Which god would be better for someone who wants to reinvent themselves?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

Silver Crusade

Basically imagine someone who wasn't the most morally admirable person, comes to regret ever being like that either it all coming back to bite them, or just simply looking back and feeling remorse, and wants to just start over.

I kinda narrowed it down to Iomadae and Irori. Either one could work really. I just can't decide between the 2.


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I would say Irori. Sarenrae can also work since she is about redemption.

Dark Archive

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Actually, the entire concept sounds like a Neshen follower (Empyreal Lord). There isn't much written about that Deity, but the following can be found in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Chronicle of the Righteous :

PCS:CotR wrote:

Neshen: Neshen’s followers are those who desire to turn their lives around and embrace the path of light. The Knight of the Steel Lash may require them to undergo physical duress and difficult obedience, in a process that can take years, but those who come to him eventually reach their coveted atonement.


Mr. Bonkers wrote:

Actually, the entire concept sounds like a Neshen follower (Empyreal Lord). There isn't much written about that Deity, but the following can be found in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Chronicle of the Righteous :

PCS:CotR wrote:

Neshen: Neshen’s followers are those who desire to turn their lives around and embrace the path of light. The Knight of the Steel Lash may require them to undergo physical duress and difficult obedience, in a process that can take years, but those who come to him eventually reach their coveted atonement.

Yes this one seems perfect.


Depends on how they envision their reinvented self, who they want to be at the end of it all. I'd pick based on their ideals, as much as the needing to start over to live up to them.

Silver Crusade

Kaladin_Stormblessed wrote:
Depends on how they envision their reinvented self, who they want to be at the end of it all. I'd pick based on their ideals, as much as the needing to start over to live up to them.

I lived my life only for myself, and it came back to bite me. I've been given a second chance, now i want to live for others. There's also the whole thing of changing how they look, talk dress the works. Just completely distancing themselves from their past. Making it so as far as most people know the old you is long dead.


Sarenrae for redemption, Irori for self-perfection, maybe Gozreh for rebirth. Possibly Desna for a souls's new journey. I think it depends on where he envisions his final destination being.

Gods are goals in themselves, not just means of travel elsewhere.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Sarenrae and Shelyn are the two major deities who are all about redemption.


I reinvented myself. I then reinvented a whole lot of other things too.


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Nobody's mentioned Shelyn yet, so I will. The fluff around her dogma suggests that she appears to potential worshippers in the midst of their darkest hour, like in a foxhole in the heat of battle.

It might be kind of a cool backstory actually.

You were a grizzled, mercenary warrior, pillaging everything you could and carelessly using every vice including other people. You were a cad and a scoundrel with nothing but conquest and oblivion before you.

Then came The Battle of Mengler's Tor.

Your unit was betrayed and besieged by foe and ally alike. You cried out to your lord Gorum but of course your pleas fell on deaf ears. As men fell like cord wood and the sodden ground stank of blood you ran to the tree line, only to tumble down, into the dark of a shallow cave, your enemies hot on your trail.

But then, as all hope seemed lost the last rays of sunshine found their way to you, beyond you, into a single, multifaceted crystal exposed on the cave wall. The light refracted into a riot of color dancing across your vision like a playful child begging for you to chase them.

You thought you heard the songs of beautiful birds on the wind then, and the laughter in your mother's eyes. The scent of the lilacs from her garden teased your memory. Something in your heart gave way and you were at once unafraid, for at the moment of your fate you were reminded of all the living beauty in this world.

That wonderment filled you and for the first time since you were a wee child you were awed by something greater than yourself. Then from outside, the panting taunts of your pursuers. You had been discovered and now they would come down for you, to claim their horrible prize. But let them come, for the grin on your face and the tear in your eye were all the defense you would ever need.

From the lip of the cavern above came the opening salvo: a barrage of sling bullets driving you back against the cavern wall. Several ricocheted off your armor, your shield, but two struck hard and true, fracturing your knee and gashing your brow. Blood mingled with the tears then as you collapsed to your one good knee. They were there, encircling you, readying to drive axe and spear down through flesh and bone. You hoisted your shield one last time, a feeble attempt to delay the inevitable.

In that moment you marveled: so much beauty in this world, and only now do I wish to know it. That's when the glaive appeared.

The sudden clang shattered your dulling senses. Your consciousness would only remain a few moments more but in those precious seconds a lifetime of magnificence was revealed. A spectacular glaive, as beautiful as it was deadly, was dancing of it's own accord. It blocked and parried each attack away, returning each blow with two of its own. As it swung you could swear you heard a woman's voice, or perhaps more songbirds on a summer's breeze, and as your enemies fell or fled all you could do was marvel at the beauty of it all.

You awoke hours later. Your wounds were nothing more than throbbing aches over your tired but living body. There was no sign of the glaive or the birds or the scent of lilacs, but the memory of it all was so real, so vivid. You knew beyond all reason or logic that something had visited its will upon you, saved you despite your repugnant soul. You had been a despised and despicable man, but this grace had nonetheless chosen you to be spared.

"There is beauty in this world, if I would only take a moment to regard it" you thought. This singular mantra carried you up, out of the earthen hole and into the mourning midnight moon. The orb's silver light, like a pall upon the fallen left strewn on the moors before Mengler's Tor, gave you pause for a moment. In that moment, when in the face of all that horror you found grace and beauty, your new life truly began.

Since then you have curbed your carousing ways. For certain there are still moments of vice for even the highest soul yet stumbles, but always there is the reminder that even in folly there is a beauty to this weary world. You are not alone anymore for The Rose Eternal blooms with you, in you and through you.


Alseta

http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Alseta

Godess of doorways, transitions, and years.


Nethys, "Elder God" wrote:
I reinvented myself. I then reinvented a whole lot of other things too.

Funny, I look at you and think "Oh, look what magic did".

Irori on the other hand...


Almost any deity depending on what the incident was that caused them to reconsider. Pharasma if it was a death perhaps or Desna if it involved travelling to a different culture, Cayden Cailen if it involved pulling him/herself out of a bottle, etc. There's no limits.

Between the two of those I'd pick Irori. Iomedae's followers would condemn your convert's past actions too much I think.


As others have said, Sarenrae is all about redemption.

Shadow Lodge

Another, who I would name if the reinvention is a renunciation or their past would be Milani. These actions are a revolt, if only a personal small scale.

On a larger scale, formerly LE/LN soldiers serving a tyrant who've had their eyes opened to the suffering they've caused could easily turn on their former comrades and embrace Milani as a patron.

It also mirrors Milani's original origin as a half elf who revolted against her elven upbringing.

On a larger level, I think reinvention tends to be an intrinsically chaotic or neutral act as you are placing yourself in contrast to your previous customs and possibly to the power structures that have previously supported the formation of those habits.

It is an act of self awareness, the very thing Asmodeus most despises.


Korada’s followers are mainly former soldiers who have atoned for a life of violence.


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Example 1:
My -1 for PFS converted to Irori after being on an adventure that displayed so much knowledge and wisdom (via ancient ruins and libraries) and desperately wanting to be able to learn, to understand more.

They didn't even change from Neutral to Lawful Neutral, feeling that would restrict their ability to gain Enlightenment.

Example 2:
Home Runelords campaign had a character change from what they *thought* was Milani (was actually Lamashtu being very clever) to Desna when they finally discovered that being able to explore and travel and find new things without the icky parts going on was pretty awesome.

Example 3:
My -6 for PFS was a very, very shady tengu matriarch that would do ANYTHING to keep her family alive and whole, but after putting her sixth grandchild in the ground, was at a complete loss until a traveling wise woman who followed Andoletta (Grandmother Crow) helped her through her time of loss and helped find a path back to light and goodness.

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