Interlude - Velendo's Sermon

I have a sermon that Velendo wrote and gave years ago, during the Comet Cycle; he had come across a city that worshipped Calphas as a God of Smiting, and he was not well pleased. It's a good insight into the cleric's character.

Enjoy. Thank Knightfall and Sialia for prodding me to go look through my thousand-odd pages of old notes. - Piratecat

Told by Velendo to a worshipful crowd, five years ago:

I guess you all know who I am. Some of you heard Calphas speaking some months ago, when he decided to grant me Proxyhood, and the rest of you have probably learned about me since then. Well, I'm gonna talk to you today mostly about two things. First I'm going to talk about myself, not because I'm that interesting a subject, but to make a point about all of *your* lives. Then I'm going to talk about balance, since it's a thing I've thought about, and learned about, a great deal in these past few years. Forgive me if this gets boring, but I'm just a tired old man underneath all of this holy glow, an old man who hasn't had much cause to deliver sermons.

I grew up in a small fishing village, a long, long way east from here. It's called Hunnerstide, and it's only a few hundred people all told. My father Barando was a priest of Calphas, and he taught me to follow in the ways of the faith. He died when I was about 30 years old, and I spent the next 20 years sitting behind a desk in the little Hunnerstide church, ministering to the needs of the people, and figuring I'd die one day or another, and I'd go to Haven, and that would be that. Fact was, I was lazy. I'd help people repair their shacks after bad storms blew through, and listen to the endless confessions of sailors, but there wasn't much to do, and that was fine by me.

Well one day Calphas decided I was something of an embarrassment, and gave me a metaphorical kick in the ass. I'll spare you the details, but through a series of misadventures I found myself in another country, far from home. There I was found by, and adopted into, a group of adventurers, who figured they could go around the land righting wrongs as they found them. I was skeptical at first, but as it's turned out, we really have been able to right wrongs. An awful lot of them, really. And while we were doing that, I managed to spread the worship of Calphas into lands that had never known his name and his power. I didn't realize it at the time, but what I was really doing was tempering myself -- becoming fired in the ovens of adversity, if you will.

But here's the important part. I was not becoming, and I still am not, some superior form of life. I'm not a God. I'm just a man. I am a tool in the hands of Calphas, just like all of you are tools. It just so happens that Calphas needed a particularly strong tool for a specific job, and so he imbued me with some extra strength and resiliency. But as all of you should know, there's nothing inherently better about a big sledge hammer than there is about a simple trowel. God has made me into a sledge hammer, since he needs one right now, but without trowels, and grinding stones, and chisels, and mortar, it doesn't matter if we've got the biggest sledge hammer in Creation.

So remember where I come from, because it's no better than where you come from. And if you want to look up to me, that's fine - but look at me not as something to gape at, or bow down in front of, but rather as an example of something all of you can become. 'Cause in the eyes of Calphas, all of us, from Proxy to peasant, are worthy of grace if we live our lives right.

And that's enough about me.

I told you I'd also say something about balance. I'll start with a short anecdote from just a few days ago, in Queenstown. Some of Calphas' children there wanted some sort of blessing from me, so I gave them one, and I also gave each of them a brick. Like this. [creates a brick, and places it at his feet.] When I did so, one of the people of Queenstown asked me "Are these Bricks of Smiting?" Now keep in mind that where I come from, the Church of Calphas wasn't so much into the Smiting business. We helped the people who needed help, and made sure no harm came to them. But we didn't go around smiting the enemy, mostly because the only enemy was bad weather, and you can't exactly throw a brick at a hurricane.

So when someone asked me if my bricks were Bricks of Smiting, my first thought was, no, of course not, they're just bricks. Bricks of Building, if you will. I'd always been of the opinion that Calphas was only a God of Protection, and not one of aggression. But here, I've found that worshippers of Calphas take a much more forward approach in seeking out and eliminating threats to peoples' safety. So it was my intention to stand up here and tell you that you were all going about serving Calphas the wrong way.

But I'm not going to do that. I thought about it some, and remembered a recent mission I was on, to stop a fortress full of Hill Giants from attacking passing caravans, near a country to the north called Irojis. I was looking through the Book of Calphas for guidance, and found a passage that read: "...but there are times when the Shield alone will waver, and the entrenched Defender can be uprooted. In such times, do not fear to take the battle to the malign aggressor, for a good offense is oft the best defense." And I realized then that there isn't room for passivity in the good works of a good Priest. We killed a large number of Giants that day, some of whom thought they were doing no wrong, and only acting according to their own nature. But they were harming others, while none sought to harm them, and so we slew them. It was during that battle that I was given the gift of my Proxyhood.

So I say to you here, that one hand you should hold back to protect the innocent, and that the other hand should be held forward, bringing low those who are seeking to cause harm. Keep one eye on your flock, and let the other keep out a constant watch for wolves. Let your bricks be either Bricks of Smiting *or* Bricks of Building, according to the necessity of the moment.

But I leave you with this thought: If you have but one brick, and all else is equal, use it to shield the innocent, rather than looking around for someone at whom to throw it. For if the Sheep and the Wolf are both killed together, Calphas is not served. But if the Wolf is left alive so that the Sheep can be saved, then Calphas is well-pleased.

May His blessings fall upon all of you here.

And thanks for listening.