>>Aspasia steps up to the podium in the crowded lecture hall of Theren Keep.

>>Aspasia clears her throat waiting for the droll of mumbling voices to cease. With a practiced voice, clear and loud she immediately delves into the first part of her treatise titled. "The Calling, book One"


>>Aspasia lectures "As it is written, Sir Cleworth lifts his chin high and proclaims, "The Calling of the Paladin be of the most high and ancient origin. Long ago, when Men of all races strove against Chaos and Darkness, the Gods sent down grace and leadership unto those among us who were pure of heart and purpose. Those so chosen became shining beacons of leadership and courage to all around them. Each Paladin throughout the ages has been a focus for the forces of Light against Darkness."

"Thus, each Paladin must ever seek within for the dedication and purity of spirit required to lead and inspire. We lead, not by shouting orders or commanding from afar, but rather by our example. A Paladin shall ever be the first into battle and the last to retreat, never quavering no matter the odds lest others fail in their own courage as well. A Paladin must ever be a shining example of courtesy and honor -- 'tis better never to have been born than to foreswear your oath once you give it as a Paladin. But all is not lost, for each Paladin may choose to wed in good time and raise a family, such that honor and courage may be taught even to the babe on his mother's knee. The one abiding purpose of a Paladin be to live as an example to others of courage, virtue, and leadership.

"for a moment, he looks almost sad, and his words take on a softer, deeper tone.?If ever the Darkness should conquer the Light, the last gleam shall come from the uplifted blade of one of a righteous Paladin. Thus was it written long ago, and that is the heritage Paladins assume in our ranks -- to act each moment as if they are the final shard of Light as Darkness closes in....."

>>Aspasia lectures "That is all that is recorded about the birth of our guild. From what it is implied our fore-bearers were empowered in their struggle against chaos and darkness. Those empowered were organized by Rutilor into a guild. The paladin?s guild. My belief is that the divine powers of the guild come from the gods; they empower us to fight darkness and chaos. However this empowerment has nothing specifically to do with worship or direct personal service. According to Sir Darius we serve ALL the gods, but other bits of info, I think, support the fact that we serve them in our struggle against darkness. Not in the adherence to their religions. Religion I think is something separate from our jobs as paladins. I think our main purpose as paladins is to preserve and defend Elanthia against destructive forces such as darkness and chaos. I think many outside sources also co-berate this idea."

"Our calling is to protect, defend, and lead. These standards can be found in virtually any Elanthian source written about our guild, and they are obvious and clear. To lead and protect is a more accurate motto, than to prostylitize and promote. Please keep in mind, while you mull these issues over, though we receive our powers from the gods, this does not, necessarily, imply that we are to be priests or to overlap the duties of a priest. Defenders of the faith, perhaps, guardians of the realms, of course, leaders among all mortal-kind, absolutely. We must take care not to assign ourselves roles that should belong to Clerics. For, the guild's were designed to be complimentary. They were not designed to be redundant

"If I am correct so far, then the reason why the gods empower us is not to worship them but to serve them by protecting their beloved Elanthia. We are the divinely appointed guardians of this realm, we champion justice because it helps prevent destructive chaos and brings order, we live an exemplary life of moral purity and social courtesy to be an example for others to follow, and we raise the sword and wield it to combat the spread of darkness. I believe that is our calling."

"The guild is not the Church of Paladin hood. Unlike Clerics, this guild has no religious affiliation, whatsoever. Keep that in mind. The religious overtones of the job are only what a paladin brings with him. I would recommend a close scrutinizing of the scattered writings about our guild. The gods "bestowed their power unto those who were pure of heart and purpose". Those so chosen became "shining beacons of leadership and courage unto all men. ? The only condition ever recorded in known history or tradition, is that we are to be PURE OF HEART AND PURPOSE. That was the only condition for receiving the gifts that make us paladins."

"The gods empower the Clerics to promote and foster their worship and veneration, and to oversee their religious affairs on Elanthia. The gods empower Paladins to bring order and justice, and to protect society and mortal kind from darkness. The Clerics are the direct representatives and servants of the gods, paladins are the protectors of justice and the servants of mortal kind. Two similar empowerments, but two different ends. If both were empowered to the same ends then why have two separate guilds?"

"Our personal religious preferences are made outside of our jobs as paladins. We must not undermine our standing and calling as a paladin, nor are we exempted, even for religious reasons, from our responsibility to obey guild law. Which is why some religious choices are naturally difficult to pursue as a paladin, and why I think some should be restricted. This obviously becomes far less a problem for those of us who worship gods whose ideals fall right in line with guild teachings. This is why the guild patron is Rutilor, and why Chadatru is the god of choice for religiously inclined paladins. Is this wrong? No I do not think it's wrong. I think it's only a natural extension of the type of heart a person, who would join such a guild, would have."

"I would also point out that a paladin?s personal faith never seems to be called into question when he joins the guild. It seems, to me anyway, as long as he ascribes to the ideals and calling, his religious views are irrelevant. I believe this perspective on the guild, is not only correct, but also works on a practical level. Allow me to explain, if you're a paladin that for some ridiculous, far-fetched reason venerates a god that advocates murder, torture and theft, your character could not, in all honesty, justify committing these actions, which run-contrary to our guild's codes of honor, by claiming to be championing his/her gods wishes. You can see how that idea could quickly get out of hand. Instead we as paladins should be encouraged to personally venerate a more realistically practical religion that corresponds to the calling of our guild."

"If your name is on the guild register, then we are all paladins, their is no "difference" in our duties and calling. We are expected to adhere to the guild standards and all paladins are held accountable for their actions. It doesn?t matter what god you serve we're all responsible for following the correct path laid out for us. Of course that fact naturally makes certain gods nearly impossible to follow. Remember the guild is a separate entity of the gods, they give us power, but we are not required to follow them. If we were to refuse the worship of all gods, we would still be empowered. The guild was created out of those the gods blessed; it was not an institution of religion. Although the divine empowerment leads to some religious overtones. We are not priests or clerics, meaning we as a guild have no religious or divine allegiance to any particular god. Religion is something the paladin chooses for herself, and as such it should come secondary to the standards of the job she works in. IE..the guild. If you wish to be a 'warrior-priest' rather than a Paladin, perhaps you should switch guilds."

"I believe our mission is divinely appointed, but not divinely obligated. From the above and subsequent other passages I get this meaning from the text. That our purpose as a guild is defending the peace, protecting civilization and keeping mortal-kind's propensity towards brutality and cruelty to a minimum. To help promote the concept of honor and justice, indeed you can make a case that the paladin?s guild is primarily responsible for the widespread concept of honor in Elanthia, in order to create a stabilizing and moral form of order. And to battle any corrosive forces that harm, manipulate or adversely affect justice, fairness and honor, which the source refers to as "darkness"."

"Think about this, it's not unreasonable to assume that even the darker and less honorable gods would not be opposed to preventing the breakdown and destruction of Elanthia. Despite the fact they advocate murder, torture, assassination and theft; this doesn't mean they believe an effective society can be maintained with these behaviors being allowed on a global scale. Even thieves have a sort of, distorted form of honor and law among them."

"Even the gods themselves could be held to standards and specific value judgments. After all their mythologies do not present them as Omniscient, Omnipotent, or Omnipresent. Therefore there is little basis to justify all-consuming faith and trust in them. With that understood it would not be a heresy for a devoted paladin to question the devious motives of the god she worships, or even reject the notion that a particular god is worthy of worship. The idea that religion isn't the foundation of our guilds calling is at the heart of my view of our guild."

"In short the Paladins guild, in my opinion, represents order in its purest sense. That all the gods, even the dark ones, empower us to protect and keep Elanthian society orderly and just, to protect mortal-kind from itself, and to promote strength and peace throughout Elanthia. For if you were a god what good is a planet if it has not life, nor order or structure by which it can venerate and appreciate you."

>>Aspasia concludes her lecture.

Aspasia says "Thank you all for attending, and for your patience. Next weeks lecture will be titled Discussions of Truth and Facts, and it will be held in the Crossing Guild Grand Hall."

>>Aspasia bows.
>>Aspasia leaves.

Brittany (...the player of Aspasia Undojen'pelci)

"If ever the Darkness should conquer the Light, the last gleam shall come from the uplifted blade of one of a righteous Paladin."

Sir Cleworth, paladin initiation speech.

>As much as so many of your other "knock-down, drag out" Light vs Dark fests have made me wince in the past, I must say this about your latest post.

I enjoyed reading.

>And, as I know will happen soon, the nitpickers and nay-sayers will jump in to take issue with bits and pieces.

Actually, I promised myself to only absorb and not turn this into a debate. I still fear the DvL thing, but I'm not commenting other than to say it was well written, and a good read.

Congrats.

I still don't understand what being courteous has to do with being a paladin.

Ecoles.

I liked the read. It was very well written and thoughtout. However, there was stuff I could argue and comment on, but as you said it's you IC view so there is no real point in me saying anything about it.

Now if you did this in an entirely OOC sense, then perhaps I'd highlight some things and question why your character would view them like that, but since it wasn't, I won't....

I'll see how the other two parts come out.

"I believe our mission is divinely appointed, but not divinely obligated. From the above and subsequent other passages I get this meaning from the text. That our purpose as a guild is defending the peace, protecting civilization and keeping mortal-kind's propensity towards brutality and cruelty to a minimum."

Agreed. Oh and great post.

Divy

I still fail to see how discipline and lack of courtship fall into the same category. One can be disgruntled at the world, yet still have the discipline to do what is right when the moment of choice presents itself. Look at Batman for your classic example.

Thank you all for your kind words, and insightfull comments. Open free discussion can be very rewarding.

The dark forces which rule the internet have conspired to prevent me from posting Lecture 2. Fortunately, they have failed. As you can see my PC is up and running once more, despite a nasty and devastating HD failure. I had the foresight to backup alot of my important files a few months ago, so I only lost about half of my irreplacable document files. :( But my lectures, prepared for well over a year, were preserved ::Cheers::

With all that said Lecutre 2 is set to roll right now, in my very next post. Many of you seemed to appreciate Aspasia's last lecture, this one however, may provoke more objections. It is a more contentious subject. Not intentionally though, because it is presented well within posting guidelines. So I once again beseech you all to keep an open mind...


Brittany (...the player of Aspasia Undojen'pelci)

>>Laythor's face twists in agony and he cries out, as acid burns away at his right eye.

You point and laugh at Laythor!