In my opinion and from what I’ve seen in-game, gnomes lack a sense of religion. Religion usually has atleast one of these three traits: faith (towards an higher power), a concept of divine or sacred things, and/or forms of worship that are shared among a cultural group. Gnomes don’t seem to have any of this. Neither they show devotion towards Mimiron (they discovered their origin only recently, unless I am mistaken). They seem to hold Mimiron in high regard, but treat him like a brilliant inventor rather than a god, or a divine creature.
I like the comparison to Prometheus here. Myths like Prometheus were, indeed, components of religion, but Prometheus himself was peripheral to the Greek’s religion itself.
That’s just my two cents. Perhaps after mechagon we’ll see a change, but until then I will mantain my belief.
I’d argue there is, even as he is portrayed ingame, an element of the divine/sacred, although it requires some degree of conjecture. Nonetheless, Mimiron possesses a lot of traits that he has in common with real world deities, not just mythological heroes.
Mimiron is the creator of the gnomish race, and is revered as such; his is the design that gave birth to the people, and the gnomes acknowledge this, regardless of how recent the discovery was. I could draw parallels to the muslim concept of Jahilliyyah here, but that’s secondary to the overall point I’m making. Among his more devoted followers, his design for the gnomish race is elevated above the present day state of the people; this is a classic case of cosmos/chaos mythology, and the people who adhere to this line of thought seek to return to the order that was designed by their creator, to counteract malevolent forces that seek to undo his work.
Yes, we don’t see systemic worship, nor much, if at all, in the way of overt expressions of faith in the game, but given that Mimiron is central both to gnomish anthropogeny as well as being the closest thing they have to a patron god, I would argue that the reason we don’t see it is Blizzard’s unwillingness to flesh out the universe beyond the bare minimum required to sell copies of future expansions.
I’ve taken a DnD inspired approach and made my Character, Malach in this case, make a vow - in this case Retribution. Although his views are similar to the traditions of his Faith, much of it is further encompassed around this specific vow.
I decided to view the Talent Tree as three different vows a Paladin could make, in this case Malach is a Retribution Paladin, so much of his Philosophy is based on this, and is reflected in his actions & words.
"Let the Harbringers of Evil know the weight of their transgression. For our Oath - is Retribution."
As a sidenote, no matter whether or not the gnomes can be said to have a form of religion centered around Mimiron, it is beyond dispute that, in warcraft, atheism does not exist. Atheism is lack of belief in the existence of gods, and that’s just… Not a thing. Nobody contests that gods exist. Some just contest that they should be objects of worship - and this is not atheism.
Ddraig here, being a young lad, isn’t really well versed in religion. Having not been raised with any other religion than that of worship of the wilds, his mother being a Harvest Witch.
However, His recent turn to the Druidic arts has led him to not quite worship, but revere Malorne. Having seen the Wild God in a dream, not quite the Emerald Dream, but more a glimpse of it, a vision. As such, he devotes himself to Malorne, living in forests and isolated areas and being rarely seen.
On the other hand, he recently began to pray to and worship Elune, his teacher, a Night elf was unwell and he feared for her life, as such, HE asked her god to aid her. With only a bottle of water from Elune’ara and a very poorly pronounced and simple Darnassian prayer, he prays. His prayers were answered and now he worships Elune.
Both these “deities” are foreign to him, a new feature of his life in the big wide world, He can’t really fathom the whole idea of a “god”, but he does understand that there are greater forces at work.
Its less a main fixture of the character, more so an extra addition. It believe that stuff like faith adds a layer of realism and depth to a character, why do they worship? How? when? What do they view it as, faith or real? In the reverse, atheism is similar I guess. Either way, you can ask interesting questions about a characters based on their faith or lack thereof.
Not sure if this is what you’re gunning for, but consider adding some of the great evils of the setting as well? We have cults zealously sworn to the service of Old Gods, demons and even the Lich King.
Very true to note, Gnomes and Dwarves don’t appear to have the same level of zeal as say Humans, Night Elves or Draenei would. In the case of Mimiron he represents rather instead of a figure of worship, a culture hero - the great inventor himself.
![:v:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/v.png?v=6" ":v:")