First of all, if you are one of my players, and you keep reading, you'll be fed to the fishes. You have been warned :)
I have been running S&S for a while now (middle of the second book atm). I have been blessed with a group of really good roleplayers who all delivered their characters' backgrounds to me. The backgrounds are longer than this, but here is a brief summary:
Character backgrounds:
- Kyra, our Captain, is a half-orc barbarian (sea reaver) whose father, Captain Read, was a notorious pirate. She has managed to recover his map and is now looking for the magical looking glass that would enable her to read it, which is rumored to be somewhere in Port Peril.
- Vicrry is a gnome sorcerer who learned magic under the tutelage of a halfling known as the Brown Cloaked Sage who completely vanished without a trace after they went on a hunt for a stolen gem that possibly holds great magical power. Vicrry has been tortured by nightmares of his former mentor being trapped and in need of help.
- Ondun is a juju oracle that supposedly came from the lost lands of Sarusan and is looking for a way home.
- Sid is a middle aged half-orc corsair/smuggler who lived a life of dock crime and smuggling until one of his smuggling runs went bad. His crew was betrayed and turned on each other, and though Sid luckily got away, but the rest of his crew and the silver merchant he worked for are still after him.
So, what i was going to ask you guys, especially those of you who are further into the campaign is whether you have any cool ideas of how to integrate these stories into the main story. I have a few ideas of my own, but to avoid funneling your ideas, i'd rather not talk about them here. I've seen some really good imaginative storytelling talent in this thread, and I would like some input.
The best change on my part in book 1 was completely spontaneous and happened mostly due to my PCs being awesome. It happened when they fought Aaron Ivy in his stockade. I did not change his undead nature - however as an intelligent undead, I gave him a morale roll when he was completely cornered and nearly destroyed. Chances were not very good, but he surrendered, and later joined the PCs onboard their ship as a passenger.
My Ivy's backstory is that he was a con man back in Cheliax who infiltrated the Chelish navy under a false identity to get away from the law. He did this together with his accomplice and partner who disguised herself as one of the ship's whores. I gave him a level of bard and these days he hangs out on the ship with the PCs, uses Enhance Water to make them grog, and plays haunting Chelish dirges in the night on his violin.
Oh, and they have the problem of having to feed an always hungry undead monster on the ship - keeps them on their toes.
I GM Skull&Shackles but I have a similarly amusing experience playing a paladin in a party full of very roguish PCs doing plenty of rather roguish things.
The important thing is to remember that while being lawful good, not every paladin has to be sanctimonious, stuck-up, holier-than-thou party-pooper and that also the pole that most of them tend to have up their backs is completely optional. There is no reason a paladin could not muster a little tolerance.
There are no paladins on my S&S party (barbarian, oracle, corsair/smuggler and sorcerer), but I would definitely let a player who knew what he/she was dong play one.
It's a bit silly trying to apply our modern day morality to Golarion. It is also silly to try to stick all complexity of morality into nine narrow categories.
I think anyone who says that taking slaves in the game isn't an evil act is pretty sure not an advocate of real life slavery. It's a different world, and if done properly and lawfully keeping slaves is no more evil than employing people on wages who have no choice but to keep working anyway if they want to eat, and who can be worked to uselessness and replaced at the whim of their employer. At least a slave, as an investment, has some manner of social security.
Also through media we are mostly only exposed to the brutal side of slavery - galley rowers, miners on chain gangs, whipped plantation workers, etc. But historically many slaves lived much more comfortable lives. I am sure this was not the case only in historic societies of antiquity, but also in places like Cheliax. Important people's skilled slaves probably hold more power and influence than most free people.
Either way, i don't think anyone in their right mind would advocate slavery. But thinking we've moved on so much as a society just because we have abolished *one* form of human exploitation (while severely boosting many others) is a little self-important and hypocritical.
Usually in Society we have to choose between execution and slavery. So what is a good character to do? Only thing i can think of is, allow the person in question to make the choice.
A witch can only teach spells to his/her familiar that are on the witch spell list. If the witch could learn all the spells the wizard can learn, in addition to all the hexes and to the fact that a witch has access to some nice otherwise divine spells, it would make the witch unbalanced with the wizard.
Like the people above me said, you can only take multiple archetypes if they don't replace the same abilities. Of course if this is a private campaign, you can always discuss these things with your GM - for example if your archetypes overlap in just one replaced ability (but otherwise make sense together) you could perhaps convince your GM (or let your player) take both archetypes, but on the overlapping replace they can only take one archetype's ability.
This is not by the rules, but it is something i would probably allow my players in a private campaign if they have good character background reasons for wanting both archetypes and if this would not make the character more powerful than otherwise. Straying from the rules can sometimes be good for roleplay, but you have to take it upon yourself to balance things out. If you are confident you can do that, go for it.
I would also suggest that any player who wishes to play a character with multiple archetypes copies their basic class description in a document and replaces all the replaced the abilities with those of their archetypes, essentially reassembling the whole class. It's a few minutes of work and it saves you a ton of time looking through all the replaced stuff every time.
This will be a bit offtopic, but it's a response to Black Powder Chocobo:
We are a group of about five people that have played roleplaying games together with nearly embarassing intensity (yeah, we all acknowledge we have a problem ;) ) for about six years. Last year we decided that we would sacrifice some of our time, effort and also funds to spread the joy of roleplaying among the people in our area - which is by the way probably one of the worst places one could pick to try and get people to play roleplaying games. But we were not about to give up, and were going to try anyway.
As a part of our geekery, we are regular visitors and participants at nearly every convention in Croatia where unlike in Slovenia there is actually a geek community. That is where we met Zrinka and Maja a few years ago. When Society started, we were quick to jump on the train. That is why Pathfinder Society was our first thought when we were considering how to introduce our completely non-roleplaying nation to the sort of fun we have been having.
We have founded an official roleplaying club that is run and funded solely by our own efforts, and this is where our scenario (and other materials) funding comes from.
As for gameshops here, there is only one shop in the capital city of the country which is very small, not really a game shop as much as a gothic metal accessory and children's toy shop, and the prices and delivery times mostly leave us purchasing things from other countries over the internet. We are very glad there is at least one thing resembling a game shop in the whole country, but there is certainly no way they can help us.
I have always thought the nine alignments were not the best morality system ever in roleplaying games, even though they can still be used to further roleplay. The problem begins when you start bringing them into game mechanics, because everyone has their own conceptions of what is lawful, chaotic, good, or evil.
Considering lawful good only: You can have a character that holds any law in high regard and does little thinking about how just the law might be. On the other hand, you can have a character who is very disciplined, has a strong personal code of honor, keeps their word etc, but could not care less about the law of the land they find themselves in, especially if this is a land ruled by evil (not that uncommon around Golarion, huh? :) ). Lawful good does not have to mean close-minded good.
Besides, there are situations in which one can simply not do the lawful good thing either way. Example: Rogue saves Paladin's life. Paladin acknowledges the life debt and promises to repay the Rogue first chance he/she gets. Rogue asks Paladin to help him/her commit a crime and calls him/her on the promise.
Either way, the Paladin must be a scumbag. There's situations like this aplenty in roleplay. And human (or elf, or dwarf, or...) morality is so much more complex than the nine alignments, so i don't think people should stress over perfectly fitting a stereotype of an alignment too much - after all, no well-written character's moral compass can be summed up in two words.
Walter Sheppard - You could not be more right, and we have been trying and will keep trying to "bring up" our players with this attitude. But getting beginners to understand these things can take a while.
Still, that does nothing to change the way these rules will influence and to an extent limit the game, and encourage metagame scenario choice.
I have actually read the threads that you link to (to Drogon) when i was searching for answers and this was exactly what led me to posting this thread in the first place, because i did not find the answers there to be satisfactory.
Paz brings up a good point confirming that the new rules are basically metagame. I agree that metagaming is a big problem, especially for beginners, and there are probably a lot of people that would abuse their knowledge. But as has already been discussed in the GM boards, there are ways to limit that.
Then Jussi brought up another that is even more applicable, and it is exactly what my argument is - one is not supposed to look up loot lists and choose scenarios based on that. But the current system will lead players to do that, and there isn't really anything we can do to prevent them from doing it. If they knew they could safely replay it, they would not care about the loot or boons, and would focus on the roleplaying experience. It's true there is a downside to knowing where you are going, but honestly - how much do you remember about a scenario after a year, especially if you play tabletop RPGs relatively often? I would simply enjoy it much more if i could just choose to play a scenario with any character i think would be fun to play in it, instead of having to do all of this metagame planning.
I also agree with CRobledo in part. Some people will abuse the system no matter what you make it - they abused it before, and they will do it now. But roleplaying games are not about winning or getting ahead, and that is why i think rules should focus on maximizing the enjoyability of the game for the good players, not to try and eliminate every option of abuse, because that can just not be done. But probably the most relevant reason would be in the end, selling more scenarios, as CRobledo states. Paizo is generally very fair to their customers, so we can certainly not blame them for trying to survive. But what we wonder is if this should be done at the expense of player experience.
I can not say that the current system does not have its advantages, but i would argue it has even more flaws. So perhaps the best solution is somewhere in between the two. This is the reason i started this thread in the first place - i think it's important to discuss problems that come up and to bring up the concerns of our players, because this is the only way we can keep making this game better. I and my group of GMs are huge fans of Pathfinder (we privately play something like 5 campaigns, pre-written and homebrew) and we care deeply about the game, so we wish to provide meaningful feedback. It is definitely not our intention to bring up debates that have been exhausted, or to needlessly question or criticize the rules - only to contribute to the game's continuous evolution in any way we can.
All of your responses have been very helpful and we are going to work on implementing some of these possible solutions. However, our main question still remains unanswered. That is, why one player chronicle per scenario, as opposed to one character chronicle per scenario, since it's obviously not due to metagame knowledge (can GM the scenario first). This is the answer we are seeking to give our players.
Multi-parters, sactioned modules and adventure paths all have the same problem, which is bringing the same group together every session. When there is a group of semi-regular players visiting our sessions, this can sometimes be very hard to do. We will certainly consider this option sometime in the future when some of our players prove to be reliable enough.
While there are enough scenarios to theoretically level three characters to level 12, provided one gets every single one of the scenarios, the problem of not being able to replay a scenario with another character remains. This way, if anyone wishes to have more than three characters, they will be stuck at a certain level. If the number of characters one would wish to play is relatively high, as in our case - I for instance, would probably opt to play at least three or four new characters every year and so would most of my friends - this turns into a huge problem, as does combining players to tables as i said. One has to constantly think about how to "spend" their scenarios on their characters. There is so much metagame planning involved it hurts - for example, players will choose to play a certain scenario with a certain character just because of the rewards (it is already happening to us) instead of choosing a character that would work best with the rest of the party, fit the story, or in any way provide a better roleplaying experience. And while the system encourages people to GM, not everyone is able or suitable for the role and some people will again choose to GM just to get a reward - more bad motivation that usually results in bad play.
Maybe this is easier on some of the older or bigger groups, but we are definitely hitting a relatively big problem here. It may even result in us losing some of the already relatively small player base, especially if we can not justify this system to them, which at the moment we are completely unable to do. I got especially discouraged by a quote from one of our players when this situation was explained. He said.
"Oh. Well, Pathfinder Society just got about a hundred times less cool."
We have recently (past 2 months) started a PFS group in Slovenia and we are pleased to say we have managed to amass a player base we can work with, and have started to get more people involved in roleplaying through Pathfinder Society. It has been an overall very positive experience. However, we have come upon a problem that has our entire group wondering about the reasons for it.
"You cannot receive more than 1 player Chronicle and 1
GM Chronicle for the same scenario, regardless of how
many times you GM or play the scenario. You are free to
replay a scenario in order to meet the minimum legal
table size (see Chapter 7), but once you have reached
that limit, you do not earn any additional rewards
beyond having a good time." -Guide to Pathfinder
Society Organized Play 4.2, page 21
Not being able to have more than 1 GM chronicle makes sense to us. After all GMing is not done for in-character rewards, and we could easily do without this bonus. What has struck us as strange is that one can only have one player chronicle per scenario. This means that once a certain scenario is played with one of one's characters, this person can never legally play the same scenario with another, which results in a few problems:
1) One is very limited in how many characters they can effectively play and level. For us as regular and experienced players one of the main appeals of the Society is that we can try out many different, interesting, wacky and quirky characters that represent something new, and a challenge. But as things are, if one wants to have more than one, two or three characters, they will quickly run out of scenarios for all those characters to play.
2) It gets very hard to compose groups when you have a base of semi-regular players. If some outlevel the others, and wish to play alongside them with a new lower level character, we can not give them credit for completing that scenario with another character.
3) Plenty of chronicle rewards are very class or otherwise specific. So if one plays a scenario with a fighter where one gains an item only usable by a wizard, they can never acquire that item with that wizard. Overall, upon completing a scenario once, one is effectively locked out of it forever.
There are other problems with this system, but these are some of the main ones. I discussed this with my group and we wondered why this is the case, and we came upon the idea that it might be because having already played the scenario a player might possess metagame knowledge about it that would give them an unfair advantage. But:
"In certain circumstances, a player may need to replay
a scenario he has already completed, or play a scenario
that he has already run as a GM." -Guide to Pathfinder
Society Organized Play 4.2, page 21
If we understand this right, the order in which one GMs and plays a scenario doesn't matter. So it would be perfectly legal to first GM a scenario and later play it. Therefore the argument that the metagame knowledge is why one can not replay a scenario with several characters does not hold, especially since surely after GMing a scenario one knows much more about it than after simply playing it with one character. Besides, it is clear that there is nothing stopping anyone from buying a scenario and reading it prior to playing if they really wanted to gain the unfair advantage of knowing everything about the scenario before playing it, although why anyone would wish to do that is a topic of another discussion.
Therefore, we are truly at a loss to understand why scenarios could not be replayed with several characters, and the idea seems extremely metagame and detrimental to the replayability and enjoyability of Pathfinder Society which is otherwise one of the best ideas in tabletop RPG history ever. We agree that there should be some kind of limitation set as to how many player chronicles one could have for one scenario, or how often they can acquire them. For example, it would work fine if one could play the same scenario with a different character every year/season (this ensures that the player would probably forget most details about the scenario in the meantime, as well). There could simply be a higher cap than one player chronicle per scenario, or more scenarios besides just the First Steps series could be added to the replayable scenario pool. There are probably more solutions to this problem than what we have managed to think of, but what we really look for is some kind of an answer as to why this rule exists because it obviously isn't due to metagame knowledge getting in the way of play. We need this so we can explain and justify this rule to our players most of whom were really looking forward to trying some scenarios with different characters before we informed them that they could not (at least legally) do that, and who have a whole bunch of characters planned and dreamt up only to be told that if they wish to have more than one or two, they will probably not be able to level any of them up more than a few levels.
Thanks in advance for insights, and happy adventuring!
Congrats as well from our ever growing little group in Slovenia, as well. What you guys have done in Rijeka is admirable and in Maribor we are doing our best to follow Rijeka and Zagreb in the establishment of a strong local community. We wish you plenty of success and fun, and that you will in spite of your new duties sometimes still find the time to play the game :)
Disclaimer: I have written this content as part of the background of a character I am playing in one of our campaigns. Since I consider it somewhat interesting, I decided to share it with you people. This is a work of fiction and is not part of the Paizo canon, but it is originally intended for the Pathfinder Official Campaign Setting, though it could be with minor changes ported to any fantasy setting. I do not own Paizo-created content within this work (Taldor, Arazni, Iomedae, Knights of Ozem...). You are free to use this content, but if you repost it, please add a citation of authorship.
So without further ado, enjoy the possibly most stuckup order of Iomedaean knights!
The Order of Knights of Our Lady the Inheritor a.k.a. Taldan Whiteshields
Motto: For Justice, for Valor and for Light
History
The history of this order is as disputable as of any organization of this age, but the Whiteshields claim to trace their lineage back to the Taldan Grandmaster His Divine Holiness, Saint Cassius the Stalwart, Beacon of the Inheritor who by the legend stood with Iomedae herself during the events of the Shining Crusade. There is a number of miraculous deeds of valor that they claim that their progenitor, at he time a Knight of Ozem, performed. Among them was advising against summoning Arazni in his wisdom, saving Iomedae's life on several occasions, and being personally involved in the imprisoning of Tar-Baphon. In spite of being asked to stay as their leader after Iomedae's ascension, Cassius insisted on returning to his beloved land of Taldor, but of course not before helping the Knights of Ozem establish their position at Lastwall – in fact, asking the Whiteshields you would learn that the very reason Lastwall still stands against the forces of evil is Saint Cassius's strategic genius. In 3827 AR he returned to Oppara and invested all of his earnings from the Crusade into bulding a glorious temple just a few miles outside of the city. After teaching his first eleven disciples (The Eleven), Cassius peacefully passed away of old age in 3841. His will, when it was read, spelled the Final Vows of the Knights of Our Lady the Inheritor that every Initiate wishing to become a Knight still recites today.
The disciples of Cassius, also known as The Eleven, then continued to lead the Order to great prosperity within the time of their generaton. Eleven subdivisions opened accross Taldor and they managed to attract many members of high nobility within their ranks, significantly increasing their wealth. They continued to be known as very trustworthy and reliable providers of protection and ever vigilant guardians against evil. In the revolt of Oppara in the beginning of the fifth millenium, they helped to quell the uprisings, but very soon their attention turned to the south as Quadira took advantage of the inner instabilities of Taldor to invade. For the 524 years of the war, the Whiteshields stood among the most elite defenders of Taldor. But while they managed to fight off the Quadiran threat, the dreadful news that Cheliax managed to wrestle its independence while they were defying the Quadiran scimitars reached them. Even though the Knights opposed the signing of the truces, with Cheliax as well as with Quadira, they submitted to the will of the government and sought no further conflict after the peace was made. Still, both Cheliax and Quadira remain among their bitter grudges.
As the power of Taldor dwindled and its society slowly began its way down the path of decline, so did the most glorious days pass for the Order. From about ten thousand, their membership was slowly reduced to just about one thousand Knights and Initiates over a few centuries. With no more wars to fight and no more great evils to defeat, some of the them left for places where glory in battle was easier to seek, such as Lastwall. Some went to travel and seek out a life of adventure with like-minded people. Still others offered protection services to travellers or merchants. Those that stayed mostly turned to the business of safekeeping and banking to support the Order. What was originally a noble intention became rather lucrative business. Still, the decline of the world around them was not kept outside of the Order's splendid walls, and not even the Knights cold escape corruption. In the times during the past century, it was not unheard of for the Knights to amass significant wealth, unofficially hold estates, secretly keep concubines or even families, drink, gamble, and pursue a number of far less than holy activities.
Things changed just about thirty years ago when the most recent order Grandmaster, His Divine Holiness Letholdus Chelmsford of Cassomir, Beacon of the Inheritor from the time of his joining only known as Brother Jacob, took office. What was before a relatively permissive environment became a strict monastic-military institution with zero tolerance for any noncompliance with the Vows. Within just a decade, the membership of the order was reduced from over a thousand to just over a hundred members. Many of them were cast out by Jacob himself for their transgressions, but even more of them quit as their lives of relative leisure, freedom and comfort turned into a routine of religious fanaticism, military discipline, and an endless internal crusade against all forms of sin. Many claimed that this man would ruin the Order completely, but those few fanatics that stood with him claim that he is bringing upon a new era of glory and righteousness, comparing him to Saint Cassius himself. If the Church of Iomedae looked with moderate disfavor upon the Knights for proclaiming themselves Iomedae's ordained priests without the Church's blessing before, Jacob's strategies upset a lot of their members and only increased the tension between the two organizations. Even more so because Jacob himself used to serve as a priest within their ranks, then shamelessly accused them of corruption and joined the Order instead. But unlike many years ago, the hundred or so Knights fanatical enough to continue their training under Grandmaster Jacob's iron fist don't quite have the numbers to stand against the Church of Iomedae itself...
Structure
As there is only one Order building and location left of the former eleven, the titles of Grandmaster and Order Master (leader of a particular Order division) are nowadays synonymous in practice. Opposite of the Grandmaster is the Grand Cleric, an official emmisary of the Church of Iomedae within the Order. Even though all members of the Order, Knights as well as Initiates, are claimed to be fully ordained priests of Iomedae by the Order, the Church of Iomedae still demanded for a representative of theirs to be present within every Order division to oversee the Grandmaster's work and advise him in spiritual matters. With the exception of a few, most Grand Clerics have been very unpopular within the Order. Most Grand Clerics keep a team of Acolytes, and within the Church of Iomedae, being placed within an Order of the Knights is thought of as a form of puishment. In spite of the Grand Cleric's presence, the Grandmaster is by every tenant of the Order directly under Iomeade herself and holds very little responsibility to the Church.
The Grandmaster names a council of traditionally eleven Elders who are usually among the oldest and most dedcated members of the Order. Every Elder names his own traditionally eleven Knight Captains. As the numbers of the Order are not measured in thousands anymore, this rule is ot realy observed, and often instead of eleven there are far fewer Elders, as well as Knight Captains per Elder.
Bellow the Knight Captains are Knights, the fully sworn members of the Order that have taken their Final Vows, which typically happens between the ages of 25 and 30, but it can happen earlier or later, depending on an individual's dedication. Nowadays, any transgression against the Vows by these Knights is met with very severe punishments and penances or expulsion from the Order.
The lowest on the Order member hierarchy are Initiates. In order to receive membership, one must make a commitment to prove themselves worthy of taking the Vows, and that is usually done on the threshold of adulthood. This is done in a ritual called the Initiation. Those that dedicate themselves to the Vows must prove that they are able to take them by follwing them for several years prior, typically about a decade. In spite of their transitory position, very few Initiates ever decide not to take the Vows, and so they are counted among the Order membership just like Knights. They are also fully ordained priests of Iomedae even though that is disputed by the Church in many places. In fact, to any outside observer, the difference between a Knight and an Initiate s very hard to see.
Before becoming Initiates, the candidates typically spend at least a few years living in the Order. These are called Cadets and are not considered members of the Order. The most typical age at which children enter it is 8-12, even though they accept children as soon as they are able to take basic care of their own needs. The ritual of accepting one for training is simply called the Joining.
Not only do the Whiteshields not accept females within their ranks, but they do not even allow them to enter the Order compound. This applies to the Grand Clerics and their Acolytes as well. It is not unusual for a Witheshield knight to not see a single woman save for the images of Iomedae for his entire life at the Order, if he does not embark on any missions. They are also very wary of accepting nonhumans, even though this is open to discussion and bargaining on the prospective nonhuman Knight's sponsor's end.
Besides members of the Order, the building also has a support staff the size of which has significantly decreased. This consists of various workers, combatants, craftsmen and other associates. This staff used to outnumber the members at least three to one, doing most of the mundane work required at the Order including cooking, cleaning, laundry, crafting, maintaining gear, preparing ceremonies, and so on. Now there is only a handful of these people left, and the vast majority of work falls on Cadets and Initiates.
Outfit and Combat Style
The typical Knight is clad in full plate, and Initiate in banded mail armor, supplemented with chainmail coverings where plates can not be used. Under the armor they wear clothing that is always white, as is their tabbard that bears the insignia of Iomedae's sword in crimson. They wear full helms, on top of which the Grandmaster wears a golden plume, the Elders wear crimson, and the Knight Captains blue. On their backs they wear a knee-length cape, as purely white as their clothing, with a crimson trim at the bottom that is about 3 inches wide. Most Knights pride themselves on the whiteness of their clothes that symbolizes their purity and virtue and work on maintaining it.
They are armed almost exclusively with a longsword and heavy steel shield that is painted white and bears Iomedae's insignia like the tabbard.
The Knights are often mounted, but they practice mounted as well as infantry combat styles, and any fully ordained Knight is expected to be a master of both.
The Knights' combat style has been developping for a millenium and has gone from efficient combat moves to an elaborate art that sometimes resembles a dance more than it does combat. There are dozens of combat forms that the Knights learn to perform by heart, most of them having little to do with actual combat. Often in the role of protectors and defenders, a large portion of their technique focuses on the shield and defensive manouvers, although there are also techniques that employ the shield as a weapon. Watching a trained Knight fight is definitely a feast for the eyes, but the effectiveness of their combat is often not on par with its beauty, especially when their opponent uses unexpected, dirty moves that they have no training in countering.
Rituals
Every prospective Knight, with very rare exceptions, begins his training as a Cadet. Then, following his advancement in skill and dedication, he can take part in rituals elevating him in te Order hierarchy. Every man living in the order, from Cadet to Grandmaster, may address each other as Brother, but the formal titles of the higher officials are supposed to be added.
The Joining - Cadet
The Initiation - Initiate
The Vows - Knight
The Accolade – Knight Captain (Title: Illuminated Captain)
The Reverence – Elder (Title: Reverent Excellency)
The Exaltation - Order Master (Title: His Exalted Holiness)
The Apotheosis – Grandmaster (Title: His Divine Holiness, Beacon of the Inheritor)
Vows
This Vow is a part of the knighting ceremony of every new Knight, and cements his membership in the Order for the rest of his life.
Final Vow of a Knight of Our Lady the Inheritor
-
I, (full name and title) hereby solemnly swear,
My Master and all of my Brothers my witnesses,
Before Her all-encompassing Light,
That I shall honor the vows I am about to speak
With perfect care and adherence.
I shall break them neither to advance my means,
Nor those of my allies,
And not even to avoid my own demise.
For anything that dispatches a True Believer,
Shall only deliver him into Her embrace eternal.
-
I hereby relinquish my every claim to nobility,
All of my worldly possessions,
Every allegiance save for that to the Order,
And submit my will entirely and with no reservation
To that of my Lady, and through Her,
My Master who is Her Beacon here on the material.
-
In Her service I shall forever abandon my every desire,
Other than to spread Her Light and Glory,
And to serve the Order of her army
To the very best of my ability and beyond.
In this, I shall follow these tenants
For as long as I live.
-
Poverty:
I shall not wish for honor, glory or fame for myself,
For all the Honor, Glory and Fame are Hers to have.
I shall not wish for wealth or influence,
For all the wealth I possess is the Light within my soul,
That no amount of riches can parallel.
-
Purity:
I shall not strive for joys of the world,
For food, drink, leisure or games,
For I may never idle in place of Her service.
I shall especially avoid all substances that cloud the mind,
And may impair my composure.
-
Chastity:
I shall guard myself against every corruption and temptation,
That of body, mind, or soul.
The bond I share with Her my only attachment,
I shall turn my hand, eye and heart away from all others
Faithful to none but Her Light for the rest of my life.
-
Protection:
I shall dedicate all of my mortal life and my every effort
To protecting the weak and those in need of protection.
Standing before them, sheltering them from all evil,
And vanquishing it from within the souls of those unfortunates
Who have been caught within its vicious grasp.
-
Charity:
I shall always help the helpless and uplift the fallen,
And I shall only keep what material possessions I require
In order to fight in Her honor,
Sacrificing all other means granted to me
To the welfare of those less fortunate than I,
For mine is the ultimate fortune of Her Grace.
-
Loyalty:
I shall give my complete allegiance to the Order,
Putting no will, not even my own, above it, at no cost.
My obedience to the Master of my Order will be without question.
Always honoring and serving all of my betters, friends and allies,
but above all, the Order that made me.
-
Bravery:
I shall abandon all fear, for there is nothing I stand to lose.
Only looking forward to the day I can join Her in the Heavens,
No evil that stands in my way shall move me,
And I shall not rest until it has been banished.
-
Should I honor and uphold these tenants,
And always keep my Holy Vows,
In face of temptation, adversity, evil and corruption,
I humbly pray that my soul be delivered to Her Mercy,
To be judged by its every merit.
But should I ever dare to break any of its commandments,
I give myself to Damnation and Suffering,
For ever and ever until the end of Time.
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Prayers
In addition to the vows, all members of the order recite the Acts of Iomedae several times per day and meditate on each of them regularly. On top of the Acts themselves, they also have a few prayers to utter before any major action, training, meal, task, sleep, or any other act they consider as deserving of a divine thanks or blessing. Here is one of them.
Daily Prayer
Glorious Mistress of righteous battle,
Thou art the Light of my sword and my heart.
Blessed be thine closest servants,
Jingh, Peace Through Vigilance, and Saint Lymirin.
Blessed be thine Eleven Acts of Valor,
And thy divine ascension.
Blessed be the great Shining Crusade,
And the victory to which thou leadest.
I beseech thee, Inheritor,
With all that is good within my mortal heart,
Lead me as you have thy knights,
To spread the Light of thy Sword
And let no danger or temptation
Lead me from Justice, Valor and Light.
