Both, actually. More the former, though, just because logically it would likely be a bigger part of life in the setting. . .but you get basically nothing, outside staunch believers (your priests and clerics) and cynics/heretics. It's easy to say that, for example, people in Jugdral are more apt to believe in the divine, because the proof for many of the main characters is right on their skin. But that certainly doesn't mean we know how they feel about all that. Even games where you outright fight gods don't touch on the "wait hold the boat we're killing God" that you might expect for most of the cast. Ike talks to Ashera basically like he'd talk to. . . anybody standing in his way, and that's a giant step beyond sassing Sanaki or treating Elincia like a bro.
(Of course, the genuine nature of the beliefs of even clerics and the like is up for debate-- I'd say Natasha, for example, seems more about the godliness thing than, say, Serra. And I think Renault's turn for religion is total BS.)
So with so little to go on, you really do have to make those gut instinct judgments in AU, I think. You don't always have the "well society would say ___" for every walk of life -- and I mean, even when I do have definite ideas of how characters see things, the implications would change drastically. Like, one of my firmest headcanon ideas on the topic is seeing canon Knoll as an atheist. But translating even something I think as clearly as that is hard! Believing there is no benevolent god as, I don't know, a college science professor or something probably does not have the same weight to his character that it does as someone who's personally faced something claiming to be a demon while rejecting the idea that there is still a "good" side to that coin. And conversely, someone who believed in the divine as fervently as L'Arachel does is a wee bit eccentric in Magvel-- but that would be seen as really outlandish and scary-extremist in many circles today. So do you temper that to give it the same feeling it has in canon, or leave it as is?
Re: probably derailing even further oops
(Of course, the genuine nature of the beliefs of even clerics and the like is up for debate-- I'd say Natasha, for example, seems more about the godliness thing than, say, Serra. And I think Renault's turn for religion is total BS.)
So with so little to go on, you really do have to make those gut instinct judgments in AU, I think. You don't always have the "well society would say ___" for every walk of life -- and I mean, even when I do have definite ideas of how characters see things, the implications would change drastically. Like, one of my firmest headcanon ideas on the topic is seeing canon Knoll as an atheist. But translating even something I think as clearly as that is hard! Believing there is no benevolent god as, I don't know, a college science professor or something probably does not have the same weight to his character that it does as someone who's personally faced something claiming to be a demon while rejecting the idea that there is still a "good" side to that coin. And conversely, someone who believed in the divine as fervently as L'Arachel does is a wee bit eccentric in Magvel-- but that would be seen as really outlandish and scary-extremist in many circles today. So do you temper that to give it the same feeling it has in canon, or leave it as is?