Role-Playing an aspect of a faith question

[Montleberry]

I had a how to RP and handle something "correctly" question for opinions. Chauntea teaches her followers to eschew fire, but other than that brief statement find little detail on it.

Rping a cleric to her I don't use any fire spells, fire enchantments on weapons, or alchemists fire. RP discomfort around fire beings, player character fire genasi, etc.

The exact nature of the restriction is however unclear on mundane domestic use of fire. Would a Cleric of Chauntea use a campfire to cook? Candles to light their home?

Seems like domestic/cooking type use of fire might not be an issue, as much as destructive or magical use of it? The sort of people who worship her would need regular fire to cook, light and heat their homes, bake and brew and so on it seems to me.

What I could find suggests it is a religious aversion to destructive use of fire, and a general carefulness about the nature of fire and its use, and not an outright ban of -any- use of non-magical fire?

[DM_Xzar]

That pretty much sums it up. Chauntea is often worshipped by farmers and the like. How are they going to bake bread or roast their pork if they can't use fire?

Of course, if you'd like to play an overly zealous follower of Chauntea, you could take it to the extreme and take her dogma too literal!

[LISA100595]

Sounds like a question for Ask Arkanis!!

[Endelyon]

Eldath follows a similar mindset towards use of fire. However, it can be stated summarily that Eldathyn and Chauntean clerics do not like handling fire but are not forbidden to use nonmagical fire.

I would say that devout followers of either religion might abhor the use of fire for any kind of destructive purpose (perhaps even eschewing fire for uses like culling), but would likely very much realize that fire was a basic necessity for human survival (even as a vegetarian without the need for fire to cook, most people would probably freeze to death in winter without fires to heat their homes).

Summarily, your proposed manner of RPing your cleric's aversion to fire seems to be exactly right, even by lore standards!

[Grimcheese]

Keep in mind that sometimes the dogma is written vaguely enough to allow a wide range of different ways to approach the faith, from the layman's to the overly zealous. A thousand ways to Rome and all that.

Like what the others say, most sensible Chaunteans would understand that fire is necessary for survival to some extent, but they will not go out of the way to use fire if there is an alternative method providing similar results.

Or you could go for the more zealous "no fire EVER!" approach, which works, too!

[Unka_Oogie]

Funny.

Burning fields is a very common way to finish a harvest in low-technology farming. It often renews and replenishes the soil.

[Montleberry]

Thank you all. I believe based on these helpful opinions I will continue to RP as I have regarding magical fire.

As for non-magical will strike a balance of not lighting a fire (so would not light a torch, but if someone were to hand him one he wouldn't freak out and refuse to hold it) or while he would cook over a fire or sit at a campfire, he would still look for someone else to light it along the lines of this I found:

Clergy of Chauntea are encouraged to work against plant disease wherever they go. They often hire nonbelievers to help them burn diseased plants or the corpses of plague-ridden livestock to prevent the spread of sickness. They keep careful watch over such blazes. Chauntean clerics do not like handling fire but are not forbidden to use non-magical fire.

[Unka_Oogie]

Clergy of Chauntea are encouraged to work against plant disease wherever they go. They often hire nonbelievers to help them burn diseased plants or the corpses of plague-ridden livestock to prevent the spread of sickness. They keep careful watch over such blazes. Chauntean clerics do not like handling fire but are not forbidden to use non-magical fire.

Nonbelievers? I think that "nonbelievers" is inappropriate to the Forgotten Realms, since nearly everyone in the BG area believes that Chauntea is a goddess and that she is the goddess of agriculture. Likewise, this would mean that farmers would not be hired to help priests of Chauntea do such a thing. A priest of Tyr would believe that Bane exists, Bane is a god, etc. He would dispute that Bane ought to be worshipped. When it comes to Chauntea, though, would a priest of Tyr tell good people they should not worship Chauntea, particularly if they get their living from the growing of crops? Thus, even someone who lives in a city and doesn't directly sacrifice to Chauntea would still be a "believer". After all, who would deny that Chauntea exists, is a goddess, and is the goddess of crops?

[Montleberry]

I would assume the author of that probably intended nonbeliever wouldn't mean people not actually believing in Chauntea, more as people who have chosen another patron god and don't feel obliged to obey the exact dogma of the Earthmother's faith as closely as a devout Chauntean would.