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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 1722167" data-attributes="member: 2067">Well, the possible 'flaw' with this agrument (which is really just a differnece of opinion -- there's nothing WRONG with your idea. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />) is that you're thinking of it as Monotheism, not Polytheism. Erythnul may be evil, but in the everyday lives of most people, there is evil. It's not something you ignore and pretend doesn't exist, because it's illogical to pretend violence, slaughter, etc. doesn't exist. You do pray to him -- to avoid slaughter, or to wish it on your enemies. He's evil, nasty, and unpredictable, but so was Dionysus, for instance. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Yet people payed him homage in the right circumstances. Same thing with Set. He's evil and destructive, but he ws an everyday part of the world, and you had to pray to him if you wanted to avoid that destruction, just as if you wanted to inflict it on your enemies. Because unlike in most Monotheisms, Good doesn't include Everything. There are things that exist that aren't good at all. But they still exist, and gods still have power over them, and they are still a part of everyday life, even if they aren't particularly desirable elements of it.  There are a few ways to go about this. #1: They kill people, but who cares? If they kill the evil witch, or the greedy, lonely miser, or the diseased who will succumb to the plague anyway, they're nearly doing society a service. #2: They don't need to kill people, they just need to advocate it. According to the PHB, the only thing a cleric of Erythnul has to do to get spells is pray to him once per day and be Chaotic Evil. Someone who wants slaughter, even if they never actually involve themselves, is probably Chaotic Evil, right? So Erythnul likes him for advocating his philosophy, even if he doesn't live as a personification of the god. Indeed, emulating the deity by enacting mass slaughters could be hubristic. Know your place, mortal. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> #3: They kill people, but society accepts it. They turn a blind eye to the occasional murder in the street and death of a member, because if they don't, they'll get it worse in the end. Eradicating the church doesn't solve this problem, because the churches in other cities would destroy you, or Erythnul would send monsters to destroy you. Instead, you allow the sacrifice of the individual to preserve the function of society. Most people are Neutral after all, and this doesn't make the church-members nessecarily above the law. Those who commit the murders can still be brought to justice. It just means that the practice is not likely to stop. It's likely to continue, as long as both sides accept the continuing cycle. Why can't you do both? In polytheism, generally speaking, each god has a sphere of life it has control over, and it has no power beyond that sphere. And there is also an uncrossable gap between the gods and the mortals. Erythnul is the god of slaughter. That's what he does, that's all he does. He is defined and absorbed in this practice. You can't possibly live a full life *just* praying to Erythnul. Living life like Erythnul would like you to would mean turning a blind eye to the moderation required for life - you would never heal, you would never raise a family, you would just kill, mindlessly, for eternity, just like Erythnul does, and you would be killed when you do, because people aren't supposed to live like the gods do. Even a devoted Chaotic Evil cleric of Erythnul would pull back and raise a family. He's not a madman -- he just loves bloodshed. He doesn't have to live his life as a constant whirlwind of terror, and no one would expect him to, and he would meet an untimely end if he did. Instead, he's supposed to live as a functional member of society, and serve as the intermediary between Erythnul and mortal life, being as much like the god as any mortal can. Erythnul has power over a definate aspect of life, one that any logical mind can realize is part and parcel of life. And whenever that aspect of life is encountered, Pelor has no power to help you -- only Erythnul can, as unpleasant as that prospect is. Pelor has 0 power over slaughter and violence. Neither does Heironeous. Or Hextor. Or Wee Jas. If you are dealing with savage, bloody violence, Erythnul is the only creature in existence that can aid you, either by summoning it up, or by dismissing it. Erythnul may be evil, but the aspect of life he has control over doesn't only happen to evil people. Slaughter is a daily fear for many, and only by making sure Erythnul isn't irked at you can you avoid it. If Erythnul is irked at you, Pelor can't save you. Pelor can help you heal in the aftermath, maybe. But Erythnul's domain is slaughter, and there's nothing Pelor can do to stop him in his dominion.  In comparison, in Christianity, you can live without the Devil. Because the One God is All, you don't need a force of evil with control, and you don't need to placate the force of evil to get it to relent, because Good has power over Evil. Good trumps Evil. So if you just pray to Good, Good will give you good things, and save you from Evil, all at the same time. In polytheism, though, Good doesn't trump Evil. Good doesn't control Evil. Good exists. Evil exists. To protect yourself from Evil, you need to make both Good and Evil happy. Because if you don't make Evil happy, there's no garuntee Good will win against it....indeed, Good is almost garunteed to fail, because it has no power over those things that Evil has power has over. Of course, the reverse is true, too. To get Good things to happen, you have to make both Good and Evil happy, because if you don't make Good happy, there's no garuntee it will overpower the Evil...indeed, Evil is almost garunteed to fail, because it has no power over those things that Good has power over. So you want to protect yourself from a hobgoblin army? You pray to all the gods. You say "Pelor heal the wounded," and you pray to the sun. You say "Kord give our warriors Strength," and you hit your chest. You say "Heironeous give our leaders courage," and you raise your right fist. You say "Hextor give our leaders power," and you raise your left. You say "Erythnul, take my blood instead of our heroes'," and you pour a bit of your blood on the ground. You say "Nerull, may our fear keep us strong," and you spread some earth aronud. You say "Vecna, keep our tactics silent," and you burn a book.  Because if you don't, your tactics will be blabbed, your blood will be taken, your leaders will be weak, cowardly, or too gentle, and your wounded will die. Because to deny a god it's rightful honors is to affront it, and is to attract it's attention -- for better, or for worse.</blockquote>

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