St. Cuthbert was a real Saint? (Col Pladoh)

[Drew]

I was online looking for some Greyhawk stuff. When I typed in St. Cuthbert, I found, among other things, this:
http://www.stcuthbertsguild.com/saint.html

Is this common knowledge that has somehow flown beneath my radar all this time? Why did Col_Pladoh use a real world Saint as one of his gods?

 

[Upper_Krust]

Interesting! I wonder did the good Col_Pladoh use this as his inspiration!?

 

[mattcolville]

Dude, remember that Alice in Wonderland and mainland China make appearances in original D&D.

 

[DungeonKeeperUK]

Yup, I was well aware of this, actually grew up about 7 miles away from the Cathedral where is remains lie....

 

[William Ronald]

I have known this for quite some time. Ironically, there was a poster on the old boards or the WoTC boards that argued that St. Cuthbert (the historical figure) was actually lawful good, exceptionally merciful, and his Greyhawk counterpart should reflect this.

DungeonKeeperUK, as someone who lives near the saint's burial site, do you have any thoughts on this?

 

[Rook]

What always irritated me about St. Cuthbert is that they never told you who he was a saint *of*. I mean, he's clearly a transplanted Christian saint of the no-nonsense, Crusading type, but in the Greyhawk world he's an anomaly. Which god did he worship when he was a mortal cleric?

 

[rounser]

Did the real life St Cuthbert have a scottish-looking beret, a droopy moustache, and a homicidal way of enforcing "order" that involved wandering around in platemail whacking evil critters with a lump of wood?

If not, I doubt the character is modelled too closely after his real namesake....

 

[Xilo]

Well St. Cuthbert was a Scottish saint... one of the originals i think. He was especially well known for his ability to get on with animals, and birds. As well as being a very forgiving and gental man. Hence the reason I found it so funny when I saw he was the good of vengence.

Ah the joys of having a school named after a saint who is also a dnd god.

 

[rounser]

Which god did he worship when he was a mortal cleric?

I'd speculate that the answer is the "forces of law", since that's what motivated him on his bludgeoning excursions into the underdark with his buddy St. Trowbane.

Either that, or himself. He strikes me as bloody-minded enough to do that sort of thing.

 

[Mouseferatu]

For what it's worth, given the sheer number of people who have been sainted by the Catholic Church since the Dark Ages (it's amazing more people don't believe in magic, considering how many miracles that's supposed to have required), the odds are good that any name the good Colonel had come up with instead of Cuthbert would also have been a real saint.