Help! I'm a Paladin and my goddess is dead

[Alenda]

I have a unique situation, and I'm hoping you all can offer me advice. I am currently playing a gnomish Paladin of the FR goddess Sune in a D&D game. For those who don't know of Sune, she is commonly regarded as a shallow goddess reveling in love, beauty and the finer things in life.

Anyhow, my character first felt the call of Sune during a vision quest in which she saw the goddess beckoning to her. Ever since, she has been devoted to Sune's cause.

Recently, however, she has been having a crisis of faith. She's had several nightmares which indicate that her initial vision of Sune was tampered with and that the vision may have been from another goddess and not Sune at all!

My character hoped to clarify these nightmares by embarking on another vision quest. Instead, she had a jarring vision showing evil gods and their followers murdering countless deities including Sune!

I'm currently at a loss for what to do. The goddess my Paladin has followed faithfully for years may be dead and the divine powers she has been receiving may be granted by another deity.

My question to you all is: what do I do now? Does my character continue to worship a goddess who may no longer exist? Should she try and find out who is really giving her the visions and worship that deity? Would switching deities cause a loss of her Paladin abilities?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just looking at the Bible, there was a section where the Apostles witnessed someone driving demons out of the posessed, but he wansn't known to them. They wanted Jesus to do something about stopping the man.

Jesus responded that the man could not do what he was doing if he were not doing God's will.

Similarly, whoever is allowing your Paladin to do good is probably worthy of worship.

 

[Cintra]

It sounds to me like your character is having a literal crisis of faith engineered by your DM. I'd suggest answering the following questions:

1) How good is the evidence that your goddess really is dead?
2) Is it really more likely that these visions are true, or that these visions are the false ones and your original vision was true?
3) Could they be about events that have not yet come to pass?
4) If you cease to believe in Sune and she does exist, will that mean you've fallen into error?
5) If you continue to believe in Sune (erroneously) and you continue to receive benefits which you continue to use in her name, can that be wrong?
6) Is there any way to get to the bottom of the questions, "who is trying to make me question my faith?" and "what is the truth behind these visions?" without having to assume your faith is wrong?

Personally, I'd tend to continue to follow my goddess, regardless of what I learned, unless ALL of the following occur:
1) The actual source of my powers is PROVEN to be a different god who is truly worthy of my worship.
2) That different god actually wants me to change faith.

If you are gaining benefits from a god who is opposed to you/Sune, then you should continue to worship Sune regardless. If you are gaining benefits from an ally of Sune, then that ally should not hold it against you that you stay loyal to Sune.

Regardless, discovering what might be behind the visions is important. And if they are actually be about an attack on Sune that hasn't happened yet (or a metaphoric attack on her power), then your continued loyalty to Sune might be what allows you to investigate and ultimately prevent her destruction.

(In other words, "Keep the faith!")

 

[werk]

I would probably seek out a church of Sune or maybe even a cleric...

 

[gizmo33]

It could be a trick. Maybe evil gods are broadcasting a pirate dream-vision channel.

 

[WayneLigon]

Get someone with planer travel abilities, go to Sune's home plane, knock on her door and ask her if she's dead.

Sounds like some kind of dream-interfeering critter wants her to give up worship of Sune. Who benefits?

 

[Voadam]

Would switching deities cause a loss of her Paladin abilities?

In 3e FR, yeah if the new god is not appropriate you generally will lose your paladin powers which would suck. So if it is Cyric god of lies who has supplanted Sune and continues giving powers (which he did with another deity in the past) in a bid to take over and subvert her old followers then you will be in a bad situation.

 

[reveal]

Find a cleric of Sune who can cast Commune. That will tell you pretty quickly whether or not Sune is dead.

 

[Nightfall]

This sounds like a Cyric plot to me.

 

[Darmanicus]

Follow your faith and never falter.

And above all else NEVER forget to SMITE, SMITE and SMITE again.....just to make sure.