After the last thread, I determined to wait awhile and let the ashes settle before posting the last and final lecture in my series of controversial posts. So without further delay...



ON HONOR ETHICS AND DEEDS/ Lecture 5

Aspasia steps to the podium, at the Crossing Guild Grand Hall. Silence hushes over the crowd of suited armor-wearing warriors. Some carry parchment and ink, others carry angry-glares, and rotten tomatoes.

Aspasia begins her lecutre. "It is IMPOSSIBLE to make rational distinctions without an objective standard, regardless if we are discussing the nature of the universe or the nature of snerts. You simply can't decide in fairness that someone is a snert because they irritate you. Unless that is how you unintelligently choose to define them. Even if society woke up tomorrow and decided that the cure to our poverty problem was to kill all the peasants, would that make society moral for doing so? There is more to morality than just what the public thinks and what idea happens to be in "vogue".

"Let's clarify a few things. First off it is obviously unfair and unjust to have a system of punishment without an objective standard to moderate, levy and judge these punishments. If a new system of "Punishments" were introduced a code or written guideline would be necessary for the punishments to be properly ordered and fair."

She continues "Even in the manner in which our souls are measured a set of guidelines is handed down to us that are irrefutable and immutable. These guidelines are self-evident in the actions we take, for instance if we steal, our soul darkens. One could actually pen down the "guidelines" that are made evident by the repercussions of these actions into a form of ethical code."

"However one could argue, as many already do, that the concepts of "Honor" and ?Virtue? are not completely fulfilled in the credited "Soul System". For instance we are not permitted to pickpocket or shoplift, but other forms of stealing that may transpire do not seem to invoke the attention of the gods. If one insists that the tint of our souls represents the complete fulfillment of morality, honor, and virtue, then by that idea any brigand no matter how unscrupulous would be seen as one?s Moral, Virtuous, and Honorable equal. So long as they tithe enough and follow a routine procedure of soul purification."

"While many guilds may possess some form of code or written guild law, honor forms the basis of any Code that a paladin might follow. To be effective Leaders of society, paladins require the possession of a higher sense of purpose. To be Virtuous and Honorable the guild must have a well defined meaning for these terms. Traditionally the term honor is used to refer to penned or mutually understood concepts regarding general ethics, mannerisms and or courtesies. As such the definition of honor can vary widely from culture to culture and sometimes even from paladin to paladin. We must understand that our ranks our filled with peoples from diverse races. All may very well have their own distinct cultural interpretation of honor. It is important to note, however, the issue to be determined is not whether different definitions of honor exist, but which definitions we should follow."

"Some will remind us how other guilds do not need a code or a set of standards to define their purpose and intent. This perspective misses an important point; the Paladin guild is unlike all the other guilds in Elanthia. While you can fairly easily define a Bard, a Ranger, a Barbarian, a War Mage, a Moon Mage, and even a Thief, paladins seem to be more identifiable by their purpose and ideals. These ideals, however, seem to be, at times, so relative that a combined sense of ourselves or a mutually understood sense of purpose appears lacking. This problem is further accentuated by those who cloud the issue with rather liberal interpretations of our calling."

"From my experiences I have found that many Paladins have a rather inflated opinion of our guild and its universal importance in Elanthia. As I?ve stated earlier, many paladins have claimed the Immortals themselves would interdict and rain fire from heaven if we dared try to enforce any universal standard within the guild. I doubt seriously that certain Immortals will begin to picket our guild entrances or start smiting paladins in the field for expanding and promoting guild standards or daring to define the terms "honor" and "Virtue". Such wild assertions are humorous at best, and reflect clearly upon the egotistical nature of the person who would suggest such an idea."

Aspasia lectures. "It is, therefore, important to remember we are not an anarchist guild; the guild is not about worshiping the individuality of its members. If you follow the words of our guild leaders and the traditions of our guild forbearers, they articulate quite clearly; we are servants first and foremost. Servants to the gods through the protection of Elanthia, and servants to mortal-kind through the furtherance of the Light. Complaining, as many do, that we must respond to certain situations based upon a common sense of ethics and honor is astonishing for a paladin."

"Let us remember when the Guild at the Crossing was closed. The gods were angered according to Sir Darius. They were not angered because new standards were invoked or the worship of Trothfang and Damaris was discouraged. They were angered because the guild simply had not been deserving of the powers bestowed upon it The Immortals themselves accused us of behaving like petty thieves masquerading in heavy armor. Sir Darius informed us that many in the ranks were disrespectful, rude, obnoxious, petty, and were guilty of stretching standards beyond their limit, to suit their own fancy. As a result many were punished; some were even cast out of the guild. Let us not forget the humbling message we learned that day."

"I have heard many brethren argue how morality and law should be kept separate from each other. That what is lawful has no bearing, necessarily, on what is moral. I found such notions particularly prevalent among those who claim to follow a dark or gray path. This is a sad indictment on the future of our guild. Law and Morality are inseparable. What the heretics of our guild fail to see is that Law, in fact, is based upon morality, because justice, in a true universal sense, IS morality. Law as we all know and understand is, theoretically, based completely upon justice. It' becomes problematic, and circular, when you attempt to divide the two."

Aspasia continues. "Many of those I have spoken with tend to ask me a similar question. What then, exactly, do you think morality is? And to what extent do you think it should be applied? I see morality as a means to classify certain actions. Obviously I don't believe that all actions should be classified in extremes, I believe in extenuating circumstances and compassion. As an example. I fervently believe we can have ?just/fair? killing (self defense/hunting/war) without unjust killing (murder). Some people will take the position that if you have one you must have the other. I have never understood that idea, it simply never seemed logical to me. It seems that others have a tendancy to become confused on the terminology. The fact that we have a word like "KILL" that has such broad meaning confuses people into thinking that to be able to kill for good purposes, means we must likewise be able to kill for selfish and evil purposes. If you take away "bad" killing, they reason, means you must take "good" killing too. As one can see this is simply a category mistake. Just and Unjust killing are two completely different concepts. So it is important, once again, to define your terms when confronting the heretics."

"Typically those who would oppose a general and common form of standards and ethics claim that to adopt such a form of order is tantamount to oppression and tyrannical conformity. To expect obedience is an insult to them. Any enlightened mind can see that a common sense of ethics and the right way to handle situations is no more oppressive and conformist than obeying the laws of the province we live in, or the rules of the trade we work in, or the standards of the temple we worship in."

"Is it not inconsiderate or intolerant to join an institution which by its very nature has standards and ethics in-grained in it, and then mock those who willingly conform? Is that not where the true insult resides? If such standards exist, and they do, spelled out in the speeches of our guild leaders, literary sources spread over Elanthia, and from the traditions of history, why then does a visible minority still refuse to conform?"

"The sad truth is very few want the responsibility that goes with being a paladin. Perhaps they find distasteful the idea of being responsible for the esteem they think they rightly deserve. Perhaps they dislike being held to standards they think are draconian, even though they demand praise for the un-spectacular life they lead. The truth is the average person doesn?t like responsibility; it?s the nature of mortal kind to pursue whatever can be acquired with the least amount of effort. Unfortunately this holds true for mortals of our profession as well."

Aspasia lecutres. "Many brethren will confront issues of morality and honor by referring back to the individual teachings of their respective gods. They will claim equal privileges and demand equal respect for venerating the ?dark? Immortals, and accuse those who would question their religious preferences as narrow-minded zealots. From many frank discussions with these paladins, they claim that since the gods disagree about morality and honor all views should be equally accepted within the guild, because all gods equally empower the guild. However, does the fact that the god of murder and the god of mercy disagree about what honor and virtue mean, really matter when it comes to issues of wrong and right? Of course the gods are going to disagree, of course individuals in general are always going to disagree, and does this fact mean we can never enact any standards for anything, ever? Will any type of standard be accepted and followed only when a full hundred percent are in total agreement?"

"And whether or not the gods can or can't agree on what's honorable and virtuous isn't as important as you may think. From an Elanthian perspective does the fact that Ruitlor and Botolf disagree about honor and virtue preclude the notion that we can't apprehend a reasonable standard about these terms? Does their conflicting teachings imply we cannot determine which is the ?dark? god and which is the ?light? god? It?s completely preposterous, and evidence of total ignorance to claim that somehow Botolf has equal moral footing with Rutilor."

"This leads us to an interesting question. Do we as paladins and citizens of Elanthia follow the gods because they happen to be gods? Or do they follow the gods because we believe the gods are worthy of being followed? Is Chadatru a just god, because he determined what justice is? Or is he a just god because he too, follows a universal sense of justice."

Aspasia continues. "Could it therefore be that sense we too follow the same universal sense of justice that we are equally as just as Chadatru, though we don't actively worship him or perhaps even reject him? Do we believe that the immortals are good because they decide what good is? Or do we believe they are good because they follow a universal and transcendent standard of good. I think this particular question is amazingly intriguing, and very deep."

"One thing to remember, as I?ve touched on earlier, is that the Immortals are neither fully Omnipotent, Omniscient nor Omnipresent. This suggests that the Immortals too are incredibly powerful flawed beings. If this is indeed true it would be tough to claim the immortals are worthy of complete unfailing trust and faith. Perhaps it is then wise for us, as mortals, to take careful consideration of what is asked of us."

"Why have rules of honor and virtue, if what each god teaches is truly moral? If Damaris is merely teaching his own form of true morality, then why does the guild forbid stealing? Why does the guild forbid acts of treachery and murder? Surely gods exist who advocate these deeds, and teach highly dubious forms of morality. This particular view (what each god says is moral is truly moral) seems undermined by the fact that our guild espouses and enforces a universal sense of morality itself. By its rules it demonstrates to its members, the moral shortcomings of many dark gods, that their does exist a higher understanding of virtue and honor that transcends even Immortals. Therefore we cannot steal, therefore we cannot murder, and therefore we cannot commit acts of treachery as many of the dark gods do. This will always be true regardless of which Immortal we choose to worship, be they light, or gods forbid, dark. I contend, honor, and morality are not merely mortal constructs, but like I said before, natural distinctions which would exist without the mind of mortals to comprehend them."

"It would be very convenient to live one's life free from the burden of having to make value judgments. To simply say "well who's to say what's right and wrong to begin with?". But the world is such a place, that simply denying or painting over issues of morality, refusing to make value judgments or uphold standards can have disastrous consequences. The fall of the seven-starred empire comes readily to mind."

"Those who would hold such views are typically labeled as arrogant preachers. However, labeling something as arrogant is itself a value judgment, is it not? Value judgments are inherently natural and unavoidable. Sometimes we like to make ourselves feel justified and superior in our decisions by trying to convince ourselves that we're not making value judgments, but in the end we are really just deluding ourselves. This is not to imply that making a value judgment is necessarily wrong, merely that denying we do so is a lie."

Aspasia lecutres. "An intellectual problem I see repeated over and over is the tendency to ?lump? all the beliefs of the gods into one pile. By doing so one is denying the fact that even the gods, most likely, make moral distinctions about each other. So you see if you are to call value judgments arrogant and irrelevant, then would you're character be content to call Rutilor's value judgments about Botolf arrogant and irrelevant? Even if one were to say yes, isn?t one making a value judgment by agreeing?"

"I contend that Chadatru and Rutilor would indeed consider Botolf and Damaris to be ?dark? would they not? Would one so brazenly deny that even the gods see distinctions of morality? How would one explain away our guilds divine calling to combat "darkness"? However one wishes to define "darkness" one cannot deny that it is intrinsically a value judgment itself."

"While I agree not everything should be privy to black and white judgment; I contend that some things, indeed many perhaps, should be. I'm neither naive enough to view the world in total black and white, nor deluded enough to view it as one large shade of gray. As paladins we should believe in a universal sense of right and wrong. However should a sense of right and wrong be applied to everything? No. A fair minded individual would agree plenty of gray area exists, but one would also understand some things are black and white."

"The question shouldn't be whether it is right to make value judgments about the immortals; it should fall on what are the correct value judgments to make. Mortals can make judgments and still be fair. Let's not convince ourselves that ALL judgments ALL the time are unfair, irrelevant or arrogant. Such a notion smells of arrogance itself. Some will claim it is heresy to hold the Immortals to our own value judgments. The point is if the gods all have multiple judgments about each other, then whose should we follow? To make such a decision would require, itself, a value judgment."

Aspasia steps from the podium. "This concludes my series of lectures on guild phillosphy. Thank you all for attending, may the gods light your paths."

Aspasia dismisses the audience.

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

sorry... i'm not going to bother to read this one. It seems like you're just trying to put together a resume to apply for a GH or GM position.

Your views are old and already covered.


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It wont heal if you dont stop picking at it.

I give you a nice pat on back for doing all that work.

I shake my head for you putting it on the boards and not doing it IG instead.

Even though I don't agree with you on many points, I do applaud the effort you put in and wish it would have gone IG for RP instead of sitting here on the boards. To me that's a waste of time and effort to write those up in such an IC fashion and never use it for the purpose of being IC in the game. You could have easily setup a little gathering IG, posted on boards time and place, maybe then had some fun with it for people by doing games after the lecture. You could have joined up with Mentors to let them help you organize it and advertise, but let you do all the work since it was your project. I made same suggestion after your first lecture ::shrugs:: If you're going to post on boards it should be done in an OOC fashion, if you want to do this IC it should be done in game. Heck I would have given you an RPA if you did this IG cause it promoted RP. Oh well, to each thier own.


Ells