Amarr = spanish inquisition
Actually, you just fell into the common stereotype there. Spanish wasn't the worst inquisition, nor the one that killed the most, a "position" that corresponds to those countries where there were actual wars of religion.
Now, not trying to say "you're doing it wrong" or "now you suck, you spanish hater" or anything like it. Just trying to point out how sometimes it's hard to break the stereotypes, even when you're conscious of their existance. So, it's logical (even if harmful) that most players view amarr as little more than the Warhammer 40k Empire + slavery together.
And I wholeheartedly agree that the way to break this is for prime fiction to focus on other complementary sides of those two cultures.
Yeah, I could have just said medieval inquisition, but I mostly played on the trope because the Spanish Inq is well known by most.
My main pet peeve is that while I can understand that some quite conservative positions can be expected from families like Ardishapur with their crude rituals of hand mutilations and the likes, who also seem to put the emphasis on some very old and outdated punishments, and while I acknowledge that the Amarr are definitely not western culture, I also happen to believe that the Amarr Empire are still eons ahead of what we know now, and like all others nations, they are a modern one and not a medieval one. They do not think like medieval kings and inquisitors.
So yes, while I actually expect to see hardliner judgement calls and cries of heresy, burning at the stake, or whatever, I also expect them to be a minority, where the actual game happens behind politics and schemes at play. I expect them to happen behind the heavy amarrian bureaucracy, etc. I do not see the TC like the medieval inquisition, but rather like the
Académie Française with teeth (you know, like CONCORD are like the UN with balls... kindof) who are here to normalize the orthodox view and provide general guidelines to make sure that scriptures remain coherent (and also according to the will of the current emperor/empress).
I just find regrettable that we never hear of the liberal, more modern side of the Empire. Amarrians proponents of the free discourse of theological matters, or a more modern view of the concept of God itself. With all the hints in the lore about the Scriptures and the Amarr religion, it's quite easy to see that it's not a repressive religion against science, at the contrary. It's not a religion that tries to explain the origin of the universe. I have yet to find a single scripture copycat of the christian Book of Genesis, for example. And yet I see continually very christian/western references to the Amarr religion ICly, where God is a supernatural all loving father, where you have to pray for his love or whatever - where in the Amarr religion is actually like the Old Testament, God is neither a Good or Bad entity, just a ruthless force akin to the universe. The Amarr are extremely devout not because they want to be loved by their God, but because they are told to kneel in humility before what the Universe and God actually represent.
Eventually I still expect to see more amarrian modernists like Ashar was in the past, with an innovative view on theological beliefs with the very modern and scientific background of the Amarr. Things like the sanctity of flesh are perfect matter for that to develop, but unfortunately, they also seem to directly ring the bell in most players to the current RL conflicts between religion and science.
Maybe i'm completely interpretating it wrong, and again, I fully expect and actually want to continue to witness the more common trope of the devout amarrian out there, but I just miss the true liberal amarrian modernists. And the main issue is that as much as I am perfectly confident to be able to make my character defend herself perfectly well ICly against call for heresy or whatever, the simple fact that she is completely alone and isolated in such a fashion, and also considering the reaction of most people ICly or OOCly to it who are often just unable to understand why I actually play it that way, well, it just seems to everyone that i'm actually playing some kind of apostate or heretic, which is completely and blatantly false.
Sorry for the rant, but it's mostly the whole story of my struggle since the very beginning.