Hab gerade einen Eintrag in seinem
Blog gelesen, der einen schönen Einblick in die Ziele des Designs gibt, die Keith mit der Kirche der Silbernen Flamme verfolgte:
The Church of the Silver Flame Every now and then I get drawn into discussions about the Church of the Silver Flame. I just made a post about it on an Eberron discussion thread, and it occured to me that I really ought to put it here, so I could refer back to it later. So here we go.
In my experience, the majority of players, DMs, and even Eberron writers focus on the negative side of the Silver Flame. Every Silver Flame priest is either a corrupt fraud or a zealous maniac. The people of Thrane are intolerant fanatics. I've seen multiple shifter PCs based around the idea of wanting to kill modern worshippers of the Silver Flame based on the events of the lycanthropic purge.
It's easy to see reasons for this. When you're telling a story and you want a villain, you want Cardinal Richelieu, not Mother Teresa. But people should be aware that the villains and zealots stand out precisely because they ARE the exceptions - that the CotSF is not the violent, intolerant faith many believe it to be. Now, obviously all DMs are welcome to do whatever they wish with the world. If you want a vile and misguided church of zealots, that's your business. But the original goal of the church was to create a complex situation, not a one-sided charicature; it's supposed to be an institution that is, on the balance, a force for light - but one that, due to the actions of zealots and misguided followers, has also been a source of darkness. I just want to do a quick skim over some of the early source material (since along the way, many authors get caught up in the zealotry) and highlight the original direction.
Let's start with the ECS. On page 67, we get the core mission of the Church: "The Church of the Silver Flame is dedicated to protecting the common people from supernatural evil." This initial description says nothing about corruption or zealotry, because these things are not supposed to be unique to the Church of the Silver Flame. EVERY religion in Eberron has corrupt priests and zealots; the biggest offender on this count is the Blood of Vol, the majority of whose high priests are completely misleading their faithful followers. The issue is that the Church of the Silver Flame is not immune to these troubles; despite being dedicated to a noble cause, it is vulnerable to the failings of those who serve it - and those people may fall prey to greed or zealotry. But that's not somehow the core of the faith; it is the failing of those who stray from its teachings.
This is echoed on page 131, under Life in Khorvaire: "Rumors tell of graft and corruption even within the Church of the Silver Flame, the traditional bastion of law and order." This is considered to be a SURPRISE - not something taken for granted. By and large, the church IS seen as an honest and altruistic institution.
Next let's go to page 207, speaking of the Keeper of the Silver Flame and the nation of Thrane. "Jaela believes that, with the exception of wiping out true evil, war is a futile effort. The Silver Flame doesn't call for war; indeed, she believes that the Flame is saddened by the conflict that has pitted brother against brother." The problem is that many of the other members of the theocracy believe otherwise - but Jaela is the vessel of the Flame. Her thoughts represent the true path of the Flame; the problem again is the human failing of those who seek war. It's not the intention of the religion; in fact, it's against the principles of the faith. The problem is that people don't always live up to those ideals.
With that said, pages 207-208 continue to emphasize that the majority of the faithful hold to the true path. "Most (missionaries) preach a tolerant version of the faith (that accepts other religions)." "The Church of the Silver Flame is of two minds when it comes to doctrine and practices: the dominant, more or less tolerant side, embodied by the Keeper of the Flame... and the small but vocal minority who... take every pronouncement to its literal and extremely intolerant conclusions. On one hand, the church has developed into one of the strongest pillars of lawful good virtues in the world. On the other, its fanatical side has inspired... some of the worst atrocities ever committed in the name of a lawful good deity."
That intolerant, fanatical side is there. Just as you can find intolerant, fanatical followers of the Sovereign Host, the Blood of Vol (hello, Emerald Claw!), and any other religion; it's human nature. The Church of the Silver Flame is a faith that strives to do good, and which more often than not DOES do good - but which has also produced evil, when misguided or self-centered followers have strayed from its path.
This is echoed in the
Silver Flame dragonshard article. "The vast majority of the members of the church are not warriors... they seek to battle evil by nuturing good. A Thrane farmer who is faithful to the Flame does not fight demons. But he seeks to live his life by the ideals of the flame: to help those in need, to encourage virtuous behavior, and to be a force of light in the world. Gradations of evil exist, and while no mercy can be granted to the demon, hope remains that the greedy merchant or the arrogant king may follow a different path if shown how. The minister -- and the paladin -- leads by example and demonstrates to others the errors of their ways."
But what about the purge of lycanthropes, and the innocents who suffered in this struggle? Again, this is supposed to be an example of the moral challenges faced in Eberron - a good action that unfortunately had evil consequences. As described in the
Purge dragonshard, this was a time when the power of lycanthropy was growing and spreading, when even good lycanthropes were becoming bloodthirsty murderers, and when thousands of innocents were being slaughtered. Unchecked, it could have destroyed Galifar. When the Purge first began it was 28 Days Later, not the Salem witch trials. The templars of the Flame were normal humans risking their lives to fight supernatural beasts in the hopes of protecting innocent farmers. The typical soldier was no match for the werewolf; he was putting his life on the defend others. But war is a horror, and in the course of war the best intentions can go astray. And so it happened here. As the tide turned, madness gripped the victors, and especially among the Aundairian converts to the Flame there was a thirst for blood and vengeance. The shifters suffered. Good lycanthropes suffered. It was a terrible tragedy. But it would have been far worse if they'd done nothing at all; the Purge began as an effort to defend innocents being slaughtered, not as a brutal attack on harmless, carefree werewolves.
Again, I understand why people like to focus on the dark side of the church; it makes for better stories than the altruistic, kind, Mother Teresa priests. But the fact of the matter is that as written, the Church is supposed ot have MORE Jaela Daerans than Cardinal Krozens. Especially in Thrane, Jaela represents the majority of the church: tolerant, altruistic, dedicated to protecting the innocent from supernatural evil, but combating human evil through noble example and charitable deeds.
The church is flawed. That's the goal of Eberron; there are no perfect forces of good in the world. People should never be able to be certain that the actions of a follower of the Silver Flame will serve the greater good. But the church was never meant to be as bad as many people seem to make it. Overall, it is a force for good, based on noble principles. Unfortunately, just as in our world, there are people who cannot live up to those principles, or who are blinded by their own greed, ambition, or misunderstanding of that underlying philosophy.
At least, that was my intention. From the start, we wanted to show that in Eberron there is no perfect pillar of virtue - but there's still virtue there, not simply blind intolerance and zealotry.
