I appreciated Abdirak's attention to our limitations, and at least the suggestion of following good SSC, as much as we were able to see.
His model art is kind of off-putting, because he's clearly got a number of fairly rough permanent markings that will leave lasting damage - and the thing about worship dedications for this particular mistress is that permanent or lasting physical damage is a no-no - it's seen as a failure of practice, so to speak.
I kind of don't like that Loviatar is categorised so strongly as an evil deity; the lore he shared with us is an accurate description of at least one major aspect of her worship - the reveling in live through expressions of pain and our ability to truly feel them. In temples of her worship, it's conducted by highly skilled and trained attendants, and only upon willing supplicants, who WILL refuse to administer worship to someone who is not up to it - or who, at the least, will only give lesser dedications based on an individual's physical ability to withstand it. Her temples also serve ministrations and aftercare to supplicants, and usually they are very willing to talk to visitors about such things.
It's true that her adepts (etc.,) will often be asked to assist in the torturing of others, which they will do... but generally speaking they do so much in the way that Abdirak is placed here; trying to demonstrate method without lasting harm. It's still torture, and it's still pretty evil in that regard, other than in combat and when defending themselves, they are rarely, if ever, the instigators of such acts - just the ones trying to make sure that the actual instigators are doing it right.
I'd love to have Abdirak join our camp as a camp follower. As the OP suggests, I think it would be a viable way of exploring, in unironic fashion, the less spoken of side of being this sort of a practitioner... the emotive and mental well-being side of things, the importance of proper aftercare... and you know, just generally an illustration that being able to revel in the ferocity of being alive through the experiences of pain in a controlled and consenting environment, doesn't mean that you have to be a raving sociopath... that'd be nice too.
