Benefitting from Heresy…

While there is nothing in the rules to support this, I find myself asking the question of whether the blessings would necessarily be made available to the opposite side. For instance, would Belisarda offer blessings on worshippers of the PoM, if it is true that their Gods consumed her siblings?

By the same regard, I understand why an Elorii would be hesitant to accept the blessings of human gods.

Strictly from a tactical standpoint I would agree with you, unless there is a chance that your deity is a jealous one and perhaps doesn’t want you getting too cozy with the gods of the pinkskins

Perspectives of my Characters:

1) Haakon – Haakon is fine accepting things like Healing, and even a Benediction of the Gods from a follower of the Fire Dragon or Belisarda. . . as long as they are Ss’ressen or Elorii. However, he would NOT accept healing willingly from a Human Shaman or a Human worshiper of a ‘foreign’ god as he is a Holy Judge of Nier, dedicated to stamping out heresy and Humans worshiping something other than the PoM is Heresy in his opinion (and the church’s). If given an item with a non-PoM Holy symbol, he’d accept the gift if given honestly, but would not keep it on him (placing it in a museum or sending it ‘home’ to his family estate). If given a direct blessing by the Fire Dragon, however, he would NOT use it at all.

2) Jorma Ostoman – Jorma is pretty much a militant athiest, and would never willingly accept any non-human idol or symbol, and would only accept the human ones if he felt that not doing so would cause him harm (ie: targetted for discrimination).

3) Ruma val’Vasik – He was taught that the other gods were but minor powers, and would be just as amused at others worshiping them as if they were worshiping a rock. . . or The Rock. He would accept a blessing because it is polite and Xabal says we must all be polite at all times!

I was thinking about the in character point of view. Did some Tultipetian Priest bless me or the survivors of the battlefield? Would Vaerdos even notice or realize Larissa had granted him this extra luck? If this is something tangible that Vaerdos knows about or calls upon personally, he most likely would not use it. I don’t think that big reward boons like this are something that characters would rationalize as fighting fire with fire.

Eric I think it really depends on the character you are playing (I do agree with some of what you say). Cases in point: Haakon val’Ishi while born in Milandir was sent to Enpebyn (“val’Ishi Central ) as a young lad and considers that place home. He is a rock-hard member of the Mother Church (and probably a strong supporter of Elandre val’Assante’s more “puritanical” reform efforts. Other than the Milandiric Orthodox Church, which he views as a wayward sheep destined to return to the flock, he pretty much takes a dim view of all other faiths. Now I won’t ruin somebody’s fun at the table by being an a**hat, and won’t cause a “mission” to fail (again keeping the idea of fun for everyone in mind), he would definitely make note of who the “heretics” were at the table and turn that information over to his superiors. I’m betting you can guess which Secret Society he belongs to….

On the other hand my other character Ursula val’Holryn, who it turns out has the val’Emman bloodline and follows Nier, is far more pragmatic in her religion. She’s a soldier who spent her formative years in Almeric, witnessing first hand what hard-headedness can bring. If it helps her win the fight/save the day she’ll take the “buff” from whoever’s willing to cast her way.

Just like most of the actual magic items in the campaign, I can’t use my fate point because it is a PoM boon.

Not sure why you are interpreting it this way? Unless it’s for RP reasons, then there’s nothing I can do to help you there. There’s nothing written in the cert as it stands to exempt non-PoM folks (be they Elorii, Kio, or otherwise). Also, I’m not familiar with the other magic items you mentioned (outside of many of the Vault Items) that are restricted to the PoM.

JohnMechanically? No. There is nothing stopping me from using that fate point. Even story wise there might not be anything stopping me. It all depends on the flavor of it. Is fate something characters actively use? Are they aware of it? How was that fate point given to all the players? Was there a mass prayer at the end of the day? Or is it just Larissa rewarding good karma from above? One of these thing Vaerdos wouldn’t notice, the fate point would get used when fate deemed it so, but the other… There are a lot of rewards that don’t have mechanical restrictions for using them. But take Greaves of the Scout for example. They have Saluwe plastered all over them for some reason. Saluwe holds a monopoly on scouting. So the light armored people who sit at my table do not have access to a +1 AR buff that any worshiper of PoM does.

In 3.X most magic items were generic and most likely crafted by arcane spell casters. All the items have story to them now, which I actually like! It just that unless a mod has new fluff for magic items given, I can only assume I can’t use most of the magic items presented to me, no matter how powerful or nice they are. :/

While there is nothing in the rules to support this, I find myself asking the question of whether the blessings would necessarily be made available to the opposite side. For instance, would Belisarda offer blessings on worshipers of the PoM, if it is true that their Gods consumed her siblings?…snip

That’s a great question … because of course Belisarda is very mysterious to us. To paraphrase Ardelia, Belisarda’s prophet, the elorii should not to be too bitter or angry with mankind because they were/are merely the tools of cruel gods. Some of mankind will fight by the elorii in their war of Vengeance. That seems to be a vote sharing the blessings of the Goddess with honorable individuals.

There was also the module in the old campaign where you go to get the Suromari shields. You stumble upon an ancient shrine Eluwe pool. Things go badly for heretic elorii (a Celestrial voice castigates them as the items are crushed and they are picked up and kicked out). But vals who express remorse for the lost eloran gods gain a vision. SInce Belisarda does not have a lot of known Celestial servants there was a good bit of speculation about just who/what was doing the speaking. That’s a little more of a mixed message … but still seems to lean towards detente with mankind.

Of course is Belisarda is really primarily the Skinless Lady then helping mankind is a bad career choice.

For Tukufu’s part, he tries to avoid receiving blessings from outside the Pantheon of Man, but he’s also pragmatic and bends in the face of necessity. So Tukufu wouldn’t take a generic buff on the principle of tooling up before kicking in a door. But in combat if he’s hurt badly then he’ll take healing if its offered from an honorable companion.

Tukufu also is deeply aware that *NONE* of the human sects worships the PoM the way they set it up back in the First Imperium. From the perspective of the Heirophants of old everybody today is a herretic. =/ So Tukufu tries to stay away from extremes of Dogma on all sides while trying to understand what Altheres and the PoM wants of their followers.

Whereas my primary character is both a shaman and a psionicist. So he’s a heretic by definition, as well as probably belief. He believes in the gods, of course, but really just thinks of them as really big “spirits.” So he has lots of fear and respect for them, but no real faith. But if they (or their followers) want to give him power, he’ll take it. And if he met one (or a powerful servant of one) who said, “yes we’re really powerful and here is why you should follow us,” in a way that didn’t conflict with his service to the spirits he deals with, he would probably become a follower. After all, he could serve a god spirit as faithfully as he keeps his deals with the spirits with which he does deal.

That said, he’s a Val and is perfectly aware that many people (and probably the entire church) immediately consider him a heretic for his shamanistic practices. So he hides them the best he can, even from his fellow adventurers (since you never know what some of those fanatics might say to the other fanatics they know). To them he’s a psionicist who has specialized in transmutation (which explains some of the animalism abilities) and has pyrokinetics (to explain elemental bolt). He feels a need to “meditate” every morning – preferably naked and in touch with the earth, that obviously has nothing to do with communing with spirits. And he tries to disguise his shaman spells – not as not spells, but as psionics.

Also, he is very vocally a dedicated follower of Sarish. God of magic, always confusing. Helps cloud the issues while throwing people off the scent. And you know what? He really does respect Sarish – his obvious power and intelligence, his cunning. He just doesn’t currently really trust him enough to have “faith” in him. I guess that makes him a heretic, but he doesn’t really think of himself that way, more of a skeptic.

So I guess for him, there is a “benefit from Heresy” because he’ll take pretty much any blessing that doesn’t appear to be dripping evil slime from it…