In Which Lothar Contemplates the Nature of Good and Evil

by Floyd Fiftynames,

Licensed Bard

The Band of the Red Oak made a pilgrimage to Raina's cottage, arriving on a clear and bright Spring afternoon. As the party descended into the swale where the edifice stood, however, thunderclouds gathered, and the visage of warrior angels appeared in the sky. Before the team could worry, however, a friendly face from the past appeared to assuage their fears. The spirit of Father Fhaerris made himself manifest to serve as an ambassador to the boys, explaining to them that the cloud spirits were envoys of protection from Regius himself. The presence of Fhaerris sent Lothar, Riordan, and Salem into a flurry of emotions, and after the shock wore off, they proceeded to ask their former village priest as many questions as they could think of, about the afterlife, about their path and destiny, and about the moral rectitude of some of the figures in their life. 

It was at this point that Fhaerris felt compelled to clarify the nature of good and evil in the universe, particularly as it pertained to the manner in which the two natures held sway over the souls of an individual.

For Lothar, religious issues were never at the forefront of his mind, as he tended to view church services as a pulpit for the moral authority, and our husky hero had a well-documented problem with authority. However, Fhaerris had a talent for de-emphasizing the "should" elements of church teaching, instead presenting moral problems and solutions as a path of discovery that each individual being could be free to make. 

It was particularly illuminating, therefore to Lothar, whose depth of insight was more substantial than some realized, to hear the good father present good and evil as a constant presence within the souls of all men (gnomes, halflings, dwarves, elves, orcs - what have you) at all times. Fhaerris' decision to focus this instruction on good and evil nature of churchmen such as Despoth and Vulpian was uniquely useful, as these were two men that could not be more disparate in the way that our heroes perceived them. Vulpian, whom they had spent a good deal of time talking with, fighting alongside - he was a fully formed man, while the party had spent time up until now seeing Despoth as either wholly good or evil, and not allowing him the room to be a well rounded person. 

Furthermore, for Lothar, the clarification allowed him to reflect upon himself, and see himself as a man whose soul was a continuous battlefield for the forces of good and evil. Lothar thought about all of the things he wanted to be - strong, right, fast, alive - but what it all eventually boiled down to at its essence is that he wanted to be good. Sometimes good could co-exsist with his desire for other things, but other times it could not, but the realization that good was his primary goal helped him, clarified his mind, and (he hoped) would inform his decision-making in the future. 

FF