So animate dead is both an evil spell and would probably cause a worshiper of Pharasma to lose any abilities granted by her if they used it. Bone golems require either animate dead or animate objects to create. Would creating a bone golem using animate objects be an evil act, and would it anger Pharasma (lets assume it is made of non-humanoid bones, such as animal bones, so that disrespecting the dead isn't an issue)? Does a character who doesn't know either spell who takes a +5 to the construction DC get to pick which spell is emulated?
I'm mostly curious since I saw that the entry for the Equine bone golem from Tombs of Golarion mentioned it was favored by knights who preferred tomb guardians procured through non-necromantic means.
A Bone golem is not undead, so it wouldn't violate the "no undead" rule. Additionally, I'm not aware of any "all bodies must be properly buried" rule for Pharasma, so using the bones for the golem also shouldn't be a problem (could be wrong on this one). Also, Pharasma is N, so she is not opposed to the casting of evil spells, just creating undead. Pharasma is concerned with the treatment of the soul not the body (even mindless undead use part of the soul to animate corpse). Finally, using animate object is 100% ok, since it's not an evil spell.
All this is with the caveat: ASK YOUR GM!!!
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To their credit, the bone golem's construction requirements provide the option of casting animate dead OR animate objects, which provides it a fairly Pharasma-friendly route. I imagine that so long as the creator honored the physical remains used—or better yet got the contributors' permission before they died—it would be fine.
There's some room to make the argument that creating a golem (an elemental spirit bound within a physical shell) is not much different than creating an undead creature (often a deceased soul bound within a lifeless remnant). However, golem crafting doesn't interfere with the River of Souls or the natural progression of mortal souls, so I suspect it wouldn't bother her.
To their credit, the bone golem's construction requirements provide the option of casting animate dead OR animate objects, which provides it a fairly Pharasma-friendly route. I imagine that so long as the creator honored the physical remains used—or better yet got the contributors' permission before they died—it would be fine.
There's some room to make the argument that creating a golem (an elemental spirit bound within a physical shell) is not much different than creating an undead creature (often a deceased soul bound within a lifeless remnant). However, golem crafting doesn't interfere with the River of Souls or the natural progression of mortal souls, so I suspect it wouldn't bother her.
I definitely agree. An elemental spirit seems like it would just be a being from the elemental planes without physical form.
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Consider Pharasma's obedience: collecting bones and arranging them in a spiral. Or one of the spells developed by her clergy, defending bone, which uses a bone to block attacks until it is broken. As long as you are respectful of where they came from and don't taint them with undeath, bones are tools to be used by the faithful.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. Lots of good points. I was asking purely out of curiosity, not in terms of a current campaign (which is why I didn't ask my GM). I think I was a little confused about how corpses should be respected, I think I was thinking of a passage from Death's Heretic where:
It's been awhile since I read Inner Sea Gods, I should reread it sometime.
Anyways, thanks again!