Gary V. Foss
08-09-1998, 10:22 AM
Tim Nutting wrote:
> Why does Haelyn, ostensibly a god of Good and Law, allow his priests to be
> Evil? Is this acceptance or is it the god's way of trying to pull them
> into the fold? My understanding of a priest is that being that has just
> enough faith in him that he attracts the special attention of the deity...
> So why? I can see Haelyn as being more willing to use those evil priests
> to further his divine ends, so long as they support the concepts of Honor,
> Law, and Courage.
>
> Now take into consideration that a cleric desiring to start a new temple
> decides on his own that evil is unacceptable, obviously Haelyn doesn't go
> right off and say "well, gee, I'm going to stop giving spells to my evil
> priests" because a player says so...
My take on this is that Healyn really isn't that much of a nice guy. In fact,
when you say that he is "ostensibly the god of good and law" I'd argue that he
is really neither. He's too militant. As you noted in your next paragraph,
the rulebook really only talks about him being the god of honor, law and
courage. These things are not always on the side of goodness.
Part of the difficulty with this is that Haelyn is one of the few gods in
Cerilia that has paladins. Paladins are often portrayed as knights in shining
armor, incredibly moralistic, holy warriors. Personally, I don't much agree
with this take on paladins in general, but even less so in BR. BR paladins can
be chaotic good or lawful neutral. (At least if the example of one of Avani's
paladin's in the back of RoE is correct.) Even if you assume that lawful good
characters are the goody-goodies that they are often portrayed as, BR paladins
are different. They should have a more aggressive stance, because their goals
and motivations are more clearly defined.
- -Gary
> Why does Haelyn, ostensibly a god of Good and Law, allow his priests to be
> Evil? Is this acceptance or is it the god's way of trying to pull them
> into the fold? My understanding of a priest is that being that has just
> enough faith in him that he attracts the special attention of the deity...
> So why? I can see Haelyn as being more willing to use those evil priests
> to further his divine ends, so long as they support the concepts of Honor,
> Law, and Courage.
>
> Now take into consideration that a cleric desiring to start a new temple
> decides on his own that evil is unacceptable, obviously Haelyn doesn't go
> right off and say "well, gee, I'm going to stop giving spells to my evil
> priests" because a player says so...
My take on this is that Healyn really isn't that much of a nice guy. In fact,
when you say that he is "ostensibly the god of good and law" I'd argue that he
is really neither. He's too militant. As you noted in your next paragraph,
the rulebook really only talks about him being the god of honor, law and
courage. These things are not always on the side of goodness.
Part of the difficulty with this is that Haelyn is one of the few gods in
Cerilia that has paladins. Paladins are often portrayed as knights in shining
armor, incredibly moralistic, holy warriors. Personally, I don't much agree
with this take on paladins in general, but even less so in BR. BR paladins can
be chaotic good or lawful neutral. (At least if the example of one of Avani's
paladin's in the back of RoE is correct.) Even if you assume that lawful good
characters are the goody-goodies that they are often portrayed as, BR paladins
are different. They should have a more aggressive stance, because their goals
and motivations are more clearly defined.
- -Gary