SomeRandomPerson's page

I forgot to mention in my last post that both Czarist Russia and the Soviet Union strike me as being more similar to . . . Irrisen . . . Which is canonically Neutral Evil, and ruled largely by Neutral Evil rulers. They care not for order or freedom, except as tools to use for their own selfish ends. Either way, not Hellknight material.

Irrisen is based on Russian folk tales.

A Czar who finds an underling too LG for his taste might send him to this kind of place with the order to slay Baba Yaga, and offering the reward in the form of his daughter in marriage in case of success.

The Czar would expect the underling to be eaten by Baba Yaga, but should the underling return with Baba Yaga's head, the Czar will grit his teeth and throw the kingdom's largest wedding party ever, at which literally an ocean's worth of vodka will be consumed. Which is pretty Lawful, I think.

I would guess that there are two general ways in which a paladin could look at law.

One, a paladin could be of the view that law just happens to be the best tool to achieve good. But it is still a means to an end, not an end in itself. At a purely theoretical ethics level, such a paladin may well agree with someone who is neutral good on the importance/unimportance of law. From this perspective, at least in some cases achieving a greater good by allowing (or even committing) a lesser evil might make sense.

Another, a paladin could see law as a good in itself. From this perspective, achieving a greater good by committing a lesser evil (or even lesser chaos) is a contradiction.

The former paladin could conceivably work with Hellnights or Quebec Provincial Police.

It also depends on who the Hellnight deal with members who refuse to do some of the more unsavoury things that Hellnights do. Maybe rather than taking any kind of disciplinary measures they send them against whatever unambiguously evil monsters happen to be around - and there no shortage of such monsters in Golarion.

I am putting together a realm set in the River Kingdoms for my campaign, and they actually have a priest of Hanspur as their executioner. Death by drowning is the purest death, you see, the water washes away all sin. As far as the executioner is concerned, he is doing the evildoers a favour.

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.

Probably Andoletta (aka Grandmother Crow).

I am all for being a good person but I can't stand fools.

Like the idea of a god whose doctrine includes whacking fools with a stick.

If you are annoying people simply because you enjoy annoying them, surely hat is an evil act? Not as evil as sacrificing babies to Rovagug, but still evil, no?

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?

How about horc and helve?

Given how half-orcs tend to face a fair bit of bigotry, I can see 'horc' as being a derogatory term - at least in its origins.

Voadam, fair enough, but is there a god of drizzle and a little bit of fog? There are plenty of thunder gods though.

And what would be the teachings of the putative "Church of Pretty Good" and "Church of Minor Douchebaggery"?

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.

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?

"Fargo" shows a pregnant chief of police who is still doing chief of police things including, towards the end, blowing away a suspect. Watching this movie might be a good way to get into the mindset of RPing this sort of situation.