#it is also worth bearing in mind the different personalities that Pelor and Avandra have

[kerosene-in-a-blender]

Clerics, Their Gods, and the Importance of Context

I mentioned this a bit in my tags on this post, but I feel like it's a complicated enough topic that it deserves its own post. Pelor and Avandra had wildly different responses to both being asked the question, "Are you worth saving?", but they also were asked these questions in wildly different contexts by clerics they have wildly different relationships with, and these differences had a massive effect on how each deity answered the question. Because they gave the same answer, ultimately, Pelor was just far more aggressive about it.

Pelor and Deanna have an at best chilly, at worst openly confrontational relationship at the best of times. She believes in his teachings, and she deeply believes in aiding and nurturing people, but her relationship with the god himself is fraught due in large part to the circumstances she found herself coming into his light in. They're able to coexist fairly well for the most part, but after she found out what went down at the temple in Hearthdell, Deanna's idea of doing what's best for people and Pelor's idea of doing what's best for people clashed, hard. When Deanna asked if followers of the Dawnfather were perpetuating harm in the world, he responded that they were doing what was necessary for the greater good of everyone. Pelor was focused on the good that could be carried out by his followers securing a nexus point; Deanna was focused on the smaller-scale harm that was being done to the people of Hearthdell in the process. And this is where their fraught relationship came to a head. She worships the Dawnfather and serves as his cleric because she believes in helping people, but in that moment, he didn't seem to be helping people, just some abstract concept of the greater good. So she asked him what she wanted to know from him in that moment: "If you refuse to help people, and in fact harm them because you exist, than what is the point of you, Are you worth saving?" And Pelor responded exactly one as would expect someone to respond to being asked that question in that way: he refused to even entertain the conversation. And in doing so answered "Are you worth saving?" with a resounding "Yes", because someone being worth saving does not require that they justify themselves to someone else.

In contrast, FCG and Avandra have a much more openly supportive, and most importantly for this topic, openly dialectic relationship. FCG has approached Avandra for guidance and understanding as they try and figure out how to navigate being a person with a soul who wants to have faith but isn't sure how to approach it. And as such they've asked questions of her such as: "Are you there?" and "Are you watching me?" both of which she's answered affirmatively in a way that reflects their growing faith in her. They've begun developing a relationship that, at least to me, resembles that of someone finding a trusted mentor to help them through a time of crisis in their life. At the same time as FCG's been developing his relationship with the Changebringer, he's also been well aware of Ludinus' plan to unleash Predathos; he knows the gods are in danger. And if there is one thing FCG truly loves doing, it's helping people. So he asks of this person he's building a new relationship with: "Do you need help?". Because if she does than FCG genuinely wants to help her. It's also important to note that FCG is the only member of Bells Hells who is pro-god in the sense of: "I have a full relationship with a specific deity and I don't want the gods killed because of that relationship". (The others are more pro-god in the sense of "Fuck Ludinus" and "The gods are a force of good in the world that would be lost if they were dead".) They had the Bells Hells vote on whether they were "Pro-God", "Anti-God", or "Undecided" (all being undecided except for the pro-gods FCG, and Ashton, who abstained) on the same day as the commune in which they asked Avandra, "Are you worth saving?" In the context of that, and them previously extending an offer of help to her, "Are you worth saving?" becomes less of a question of, "Justify to me why you should continue to exist", and more "Am I doing the right thing?". And because of the relationship they'd previously established and the goodwill FCG had built up with her, Avandra was able to calmly approach him and answer, "Of course." Of course she's worth saving, of course they're doing the right thing in championing for her.

When Deanna asked Pelor, "Are you worth saving?", she did so to challenge him, and with the implication that she had already come up with an answer in her head, and that answer was "No". When FCG asked Avandra, "Are you worth saving?", he did so seeking guidance and reassurance, and with the implication that they desperately wanted to the answer to be "Yes". And that really made all the difference in the tenor of answer that they received.