One of the more prominent factions within Starcana is the Vilithic Church. PCs can play members of this organization either as paladins or priests. They’re attractive choices; paladins allow players to scratch that itch for playing “heroic space knights” while priests are powerful spellcasters and healers in their own right. They’re two of the three careers that gain “Knowledge (Starcana)” as a career skill.
However, players may be hesitant to play these careers, or be active members of the Vilithic Church after reading more about the religion itself. In this edition of Fragments from The Edge, we’re going to explore how a player can play these types of characters and removing a potential disconnect between a good guy worshiping evil gods.
In Starcana, all five gods are vile, evil, tyrannical beings who are bent on tormenting the living beings of Known Space. Upon meeting for the first time, every race discovered they all worshiped these gods and had the same religious iconography. This initially led to a base understanding between the empires, and facilitated initial contact and trade. It also allowed the Vilithic Church to become a vast, interstellar power on its own. Throughout the galaxy there are priests and paladins of the Vilithic Church, serving others in an attempt to draw the attention of the gods to themselves instead of normal everyday people. That is the role of the church: to protect the spirits of those around them, to prevent their souls from passing into one of the five gods’ realms upon death and suffering eternal torment.
Those who are the “public face” of the church most often have this mindset. The priests who handle services for towns and colonies or the paladins who wander the galaxy helping others truly believe they are doing good. Not in the name of the gods, but to spite them. To gain the gods’ attention, focus it on the paladin or priest, and away from the general public. Because they do serve the Vile gods in this capacity, the gods grant a portion of their power onto the faithful, allowing them to perform powerful miracles. The paladins use these abilities to aid others, defend them from harm and from those who act upon the aspects of the gods: pirates, murderers, cruel tyrants, and other nefarious miscreants. Many paladins see battling these foes as “helping them on their way to meet the gods they emulate.” Priests are more than happy to use their divine powers to comfort the sick and injured, shield others from harm, and advise those who need in on how to stay out of the Vile gods’ notice.
This is all the base-level understanding of the Church structure, and how the PCs can play characters that worship evil gods without being evil themselves. Now, as one ascends in the Church power structure, and learns more and more about the Church’s dark secrets, they may lose some of that righteousness. Many believe that the Elder Council, the priests in charge of the Church, are corrupted by the power and privilege they enjoy. Most of those people who have this opinion are outside of the Church structure, but some within it may have hints about this as well. Such faithful may want to root out any possible corruption from within, believing that their familiarity with evil would enable them to resist it.
Whether or not the church actually is corrupt or not will be explored in future Starcana products. *wink*
Finally, there are some paladins and priests who become unable to reconcile belonging to a faith that empowers evil gods, and strive to believe in something else. These heroes usually end up leaving the church, or are ex-communicated from it. They still have their divine powers, whether or not they use them is ultimately up to the individual; some do, some don’t.
And that’s that! We hope you have a fun time playing these powerful yet complicated and conflicted heroes. Please stop on by the Studio 404 Games Facebook page if you have any questions about Starcana, or any of our games.
Until next time, may the dice be with you.
