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Picture a real-world police department. Vast majority of the cops will want to promote law in order. In Pathfinder terms, most of them are Lawful, and the rest of them have to at least pretend to be Lawful to some extent or another. Some of them will genuinely want to "Serve and Protect" - they will try to uphold the law and protect the innocent - probably in this order. These guys are Lawful Good. But many of them are still not above delivering you a world of hurt if you resist arrest. There will be plenty of "rules are rules" guys. Government tells them take away medical marijuana from eldery ladies in wheelchair, and they do it. The law changes, and they will stop doing so. New government outlaws cucumbers, and they will bust down doors of cucumber growers. These guys are Lawful Neutral. And then there are the guys will will obey (or hide behind) police procedure, and if you don't give them a hard time they will probably not pound you. But they will not see a problem throwing a flash-bang grenade at a baby's face as long as rules are followed and proper paperwork is done. These guys are Lawful Evil. And much of the time, they will all work together. If you are an ordinary citizen having to deal with the police concerning some routine mater, you might even have difficulty telling them apart. So, think of Hellnights as elite, somewhat brutal police. Of course a Lawful Good Hellnight will have a different worldview than, say, a Lawful Good healer - but there is nothing in the notion of "Lawful Good" precluding that.
But the Nephali are not really gods, are they? In the "Screwtape Letters", Screwtape wrote that cards are as good as murder, if it leads the person to hell. Perhaps helping an old lady across the street is as good as killing the Lich King and all his Evil Minions, if it leads one to the Seven Heavens?
One of the stories I read about Scientology is that people thought that they were the only one's for whom the awesome OT powers were not working, so they faked it. People get very funny when they are in a situation where everyone else is saying something blatantly false - they often act as if they bought into it even if, inside, they did not buy in 100%. Also makes me think of an old North Korean joke. A Korean police officer asks a colleague, "What do you think of Our Great Leader?" "Same thing as you do, comrade." "In this case, I shall have to arrest you for treason." Human ability for self-deception and hypocrisy is rather incredible.
By the time the priests learn that Razmiranism is a lie, they have too much invested (personally, not necessarily in terms of money) to treat it as anything other than truth. It works this way for the Church of Scientology - where those reaching Operating Thetan levels often know its all b+@!%~%~ but pretend, to some extent even to themselves, that it is not. No need for any special reward - people are good enough at making rationalizations.
According to The Inner Sea World Guide, slavery is "commonplace" in Rahadoum. That makes it unambiguously evil by any normal standard. Whose normal? From what I can tell, slavery is fairly common in Golarion, even in supposedly good nations. But presumably, a Lawful Good individual would treat their slaves well, and allow them whatever legal opportunities there are to get their freedom (and maybe more, depending on how Good they are). A Lawful Evil master might not beat their slaves on a whim, but if they deserve a good whipping, they get a good whipping. Obviously, being Chaotic Good would not mix with slavery too well, but a CG person in a society where slavery is seen as normal might simply allow his slaves scandalous amount of liberty rather than freeing them.
Could there also be a good of being somewhat nice? I doubt it. Gods are the epitome of human virtues and vices and emotions. Not sure what would be the point of gods otherwise. So we could have a worshiper of, say, Iomedae, who is a nice guy, sometimes helps his elderly neighbour with chores. When a war comes along, he joins the army and then volunteers for the supply unit, relatively far from the fighting, because the war is just and all, but he does not want to die. He is good, in a petty way. Similarly, we could have a worshipper of Rovagug who is generally a bit of a douchebag in daily life, and sometimes late at night he sneaks out of the house and breaks windows, especially the really nice coloured glass ones if he comes across them. He will also sometimes take a dump on peoples' front steps. But Rovagug himself is far, far beyond crap like that.
Where does it say what the gods' skin color is? Different artists will picture gods differently, its not like the gods sit down for a portrait. So the people in the Mwangi Expanse probably picture gods very differently from how the people on Northern Astivan picture the very same gods.
Do the gods really care if people worship them? Or is this how finite, unimaginative mortals picture them because they have limited understanding? How about this: Good-aligned nonworshippers basically go to the same sort of places other good- aligned people go. The gods reward good actions, not worship. The situation is different with evil gods. Some evil gods have specific goals rather than "evil". So if you were a serial killer who did not worship any gods, it may well be that there is simply no reason for any evil god to provide you with any sort of reward. (Even Chaotic Evil gods generally see the value of rewards.) So this CE serial killer will end up in the Abyss without any sort of patron, however nasty - and will be fair game for any passing demon that is feeling peckish. On the other hand, some evil gods like evil and destruction for its own sake, and they might find use for the CE serial killer's soul in furthering evil - whatever the serial killer might think of the gods. Things could get highly variable with the neutral non-worshippers.
How about this, for places that are not too evil. There is only one penalty for everything: Death. The catch is, for lesser crimes the death is probabilistic. If you get caught doing minor theft, you are actually sentenced to 1% chance of death. So you are brought out to the place of execution, and a wheel is spun, and there is 99/100 chance you are let go. For some more serious crimes, the chance is 99/100 you will be executed. You can ask for that chance to be decreased to 49/100 - if you are willing to be broken on the wheel rather than, say, beheaded, should you end up being executed anyway. Thoughts? |
