So I started the campaign with a session 0 in which I asked my players to make characters that want to help the town of otari, to generally be good characters. But I have a player (my first time gming for him) that I have since learned loves to be an edgy PC. In the beginning his character (a nagaji dhampir) hated undead and worshipped pharasma, in part because he was turned into a dhampir. Which was well and good.
On the first floor of the keep, the party Crit on a knowledge check on Nhimbaloth. I still wanted to have the god be a little mysterious so I pretty much read out the beginning paragraph of the Nhimbaloth chapter in the back matter of the book. And honestly, reading it back, it's an afront to the cycle of souls but really just makes the god seem like a powerful predator.
Fast forward to now, the party just had a harrowing encounter with volluk. They were not prepared for a boss fight when they entered that room and were a little upset by the end even though they succeeded. After the fight while the party was resting, this edgy player went up to the chapel area and started praying to Nhimbaloth (I should also say for flavours sake, he got hit by a hazard earlier that gave him some memory loss and so forgot a lot about pharasma).
All that to say, I'm not sure how to handle a character who wants to worship Nhimbaloth. Should I give them knowledge that creating undead is a main form of worship? I feel like staying a non evil character and praying to Nhimbaloth feels wrong. Any tips here?
It also makes little sense to me that Nhimbaloths edict is creating ghosts and undead to feed her, and yet this lighthouse is full of ghosts that she can't feed on because they're stuck in this place. It also seems like worshippers sacrifice themselves to her, or when they die their spirits are to be eaten by her, and yet again the ghosts never move on and so can't be eaten (namely belcorra?). Almost seems like becoming a ghost and staying on golarian saves you from being eaten since you don't move on to the boneyard.
Creative Director
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Nhimbaloth, as an outer god, isn't very hands-on with her worshipers. She's also got countless ghosts to eat on countless worlds, so if there's one batch here and there that are being left to "age like fine wine" that's okay. And if she DID want to swoop in and eat the ghosts in Gauntlight, she could. She just doesn't. She absolutely is a powerful predator who thinks of her worshipers as much as being prey as anything else... but she's also cruel and evil. One way to ensure someone becomes a ghost is to make them live an agonizing and horrible and ultimately desperate life so that their soul avoids moving on, or for them to be slain in a particulalry painful or humiliating or devastating way so they are just too traumatized to move on to the after life. At which point, eventualy, Nhimbaloth will eat them. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but eventually. And in the mean time, that ghost lives an unlife of agony.
As for worshiping her...
If the player still isn't understanding... might be time to step aside and have a chat with the player and let them know that by agreeing to play Abomination Vaults they also agreed to play with the other players and to accept certain elements of the story as things that they should want to oppose. In this case, the cult of Nhimbaloth. It's just not an apporpriate or cooperative way to play the game. Like insisting on playing a pirate-hunting paladin in Skull & Shackles, or a chaotic good freedom fighter in Hell's Vengeance, or someone who hates magic and school in Strength of Thousands. You CAN play an Adventure Path with a party of "not-mes" in this manner, but it's a LOT of work for the GM to rebuild and replot things. When it's just one player, it's more destructive and disruptive for them to play against the path and try to do their own thing.
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Thank you so much. Really didn't expect a reply from you that so perfectly solves my problem haha. You're the best.
(Also long live Shensen)