I wanted to open up a discussion on the current rules regarding surface monsters and the Banite Church. There has been many faction shifts throughout the years with the church being owned by serveral different types of leaders from orthodox church of bane to the Zhentarim, occasionally sharrans and Cyrisists.
The one thing, commonly held is that monsters and UD races are generally unallowed to interact in any more than an informal basis with the church. Sometimes even leading to the slaughter of a Monster Banite by NPCs.
Theres a few issues I find with monsters being disallowed in the church.
1. Forgotten realms lore, (I know I know, I'll get to the counter in a second)
Banites, while universally believing humans are the master race, often use Monsters as shocktroops and second class Citizens. To a Banite a Monsters life loss is a better outcome than a Human faithful. The Zhentilar utilize Monsters ranging from goblins to ogres and wyverns and occasionally dragons in their armies per lore. The Orthodox church would utilize Goblins and Gnolls on more than an occasion leading them to have as-good-as-it-gets relations with tribes
2. Arelith Lore:
Banites on Arelith have a very specific reputation, granted its an EARNED reputation, but Banites have been for the last 6 years been treated essentially as monsters in their own right. Often being killed without provocation. Heck, even saying praise bane errantly could cause a scene.
3. The Underdark: specifically Andunor, while being a trade hub, specifically allows anyone with gold come to trade. Meaning while its a majority underdarker and monster hub (partially due to zero other alternatives) its in reality a hub for all evil. I believe the Bane church could become a secondary hub, but not for trade. Utilized to make contact with the surface world and to trade for staging grounds. This idea is supported by the fact that the church literally has a door leading to the underdark.
4. Evil:
Its sort of an open secret that evil isnt really the "surface thing" often there are arguements of Surface vs. Underdark conflated with Good vs. Evil.
Generally I think it could lead to more RP if the church could be utilized as staging grounds for Monsters.
There are many holes in my arguements. Firstly, Arelith lore is not Forgotten realms lore, I understand. But most new players come to the server with general knowledge of FR, often thinking it is the same. There are no true documents readily available to teach the lore of the server stretching back 15 IRL years to when the king got a pie thrown in his face by the dreadlord and lead the feud.
I'm also aware of the worry of the slippery slope; "if the banites get to have monsters why not X"
Well the arguement against this is simple. The banites do not treat monsters as equals, and never will or should. They are generally slaves, something that is severly lacking on surface is slavery RP. Generally monsters are held in kennels or stables, often treated worse than horses.
I guess my general question is; would it be acceptable to the server for slave monsters such as goblins, kobolds, ogres, minotaur, gnolls (basically everything but intelligent humanoids like drow, du ergar, imaskari) to be utilized by Banites? Why or why not? Please show your work
