| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Eredyn |
Posted - 31 Aug 2017 : 18:15:05
Hello everyone...I've been trying to dig up information about Paladins of Jergal and I've been struggling to find anything.
Here's my situation: we're running a 5e game in the 3e FRCS era (mostly because of the quality of the FRCS). One of my players is interested in rolling a Lawful Good paladin of Jergal, but I am struggling to get my head around how that would work. I think he's also leaning towards going Oath of Vengeance, which I'm struggling with even further.
A priesthood that is directly compared to gravekeepers doesn't seem particularly well suited to paladinhood, never mind Oath of Vengeance.
I'm hoping someone can offer some insight, ideas or sources about how to handle this (even if it is ultimately that I should gently encourage a different deity). |
| 6 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 01 Sep 2017 : 05:08:16
quote:
Originally posted by Eredyn
Appreciate the feedback, everyone. Some great points here that will only increase my DM skills!
As it happens, the player is now going to run with a Paladin of Selune instead. We've come up with an interesting background where he's playing a child of natural good-aligned lycanthropes aligned with the clergy of Selune, but has no actual lycanthrope powers himself. Essentially, he's like a squib from the Harry Potter universe: fully integrated into that world, but completely in capable of functioning in it. His paladin will be an Oath of Vengeance paladin dedicated to hunting down the evil lycanthropes (who will derogatively refer to him as "oneskin"). Should be a fun background to run a game around!
Appreciate all the input thus far. :)
Obviously it's up to you and the player, but if his parents were lycanthropes, he could be a shifter. At least that's my take on the race and how I'd modify them for the Realms. 
And it may help to look at a 3.x book called Curse of the Moon, available as a pdf from the website of its author, Sean K Reynolds -- one of the guys behind 3E and a past Realms designer. He does a lot with lycanthropes in that book, including ways to make them more manageable in-game. It's a favorite of mine, and one of the things I mentioned when geeking out to him last year at GenCon.  |
| Eredyn |
Posted - 01 Sep 2017 : 05:01:34
Appreciate the feedback, everyone. Some great points here that will only increase my DM skills!
As it happens, the player is now going to run with a Paladin of Selune instead. We've come up with an interesting background where he's playing a child of natural good-aligned lycanthropes aligned with the clergy of Selune, but has no actual lycanthrope powers himself. Essentially, he's like a squib from the Harry Potter universe: fully integrated into that world, but completely in capable of functioning in it. His paladin will be an Oath of Vengeance paladin dedicated to hunting down the evil lycanthropes (who will derogatively refer to him as "oneskin"). Should be a fun background to run a game around!
Appreciate all the input thus far. :) |
| Markustay |
Posted - 01 Sep 2017 : 02:08:35
There is a group down in Shar known as the Knights of the Eternal Dragon, who seem to have been (they are now undead) a 'knightly order' dedicated to Myrkul, but the lore hints that both their abode (Castle Al'Hanar neer The Sharawood) and the order itself predate Myrkul, and were originally associated with an earlier death god. If so, most likely that should have been Jergal.
Its a defunct order now (just some undead knights forever battling a ghost dragon), but it suggests that a paladin-like order may be possible. Perhaps this 'New order' is dedicated to Revenants 'settling their earthly affairs', or some such (for the 'Oath of Veneance' part). The best way to 'quiet' a restless dead is to help it solve whatever is making it restless - thus, the act of killing (a guilty party) becomes 'good' (because you are helping the dead get their final rest). |
| TomCosta |
Posted - 01 Sep 2017 : 00:20:31
I ran a 5e paladin of vengeance dedicated to Kelemvor which worked out well, but I agree that Jergal is not a particularly martial deity like Kelemvor is, nor is he as benign as Kelemvor. All that said, if he wants to make it work, make him tell the story of how it came to be. |
| Gary Dallison |
Posted - 31 Aug 2017 : 20:39:06
Just reject the deity centric model that the nuRealms uses.
People can worship whomever they wish. Most people in the realms are not particularly well educated and (just as they did in England before the modern age) worship their own version of whatever god they want to (usually multiple gods; its very rare people in the realms worship just one god) based on local customs and misinterpretation of sermons that they half listen to from dull priests reading from religious texts in a language most don't understand or the text is in an alphabet they cant read.
If you want to be a paragon of goodness and worship Jergal then do so. Just because you accidentally misinterpreted a half heard sermon about the god of death and are concentrating upon Jergal as a guardian of the dead and dying doesn't mean anyone will stop you.
Sure the church of Jergal may denounce you as a heretic but they are old and dusty and quite obviously incorrect and how many of them ever leave their church to go among the poor and the needy and lets face it you have only ever met them once (when you tried to join their stupid crusading order and were turned away for being too nice).
Unless of course the gods actually do speak to all their worshippers and then Jergal will promptly inform you that you can't worship him because you are the wrong alignment.
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| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 31 Aug 2017 : 20:23:42
I would either encourage the worship of another deity, myself. Jergal can be worshipped by LG types, but it's a stretch, to me.
Page 33 of Powers & Pantheons does say that Jergal used to be served by a group called the Companions of the Pallid Mask. They were "a group of Jegali priests who specialized in combating or commanding the undead. They eliminated undead creatures whose existence was not sanctioned by the church or who had proven to be troublesome."
I'd go with some splinter of that group, if an LG paladin insisted on serving Jergal.
If a paladin is all about combating undead, though, I'd encourage them to follow either Kelemvor or Lathander -- particularly the latter, as he's a far better fit for a paladin than a death deity.
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