Racial Gods

[Spiffy Has]

Folks, I am running into a small conundrum here.

Racial Pantheons are made to protect, and bless a race of beings, who in turn, pray to them exclusively and faithfully. The clerics of these races are there to protect the race and make sure the flock stays true to the god, they do not seek converts among the other races like human gods do.

Why would a cleric from another race, seek to bless a human who would otherwise never worship Moradin?

Clerics receive spells exclusively to provide the deity with more worshippers, and to protect the faithful of that god. I think its a queer thing if a god from say, the halfling pantheon, is blessing a human of Hoar to go out and smite evil.

That hoarran will never worship Brandobaris.


Your thoughts folk?

[Knight Of Pentacles]

Because they're goodly deities who are warm and kind to other races when they're deserving of such? Much like the hinfolk are in nature, especially the Stronghearts.

[Wafflecone_Hiatus]

Actually there are other IC reasons why your cleric, in this case, would not grant others spells, and you know what they are.
 
Point out though, i'm sure racial dieties would have no problem granting spells to others in order to fight racial enemies, or the forces of their gods or pantheons enemies.

[Spiffy Has]

I always saw the gods (maybe erroneously) as forces unto themselves who drew power from the number of worshipers they had following them. Granting them upon a follower of a different deity (in the case of a human god) or a another race (in the case of a pantheonic deity) ultimately weakens the god.

But I suppose the reasons pointed out by Waffle are good enough! I'd just imagined Racial Deities being more choosie about what their clerics are doing, especially when it comes to granting other races the power of a god who is rather alien to that race.

Like, an elven deity, or a dwarven one, wouldn't appreciate their cleric blessing a half orc, no matter who or what they are. A human deity, conversely, wouldn't really care!

[MrGrendel]

"Other IC reasons" aside...

Moradin is a deity of dwarves, but he's also a deity of creation, smithing, protection, metalcraft and stonework. Now, there are human deities, but noone generally assumes they place priority on racial bias over their agendas, which includes worshippers as a primary concern, but is not strictly limited to that. Many "racial" deities also have plenty of allies outside of their "racial" pantheon. Racial deity does not mean racist deity.

Also, not converting someone to your patron does not mean you might not inspire them to offer prayer to your god a bit more often, in his specialized field. For instance, there might be some human craftsmen forging an axe or mining a tunnel or even fighting arch-enemies of the dwarves who would offer up a prayer to Moradin alongside of other deities now and then.

Specifically, Moradin apparently is also allied with Gond, Kossuth, Helm, Torm and Tyr, as well as the heads of the elven, gnome, and halfling pantheon, none of which are "dwarven" deities per se. However, together they pursue goals which are mutually beneficial. I do not see why then priests of Moradin should refuse to bless followers of Gond while they battle enemies of Gond and Moradin; etc.

The main question the priest should have: "Looking at the big picture, will blessing this person really further my deity's agenda (in a way that will not offend my god or help his enemies)?"

A co-faith victory over orcs might not cause everyone around your priest to change their patron to Moradin. But they might pray to him a little more often, and you're helping create a better world for dwarves. Through this, Moradin will have more worshippers.

[derfo]

I was under the impression that the majority of the common playable races were polytheistic, with the exception of clerics, who even then did not find it completely out of the question to pay some respects to allied or appreciated gods, so long as they accepted the superiority of their own's dogma.

I also assumed prayer, tithe, or whatever a deity liked was beneficial veneration enough to warrant blessings, though I guess that depends more on the god or cleric in question.

[MrGrendel]

Right. And virtually everyone in the FR setting is polytheistic. Monotheistic means not to believe that there are more than one gods. In that sense, clerics in the FR are probably more polytheistic than the general population, since 0 (functioning) clerics are "atheist."

Also, patron does not just mean the god someone prays to most. It means the god someone identifies with most. Of course, the latter will probably result in the former, and undoubtedly so for clerics.

However, it's an important distinction because in a polytheistic religion who you pray to is not usually defined by who "your" god is (because they're all "your" gods) but who "the situation's" god is.

If you have a system where, on the one hand, people would look at you like you're crazy or an idiot if you pray to the god of war to make your crops grow... (And they'd probably be right)

But on the other hand, suggesting to people that important things aren't worth praying over is probably not an attitude befitting  a spiritual leader... where does that leave clerics?

I also imagine they might pray to a few other deities from time to time, in situations their patron really has no interest in or where control is very clearly that of another deity.

[VanillaPudding]

I was under the impression that the majority of the common playable races were polytheistic, with the exception of clerics, who even then did not find it completely out of the question to pay some respects to allied or appreciated gods, so long as they accepted the superiority of their own's dogma.

I also assumed prayer, tithe, or whatever a deity liked was beneficial veneration enough to warrant blessings, though I guess that depends more on the god or cleric in question.

this

[Drakill Tannan]

yeah, that.

[Gippy]

Not that, what Grendel said.

[Wafflecone_Hiatus]

This again.

[AClockworkMelon]

Halflings hate goblins. A human is fighting goblins. Halfling blesses human to help kill goblins, which halflings hate.

Or, if that's not enough for you.

Halflings like halflings. A human is fighting alongside halflings. Halfling blesses human (as well as the halflings) because if that human does better it decreases the odds of an injured halfling. Halflings like halflings, so this is good.

Either way, it seems like common sense to me.