Help me create a Qi Zhong Paladin Code

[Lugh Ildanach]

One of my players is playing a Paladin of Qi Zhong (Dragon Empires Gazetteer pg. 58), a Tian Xia god.

This is all the info we get from him.

Qi Zhong
Master of Medicine
Alignment: NG
Pantheon: Deities of Tian Xia
Areas of Concern: Healing, magic, medicine
Domains: Good, Healing, Knowledge, Magic, Protection
Favored Weapon: Heavy mace
Symbol Wagon: wheel with spokes made of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood
Sacred Animal(s): Crane

I'm trying to think of a fitting Paladin Code for my player, can you help me create one?

Thanks in advance.

[prototype00]

1. First Do no Harm.
2. Treat the sick and the wounded in order of their severity, not their social standing.

Stuff like that?

prototyp00

[Weirdo]

Ok, I'm seeing three themes here.

First and most obvious we have healing, reinforced by the crane (a symbol of longevity). Second, magic/knowledge. You also seem to have missed a line reinforcing this theme (worshippers: healers, scholars, wizards, mystic theurges). Third, the Chinese elements. These are not properly seen as substances as the western elements typically are, but represent actions or virtues each taken in turn.

So this is probably a deity who values measured or balanced action, particularly that taken to gain knowledge or prevent suffering, and the use of knowledge to promote well-being. With that in mind, some ideas:

• I relieve the sufferings of the body wherever and however I can, by grace of Qi Zhong's healing touch, by herbal medicine, or by surgery.
  
• I preserve knowledge, for ignorance is the sickness of the mind and ignorance feeds sickness of the body.
  
• I accept all things in their own time: birth and death, growth and diminishment, joy and sadness, action and contemplation. The only thing I do not accept is needless suffering, which is a wound upon the soul.
  
• Five are the virtues I embody: Idealism, Passion, Honesty, Rationality, and Scholarship. They are the spokes upon the wheel of my righteousness and if they are not firm and balanced that wheel will crack under the weight of the world.
  

[The black raven]

In addition to what is said above :

- I will heal all those who are in honest need of my skills. If they are guilty, I will release them to justice when they are fit for it.

- I will protect those in my care, whether innocent or guilty, rich or poor, of my faith or another, until they can protect themselves.

- I will learn the healing craft in all its forms and teach it to those worthy so that the world is healed.

- I will pursue those who pervert the healing arts to terrible use and bring them to justice.

- When no cure is possible, I will provide comfort and peace to the end.

[Lugh Ildanach]

Excellent advice, guys.

What about the enemies of the faith?
Taboos?

Obvious enemies would be undead and necromancers. They "reverse" the natural or magical healing process.

[Weirdo]

Necromancy is an easy target for most good deities in Golarion. I think The black raven's "those who pervert the healing arts" is a good metric and would apply to torturers and fleshwarpers as well as anyone involved in unethical medical research, black market organ trading, or any other form of cures that rely on exploitation or suffering of innocents.

Those who intentionally spread disease would probably be pretty close to the top of the list. Those who impersonate healers or sell snake oil would also be a concern.

Taboos would be not doing the things mentioned above: failing to help someone who needs healing, harming or lying to a patient, destroying or concealing knowledge of healing. If you're looking for less obvious / more symbolic taboos, maybe killing a crane? The heavy mace is also reminiscent of the old prohibition against priests "shedding blood" in battle (by using piercing or slashing weapons).

I'm not sure how this deity and paladins thereof would feel about poison and poisoners. It's typically dishonourable for paladins, but a god of medicine might consider it a more merciful alternative to bashing someone's brains in - or another perversion of medicine. (I personally am a fan of the expression "the difference between poison and medicine is dose.")

Another suggestion:

"As a doctor first tries to bring the complete body into harmony but does not hesitate to remove a diseased part to save the whole, so I too will seek first to return those on the path of evil to the path of righteousness, but will not hesitate to destroy evil when necessary."

[Hmm]

I want to give Weirdo and Black Raven serious kudos points. That is some lovely Paladin Code writing! I love the thought that you two put into this.

Hmm

[Lugh Ildanach]

Thanks a lot, guys. I already read the code to my player and he's more than happy.