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Old 10-06-2014, 05:03 AM   #41
Gold & Appel Inc
 
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Default Re: [Banestorm - Abydos] A Lazarite mass

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No worries. Hope everything has calmed down at work.
Thanks! Great American Beer Fest has, indeed, ended on schedule, once again without my demise and re-animation into a skeletal charioteer. :]

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Is there any mention of them being priests or deacons?
Nope.

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In Eastern Christianity, monastics are not considered clergy. There are no canonical restrictions to becoming a monk or nun, but there are many restrictions for a man to be made a deacon, more for a priest, and even more for a bishop.
Fair enough.

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I suppose a case could be made for making vampires clergy in that order (monastic orders are another thing we don't really have in Orthodoxy) since Nikodorus sort of sets a precedence for it. Do vampires and other sentient undead still partake of the Sacraments? I don't recall any information in the book implying things one way or the other.
After my re-read, I wouldn't call the Lazarites Orthodox so much as Heavily Orthodox-Influenced. I didn't find anything about sentient undead taking or not taking sacraments, but I think the image of vampires drinking real blood that's been blessed for communion out of a little spoon is kind of neat, for a low-key example of the normalcy of undeath in the setting. The PCs could get in the wrong line accidentally (hey, it's the shortest!), and have the vampire lay parishioner standing behind them quietly and politely inform them of their error, for example.
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Old 10-06-2014, 08:08 AM   #42
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Default Re: [Banestorm - Abydos] A Lazarite mass

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After my re-read, I wouldn't call the Lazarites Orthodox so much as Heavily Orthodox-Influenced.
This is what I think as well. I'm actually not sure they are even heavily influenced, as much as they just picked up the Greek language and icons. Everything else about them, including their history, says to me that they're basically just a heretical variant of typical Yrthian Christianity.
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Old 10-06-2014, 08:03 PM   #43
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Default Re: [Banestorm - Abydos] A Lazarite mass

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This is what I think as well. I'm actually not sure they are even heavily influenced, as much as they just picked up the Greek language and icons. Everything else about them, including their history, says to me that they're basically just a heretical variant of typical Yrthian Christianity.
This setting, while well-thought, very much operates on the Rule of Cool. I'd run this as standard Yrthian Christianity except where Orthodox elements are easy and seem awesomely-suitable, but even that will make it feel very different to the players.
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Old 10-09-2014, 10:53 AM   #44
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Default Re: [Banestorm - Abydos] A Lazarite mass

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[snip] Having not read the material myself I cannot be sure, but even allowing for the Lazarite view that the undead are somehow "God's plan" for what to do with the physical remains of believers into eternity (ignoring or creatively interpreting the Scripture that at the very least makes such an interpretation highly suspect)... wouldn't being a lich, vampire, etc. be as bad or an even worse abomination? Or for Banestorm are such being still considered "different" from when they were alive? One's eternal soul or spirit or what have you is still supposed to go with God and the undead are okay because it is just efficient use of the "empties"... or am I horribly misunderstanding the Lazarite views?
Sorry this took so long; crazy week at work.

This is another case where it is important to distinguish between the sapient and non-sapient undead. The sapient undead, whatever form they take, who support Lazarite Christianity are considered maybe a little unsettling but mostly A-OK by the average citizen of Abydos. They generally became undead through their own free will (eg: willing Vampires, Sour-Jarred Zombies) or no fault of their own (eg: unwilling Vampires, Ghosts with unfinished business), and [liberal interpretation not supported directly by text] are generally thought to eventually meet their reckoning by violence, hostile magic, or accident no matter how durable they are according to God's plan, from a religious perspective, and can do a lot for the homeland and the faith in the meantime, from a pragmatic perspective.

The "empties," by contrast, are viewed as mere useful tools (p 6-7). Under normal circumstances, the soul is harvested by God but the flesh and bone remain for the faithful to use as they see fit (mostly agriculture and the service industry in practice).
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