Now let me explain: Teague Martin is not a priest, because the Abbey of the Everyman is not a religion. The Abbey is couched in religious terms, certainly. It is “the religious faction,” Overseers are “zealots,” followers are “faithful,” the High Overseer is “the most pious man in the Empire,” those who do not follow it are “heretics” and “apostates,” and so forth. It surrounds itself with the trappings of a religion – sermons, prayers, the Seven Strictures, people seeking ‘spiritual guidance’ (I’ll explain why I put that term in quotes later). The Abbey believes itself to be a religion. The game presents it as a religion. It’s useful and easy for us to call it a religion.

> It’s not.

> Now. If I’m going to claim that the Abbey isn’t a religion, I need to define what a religion is.

> Keep reading