Isiaa wrote:Of course, the Templar interprets the Good through his own lens...
Doesn't everyone? The thing that's supposed to set Templar apart is that they sincerely try to strive to be truly good as much as possible, based first and foremost on
compassion and selflessness, and the code and guidelines of their order. If they interpret "good" incorrectly and do bad things "in the name of good", they'll lose their Light and possibly their membership as a Knight Templar if they don't rectify things quickly - there's no way they could turn into some corrupt Templar who uses their thaumaturgy to burn holes in the necks of jaywalkers with spears of light and starts the revolution of the Holy Church Of Righteous Oppression Of All Peoples - because the Light wouldn't work. It doesn't accept excuses and technical loopholes in the codes or philosophies of men. If you turn into a holier-than-thou oppressive jerkwad, the Light is going to be beyond your reach despite what you might be telling yourself.
It gets really tiresome when people constantly assume/insinuate the worst, or bring their personal baggage every time there's a person or organization that claims to be striving to be good. It probably also gets really tiresome hearing me go on these rants all the time.
I'm all for shady, corrupt, deceitful, and downright evil organizations in my stories/games. Even the archetypal "people with good intentions gone wrong/too far/corrupt" is great fun, I admit. These groups make the world more interesting, and provide different and interesting perspectives and conflict. They also give the Good Guys something to work against. (And they're more fun to play as a GM!) But it boggles the mind that the vast majority of people seem to assume that every individual or organization striving for good is inevitably corrupt, hypocritical, or downright lying with some ulterior motive. Even several of its own members seem to consider themselves the only ones who "know the truth" and constantly suspect or even accuse their own organization because of this malady that makes everyone think "any organization claiming to be good is secretly bad", and that makes me profoundly sad on a disturbingly frequent basis.
At least in a
made up fantasy world, can't some people sincerely want to be good people and have true compassion for others?
</rant>