Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Shirosai 01-05-06, 07:25 PM	Alright, so my new character is planning to be a(now)deity-less cleric in Eberron. I have the beginnings of(possibly cliched?)ideas, but I need some help finishing it up. He is Savan Stormbringer, an Aasimar melee based cleric who wields a jovar(greatsword type weapon from the Planar Handbook). All I have is that he was once a heavy believer, and higher up member, of his church and what it stood for, that is until he discovered the heavy shroud of corruption that had wove itself around the church. Savan, not knowing how he couldn't have noticed this before, didn't want to have any part in such corruption, and abruptly left his church and his faith behind, believing it all to be lies. Now he fights for only what he believes to be right, believing to derive his divine like powers from his warrior soul, rather than some corrupt deity(too corny?). Anyway, that's all I have right now, not very much, I know, but it's the kind of flavor I want. Could someone help me make it a bit more detailed(I don't want a long history, a short one will do just fine)? Any comments on what I have so far would be appreciated as well. Thanks much. :D Extra Note: I have no idea what church it should be, nor what deity it worships. Any ideas on that would be very helpful too.
WhrenKehrsyn 01-05-06, 07:59 PM	Well, first off what was the tenents of the church he origionally belonged to? This could be an important factor because he would have dedicated himself to those beliefs. A loss of faith in ones diety in its adherence to its own rules is something thats not all that uncommon in people who 'lose the faith' in real life. As an example lets say he was a follower of a god whose church preached peace and asked its followers to avoid violence at all costs, to turn the other cheek as it were and a degree of passive aggression are the proper means of making ones self hear to the world. The character can then see that such means have a very limited return and may become of the mind set that peace can only be secured through force. Since this is wholly against his god he would lose his divine abilities, but maybe a god of war, or lies, or corruption would grant him those same divine abilities without his knowledge of the change. I guess what Im suggesting is determine what god he worshiped before and what that god stood for, develop a reasonable line of thought that shows life in the world is different.
Harrow Blade 01-05-06, 09:01 PM	I like the Idea you are running with. Something that you might want to use is that after a period away from the clergy and church your character realised that your spells and powers came not from a god but the devine concept of good. ( I have read somewhere that clerics can worship/follow the force of Good or evil rather than a specific god.) it was your asimar's devine heritige and warrioir soul that allows you to draw on this power. You may want your character to come to the realisation that if the church is so corrupt and you are able to draw on power from this other source then perhaps the Gods are irrelivant and it is only the forces for good, evil, law and chaos that matter in the lives of mortals. You desire to start a loose fellowship of like minded believers, not a clergy, who preaches the same message. It would be interesting should you confront a cleric of any sort particularly one of your former religion.
Rudysseus 01-07-06, 04:46 AM	Also need to decide if it was the god that was corrupt, or if it was simply the church that was corrupt, but still worshipped a somewhat benevolent deity. If the god were a good deity, and those worshipping it were the ones who were evil, it may also be a thing to your character to come to that realization, and begin to work to either bring down the corrupt leadership of the church, and/or work to make sure that rest of the world understood that just because the highest ranking members of the organization were evil, it did not mean everyone that worshipped that deity was evil. If the god is evil, as well. Your character can continue drawing from the ideals of goodness to gain his magic, or could possibly do a complete 180 and attempt to go that extra step and join a church with a deity opposed to your old deity, working within a new group against your old. Some other things to think about are: what helped him figure out it was a corrupt group? the death of a friend/loved one at their hands? a betrayal of some sort that otherwise hurt or ruined the reputation of your character? developing a good reason to dislike the church/deity, aside from simply discovering they were corrupt, can perhaps lead you to more ideas for him, and if nothing else, allowing the people here to have more information to toss more ideas at you to help. :dancin:
JulesCARV 01-07-06, 05:29 AM	I think that the Church of the Silver Flame is a good church for these purposes. They're good folks overall, especially their pontiff, but there is a lot of corruption and oppression in the Church, along with a self-righteous attitude that makes such corruption difficult to bear, given the cognitive dissonance. Another possibility would be to make him from Breland, where corruption of every sort is common.
Thubby 01-07-06, 01:46 PM	he's peaved at his church, right, so you could say he still follows the diety, just not the "higher ups" in the church itself, he could be a reformist, correcting his former bretherin, and returning the church to its former glory! if not, still a cool idea, go for it, its only corny if treat it that way, i cant tell you how many good shows are based on old, corny ideas, but are good because they show it with conviction.
SoulGamit 01-07-06, 02:14 PM	You might want to look at the Defiant PrC in the Planar Handbook, that seems to be what your looking for if oyu want to abandon your God. Another alternative is actually a church inquisitor, if he believes in the god but hates the church. There are some questions that need answering: Does he still believe in the God and just hates the church or was his faith in the God shattered? There had to be some triggering event that made him lose his faith or hate the church, you should go into detail. Does the church know he lost his faith? What was their reaction, or did he just run away? Does he know of any particular, very bad tretchory? Does the person he knows about know he knows? How does the church view or think of him? Do they hate him, believe he just lost his way, or do they think he was kidnapped because he ran away so fast. Admittedly, this is a question better answered by the DM, but you give the DM nothing to go on.
Baerdog7 01-07-06, 10:30 PM	I am actually playing a character that is similar to this in one of my campaigns right now. He is a middle aged human paladin named Ander Windrivver. He had a beautiful wife and baby boy before they were killed and his homestead was destroyed by demons while he was away. In retaliation, he joined the church of St. Cuthbert and discovered he had what was needed to make a good paladin. He fought alongside the forces of good in the lower planes for ten years. He eventually could not handle the constant war anymore and had to walk away. He wandered for several years, wondering how people can fight the way they do. He is slowly regaining his faith and is currently fighting vampire illithids while trying to redeem the sword of Merikel. He is probably my favorite character that I'm playing right now. He's not the most combat oriented character (he's got average stats and is middle aged) but he is the most rich character RP-wise in the campaign. Good luck playing a religious agnostic, it's very fun if you can pull it off. -Baerdog7