Morwyns Doctrine

Doctrine

“When I was young and righteous, it seemed to me that the world was a place of abundant goodness, and I asked, ‘Why do men do evil?’ But I am old now, and I have no time to wonder at this anymore. Now I see that evil is everywhere, its path perilously easy to walk. At my age, I wonder why men ever do good, for what rewards do good deeds offer? They are few, and many years in the delivering. No, I will let the young cry out in the streets about the wickedness men do. I will leave it to the righteous to shake evil from men’s souls with hard words and harder steel. I choose to spend my remaining days tending to hearts that are safe for goodness, for good is not easy to find, and harder still to embrace.” —The Final Ruminations of Supreme Matriarch Ana Codhwyn

The healing halls are homes to those of truly decent and merciful dispositions. Their residents are neither politically motivated nor cunning plotters who hoard secrets. The faithful of Morwyn are exactly what they appear to be: the most loving, kind people in the world. They value hope and joy over victory and dogmatism. They purge themselves of pride and self-importance, and live to protect, serve, aid, teach, and heal a wounded world. In this they try to live out the mystery of Morwyn, who purged herself of the power of fire, given to all the gods, to heal her family.
It is easy to see why the Morwynites grow scarce. Most people do not attend their services or join their numbers because they feel they simply are not up to a lifetime of service and personal perfection. For those who are members of the healing halls, either as congregants, clergy, holy warriors, or white hands, the principles of the faith surround a four-word maxim: Charitable, Merciful, Gentle, and Wise. Following this maxim, the Morwynites lend aid to all people and seek out those who are good, or who might be good if lent a hand, to help them spread the four virtues.
Charitable If it is in your power to aid another, why would you not? In her grace, Morwyn has given a limitless bounty to the children of the earth. If we can aid others, what could dissuade us? Morwyn gave up her fire, the very power of the soul, so the other gods might live; what might the faithful give that could match this, the ultimate act of charity? For this reason, Morwynites do not demand money for their healing unless there is a good reason (see Wisdom, below) and they gravitate toward areas where the needy congregate. This doctrine stymies the church’s recruitment efforts, as there is nothing to be gained for oneself by joining, except a sense of peace. One does not attend a healing hall to make political connections or business deals.
Merciful If you are wronged, you must forgive. If you have an enemy in your power who is redeemable, you must seek to redeem him, even though your heart tells you it is folly. Redemption is always better than punishment, and sometimes the mere example of mercy is enough to redeem even the hardest heart. For this reason, Morwynites never kill people of one of the five mortal races if they can avoid it. Instead, they work tirelessly to redeem the person in question, offering them chance after chance to better themselves.
Gentle War is never the first resort or second resort, and not even the third resort. Morwynites believe violence against kin—meaning the mortal races—should be avoided at all costs unless self-defense requires it. Morwynites are not pacifists; they take up arms against evil races, undead, dangerous beasts, and fiends. However, against the redeemable (which they tend to define as any person of one of the five mortal races, though individual Morwynites may believe in redemption for other beings—or rarely, that a group within one of the mortal races, such as dark elves, can’t be redeemed), Morwynites do not raise hands in anger. They fight only if attacked.
Wisdom It should be obvious that the first three parts of the Morwynite maxim could result in a group of people who are easily exploited, but Morwyn is the goddess of wisdom and her followers are no fools. They are not being taken advantage of when they give freely. For example, a Sister of Beneficence might regularly heal a man who has money, but pretends he does not, and who does not donate to the church. She does not do so naively, and eventually makes it clear to the man, when he least expects it, she knows exactly what he is up to. It is this doctrine that keeps the faithful from doing things that are clearly foolish. A Morwynite shopkeeper does not give up his shop simply because someone else needs it, but believes he does the most good by owning a successful business and donating his surplus to the healing halls. While the Morwynites are thought foolish by those who would exploit them, they in fact hold to the hope they can save such people through good deeds.

Type

Religious, Organised Religion