The Old Soldier, The Chirurgeon
Aliases
None Yet – The Corrigun is a very new deity and has yet to gather names among the other races.
Symbol
A Butterfly
Portfolios
Allegiances, Purgatory, Battlefields, Soldiers, Chirugery, Rebirth, Diplomacy, Forgiveness and Loyalty
Foes
Traitors and Bards
Divine Seats
The Armed Forces of the Royal Basin
Afterlives
Under The Mountain
Much of who the Corrigun is was spoken of in the history if his indentured time on the island. What he has become is something that is very different. He has manifested at Tharinos as a younger man although still a soldier and very clearly a Chirurgeon. There is a kindness in his soul but he also retains a lot of the cruelty that he once had in a former manifestation. That cruelty is reserved for traitors and for those that disrespect those who serve their monarch and their country. Whilst he is about punishment, he leaves much of this to the work of Rayvahn asking only for the specific souls of the treacherous and the wretched.
However there is much more to him than that now. He is a man who does not want to the bodies or souls of soldiers risked in the zeal of battle. His followers know that he would rather the option of peace be extended to those that wish for bloodshed if those that wish it are nations or merchants. Diplomats to be sent forward to discuss what has brought them to the point of battle before they enter it and whether there is a chance for reconciliation before anyone has to die. The Corrigun realises that there are two endings to such fighting: That one side has eradicated the other or when enough soldiers have died the instigators will talk and the war will end with only the deaths of soldiers are avoided. Either way he believes that it is too much death.
When war is over and a soldier has taken lives they are changed people. This is understood. It is hard to go back, it is hard to be a civilian again but it can be even harder to take more life and survive these experiences. The Corrigun seeks to provide retraining and refocus for those survivors. Not through magic but through social change and the appreciation by those for whom they fought for the sacrifices that were given for them, not through loss of life but through loss of self. He seeks for them to be reborn into the world with their new lives ahead of them.
Dogma
The Corrigun’s followers value peace but are trained for battle. Like him they see sending to soldiers to war as only the last resort and that if any army, a battalion or even an individual’s blood is to be spilt that the work that they have signed up for is not cheaply undertaken. To this end they act as diplomats seeking a way to prevent conflict and the loss of life that this represents before it begins. This is one of the largest parts of their undertaking and is a massive mantra for all those that follow him.
The Corrigun’s followers are almost explicitly soldiers, chaplains and other types found on the Battlefield. They hold the words of Oaths dear holding those words in their very souls to ensure their sanctity. Traitors are to be found and punished with the severity that only those who serve can understand. To break the bonds of the reliance that a soldier has to another is abhorrent but for those that are forced to do so by those that they serve there is a forgiveness. All servants of the Corrigun are skilled in some form of Chirurgery, that which saves a soldier’s life. It is the best way to show reverence to him.
As with the Corrigun they are an unhappy lot in the presence of bards who they see as glory hounds or thieves: A soldier actually fights for a pittance whilst a bard stands onstage in their uniform and tells their story for a hefty fee. Soldiers battle hard and lose their companions just for a bard to sing a piss poor dirge about their loss in the pouring rain. Every battle is glamourised beyond measure by a bard to encourage the young to join up and battle and the Corrigun hates it.
“We have all served: All of us here either as a soldier or as a Guilder or as a Priest. All of us are given purpose by a higher power and each one of us has been forced to face others in battle for them. When we have made that undertaking when we have taken life do we feel guilt? Sometimes yes because sometimes the people that we have killed are just like us. Standing for a cause or a person or a Deity. How many lives do we take before we realise that we are not the person that we were, that we are changed. Do we then deserve a second chance? Do we then deserve a new life? I think that we do.”
From the Tharinos 2018
Holly Goodall
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