I mean, I know they don’t like gods, but I feel like the mortal pursuit of Perfection feels very appealing to them. Is there anything in canon about this?
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They are (at least officially) against everything divine. Even if they want to pursue perfection themselves, they would see Irori as competition and distraction. Although if a Rahadoumi in good standing with the state succeeded in achieving divinity through perfection, that would likely drill a loophole big enough to drive an army convoy through, and would likely cause a Rahadoumi civil war and a hot war between the newly ascended deity and Irori, although a smart Rahadoumi ascendant might try to defuse the situation in advance by claiming to be only a mighty exemplar of the Rahadoumi people and maybe even a "Debunker of the Starstone".
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Define "Perfection".
Because that is one vaaague concept, and I'm comfortably certain Rahadoum's take on it most certainly will not include godhood, the pursuit of it, or the worship of that one dude that supposedly became so "perfect" he became one of those vile deities that plague mortals.
Having been a man and ascending is more likely to make you a traitor than an exemplar.
And the ban of worship doesn't care about who's worshipped, just that something is. Let no Man be beholden to a God, and all that.
Two thirds of the Oath Wars were made of the clergies of ascended mortals after all. One of which got there of his own effort even, with no starstone shortcut, much like Irori. Nethys was kinda the perfect mage. The Irori of magic.
Also, we don't know much of the Laws of Mortality (or I haven't found them, and the lore wiki doesn't have them past the first), but there's no particular reason to believe the quest for personal perfection is any part of the Rahadoumi ideal. It wouldn't exactly be integral to the spiritual freedom and independence aspect of the rest of the thing.
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The central Rahadoumi thesis appears to be "just because something is powerful, or commendable does not mean you should worship them".
So if a Rahadoumi managed to achieve divinity, that being would most likely disdain the notion of "being worshiped"- having no divine text, granting no spells to Clerics, etc.
So that Irori managed to attain divinity through his own actions, is fine. That anyone would worship him for that, however, is unthinkable.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Define "Perfection".
Because that is one vaaague concept, and I'm comfortably certain Rahadoum's take on it most certainly will not include godhood, the pursuit of it, or the worship of that one dude that supposedly became so "perfect" he became one of those vile deities that plague mortals.
{. . .}
That's awfully optimistic -- experience on Earth shows (more than once, and in recent history) that it is all too easy to develop a quasi-divine cult of personality in an officially atheist state.
I imagine it would vary, you might get some in a rant like "Irori is a traitor to all mortal kind gaining godhood like that! For all intents and purposes, he joined the enemy and became one of the divine that would enslave us all!"
Others might be like "Good on him, now if idiots would just stop worshiping him"
And if a Rahadoumi did it with the right message, it would be like "Yeah! Our hero finally shows up those gods! Now we're going to be the greatest nation on Golarion! No more flying or teleporting over us, and stop calling us idiots!"(*)
(*)Except if they actually wrote any of this, it would be likely that some of the words would be misspelled.
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I think most Rahadoumi would like to be gods. Most folks have power fantasies. They might want to follow in Irori's footsteps, or maybe Nethys. And the starstone appeals to them as well. They just won't subjugate themselves to any divine overlord to get there.
Refusing to follow a god is not the same as opposing that god. An artist might be glad that Shelyn inspires works of art, and might even hope for inspiration, but won't actively ask for divine help. Some things are not worth the cost.