Submitted: 2 April 1999

"If You Call Yourself Holy . . ."

by Rouslan Teploh

Today I came to the guild just as I woke up, and found it full of corpses. Nothing new, right? Well, there was a corpse by the name of Raf who didn’t have a favor with the gods, but had six circles under his belt. When questioned, he claimed that he didn’t want to die favorless. When asked how come he did anyway, he got mad. He said (and the other corpse supported him) that I have no right to decide people’s fates, when I said that he is not deserving of a raise.

Funny, isn’t it? If I could and would raise Raf, he wouldn’t object to me deciding his fate, would he? As it was, I did not have any power to give him life, but it bothered me that he demanded a favor to be spent on him by one of my brethren. He did not show any remorse and did not provide an explanation; probably sure it was none of my and other clerics business.

As this went on, a novice cleric present at the scene became angry with me and the others, saying that if we call ourselves "holy" then he is sorry for the guild. I asked him, what is holy? Should have guessed his answer. You try. One . . . Two . . . Three . . . I am sure you got it – to be holy is to raise dead and be humble about it.

Well, I don’t know. If he wants to be humble, I don’t mind. I am humble – with ladies, and with elders. Not with demanding corpses who have no respect. My Lady Tamsine, she works hard and she wants us to work hard. How would I serve her better by helping lazy corpses who can’t find time for favors? It is not my duty to help corpses at all, but I do out of compassion and because it pleases My Lady when I work to help others. It is not any clerics duty as well, but as long as some of us act as if it was, we will be treated as slaves. Just as people will call resurrection "rezz" as long as the clerics do it. Well, that’s a whole another story . . .

Anyway, about favorless . . . Sometimes favorless ghosts are young, and say that no one showed them the way. I could say that no one showed me either, I looked up the maps and such, and heeded warnings from above. But that isn’t the point. If they didn’t find the way, they should not leave the town till they find it. They should not go hunting, or fight each other, or do stupid stuff. If they do, they should be ready to pay the price and start their lives from scratch. If there is a cleric willing to help them, they are the ones who should be humble and grateful about it. When I advance enough to be worthy of the gift of life, I probably will help very young favorless souls and help them get favors. But it would take some very hard explaining to get me to help one who knows all about favors but didn’t bother, like that Raf corpse . . .

Baresh will listen to your well-presented viewpoint on this, too.