Quote:
Originally Posted by Gulnyr  Can't this be turned around? The Good Clerics can leave fallen followers of an enemy god and consider it better overall for the world, or raise them as a show of mercy and compassion to, perhaps, give them a sense of the power and benefit of the Cleric's (and his god's) point of view.
It may sound silly to expect, say, a Corathite to convert to Toran, but I can't see a Paladin really thinking Corathites aren't so bad just because one raised him. Why would the Paladin not suspect something? It sounds silly both ways when you say it like that. |
Part 1) Certainly that can be the case! I seriously doubt even Jesus would have raised John Wayne Gasey the clown-faced child-killer or Hitler out of love. If evil dies, for the most part, let it die... still though, there is some merit in redemption. If you don't offer redemption, then you're not very good since all you're doing is enforcing divinity at the end of a sword. Ultimately, the outcome of the act would merit its worth. If you raised a corathite and he kept on killing, then your god would be upset with you, if the wicked man instead turned to good, you god would be happy. Gods are fickle like that, the only care about the results of their followers' actions, not the motive usually.
Part 2) The very fact that there is one exception to his hardline view could very well give him pause the next time he faced a Corathite. If he was told his entire life that Corathites were evil and without mercy and one showed him mercy, even just to toy with him, it could be a tremendous blow to his faith. If Toran lied about this, he would wonder, what else is Toran wrong about? Shaking up concrete theological values does much to assail faith. Point to the sections of the bible where the loving followers of god commit mass genocide in Deuteronomy and slay women and children of the tribes they conquered in Judges, and many christians will uncomfortably try to change the subject. Same goes for the example of the kindly corathite... Toranites would quickly change the subject and grow uncomfortable at the mention of it. Heck, just ask Lucindites why their goddess made babies with the dreaded Corath and the topic changes rather quickly.