#already we have fcg fumbling his way as a follower who used to think himself soulless and not alive

[nellasbookplanet]

Of all the Bell's Hells, the character I think would be most interesting to see having to personally deal with direct mortal-god interactions is Laudna. (that's a lie, I want to see ashton get into contact with the luxon so bad, but the luxon isn’t part of the established pantheon and might not even be a god so that is a discussion for another post)

Mostly, the group seems pretty ambivalent on the gods, but ever since her experiences during the solstice and the party split Laudna has veered from 'neutral' to 'actively negative'. I think it's all her previous compartmentalization being forced to a screeching halt from dealing with so much bad shit at once and she does not like dealing with her emotions, and it's making her lash out at the perceived cause of said emotions: the gods. Were the gods, and in extension all of Exandria, not in danger she and the party wouldn’t be going through hell right now trying to save them. Obviously this isn’t entirely rational and veers on victim blaiming, but characters under a lot of stress and going through dark shit aren’t always logical, and either way Laudna is still working to stop Ludinus regardless of her feelings so I'm not holding it against her.

She's also a pretty isolated and 'me and mine' type character who’s been dealt a very bad hand for most of her life. Prior to meeting the hells, the only person she really cared about was Imogen because Imogen was the only one who cared about her. She doesn’t see 'a god resurrected me', she sees 'Imogen and the hells resurrected me'; she doesn’t see 'the gods, who have done much good in the world, need help', she sees 'the entire world (and especially Imogen), is in danger because the gods, who I've never seen neither hide nor hair of, can’t handle their own shit'. It’s leading to a lot of messy emotions where she has to involve herself in a conflict she doesn’t care about, because the core victims of said conflict (the gods) are people she has zero relationship and connection to.

Having Laudna, through her connection to the Sun Tree, come into contact with Pelor would be such an interesting and challenging route to take. Be it simple visons/dreams, as an extended sort of patron, or fully becoming a champion, either would be cool, but the point is that it would allow Laudna an avenue to work through and come to terms with her conflicted feelings regarding the gods and her own trauma as having nothing to do with them instead of viewing them as borderline scapegoats. It would challenge growth in her as a character, but it would also challenge growth in Pelor, as some of her critiques of him are entirely valid (coughhearthdellcough). It’s good for there to be followers who aren't blindly obedient but who question and challenge.

Also, there’s the fact that Marisha-as-Keyleth, another character who was at best ambivalent about the gods, offered to be Pelor's champion in c1 before Vex stepped up. It'd be cool to finally get to see Marisha truly play out the dynamic of 'jaded mortal forced by circumstance to ally with a god and using it to work through her own feelings of trauma'.