Religion et al

[Cade]

I play a favored soul.

Quote:
From PHB2 and Complete Divine:
Alignment: Divine magic is intuitive to a favored soul, not a matter of careful prayer. This intuitive nature leads to a freer interpretation of faith and doctrine, and so favored souls tend to lean slightly more twards chaos over law.
Cade really pushes the boundries. He follows his chaotic nature, and also follows the destructive force of Taloos. Cade however is not evil by any means. He may be inhuman and non-caring at some times, but not evil. Since he has never been exposed to a church of Talos, he knows nothing of what the Clerics and Priests do there.

He has never seen the destruction caused by the Talosian priests when "calling down the thunder", he has never been caught up in the hierarchy, has no training.
Everyone thinks he follows Helm IC, but he is slowly starting to drop hints that he does not. He has only let it slip to two people.

Because favoured souls don't have to deal with the hierarchy of the Church, Cade is free to do what he thinks is best. And, because of his up-bringing, he is not evil. Somewhere it says that when casting spells and carrying out deeds, the patron diety doesn't even pay attention, or care.

If I am totally wrong in this, I don't care to change my RP story arc...

Cade is slowly starting to discover the true nature of Talos in the world, and the link with Helm, one of his most hated. I hope I can make this story arc work out... Cade dosent want to be evil, but you never know.... things can happen.


What do you think?

[Dark presence]

I had a favored soul many months ago and took that kind of interpretation. As far as I could understand, favored souls were independent of any organized church and their powers weren't dependent on doing anything for their god. With these powers thrust upon them, it could always be something they just want to get rid of but can't.

However, thats not really how the DMs here see it, as far as I understand. So to some degree your character is probably going to have to suck up to Talos. Being evil though, isn't even a requirement for Talassan clerics so I wouldn't worry about that part, not that it should matter.

What I think would be nice from the DMs is a better description of what a Favored soul actually is in Sundren, if they are going to be held to some standards, and what kind of expectations are on them, as well as how they are publicly perceived. Its a very vague class and WOTC goes so far as to call favoured souls as Chosen, which I think is just nonsense. I don't see how a random favored soul of Mystra is (or will become) a peer of Elminster's or whoever. WOTC also says favored souls are rather obvious things, which might offer problems for someone favored by an unliked god.

[Cade]

What I think would be nice from the DMs is a better description of what a Favored soul actually is in Sundren

I agree. I am sort of wingin' it here, taking what I can from "the books" and what I can from the rules and FAQ on Sundren.

Im sure things will pan out in RP... I just hope they can hold of killing me long enough for me to explain...

[Peridan]

That's something you're going to have to deal with if you worship or have any connection whatsoever to Talos. The guy is chaotic evil, he loves to watch things burn to the ground. The reason he is a greater power in the pantheon is because everybody is too afraid NOT to worship him, for fear of a natural disaster flattening their home. So be prepared (if you plan on going public) that in all likelihood you will be hunted down and killed. Doesn't matter if you are good or not, it's just the way things are. Kind of like being a drow.

Also, if you receive power of any kind from a god, I would think that the god would make themselves known, especially if you are "favored". If Cade truly did not want to follow the ethics and general guidelines of Talos, then he would simply not take levels in it.

[Dark presence]

I've never understood that logic. If people are scared of Talos (or drow or bunnies or whatever), why on earth would they try to murder one of his servants/favored? Thats like asking to be struck by lightning.

[Peridan]

It's because while maybe a disaster or something might occur once they did, imagine the kind of destruction that would happen if they let them run around, causing disasters willy nilly around the town for 20 years. Talos might be pissed that one of his servants was killed, but then he has thousands more to take their place. Besides, if he did decide to punish one town or city continuously, he would have to face off against all the other gods who happen to have servants in that particular place.

In all, it's kind of like a cold war. Sure there are casualties on both sides, but if you decide to pull out the big guns, then you had better expect to receive the same.

It's the same thing with the Drow. I hate to reference a Salvatore novel, but in the Drizzt book dealing with the rise of the Drow to the surface(The name escapes me at the moment), they considered summoning demons. However, they decided against it because then all of the higher planes would get involved, causing the battle to even out.

[Cade]

If Cade truly did not want to follow the ethics and general guidelines of Talos, then he would simply not take levels in it.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for a cleric this makes sence. Here I don't think this holds true, simply because favored souls never ASK to have the power they do. Clerics go through years of training to be able to wield divine power.

[Machiavelli]

But you do have to be a follower of the relevant god...

[Cade]

I disagrees, but DM rulings are what they are.... oh well... Cade will have to die.

[Peridan]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but for a cleric this makes sence. Here I don't think this holds true, simply because favored souls never ASK to have the power they do. Clerics go through years of training to be able to wield divine power.

Right, but Favored Souls have the ability to IGNORE their power. It's the same thing.

[Raksha]

I see it as a similar thing to how warlocks inherit their power through bloodline. Most of them really don't want to be pawns of abyssal servants, at least not at first. The will to continue developing those powers requires either a disregard for the principles that such things are not to be messed with (chaotic) or a desire to further one's own power even if it hurts others. (evil) A lawful good potential-warlock would never get the first class level, because they wouldn't want to develop something like that.

In Tamryn's case, she too had no idea who gave her the powers that she had until a lot of soul-searching, praying, and a kind tap on the shoulder from a solar. The matter was further complicated by her early study of the greatsword, making her ease with that particular weapon not as useful an indicator as it might have been.

Also, re: killing Stormlords: normal people -are- afraid of them, and don't want to anger them, and will give them free munchies and gifts to keep from getting zapped. It's just that there are a lot of religiously-motivated folks out there who generally garner a greater degree of support from authority, whose portfolios are in nearly direct conflict with Talos'. There has been one particular Stormlord who was 'leashed' and for a while managed to peacefully interact with folks, but he ended up snapping and killing some more, so there you go.

[Dark presence]

Deleted, got moved and makes no sense in this thread

[Cade]

Then, if Cade were to repent (I have writtent this sentence before somewhere... weird), would it make sence for him to take Cleric Levels...

The story would be that the Triumverate or Temple of Helm converted him... theirfor he would no longer recieve favored soul levels because he would not be using those powers?

Is that right?

[TheBrogueadier]

I'm currently playing a favoured soul of Auril, and to be fair, she's crazy..

The line I took was that the gifts granted to her kind of broke her mind, she's devout and considers herself an extension of Auril's will; the gifts she's been given are to further Aurils realm and bring snow and ice to the world.

That said, she's not beyond being nice and reasonably helpful to people who might oppose this until she can find the chinks in their armour and take advantage of them. She thinks of it as the way the cold will find the smallest cracks in a building to infiltrate, cooling those within slowly, or the way snow gathers quietly on a building before causing it to collapse under the weight.


That said, I've always like the idea that the gods occasionally mess with people just for a laugh; find someone who falls between your range and that of an enemy god and grant them powers just to see how amusing the following chaos will be.

I always fancied playing one of the 'evil' Ilmatarian clerics of the 'Angels of Ilmater'. A group who in all good faith and with total conviction think they serve ilmater, granting freedom from pain and suffering through mercy killing; The reality being it's all a great joke from Cyric who hides them from Ilmater and grants them their spells and powers in his name.

A gods sense of humour is an odd pretty dangerous thing, much like older mages really.