tnu Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 (edited) so I've been working on a character and I"m a little unsure on something. Would the worship of or adherence to Nocturnal and Zenithar be mutually exclusive? My chractar is a thief but he's fairly strict about it He won't steal from those who gained what they have through honest and legitimate means. Only those hwo stole, c heated, extorted etc and oftentimes he only steals evidence of corruption and worngdoing to expose to the public eye. So would this be a hard no for Zenithar or something of a grey area? There's also the matter of Julianos. as Julianos has a related command to "observe the law" but if th is comes in conflict with "Know the truth" what does that entail? anfd finally for hte matter of Stendarr what is the official stance on Stendarrs relations with the daedra? is he staunchly anti-Daedra or is that just the vigil? Edited January 23, 2017 by tnu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saurusmaximus Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 The Aedra and Daedra are, metaphysically, polar opposites. Broadly speaking, the Aedra come from the cosmic force that represents stasis, Anu, and the Daedra are products of the force of change, Padomay. People who worship one generally don't have much use for the other. And generally, most Daedra require you to swear fealty (and forsake all others) to them before they will bestow any blessings. As for as the Zenithar/Nocturnal thing, if you follow the official Imperial position on Zenithar, you find that his priests teach that; "the path to peace and prosperity is through earnest work and honest profit, not through war, bloodshed, or theft". So, not really a deity that's going to smile on someone stealing, even for altruistic means. Besides magic, Julianos is also described as the god in charge of "literature, law, history, and contradiction". So, if you want to take a literal interpetation of that, you could play up the "contradiction" aspect to ease your conscious. My personal interpretation is that contradiction in this sense refers to things like philosophy and debate and not literal contradictions. Stendarr is a little more tricky because, among other things, he is the god of Justice; which is the justification the Vigilants use to hunt Daedra worshippers. So, you could easily make the case for your character's Robin Hood-esque actions being looked upon favorably by Stendarr vs. any of the other Divines as being an act of "justice" against the unjust. Now whether Stendarr would actually smile on you is another matter... The way I would play it (and this is strictly my opinion, so feel free to ignore this next bit) would be to have his backstory start with him being a faithful worshipper of whichever Aedra you prefer that became disillusioned by the corruption and greed he encountered in his life. So he turned to Nocturnal, and her close association with thieves, to right the wrongs he sees all around him. But, being that he was a faithful man, he still feels guilty deep down for turning his back on the divines, even though doing so has allowed him to bring a measure of justice to the world, and the conflict wears on him. Conflicted characters are usually the most interesting characters, you know :laugh: . My two cents, hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moksha8088 Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 There is a character in Interesting NPCs called Qa'Dojo who gives a very scholarly discussion on the Aedra and Daedra. Seek out this monk for enlightenment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnu Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Also, while I'm here, I'm a little confused as to the relationship ebwtween Julianos and Stendarr. there seems ot be some overlap. Julianos is associated with law while Stendarr with Justice and Rightous RUle. for htat matter Stendarr and Mara seem like they overlap on charity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saurusmaximus Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 "Justice" and "Law" are not necessarily the same thing. Julianos could be seen as the Thinking Man's Divine, as his sphere covers things like mathematics, philosophy, and magic (don't forget the ancient Nords referred to their mages as "clever men"). When we say Julianos is the Divine of Law, we are saying he is about the application of written rules intended to keep society from collapsing. Stendarr is more of a doer than a thinker. Concepts like "justice" and "righteous rule" are really in the eye of the beholder, and depend more on an individual's morals than any fine point of law. The people of Salem, Massachusetts firmly believed they were being "just" and "righteous" when they burned "witches" at the stake; most people nowadays would disagree. And, if you think about it, that isn't all that different to what the Vigilants are doing to Daedra worshippers in Tamriel. To give another example, let's use Freddy Krueger, from the Nightmare on Elm St series. Freddy was a pedophile and a murderer who goes free on a legal technicality. So the parents of the murdered kids take the law into their own hands by becoming a group of vigilantes who trap Freddy and burn him alive. What the parents did would probably be seen by most people as "justice" (by ridding the world of a known psychopath), but it definitely was against the law (they murdered another human being). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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